- Your strategy
As a property investor, you need a strategy. Are you planning to refurbish and sell, refurbish and rent or do a mixture of both?
You also need to know the amount of money you can invest and remember to include refurbishment costs along with professional fees. Commercial finance such as Bridging Loans can help you raise capital in order to fund the purchase.
However, you may find the time restraints placed on a typical auction purchase mean it might be best to purchase under normal terms.
You should also consider how much profit you want to make particularly if you want to reinvest. Having a 3-year, 5-year and 10-year plan will help you achieve your long-term property investment goals.
As a result, your strategy will determine the type of property you are looking out for.
- Location, location, location
When considering buying a property as an investment it’s important to consider who your buyer will be in the future and what their needs will be.
For example, if you are investing in a 3-bedroom house your buyer is likely to have a family, therefore the school catchment area will be important, likewise local amenities and employment opportunities.
Whereas if you’re purchasing an apartment or 1-bedroom house you may wish to target first-time buyers. For this, a central location may be important.
In addition, there are pockets of the UK where property prices are reasonable to low. This could be advantageous to more experienced property investors or landlords.
Therefore, property investors should undertake their due diligence and evaluate a local on merit. To help you find property in your chosen location many of the property search sites and auction sites will have map features that will allow you to select a location and a radius. You can also adjust your criteria and set property alerts.
- Do your due diligence
As mentioned above undertaking due diligence is important when deciding on a location, however, there are more aspects to consider. For example, you may want to consider the demographic living near your future investment property. Statistics such as household income and occupations may help you identify the general demographic makeup of the neighbour.
In addition, checking the property on council planning portal sites could help you identify any issues, works carried out and future developments take could have a positive or negative impact on your investment. Likewise, you could also research planning consent obtained by neighbours, as this would give you a good indication of what planning permission is likely to be approved.
- Reducing your risk
On the whole, investing in property can be profitable but it’s also a considered high-risk venture. By instructing professionals to help you and taking their advice you can reduce this risk.
Seeking accountancy advice for example can be costly initially but could save you money in the long term. Equally having a legal pack reviewed by a solicitor could also ensure you don’t end up buying a problematic property. We offer a summary legal pack review service that can be undertaken in 72 hours.
