Free Tools

Its been a while, so I thought I would add in the free tools again, feel free to add to this list:
1. InvestSMART - suburb snapshot
This site will give you a quick snapshot of the suburb you are searching, including rental yield growth, demographics. They usehttp://www.domain.com.au/ andhttp://www.homepriceguide.com.au/
http://www.investsmart.com.au/property/default.asp?s_cid=domain.com
2. SQM Research - Vacancy Rates
The only website I could find which had suburb and region vacancy report over the last 10 years. This is a great tool for investors who understand demand and supply.
http://www.sqmresearch.com.au/
3. 4sale4investors - Calculators specially the Property Depreciation Calculator (requires free registration)
They have the standard calculators you find at your bank but one thing they have which you dont find often is a depreciation calculator, which looks at all your expenses, potential depreciation and tax bracket to find whether or not the property will be negatively geared, positively geared, or positive cash flow. Other calculators are also easy to use plus more flexible.
http://www.4sale4investors.com.au/
4. Old Listings - exactly what the name suggests, old rental and sale prices
You can search by suburb and drill down to street level to see how much a particular unit/house either sold for in the past or was rented out. If you are lucky and the information is up to date you can find the rental price over the last 5 years. A very handy site!
http://www.oldlistings.com.au/
5. Suburb View - same company as above but in map format
Flexibility in using a map and selecting property type with a quick view function
http://www.mortgageshop.com.au/calc_prop.htm
6. OnTheHouse.com.au - Sales Reports for street, radius, property, suburb or post code (requires free registration)
Here you will find reports on all the above mentioned, for example a report on the property will give you the a street view pic, and the recorded sales historty
http://www.onthehouse.com.au/sold_info/
7. Money.NineMSN.com.au - Suburn information in detail with maps
http://money.ninemsn.com.au/aussiePriceMapping.aspx?formType=results&statesID=1&suburbID=34392
8. Walkscore.com - what is around the house you are looking for
you will get a score based on walking distance to things like restaurants, transport, education etc
http://www.walkscore.com/
9. MortgageShop.com.au - a quick simple 1 pager for rental return calculation
http://www.mortgageshop.com.au/calc_prop.htm

Property Management Software

Here is a list of property management software which i know are available, if you know of others please let me know so i can add to the list:

1. Somersoft Property Investment Analysis (PIA)
http://www.somersoft.com.au/software.htm
Our Property Investment Analysis (PIA) program is an essential decision tool for investors. It will analyse the capital growth, cash flows, and tax implications for any investment property and provide instant feedback on the projected after-tax cost and rate of return. The software will compute cash flow projections for up to 40 years and has facilities for changing more than 100 variables including property price, rent, capital growth, inflation, deposit, loan type, etc. The internal rate of return (IRR) and the cost-per-week are recalculated automatically whenever a change is made.

2. Manaccom Property Manager Pro
http://www.manac.com.au/
Designed with the small investor in mind, Property Manager Pro-4 helps you to manage your investment properties, record all income and expenditure and optionally manage your own tenants and rent role.

• Produce rental profit & loss statements at any time for each property. 
• Record each property’s income & expenses as they occur.
• Monitor performance of a renting agency.
• Record and manage an inventory of carpets, furniture, drapes, etc. for each property, including each item’s condition & photograph.
• Record full tenant details for each property including multiple tenants.
• Optionally run your own rent role including tenant rental ledger, statements and notices.
• Report both "Indexed" and "Actual" capital gains – for tax purposes.
• Record single or multiple "Cocktail" loans for each property and predict the effect that variations to the mix of loans, loan types, periods, interest rates or amounts will have upon your future repayments.
• Forecast future property values taking into account annual appreciation rates, current market values and loan interest.
• Record and report on GST (VAT) components for tax purposes.
• Record permanent & holiday rentals.
• Save and restore historical data
• Compile aggregate and disaggregate property info

3. POSH Property Software

http://www.financiallyfree.com.au/posh.htm

Professional Analysis of Property Investments
POSH - the professional Property Owner System is designed for people who are planning to purchase properties as well as those who already own properties. It is the most powerful property analysis and management tool of its kind and is comprised of two major components...
1. A Property Analysis Component
2. A Comprehensive Management Component


4. RENTMASTER Property Management Software
http://www.rentmaster.co.nz/

• Keep track of rent arrears so you can get on top of the problem before it gets out of hand.
• Record all your property transactions so you know exactly where the money is coming from and going to.
• Send mail merge letters to tenants and property owners.
• Lease expiry notification keeps you one step ahead.
• Track property repairs from the initial problem report, through to completion and payment.
• Perform a bank reconciliation to ensure full transaction data integrity.

