If you've decided to buy an investment property, you will really get your investment off to a flying start if you can find a cheap one. This doesn't mean you should buy any property, just because it happens to be cheap. It means looking for opportunities to acquire a good property, in your target location, that for some reason, is being offered at a cheap price when compared to similar properties.
Buying at below market price does three, great things for your investment:
In my experience, it is perfectly possible to buy cheaply, once you have a clear idea of what you're looking for. Seek out a 10-15% discount to normal market value. Opportunities for bargains like this appear all the time, but you've got to look for them. Don't just walk into your local estate agent, chequebook open, like a lamb to the slaughter, ready to buy the first property you're shown!
I've found three main opportunities for bargains:
From the point of view of the investor, repossessions are particularly good properties to look for, for three reasons. Firstly, repossessions are always vacant and sometimes cosmetically dama
However, modernisation can be very worthwhile, providing that the price reflects the necessary work.
Whatever the reason, rushed sales often mean lower prices and you can take advantage of this.
Nick Radford is an experienced UK property investor. He has been successful at buying, selling, letting, managing and developing property. He has written about property investment for several years, and has been published in print, as well as on the net. He is now writing for ePublish.co.uk, http://www.epublish.co.uk