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YIP road test | online resources

There is a wide range of property investment tools and resources out there on the internet – and the advent of the iPhone and iPad has brought with them the wild world of apps. Kevin Eddy takes a look at two innovative online resources

Real Estate investarwww.realestateinvestar.com.au

The sales pitchReal Estate Investar frames itself as a developer of “revolutionary real estate software and tools for property investors”. There are around 2,800 users of the site, which was established

There’s also a New Zealand version of the site, which does more or less the same thing.

Investar SearchFirst up is the search tool, Investar Search. This searches 42 real estate listings sites across Australia and New Zealand, including major sites like www.realestate.com.au and www.domain.com.au, and is probably one of the most comprehensive search tools on the web in terms of Australian property listings.

It also offers more search terms than you’d find on mainstream listing sites, and these are tailored for investors. You can narrow down your search by familiar filters like location (state, city, suburb, postcode, street or distance from a specified point), property specification (type, number of rooms and car spaces, size, and so on); however, you can also filter by investment strategy (capital growth,

in its current form in 2008. Managing director David Hows stresses that the site is made “by property investors, for property investors”. The company has also recently acquired the services of industry bigwig Simon Baker, the former CEO of www.realestate.com.au, as part-time chairman to help drive the company’s growth.

What does it do?Quite a range of things, actually. The suite of tools on the website revolve around three key resources: a property search tool, an investment property analyser and a portfolio tracker. Membership also gives users access to a database of investment articles, video and audio files, as well as daily news, blogs and training videos.

Premium membership options also provide access to the Pricefinder ‘Solo’ level valuation and data tools (see separate Pricefinder section for more information on these tools).

online investment toolsRoad tested:

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YIP road test | online resources

cash flow, renovation, subdivision and so on), as well as suburb statistics (average rental yield, population, sales growth) and key property statistics such as rental yield and price in relation to the suburb median – or a combination of any of the above.

It does take a bit of trial and error to get the results you’re looking for, and you’re better off casting your net too wide than too narrow, but it’s certainly a powerful and flexible search tool. You can also save searches, so you don’t have to re-enter details every time you look for a property.

The search results are tailored to investors too. As well as a brief blurb and picture of each property taken from the source listing site, each search result includes relevant information about other similar properties in the suburb alongside the listing, such as rental yield, proportion of owners and renters, sales growth, clearance rates, recent listings by price and so on.

Links to local council websites, Wikipedia and Google Maps are also provided with the listing, and you can also save properties of interest to a watch list. The extra information provided strikes a good balance between being able to quickly dismiss or earmark a property for further investigation at a glance and not overloading the user with too much information.

Property AnalyserThe next of the main modules is the Property Analyser. This allows you to enter various property financials and calculates cash f low, equity growth and end-of-year tax rebates. It’s comprehensive in terms of both costs and income, includes a depreciation calculator, and allows you to customise a wide range of fields – such as growth rates, occupancy rates, your tax rates, mortgage interest rates, LVRs and so on.

Once you’ve done all your calculations, you can press a button and the key details of the property are copied across into the Portfolio Tracker module (albeit with a few extra details having to be input). This kind of integrated approach is really useful, and as such it’s a shame that you’re not able to auto-populate the Analyser with properties you’ve found via the

Useful property appsGot an iPhone, iPad or one of their Android counterparts? Check out these handy free apps.

Commonwealth Bank Property GuideUses the iPhone’s camera to overlay information about recent sales and current listings on a real-world image. Also includes repayment calculators. Data provided by RP Data.

Also consider: ANZ Property TrackerCentury 21

realestateFree App version of Australia’s biggest real estate listings site. Searches using your GPS location, and saves open house inspections to your calendar.

Also consider: Domain

TapMortgageAustralia-specific investment calculators are a bit thin on the ground, unfortunately. However, this handy little app includes both a mortgage repayments calculator and a stamp duty calculator. Useful for on-the-spot totting up.

Also consider:MyHomeCalcIPVBuilding Assets

search module. Saying that, this functionality is something that Investar is currently working on.

