Buying Interstate

[Grego]

Despite what I saw on 4 Corners last night, I am still interested in buying my 2nd IP in Brisbane. I beleive a well selected property in any capital city is a good long term investment. I live in Sydney & successfully bought my first ip in Brisbane (Indooroopilly) through "Which Property".
But I find it is difficult to get quality leads as there is so much available in the way of "help" up there.
Cash flow is important to me, doesn't have to be + geared but i don't want a big drain each month, which i would surely get if i bought here in Sydney at the moment.

Maybe people would like to share their interstate buying experiences & how they sorted the quality from the crap without having to travel every time they had a call from a helpful salesman.
There is internet sites but I wonder how recent are the listings?

Thanks
Grego

 

[MLC]

Grego,

I'm currently located in a remote construction town and have just faced that problem with the last property I found (settlement in 2 weeks).

I researched growth figures in the area via the net, API mag, other investors, RE agents etc.

I then researched the net for any future improvements eg. Freeway, railway, suburb beatification, any plans local councils had.

I searched the net for listings of houses in my price range in those areas that I felt would offer good capital growth. It turned out that most of the listings I printed out already had "Under Contract" on them by the time I got there. But this was still useful information and I found that it was nearly up to date.

If rent is crucial to your purchase you can call the RE agent in the area and ask them directly what the rental market is like in the area as you are looking to invest. Mostly they will give you a reasonable and honest view on it (maybe a bit one-sided).

One time I found it hard to get any help and the RE agent just blow me off so I called back a couple of days later and pretended I was looking for a place to rent they sent me the rental lists they had. I then new what the rental for that week was, I recalled (or my partner recalled) every 2 weeks checking on the rental list. Usually they emailed them via a number of different accounts I have listed under hotmail.

After 2 months worth of plotting prices I also worked out what type of property came on the list, how long for and what the turn over of property in the area was (limited only to the 2 month period of research).

I also got the Sunday Paper sent to me, this also had the latest information in it and was very useful.

By the time I flew there to buy a property I had a good idea what I was going to pay and where I was going to buy, but no idea which property I was going to buy. I canvassed the areas for two days sunrise to sunset. I arranged 12 inspections and took heaps of photos (digital camera) I also had a check sheet to tick and flick. At the end of the two days I chose the best property I had seen and on the 3rd I put a contract on it.

I was under allot of pressure as I only had limited time off work and had to source a property in this time. To me the research I did prior to putting a contract made me sure of what I was buying and how much I was buying it for. I had two other properties as backups if the 1st fell though.

Good hunting.

MLC

 

[gailh]

Hi,

I bought a property on the sunshine coast last year (in Marcoola) sight unseen. The suburb was suggested in the API magazine and I had read elsewhere that the Sunshine Coast was about to move, so I didn't want to waste anytime.

So, I tracked the property prices for a while on the net, and then this little house came up - $128,000 and five minutes walk from the beach. It was put up on the net (realestate.com.au) within a day of being listed. It had photos of all the rooms and the garden on-line. I was the second person to make an offer and I got it for $125,000. Its rented out at $175 a week (and its since been valued at $190,000). The contract was subject to pest/building inspections, which I got done.

I don't think its too hard to avoid the sharks - I just dealt with a regular garden variety RE agent. Avoid other middle men in my view. Many internet listings are really recent. But, be very familiar with prices in the area.

Good luck

Gail

 

[ChrisOs]

Hi Greg.

Regarding your comment "Despite what I saw on 4 Corners last night, I am still interested in buying my 2nd IP in Brisbane. "

I didn't see 4 Corners and have missed the repeat - what was said?
Regards,
Chris.

 

[geoffw]

Chris-

It was raised in another thread- where there are links to the transcripts:

http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7990

 

[ChrisOs]

Thanks Geoff!