In years gone by deciding whether to buy a first home or invest wasn’t a choice. When it was time to settle down and have a family, it was expected that you took out a loan and bought your forever home, where you could raise your kids and live until retirement. These days, the landscape has changed and younger generations are looking at the situation through a different lens.

Investar Search is a powerful search engine that allows you to use all sorts of search filters to find investment property that match your investment strategy or buying rules. We had a quick brainstorm in the office, and here are ten simple tips to help you use Investar Search more efficiently to get better and more targeted results. Please note this blog is aimed at Real Estate Investar subscribers.

Negotiation is a discussion between two or more parties, intended to reach an understanding, agreement or to gain an overall advantage in outcome. Each party will try and gain the advantage for themselves by the end of the negotiating process. This article can give you some negotiating tips to help you purchase your next property at the best possible price.

Early in the year, 2020 was shaping up as another very strong one for property investors. On the back of a big end to 2019, where house prices in Sydney and Melbourne in particular, started to rebound strongly, there was a lot of positivity in the air. Then come mid-March, COVID hit and the ensuing lock-downs across the country ground real estate activity to a halt. As the saying goes, ‘crisis breeds opportunity’ and the current market is now offering up a range of possibilities for investors that weren’t present only months ago. Here are a few ways to take advantage of the current market conditions in 2020.

The discount property investment strategy involves purchasing investment property below valuation, not below the vendor’s asking price.

Optimising your property investment portfolio is a key goal for any property investor, looking to maximise the return on their investments. You can achieve this in a number of different ways, depending on the types of property you own and your long term goals. Your goal should be to improve the performance of your portfolio, whether it is improved capital growth, manufactured equity or additional cash flow and income.

Being able to review the growth trends of a suburb over a long period of time can help you identify suburbs that will provide potential long-term growth. Past growth isn't an indicator of guaranteed future growth but it does provide an indication that there has been demand in the area.

Property has long been considered a popular path of wealth creation for Australians. Buying their own home is often the first significant investment most people make, and purchasing another property may well be the second, even before shares and other assets. This article gives you an introduction to property investment and some of the key points to consider before buying your first property.

Finding accurate and timely comparable sales data is a vital part of your research before purchasing an investment property.

Widow blocks still currently exist and allow property owners to subdivide the lot in to smaller blocks. This is a great strategy to manufacture equity and provides property owners with a number of options - land banking, sell the land or build to sell and/or hold.

Supply and demand is one of the most fundamental concepts of economics and the cornerstone of a market economy. There are several indicators of property investing supply and demand within a market that you can measure and track when it comes to property investment to help with your research.

Subdividing a property provides potential high returns to property owners but there are also higher risks to be aware of. This is a great strategy to manufacture large amounts of equity and can be implemented to an existing property in your portfolio as long as it meets all of council's requirements. This blog will cover the pros and cons of subdividing a property.

New CoreLogic research has identified the best performing locations for average annual capital growth in every city over the past decade.

Property investors and property professionals are always asking us how we differ from CoreLogic RP Data and APM Pricefinder. We partner with both platforms giving you access to two of the very best property research and property data tools available in Australia. Pair your preferred property data and research tool with Real Estate Investar's powerful search and analysis tools. Our property investment platform enables property investors to replace emotional decision making with data-driven property investing, with access to the same tools the property professionals use. Both RP Data and PriceFinder provide the latest property research and property data tools for desktop valuations and reports, verified and obtained direct from the Valuer General's Office. Read more for a brief overview of some of the key differences between RP Data and Pricefinder and our special Real Estate Investar pricing options.

One of the areas of research to help property investors determine the demand for an area is the average days on market (DOM). This statistic will help you determine the level of demand for property in the area as it is a measure on how long it takes property to sell. Real Estate Investar provides data on this statistic to help property investors understand how quickly a property will sell.