Research tools for the property investor

by Geoff Doidge

As a property investor you are blessed with a smorgasbord of property information. The problem is filtering out the meaty stuff from the watered down gruel. The other problem can be so much information that the analysts among us never finish analyzing so they can go out and buy something. Property research is available from a number of sources in a number of forms:

Property research: books, magazines, newsletters and internet sites.

The main sources are: Private research organisations and databases, Government research organisations and databases, private associations, individual professionals/experts and individual investors.

Books:

When I bought my first property in 1971 the only property book I could find was a USA book called ‘How I turned $1000 into a million in real estate in my spare time.’ This book borrowed from the library got me started on a 35 year journey in property investing. Today in a bookstore, there may be 30 to 40 books. I have over 100 books and I value them highly. Every book has one or more things which are different. These distinctions applied to a number of properties can really boost your cash-flow or capital gain.

I have been involved in 2 books. ‘The 10 Golden Rules of Property’ (being revised and updated ... available soon) and ‘Real Property, Real People, Unreal profits’ . This second book lists over 40 property books (Page 232) on a variety of subjects and 18 property reports (pg 235) which you may find useful. You can purchase this book online.

Magazines:

• Your Mortgage Magazine : a great for the latest in mortgage products and interesting property articles. www.yourmortgage.com.au
• Australian Property Investor magazine : API is the only serious property magazine in oz. Professionally produced, great investor stories and good national research. A must for the dedicated investor. www.apimagazine.com.au
• Financial Review: More for the share investor but has a daily property page. If its business, it’s in the ‘Fin’. www.afr.com
• Property & Lifestyle magazine: This is published by REIQ and while it sounds like a travel journal, this is where the REIQ publishes its hard research. A must for Qld property investors. www.propertylifestyle.com.au

Newsletters:

Newsletters rarely come in printed format these days, most are by email and subscription based although a few are free.

• The Matusik Snapshot: a subscription based fortnightly publication by respected researcher and analyst Michael Matusik. I subscribe to this and have used its information to stay ahead of the general newspaper headline reading investor. www.matusik.com.au
• Herron Todd White: HTW are national valuers and give a very comprehensive national summary based on actual sales activity. They are at the ‘workface’ valuing property for sale and purchase. They work across all markets and are among the first to know when action is happening. A free newsletter. I get it by email and it is a ‘must have’ information. www.htw.com.au
• The PRD Nationwide: Their research newsletter is free and gives a comprehensive rundown on various property markets with emphasis on the capital cities and the east coast. They are agent backed but I have found their info to be quite helpful. www.prdnationwide.com.au/research
• The POA Property Owners Assoc: I am a member and they keep me up to date with management issues and general property matters including legislation. www.poaa.asn.au

The Internet:

Hands up those who don’t have access to the internet. Shame, shame, shame. There is a huge amount of info available 100’s of websites of varying quality so sort out which ones supply reliable info and which are ‘duds’. I like sites run by investors which aren’t selling property. Some of the better ones are:

• Residex: www.residex.com.au is a purely research based with a huge database and a number of different reports. Some are:
  • The Residex Report: Comments on market trends, complete listings of latest property statistics, number of sales, capital growth and rental yield at a postcode level. Provides 3, 5 and 8 year predictions for growth
  • Residex Best Growth (Top 100) Predictions: list of suburbs that Residex predict will show the best capital growth over the next 5 years.
  • Best Rent Predictions: Residex has compiled a list of suburbs where rental yield plus predicted capital growth combine to give expected total return over 10% pa
  • Postcode Explorer: Reports a postcode's current median, predicts its future growth and lists its recent sale
• RP Data: www.rpdata.com.au is used by most real estate agents and is subscription based. Essential for my day to day investing to see what a property sold for, the value of the land, the other sales in the street and more. Lets you interact instantly with 8 real estate databases, including Current Property Ownership Records, Historical Sales, Advertised Properties, Electronic Maps, Property Improvements, Photos. Professional C.M.A. (Comparative Market Analysis)
• Home Price Guide: www.homepriceguide.com.au provides national residential and commercial property sales information. Reports available by postcode or by street - listing individual prices paid for properties

Government organisations hold a lot of very useful data including:

• Median Rents: Valuable for property investors and in Qld are held by Residential Tenancies Authority RTA. Check with your rental authority in your state for the data.
• Vacancy Factors: These give an indication of the number of vacant properties per 100 properties available for rent. National vacancy rates are compiled by the Real Estate Institute of Australia. www.reia.com.au
• The Australian Tax Office: The ATO has a number of useful reports available for property investors including rental property deductions. www.ato.gov.au

Other worthwhile sources:

• ANZ Property Outlook
• Australian Bureau of Statistics www.abs.gov.au
• Westpac Property Outlook
• www.realestate.com.au: Great site for finding selling or renting property in Australia New Zealand and UK. Has an ‘alert’ system to automatically send properties that fit your criteria to you by email
• www.domain.com.au and www.homehound.com.au: Similar services to realestate.com.au
• Real Estate Institutes: REIWA, REIV, REISA, REIT, REINT, REIQ, REIT. These all have websites with varying amount of information available to non members. Check out your state.
• City, State and Federal Government Planning: In all states there is information on plans for infrastructure, zonings, etc. It pays to know where the next tunnel or toll road is going before you buy or if you are thinking of selling. Check out this comprehensive list.

Well that’s just a few of the sources of property research. Save a lot of time and effort by surfing the complete list of 61 sites on our website www.renos.com.au/links.

Good Hunting!
Geoff Doidge, The Reno Kings

P.S. Last year we did a story on research on A Current Affair ... to see this story click here