Points to Property Investing

Buying Real Estate for investment has for a long time been a tried and trusted way to make some money. But like everything there are risks that need to be weighed up and taken into consideration. When it comes to looking at buying an investment property there are a couple of things that you should keep in the back of your mind the whole time. Some of these are:
1.         Do your research. If you are buying a property in the hope of becoming a landlord then make sure you have checked the areas rental potential and make sure the types of properties that you are planning on buying are the ones in demand by tenants. If you are planning on flipping the property, make sure you buy a property that is wanted by homebuyers.
2.         Don’t’ blindly trust what anyone says. This includes so called experts. Talk to a few different property professionals to try and get a balanced view on things such as:
– What type of property to invest in.
– What location is sought after.
– What type of tenant to aim for.
Sometimes it is only after canvassing lots of different opinions that you can really formulate you own strategy with confidence and with solid reasons why you plan to do what you plan to do.
3.         Get comparables for everything. Rental comparables, sales comparables – everything you can. Make sure your comparables are as much like for like as possible. For example: if you want to rent out a two bedroom flat next to a railway station, then try to get the rental comparison of other two bedroom flats next to the same railway station.
If you use a two bedroom flat that is ½ a kilometre away from the railway station, then your comparisons maybe way off. ½ a kilometre can be a long distance if it takes you from the desirable part of town to the rough drug dealing part.
4.         Get your finances in place. This is a good thing to do even before you start looking for properties to buy. If your finances are sorted out before you start looking at how to buy investment property, then you will be more likely to be looking with confidence and purpose because you know if you find that bargain property you have the finances already in place to do the deal.
But if you don’t have your finances in order there might be doubts in your mind about whether you can finance a deal even if you find it, this in turn may cause you to self sabotage any deal you see even before you put an offer in. They key is to being confident in what you’re doing. And if your confidence in knowing your financial position your well on the way.
5.         Employ the right professionals, whether that means builders, solicitors, contractors, or someone else, skimping on employing qualified people to do a job correctly can cost you a lot more money than you expect. Just because someone is cheap, doesn’t mean they can do a good job and just because someone seems expensive doesn’t mean that they can do a better job than someone who is cheaper.
The only way to find out for sure is to check references and their qualifications to do the job. Try and speak to real people, preferably face to face, that they have worked with before. Once you have done this homework you should again be more confident your doing the right decision for you.
At the end of the day you need to do what works for you. My advice is to know your finances inside and out before you go looking then once looking do all your homework before you proceed to buy. This way you will be totally confident that you will be doing the right thing and there is a lot less chance that something could go wrong.
Investing in Real Estate is rewarding and exciting. There are many different avenues that you could go down. There is no right or wrong way. It’s just about what your comfortable with. I wish you all the best.
Deon Swiggs
Property Profits

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