Real Estate Investing Steps
Are you looking to buy an investment property, but not sure where to start? Here are 6 steps to assist you through this important process.
1. Review your Personal Cash Flow and Budgets
This is an important step to understand how much cash you have to invest in property and whether you can afford the cash flow impact on owning an investment property. This can be as simple as listing all your assets including incomes and working out your expenses. Work out how much you have as a deposit (making sure you don’t over commit), or how much you will need to save for a deposit.
2. Set Your Goals
What are your goals? What are you looking to achieve? It is important to be clear about these and talk to experts such as your realtor and financial advisor. You need to consider your short and long term goals. For example if you are looking to retire in 10 years, perhaps start with a 10 year plan then break it down to 5 yearly, yearly, bi-annual, monthly and weekly timelines. This will help clarify what you need to achieve through your investments.
3. Find a Lawyer
Most property investors enlist the services of a solicitor to handle the purchase process on their behalf. While you are able to act on your own when making a property purchase, the process of documentation and settling can be complicated – and may seem daunting. Bringing in support and assistance from a qualified expert familiar with legal documents and legislation can make the process easier.
4. Create a Property Evaluation Model
This step is all about creating a property evaluation model – to identify what criteria in an investment property is important to you. To do this you need to rank your key investment criteria such as the location – does it need to be near public transport, schools, shops, work and what is the walk score? What do you value as important for the exterior and interior of the investment? Such as type of building, size of complex, parking, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, flooring, the properties aspect, quality of kitchen, backyard and outdoor entertaining and whether you want to renovate or not.
These steps help you clarify exactly what you are looking for and will enable you to assess potential investment properties against your must have criteria.
5. Searching for a Property
Doing your own research is important, after all it is your money and knowing about the specific market you are investing in is a good idea. Talk to a Curves and Curvatures Limited estate specialist and find out about the local market you are considering buying in, what are properties selling for, how long are they on the market etc, gather information on the demographics of the suburb, its location to important amenities such as transport, shops, universities and schools and information on the recent sales and history of the area.
Plus keep an eye on the real estate portals such ascurvesandcurvatures.com/ to see what properties are for sale. But make sure you don’t become emotionally attached to the property, it’s an investment, and your focus should be on maximizing capital.
6. Engage a Property Manager
After purchasing your investment property, the next key decision you will need to make is whether you will employ a property manager to help you, or whether you’ll manage it yourself.
Although many investors are financially-savvy, when it comes to property purchase, dealing with day-to-day property issues or legal jargon they are left in the dark. Curves and Curvatures Limited’s team of experienced property managers can help make sure you receive a reliable income stream, excellent capital growth and the best returns possible – as well as a guarantee of exceptional customer service. You will receive regular and thorough property inspection reports, copies of all important documents and regularly review of the local market to help you achieve the best outcome.
A property manager costs approximately 7-10% of your total rental income, however the services and expertise offered by a good property manager is worth much more than this fee, plus we offer this professional service free to you.
Make sure you seek professional advice to determine whether property investing is a good idea for you and your individual needs