We talked before about the importance of doing your due diligence before you purchase a property and how location is absolutely key.
But what if your investment area is 250 miles from where you live, you have a busy job, and you don’t want to spend all of your weekends on the road checking areas out? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Here are our top tools for carrying out desktop due diligence.
Rightmove
As we’re sure you’ll know by now, Rightmove is an INVALUABLE tool when investing in property. It is one of the most popular and essential tools for running basic due diligence. Rightmove sold house prices will show you how much any property has sold for. In most cases, it will even show you the previous listings for sold property so that you can compare floorplans, the property condition and see whether it’s a similar house type. It’s also crucial for gauging rental demand.
Google Maps
It’s essential to know exactly where a property is that you’re considering adding to your portfolio. Rightmove does have a location and street view function but Google Maps is much better for giving you a clear idea of how close a property is to local amenities and what’s in the surrounding area. Picture the scene, you arrive to view a hot commercial to resi unit that you’ve seen on Rightmove but when you get there, it’s in the middle of an industrial estate… Should have checked Google Maps! Property Data Property Data is a paid Google Chrome add-on. It adds property market data to Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket for sale listings, adds quick links to Google Maps The PropertyData Google Chrome extension shows a sidebar on Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket listings pages. Data points including £/sqft, yield and growth are shown. Sourcing category information is also shown where applicable, along with quick links to PropertyData's Plot Map, Local Data and Valuation tools. Street Check StreetCheck is a fantastic way to get a closer look at the tenant demographic of an area. It gives you a good idea of the housing tenure and the sort of people who are already currently living in the area. So you can work out whether they match your targeted tenant/buyer criteria! Local Lettings Agents We’ve said it before, local lettings agents are a gold mine of local information. Speaking to them is a great way of finding out information about a particular area, as they are going to know it well. Letting agents tend to be a little more open that estate agents, so you’re likely to get more accurate information in relation to realistic rental prices, what properties in the area they currently manage, what the tenant demographic is like, streets to avoid etc.
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