One thing people often ask me is, what area or which suburb is going to be a good area to buy into. My usual answer is - go and look. Seriously though, not enough investors are investors, they are just punters or gamblers and they help create panic in a very steady market place.

Research can simply be getting the property section of the local newspaper and keeping an eye on ads for various areas. Ringing up agents from those ads to find out what the area is doing and who is buying in the area. Get a copy of the free booklets real estate agents advertise in to see how much houses are listed for.

On a ‘pay for information’ side of things you can subscribe to certain real estate websites and third party companies’ email or SMS alert systems, that can tell you when new property purchases go through. Sales information should be treated with a touch of caution, as Real Estate Agents want people to think that they got the best price for their client, whereas it may be different when the bank lodges their mortgage/transfer duty. So when you see the margin of $15,000 - $25,000 you can bet that it sold for the bottom figure, but the Real Estate Agent wants you to think he sold it for the higher price.

Simply visit the area and call about houses with signs that are For Sale/Sold and the agent will give you an idea on what prices they achieved. Ask agents to give you an idea of what you can expect to pay for what you are looking at purchasing, again just remember that they are always working for the vendors of houses for sale… never the buyers.

Get a buyers agent’s view on the prices; what you can expect to pay for an investment property, and returns on it. Ask them their feeling about the market and where things are headed. Again just remember that they do work for a commission on the sale of property to buyers and they will always have a great to excellent view of the market.

Get on the usual websites like realestate.com.au or others like owner.com.au or diysell.com.au. You will find that realestate.com.au is full of agents whilst the other two are owner based so you will get a good idea of what owners want for their property

Years ago I did a letter up saying that I was looking for property to buy and went and distributed it to houses in areas I wanted to buy in. I had a great response of two replies from almost 150 houses, but they were relieved to talk to me as an investor interested in buying houses. Although you may think of this as intruding, people have a choice in either throwing your letter away or ringing you. This is not 100% research, but you now have, at the very least, a price and a vendor who is keen to talk about their house, without the need of an agent destroying the whole deal. You only need to find one house slightly under market value to make it worth the effort.
In the word of Steve McKnight, ‘Success does come from doing things differently’ and its so very true in all areas of life and investing.

Research should be kept cheap and effective and before long you will know what is worth while and what is a bit expensive. After a while you get agents interested to see what you think certain properties are worth.

If you do nothing but research areas for 6 months, you will certainly know when a bargain is presented to you in the paper or by an agent. You just need to make sure you have the equity ready or a loan set to go!

Happy Hunting and Researching

Don Christie

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