30 second guide when buying your first investment property


What are you looking for in your first investment property? Having a clear idea from the start will save the amount of time you spend searching on the net and staring at estate agency windows.

Here are some things to tick off on your mental checklist:

Location
How far are your tenants willing to travel to get to work?
How good are the local schools, shopping centres and other public facilities like parks and sporting grounds?
How convenient is public transport?
If you’re prepared to renovate, think about that other estate agent cliché that’s stood the test of time: “Pick the worst house in the best street”.

Make a list
How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you want do tenants want
What are the essentials: balcony, laundry, garage, views etc

Do your homework
Check out recent home sale prices and auctions in your preferred areas. Look at market trends, houses for sale and suburb statistics.

Get home loan pre-approval
It can be heartbreaking to find the perfect investment property only to learn that you can’t afford it. Even worse is losing your deposit because you won at an auction but couldn’t secure finance for the balance of the purchase price. Don’t risk it.

Take notes and use checklists
Turn your priorities into a personalised investment-shopping checklist and use it to track the features of each home.

Good luck with your search.