The Golden Rules for House Hunting – part 10

© Property Professor articles — www.thepropertyprofessor.net.au.
Reproduced with permission.

In this series of articles, I am outlining my “Golden Rules for House Hunting”. So far, we have looked at Rules 1 to 9:

1. Buy the worst house in the best street.
2. Look for streets with redeeming features.
3. Look for improving areas with easy access to the city/beach/facilities.
4. Capital growth is dependent on Location, Land and Looks.
5. Avoid buying near adverse locations.
6. Consider if you could resell the property in the ‘bad’ times.
7. Check out the local knowledge before you buy.
8. Conduct a scenario analysis.
9. Only buy the property if you can still make the money in the worst case scenario.

This week we look at my tenth (and final) rule:

Golden Rule #10 – Do your own research. Don’t take other people’s advice as “gospel”.

Unless you can find a trusted and qualified property investment advisor, you need to do your own research. There will be a number of people that you speak to when in the process of buying property but most of these people have a vested interest in selling you the property.

For example, a real estate agent is working for the owner of the property, not you the potential purchaser. The real estate agent should be acting in the best interests of the owner, not you the potential purchaser. They may say (or not say) some things so as to have a better chance of selling the house. What they say (or don’t say) may be critical in your decision making.

The agent would be very keen to let you know that property you wish to buy is in the zone of a highly sought after public high school or only a short walk to the train station. Do you think the agent would tell you that the house you wish to buy is directly under the flight path? I don’t think so! In defence of agents, they don’t have to tell you as you should do your own “due diligence”. In other words, it is assumed that you will do your own research.

“What sort of research should I be doing?” I hear you ask. Great question! I have recently written three detailed articles on the type of research you can do, both on and off site.

If you are interested in finding out the sort of research you should be doing, and where you can go to find this information, check out the following articles:

• Research, Research, Research (click here)
• Inspecting the area you want to invest in – Part 1 (click here)
• Inspecting the area you want to invest in – Part 1 (click here)

Happy House Hunting!

Written by Peter Koulizos, university lecturer, author and buyers advocate.

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