3 tips for successful house-hunting this spring

While this might sound like a lot of work, if you can save 10 per cent on the cost of a $500,000 property, that’s $50,000 saved for a few weekends’ work. The time you invest researching properties will help you create profits later.

If you’re in the market for a property this spring, here are three tips to help with your search:

1. Plan in advance

When searching for a property, you can easily spend hours in the car driving around in circles going to multiple inspections. To make the most of your time, create a map of all the properties you want to view and allocate how much time you plan to spend in each one.

For instance, if you have a dozen properties to see between 10am and 1pm, that leaves around 15 to 20 minutes per property.

It’s important to establish some non-negotiable features that you want your property to have early on to help refine your search and increase your chances of finding a suitable property sooner.

Generally, it’s good to aim for properties located within the median area price, located 5 to 10 kilometres from major cities, with at least two bedrooms and a lock up garage, as these will gain best long-term growth and help attract tenants.

2. Keep a record

When you’re looking at multiple properties over several weekends, it can be difficult to compare one property against another.

Keep a record of the properties that interest you in a spreadsheet, noting key features such as the address, proposed sales price, auction date, number of bedrooms and internal and external square metres, and a rating out of 10. It’s also worth writing a few brief notes on the floor plan and flyer the agent hands out at the open for inspection.

Not only will it tell you at a glance the ones you liked the most, it will also help you distinguish between properties more objectively.

3. Consult the selling agent

It’s worth taking the time to strike up a conversation with real estate agents as they have a wealth of property knowledge that can assist with your property search.

In addition to giving you the inside story about a property, including the price it is likely to sell for, a good real estate agent can also alert you to new properties coming on the market, giving you an advantage over the competition.