Reduce risks when you buy

You can make better buying decisions by taking the time to research and seek trusted independent advice before signing a purchase agreement. Photo / Getty Images

The more you know about a property the easier it will be to understand if you're buying at the right price and have a better than average chance at earning good capital gain.

It's true that some people don't have a lot of flexibility. They need to buy in a particular school zone, or can only buy at the lower end of the market.

But those who do have choices can get a better long term return on their investment by buying right.

Organisations such as Quotable Value (QV) and others have a wealth of property data that can focus the mind on the cost/value of the purchase.

For example, residential sales medians tell you the number of sales in a certain suburb, the median sale price, and the historic increase in capital value.

Historical changes do not indicate whether an area will continue to outperform or underperform the median.

In fact the returns may have overshot or undershot and be due for a reversal in fortunes. QV's search allows you to drill down by area and also types of property such as house, apartment, flat, section and so on.

A list of recent sales in your chosen area can really focus the mind, although don't tell you exactly what the house you're buying will sell for.

The more similar the houses, the better. That includes physical location, style, size, and number of bedrooms.

Your local council should have a rates and property search on its website.

From this you can find out the cost of the annual rates bill, the land value used for rating, and the capital value and improvement value. It will also tell you the land area.

Buyers should always order a Land Information Memorandum (LIM) and the council file. These contain information about the property rather than data.

Quotable Value's E-valuer provides an instant assessment of the current market value of a property.

Beware says QV national spokesperson, Andrea Rush, that if an owner has not kept council or a rating valuation service provider up to date with refurbishments, improvements or renovations on a property that did not require a resource consent, then this added value may not be showing up in the property's rating value and this may affect an online estimated value of the property.

"In this case a buyer would be better placed to get a full market valuation report done," says Rush.

Investors invariably want rental data as it can be useful if you're looking at buying, doing up and selling on. Is this a property that would appeal to investors as well as owner-occupiers. What you're looking for is market rent in that suburb.

This data is captured by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) by analysing bond data lodged by landlords.

If you're not visiting in person then check out Google Street View to 'walk' around the neighbourhood.

Diana Clement

A rental appraisal is also helpful and is often supplied with seller information packs, but not always.

It's essential to remember that the MBIE data and/or the appraisal doesn't categorically tell you what your place would rent for.

For example, the median rent is what you charge for the median property in a suburb.

The reality is that the rental stock tends to be of lower quality and value to the average or median home and therefore a mid-range rental property may fetch the upper quartile of rent.

A residential property investment calculation spreadsheet or app can help investors make sense of this data and plan for the future.

It's a really good idea to download aerial photographs of the property if they're available via Land Information New Zealand, GeoMaps from the local council, or Google Earth.

This can sometimes highlight potential problems that you may not see from ground level. It also gives you a different perspective on the property.

If you're not visiting in person, then check out Google Street View to 'walk' around the neighbourhood.

This has saved more than one remote buyer from snapping up the property next to a gang headquarters that real estate agents can't sell to locals.

There are many organisations such as the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, Realestate.co.nz, Terranet, and others that provide useful data for buyers.

Sometimes they are repackaging each other's data, so it's worth checking them all to see what suits you best.

Property investors might want to use services such as Property Guru by CoreLogic, or Valocity.

You will be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a property, so it's worth paying for comprehensive reports that cover things such as previous sales of that property, specifications, changes, building consents, and natural hazard information.