Buying in Brisbane: How to invest in properties out of your hometown

After doing due diligence—researching areas’ local council planning, population and infrastructure, among other factors—she decided to head up to Brisbane to check out its real estate market.

According to the investor, aside from the information that her research provided her, she carries no other knowledge about the area.

“We’re going to have a look around because we don't know these areas. It’s another little adventure. My husband and I do all this together since we both like looking at houses,” she said.

The investor shared how they plan to explore the Brisbane market and find their next investment property:

Investing far from home

Drive around

Once they land in Brisbane from Sydney, it’s going to be a mix of ‘check out our hit list’ and ‘get the map out and drive around’ for Ms Francis and her husband.

While they have areas that they want to check out based on their research, the couple does not plan to shy away from exploring other suburbs that may carry a good potential for growth.

“We have like a big hit list of places we’re going to go to check out and we’ll drive around the main streets and see what's going on,” according to her.

Seek agents

Of course, it’s not going to be a shot in total darkness, the investor said.

Aside from being aided by her research, she and her husband will also take time to find trusted real estate agents in the area and capitalise on their local knowledge—a strategy they have implemented when they invested in Tasmania.

Basically, they will have local agents accompany them in their drive in order to get more information about certain areas.

Ms Francis shared: “What I’ve done is that I lined up agents and got them to drive me around and show me their area so I can know what’s going on and find out what they know.”

“You do it a couple of times because people always got different opinions,” she highlighted.

Narrow down options

To avoid being overwhelmed by all the available properties, Ms Francis and her husband decided to be very particular about their requirements.

For instance, they know exactly how big a land they want and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms they will require, as well as to what extent they are willing to adjust these preferences.

She explained: “It's three bedrooms, two bathrooms. That's what you look for. You don't look for anything else. If you want to have a bigger block of land, we might look for a bigger block of land now and think about subdivision down the track.

“We won't look for anything under 800 square metres, or maybe 1,000, based on council rules about subdivision sizes,” the investor added.

The couple is also particular about sticking to their budget so they can continue their journey with good serviceability.

Ms Francis said: “We have to be mindful of not buying things that are too expensive because, then, that'll be it. We'll run out of money and we won’t be able to keep going.”

By employing their own ‘buying rules’, they avoid wasting time, get on with growing their portfolio as quickly as they can and ultimately reach their goals faster, according to her.

Being in control

Ms Francis described her investment strategy as the middle ground between being conservative and wanting to keep going hard.

She values education and mentorship as much as most investors but she also leaves enough space to explore the more unconventional and modern methods of wealth-creation.

According to the investor: “Education keeps you tightly focused on where you're going. It's very easy to keep deviating from your path and it takes out all the fear.”

“At the same time, it's great to learn it all so you can come away from those things and you go, ‘There's so much more ideas out there.’

“Using your panel of experts is great and absolutely essential but, at the end of the day, we are the ones in control,” Ms Francis concluded.

Tune in to Greta Francis’ episode on The Smart Property Investment Show to know more about the steps that she took to come up with a clear list of buying rules.