5 key tips to get the most from the Property search portals Rightmove and Zoopla

I’ll often have people approach me when it comes to property and how I find my properties. A lot of people have been on a training course or watched a video on YouTube and have come to the conclusion they need to make friends with all the estate agents local to the area they are planning on investing in. Now I’m not saying that is not one approach and I’m sure it works for some people. However, I don’t want to spend all my time travelling to the local estate agents in areas where we invest. Sometimes this can be over 300 miles away, as much as I love a nice drive not all roads look like the image below…

So, how then, do I find the properties we source?

Simple, the Interwebs. Specifically www.RightMove.co.uk and www.Zoopla.co.uk

The good news, is that gem of information above is not one of my 5 key tips I’m sharing with you today. This isn’t all about clickbait. Most people will have heard of the 2 largest property portals unless they have been hiding under a rock, but that’s it, they are the largest and most used for a reason and this means they have the majority of the properties available all under one (well technically two) roof. It means I can find lots of available properties all from my office or even on my phone when I’m out and about, on my time, not the 9-6 of the estate agents open hours.

I can hear people shouting now, but all the good properties are already gone as the estate agents are giving them to the people they know. Yes, absolutely, there are no good deals left out of the over 1,000,000 properties Rightmove claim to have for sale or rent right now….Erm No. Unless you have pockets full of cash all the time and all the spare time in the world to spend with estate agents, no matter what you do, you are still unlikely to have a steady source of properties landing on your lap from your buddy Steve at the local estate agent. There are far too many people out there with deeper pockets than your average investor, Estate Agents want someone they can go to everytime who will take pretty much anything from them to make their lives easier. If that’s you then great, fill your boots. If not then my approach may very well suit the average investor slightly better.

The easy stuff

Again, I’m not counting these in the key 5 as these are so basic it’s really not going to blow your mind.

Register – Why? Because you can save searches, save properties, set up alerts at varying frequencies and this way you can be alerted to new properties instantly if you love filling your inbox up with new mail to get that dopamine hit we all crave so badly from our phones.

Get the App’s – If you are anything like me you will be randomly searching all the time, the apps make this faster and convenient.

Get familiar with the layout and options, both have different approaches. Both have benefits but you need to know which one to go to for example, if you want to search key words (HMO, Acre, Reduced, etc)

#1 – Searches

Set up searches to save your time! The search can be simple or it can be complex, it’s up to you what you want to see and how focused your targeted area and property are.

For example I have many searches but 2 are below:

1. Simple Search – Land – I was looking for land and didn’t really care where it was, so I set up a fairly simple search. I used the map draw feature (top tip number 2) and set a price, told it to send me one email a day, That’s it, now I receive a single email each day with any land for sale inside my drawn area
2. Complex Search – Flats in L1 0AY- I was looking for a flat in a key area I was focusing on. Liverpool, the Baltic triangle specifically, so I gave it a specific postcode, set it to be within 0.25miles, gave it criteria of minimum 1 bedroom, max 2 bedrooms, Price of between £140k and £200k, told it only to show me flats and to send Immediate emails.

Why is this so key? You can quickly go down rabbit holes for searches and spend hours looking at properties. Or you can be so specific you exclude things you might otherwise consider. I’ve found some gems of properties that on paper I wouldn’t look at, but by having less specific criteria have come across my eyes and with some imagination can now be included into my searches (for example a 2 bed room house in an area I was searching for flats, a quick conversion and suddenly I have 2 flats…)

Zoopla win’s it here for me and searches. Why? Simple, it has a keyword search and when I’m searching I often want to narrow something that the filters just won’t. HMO for example, I can find 1000 5 bed houses but only 1 might be an existing or potential HMO, agents do often write this in the description but there isn’t an easy way to filter this, so a search will work. Same for acre, if you want a house with a big garden or plot for development.

#2 – Use the Map draw feature

This is something I thought everyone new, but apparently not. The map draw feature can be great if you know an area really well and know there are some good parts and bad parts. I know roads that even have good and bad ends. with the map draw feature you can be as specific as you like and avoid searches for example showing you properties above commercial when that is something you don’t want (noise, harder to mortgage, harder to sell).

If you want a very focused list of perfect properties coming to your inbox this is a must have if you are clear on your area. Otherwise, especially if in a city, you will be flooded with properties that are not right and in the end you will either ignore the searches or not be able to see the wood from the trees.

#3 – Check the stats

There is a wealth of information somewhat hidden on the portals. By hidden it’s there to be seen but most people skip over it as having no value.

Some items I use regularly that most people ignore:

Who is this listed with, Big name estate agent or one of the cheaper online portals which publish for £99 (this could show someone looking to sell on the cheap who might be more likely to sell fast or more amenable to negotiation with no estate agent in the middle.)

When was it listed. This is very telling piece of information. Listed 1 week ago and had 1000 page views or listed 1 year ago with 1000 views it can be revealing as to if this property is hot or cold and again could mean someone is tired of trying to sell and maybe more open to discussion to take it off their hands, one way or another (I’ll keep this for my next post)

Price history, was it sold many times in quick succession, has the price moved steeply over the recent years. Has the price changed since first listing, maybe the owner is keen to sell or it was over priced

Similar properties, how does the price compare, how much competition is in place, how fast is everything else moving compared to this?

Properties sold nearby, what’s sold, how much, how frequently, how recently?

#4 – Photos tell a 1000 words

Professional photos, phone photo’s, one photo, Snow in the photo in August?

Again each shows the type of seller and estate agent.

Professional photos probably mean it’s a nice property and will get a lot of interest.

Phone photo’s might mean it’s tenanted and harder to get into or the estate agent is not the best.

One photo could mean it’s a dump and they don’t want you to see this in advance.

Snow in August, it’s either been listed for ages or a sale has fallen through.

All of this is great info for you to use in your compilation and negotiation. You should use this when making your phone calls and pitch yourself to solve the issues you believe could be causing the seller some pain if they are struggling to sell. Now if it’s a market which is hot and things are flying, then you need to position yourself as quick, not going to pull out or faff for months.

If you think the seller has had some drop outs, then you are a no messing around type, going to move swiftly and complete in a timely manor.

If they have tenants and are struggling to get people in, maybe you are happy to buy with this in mind for the right price.

All info is good info to build your position and your price, use it.

#5 – Get the full postcode

Some people will wonder why you might want the full postcode compared to the first 3/4 digits. There are many reasons but here are a few

Get Google Street View and see the local area to see what’s around it

Check Police stats for the area for crime

Get insurance quotes

Get council tax bands

Check for utilities and broadband speeds

Lots of useful information can be obtained from this.

HOW, i hear you shouting. Well luckily Rightmove will give this to you. They probably don’t realise it but there is a little hack to obtain this. On the main page of a property listing, scroll down to the Listing History section of the listing and find the Broadband section. There is a button saying ‘Show the average Broadband speed at this Postcode’. Clicky Clicky and it will show you the average speed and ask you if you want to ‘Compare Broadband deals’, Clicky Clicky

It will take you to ‘Compare the Market website and if you look at the top left you will see the full postcode of your property search

That’s it, hopefully those 5 (well a few more but 5 main tips) will help move you into a better position to have efficient and effective property searching to get a great short list of properties for you to start viewing and taking action on.

Find 1000, View 100, Offer on 10 and buy 1. Remember it’s a numbers game!