Separating business cost vs property value

[Elliotte]

Starting to look at boarding houses - any advice on how to try and tease apart what the property is actually valued at vs what they are adding on top for the sale of an ongoing income? Is it just a matter of getting a property valuation as if it's just a resi place?

Example these two here have been for sale for ages -

Last sold in 99 for $490K. Turnover $87K according to the ad. I know this one looks pretty but sits almost in a carpark and has the side wall on a main street which is graffitied like crazy and has smashed windows.

http://www.domain.com.au/Property/For-Sale/House/NSW/Petersham/?adid=2009537259


This one is just down the road. Turnover $83K
http://www.domain.com.au/Property/For-Sale/House/NSW/Petersham/?adid=2009003947

Looks like the building could be awful. The terrace I had once just down the street was so slapped together once I started to renovate it kind of put me off them!

The returns aren't great but I put that down to being "old school" boarding houses with old men, drugs and alcohol. It's quite close to another run of boarding houses on the same street where someone was murdered a few years back!

What is valuable to me in looking at this is the fact they are still registered as boarding houses so could be used for that purpose ongoing. I had a meeting with Marrickville Council about trying once to convert an illegal brothel into a guesthouse and the experience was a train wreck partly because I think of bad advice I was given so I feel a bit more secure if they are already running.

 

[Aaron_C]

I like the first one as a building. Don't know anything else though

 

[Elliotte]

I like the first one as a building. Don't know anything else though

So did I until I looked at street view. Oh how I laughed. Guests would ask about parking and I'd be like, um, yeah, not an issue since we're in the car park of the local council.

The house next door looks like the same build and it went for $930K last year so maybe they aren't actually asking too much for the business part. But then next door is almost out of the car park and not being smashed up by drunks on the main street. I'm going to have a look tomorrow inside for fun. I think they are a bit too expensive for number of rooms, size, location and work on building needed but I figure I need to start to get my eye trained on how to look at boarding houses for sale.