Portfolio TrackerThe third piece of the puzzle is the Portfolio Tracker. As the name suggests, it’s designed to help you monitor and budget for your investment properties, and features tabs dedicated to basic property details, tenant info, cash flow, equity, overall portfolio details, key contact info, goals and a picture gallery of your portfolio. Overall, there are more than 70 different components that you can track: you can also email other people your portfolio details.

The Tracker is modelled on the Forbes online portfolio tracker, and is very much ‘Excel online’ with details presented in spreadsheet format. While this isn’t a problem – most investors will be familiar with property information being presented in this way, either having created their own spreadsheets or having used off-the-shelf packages – it would be nice to have the option to present information such as progress towards investment goals in a more visual format. Also, the advent of social media offers more scope for sharing than simply emailing your portfolio to your contacts.

Integration with the other modules is also quite limited – while you can import property information from the Analyser, you can’t send details back the other way, which could be frustrating. Even so, it’s still a comprehensive tool, and the addition of a few knobs, bells and whistles would really make it peerless.

Other tools As well as the three modules described above, the website also provides access to sophisticated property information and valuation tools provided by Pricefinder (looked at in more detail elsewhere in this article). There’s also a comprehensive archive of property investment articles, videos and podcasts available for members, as well as regularly-updated news. Investar also provides daily training videos, both on getting the most out of the software and on investment in general, as well as telephone and online support.

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Is there an app for that?Not yet. There is a mobile version of the Real Estate Investar website; however, it currently only provides access to the library of investment strategy content.

More fully-featured versions for smartphones and tablets are on the way, according to managing director David Hows, and these will be available across a number of platforms.

How much does it cost?Membership packages vary. There’s an upfront joining fee of $1,299, regardless of package, and three monthly subscriptions. The cheapest is $149 per month, which provides access to Investar Search, Property Analyser, Portfolio Tracker and the knowledge database – essentially, everything other than the tools licensed from Pricefinder. To access all of the above and Pricefinder tools for one state, the monthly cost increases to $199 per month; for all of the Investar tools and Pricefinder tools for all Australian states, it costs $249 per month.

Real Estate Investar also offers a 14-day trial for $1. Following the trial period, users sign up for a 12-month subscription, but are able to take a three-month holiday during this period. There is a possibility of three-month and six-month subscriptions in future.

The verdictThe strength of Real Estate Investar isn’t that it does one thing fantastically well: instead, it does a number of things very well and brings them all together in one place. Many investors are already likely to have a portfolio tracker and/or property analyser, probably in Excel spreadsheet format, somewhere on their computer: Investar takes all that and puts it in one place.

When you combine those with the powerful search tool and the Pricefinder property information and valuation resources, this is potentially a very useful resource for investors; and with a host of improvements to the tools forthcoming in the next few months – 70 to the search tool alone – and much more integration between the various modules on the cards, it’s only set to become more useful for investors.

Pricefinderwww.pricefinder.com.au

The sales pitchPricefinder is the brainchild of Property Data Solutions, which has been providing property information to real estate franchises, independent real estate organisations, major valuation firms and government departments across Australia since 2004. Pricefinder is an online property search application offering ‘a range of tools to assist in generating timely information for all residential, commercial and rural properties’, using live sales data.

There are two products for investors – Single and Solo. Features include: • Instant property sale, rental and

potential % yield estimates through Pricefinder Estimate

• Comprehensive suburb flyovers providing a unique snapshot of how a suburb is tracking

• Real time access to growth statistics for any suburb including medians, sales prices and number of sales

• Individual property information, including land details/attributes, sales history, growth charts and more

• A detailed report for all sales prices for any street or suburb in Australia over the past 20 years

• Further property information: owner names, phone numbers, ability to generate comparative market reports, property photos (Single only)

• Ability to search for properties for sale/for rent, map search

• Ability to share logins (Single only)• iPhone app access (Single only)

What does it do?Basically, Pricefinder allows you to drill down to a greater level of detail about a suburb, street and property before you buy. It’s information available elsewhere

– for example, by buying suburb, street and property reports from other data providers – but Pricefinder brings it together into a subscription model and adds extra functionality, not least the Pricefinder Estimates valuation tool.

