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!

The headlines, right now, in the property space are all about the prices crashing, tenants not paying rent, businesses going bust and more doom and gloom than you can shake a stick at.

For the inexperienced or the uneducated property investor, it could be perceived that property investing is risky and going downhill fast. Certainly not a time to get stuck in, much the opposite I would guess looking in from the outside.

I’m not here to say property investing isn’t risky, it’s as risky as you make it. Why do I say this? For this we need to look at some facts and break down the headlines.

Property prices are crashing. ARGH

If property prices are crashing it can mean a few things and it very much depends on where you are on your property journey.

Have a large portfolio?

Then you, assuming your are not over leveraged, should be ok to ride this out, you hopefully have tenants who are still paying their rent, your mortgage prices won’t have changed dramatically and even if you have a few non payers, I would hope you are not leveraged so badly that a few missing rent payments for a few months would cripple your business. Yes you might not be able to refinance out cash for more purchasing but you should still have a income generating portfolio.

Buying your first property?

Now is the time to get out there and find some great deals, prices will be coming down, Landlords who were accidental or coming towards the end of their journey will be looking to get out and some possibly in a rush before the perceived crash happens. Get haggling and find yourself a bargain, possibly even a tenanted BTL to get you started.

Looking for Serviced Accommodation properties?

Whilst right now it looks pretty horrific for those owning SA properties or Portfolio’s we know people will eventually get back to AirBnB and Booking.com to find holiday lets. The good news is due to the immediate issue, those jumping onto the bandwagon of Short term lets over the recent years now will be sat on multiple empty properties with bills and rents/mortgages still needing paying. Likely they will offload some to help through these times, if you do your research you could bag a decent property that has a history of SA for when things pick back up.

HMO’s?

At times like these some will be looking to lower their outgoings meaning people looking for Rooms rather than full flats, sharing bills and accommodation costs will likely look attractive to a large amount of young professionals. Buying this type of property now at the right price could bag some great longer term gains once the market starts to pick up.

So what does this all mean?

Whilst the headlines show one side, there is always another side. To quote Warren Buffett

“Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful”

― Warren Buffett

Meaning if many are selling up, vacating and running away, it could be a great time to step in and pick up some great deals for pennies compared to when things are moving up.

If the prices are crashing it means everything is soon to be cheaper, if prices are cheaper then mortgages are cheaper, and if interest rates are going down then further still mortgage payments are reducing, now the main thing here is are rents reducing at the same level….well no, no they aren’t. Will they drop, yes probably, a bit, but people still need a place to live, now more than ever, off the back of this global situation I can imagine a fair few people on the market looking for new property to rent.

Don’t compete with 100 people when times are good, money is flowing, people are overly confident and you will pay over the odds. However right now, people are fearful and likely to be hoping to offload some investments quickly, with little competition you should’t need to fight much to pick up some good deals.

Interest rates are at an all time LOW!

With interest rates at all time lows, leaving money in the bank will not likely make you feel great. £50k would likely get you £500 back at best right now, and that will likely be far from what most would get (£50 in most basic high street banks).

It wasn’t that long ago when people were seeing 15% mortgage interest rates, great for savers, terrible for home owners…

Grabbing a Below Market Value (BMV) property now could reap huge rewards in the future. Those who have studied property, will be familiar with the property cycle and will know there are bubbles and crashes but over the longer term prices rise. If we are now in a 2008 style crash then those who bought at the bottom of the crash would now be the most protected from the current situation. Don’t look back at this time and wonder why you didn’t buy and instead left the money in the bank to, in real terms, lose value (yes you read that right, money left in a bank at under 1% interest is essentially losing value), as the costs of living will be greater, meaning your money buys you less in real terms.

BEFORE YOU BUY.

Warning, buying anything right now, isn’t what I’m saying, buying SMART now and at below market value is what will help you ride the crash out and be set up to come out in a strong position.

3 things to look out for

Location, location, location.

Technically 1 thing really, said 3 times, but that’s how important it is when buying property. Buying in the wrong location can mean you end up with a dud property. Too far out of town and it will be harder to rent and hard to get higher rents compared to more central locations. Buying in the wrong area could mean coming out of the crash takes longer, typically the cities are hit hardest in % terms but also bounce back the quickest. That doesn’t mean out of city investments are no good, but research here is key.

Get the right property at the right price and you are going to be well placed to pick up some displaced tenants when the market opens back up. CoronaVirus (I know I said it and I tried not too) isn’t here for ever, but it will leave a mark. Tenants will be kicked out of properties by Landlords selling up. Rents should be fairly stable as people will be looking to lock down a safe place for the short term and the rental market shouldn’t be suddenly flooded with new property for rent due to the landlords looking to sell rather than relet.

My recommendation if you have money burning a hole in your pocket will be to keep a keen eye on the popular portals like www.zoopla.co.uk and www.Rightmove.co.uk for landlords desperate to cash out before the ‘big crash of 2020’. Have open conversations with agents and see what you can bag in the ‘sales’ but most of all make smart decisions based on data, not just price.

If you would like to connect, you can find us on most social platforms, just don’t look on TikTok as my dance moves are too good to be seen.

Stay Safe, Stay at home and Stay positive.

OneFourFour Property.