Research an area for IPs

[FHF]

I just wanted to know what people use to get know know an area where you are interested in purchasing an IP.

From now I learnt a few things to look at:

- Council Development plan (still don't know what to look for though)
- Tools from http://www.investsmart.com.au
- Wikipedia
- http://www.streetadvisor.com.au/

I'd really appreciate if people could share some tips here and apologies if this has been covered on this forum already.

 

[Made_Man]

nothing is better than driving around in your car. best to go past 3 times a day. morning, midday, afternoon and night.

one of the main times to drive past is at night to see if anyone is hanging around on the road ordoing a bonfire in the front yard

 

[Rixter]

My Maco dd leads me to areas to conduct further Micro dd, so from your question I take it you have already identified an area by you saying 'get know know an area where you are interested in purchasing an IP'.

From a micro dd perspective nothing beats getting out and about walking around the area and asking the neighbors and local business's what the area is like.

 

[Made_Man]

you can even join in on the bonfire

 

[Corey Batt]

Stats such as population demographics, population growth projections, State gov development plan, % of renters vs. owners etc.

Google street view is a godsend when you want to scope the neighborhood and you're a wannabie slumlord.

Job prospects for the area, potential commercial development.

On the ground research can work out whether the area is redeveloping, gentrifying, degrading, popular/unpopular etc.

 

[FHF]

Thanks a lot for the advice guys but I remember Lomas saying in one of her books to really get to know the area. At a certain point she meant that by the time she's ready to buy in an area she probably knows more about the area than a local would.

I'd love to grasp Lomas concept...

What do I look for in Council Development plans? Infrastructure, rezoning?

 

[FHF]

I've got my eyes in some towns in regional NSW which I will probably drive past as recommended by buying interstate certainly adds time and money to drive past etc.

 

[norwoodman]

Google Street View is good but has its limitations due to fact that many of the images are now rather outdated, some areas have changed considerably in the last 3-4 years.

Local council websites are good for sourcing local planning development schemes and local infrastructure initiatives. The state government level infrastructure websites provide a good deal of info on the larger projects about each state - big transport, hospital, and pipeline type projects. The planning development schemes outline where different zones are located, often split into sections explaining what is allowed within each zone (e.g. minimum lot area, minimum boundary setbacks, frontage widths, max density, height restrictions, some councils have restrictions on the appearance of properties as well if they are in heritage zones). Most councils have this info available on their websites.

For demographic info, ABS appears to be king. I know SQM Research, RP Data and several other property research groups also tend to collate this info in their reports.

 

[oc1]

I use myrpdata.com for demographics and median prices for each suburb. It's for free and the info is good.

Look at council websites for proposed works in the area as well.

As the guys have said above nothing beats driving around the area and having a chat to local agents.

Oscar

 

[FHF]

I use myrpdata.com for demographics and median prices for each suburb. It's for free and the info is good.

Awesome just added it to my bookmarks thanks for sharing.

 

[matto_]

Obviously the real estate sites. Initial focus on sold data.

Reiv also do weekly Sales stats by suburb.

 

[Mindmaster]

I use myrpdata.com for demographics and median prices for each suburb. It's for free and the info is good.

Look at council websites for proposed works in the area as well.

As the guys have said above nothing beats driving around the area and having a chat to local agents.

Oscar

When I use the url http://www.myrpdata.com.au/ or http://www.myrpdata.com a warning comes up in my browser from one of my security programs saying the site is listed as suspicious?

Does anyone else have this problem or is my computer just paranoid?

 

[FHF]

It happened to me with Chrome, Google has this site blacklisted http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=myrpdata.com

According to the scanner from http://evuln.com/tools/malware-scanner/myrpdata.com/ this website is clean from malware.

Your computer is not paranoid and is doing a good job in warning you

 

[GreenMedallion]

When I use the url http://www.myrpdata.com.au/ or http://www.myrpdata.com a warning comes up in my browser from one of my security programs saying the site is listed as suspicious?

Does anyone else have this problem or is my computer just paranoid?

Firefox and Google both give me warnings also. I ignored them and the site seemed to work fine still.

 

[oc1]

Just proceed, the site is fine.

Oscar