Suburb, street and property dataThe main property search tool is likely to be somewhat familiar to investors. By putting in a street name or property number, users can pull up basic information about individual properties, such as number of bedrooms and bathrooms and so on. Of most use to investors, however, will be individual property sales histories, including previous sales and growth.

Searches can also be carried out at suburb or postcode level with the ability to click through to individual properties. Pricefinder also uses the live sales data to provide suburb-related information pulled together into a ‘Suburb Flyover’ report. Key elements of this include constantly-updated sales, overall sales and growth information, demographics and price range segmentation.

Pricefinder EstimatesThis data is powerful in itself. However, it’s the website’s valuation tool that is its ‘killer app’. The tool allows users to estimate the likely sales value, rent and rental yield of any property. It does this by comparing the selected property with comparable properties (six each for sales and rental). These are initially computer-generated; however, to improve accuracy, users can rate the comparable properties as ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than the selected property using a simple slider on qualities such as outlook, street appeal, build quality, finish and renovations. If the user is unhappy with any of the comparable properties, these can be removed and replaced altogether, and the comparable properties can also be viewed on a map to assess location.

Pricefinder reckons that the correct price is found within 30 seconds in over 95% of cases, especially when the user is aware of the properties used in the shortlist and has local experience. Our testing suggests that the pricing’s pretty accurate after a bit of practise, at least for quick appraisal purposes; however, we would echo Pricefinder’s warning that the tool should be used as a guide only and not in lieu of a professional valuation.

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Listings

www.realestate.com.auAustralia’s biggest property listing site with a wealth of supplementary information. The ‘Local Voices’ part of the site is excellent for gaining an insight into suburbs from locals

www.domain.com.auThe other major listings site: like its competitor, an essential tool for property hunters. Suburb demographic information is good

Property data

www.myrpdata.com.auAustralia’s largest property data provider, with comprehensive information. Suburb profiles are free

www.sqmresearch.com.auFree vacancy rate and demographic information per suburb

Other useful websitesThere is a wealth of useful (and free) websites for investors – here are some of the best.

Local knowledge

www.walkscore.comWebsite showing amenities for a locality and rating ‘walkability’

www.onlinenewspapers.comAccess to hundreds of local papers and freesheets. Very useful for the inside track on suburbs

www.nearmap.com.auLike Google maps aerial view, but with the ability to zoom in very, very close and select images at various dates in the past.

General

www.yourmortgage.com.auAustralia’s leading mortgage comparison site, and a hub for all things mortgage-related

www.yipmag.com.auYour essential resource for all things property investment

Still, it really is an impressive product, and the interface is remarkably intuitive.

Single versionThe more expensive subscription level – essentially, a one-user version of the professional package – provides a number of extra tools which may be of use to some investors. First and foremost, it provides significantly more information about individual properties, including ownership details (state restrictions apply), Google Streetview and photographs – even phone numbers attached to said properties.

Is there an app for that?Yes. Pretty much all the functionality available in the Single version of the website is accessible via the Pricefinder iPhone (and iPad) app, including a nice mobile version of the Estimator for on-the-fly appraisal. You do need to buy the more expensive Single subscription to be able to access this, however.

How much does it cost?There are two subscription levels: Solo and Single. Solo, which provides access to basic property information, sales histories, suburb flyovers and the Pricefinder Estimator, costs $105 per month plus GST; access to the more heavily-featured Single version costs $150 per month plus GST. The package Real Estate Investar offers includes access to the Solo level of Pricefinder. There is no minimum contract period.

The verdictLike Real Estate Investar, much of what Pricefinder provides isn’t new: recent sale information, suburb statistics and automated valuations are available from other sources. Where Pricefinder wins out is its intuitive interface, integrated services and ease of use: rather than buying multiple reports, it’s all there to access with just one monthly payment.

Kevin Eddy is editor of Your Investment Property online

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