Population and Housing projections - April 2010

Hi everyone, below are the links to the new population projections for NSW broken up by area in 2 formats pdf and excel

Key areas of growth: Camden and Liverpool area

Pdf: NSW Statistical Local Area Population Projections (April 2010)

Excel: NSW Statistical Local Area Population Projections (April 2010)

You can find the QLD projections using the link below
http://www.oesr.qld.gov.au/queensland-by-theme/demography/population/regular-publications/qld-govt-pop-proj-2051-qld-sd/index.shtml

Property Investment Calculators

Searching the web found this handy website which has updated news, some interesting stats from google (in terms of property related searches) and some very good free excel calculators http://www.investmentpropertycalculator.com.au/:
Tools
■Free Mortgage Home Loan Amortization Calculator
■Free Mortgage Home Loan Refinance Calculator
■Free Mortgage Home Loan Repayments Calculator
■Free Rent or Buy Analysis Calculator

Summarty of Tools you will find

1. InvestSMART - suburb snapshot

2. SQM Research - Vacancy Rates
3. 4sale4investors - Calculators specially the Property Depreciation Calculator
4. Old Listings - exactly what the name suggests, old rental and sale prices
5. Suburb View - same company as above but in map format
6. OnTheHouse.com.au - Sales Reports for street, radius, property, suburb or post code
7. Money.NineMSN.com.au - Suburn information in detail with maps
8. Walkscore.com - what is around the house you are looking for
9. MortgageShop.com.au - a quick simple 1 pager for rental return calculation

Free Research tools for property investment

I was looking at buying my second investment property in Orange NSW, and as i live in sydney i knew little of the area and had to use the web to do my research. During my weeks of researching i found it difficult to find the information i was after without having to pay for some of it, but i continued looking knowing that the information must be available somewhere for free. I wanted to know things like demographics, growth rates, population rates, investment calculators, information about depreciation, how the area is, vacancy rate reports and more. Over the few weeks I spent researching the web i found all the information from many different sources, I decided to collate these and send it to people i know where looking at purchasing properties.

The links to these websites are provided to help you research, some may be useful others may not, but all serve a purpose.

Here is the list, more posts will follow with additional information:

1. InvestSMART - suburb snapshot
This site will give you a quick snapshot of the suburb you are searching, including rental yield growth, demographics. They use http://www.domain.com.au/ and http://www.homepriceguide.com.au/
http://www.investsmart.com.au/property/default.asp?s_cid=domain.com

2. SQM Research - Vacancy Rates
The only website I could find which had suburb and region vacancy report over the last 10 years. This is a great tool for investors who understand demand and supply.
http://www.sqmresearch.com.au/

3. 4sale4investors - Calculators specially the Property Depreciation Calculator (requires free registration)
They have the standard calculators you find at your bank but one thing they have which you dont find often is a depreciation calculator, which looks at all your expenses, potential depreciation and tax bracket to find whether or not the property will be negatively geared, positively geared, or positive cash flow. Other calculators are also easy to use plus more flexible.
http://www.4sale4investors.com.au/

4. Old Listings - exactly what the name suggests, old rental and sale prices
You can search by suburb and drill down to street level to see how much a particular unit/house either sold for in the past or was rented out. If you are lucky and the information is up to date you can find the rental price over the last 5 years. A very handy site!
http://www.oldlistings.com.au/

5. Suburb View - same company as above but in map format
Flexibility in using a map and selecting property type with a quick view function
http://www.mortgageshop.com.au/calc_prop.htm

6. OnTheHouse.com.au - Sales Reports for street, radius, property, suburb or post code (requires free registration)
Here you will find reports on all the above mentioned, for example a report on the property will give you the a street view pic, and the recorded sales historty
http://www.onthehouse.com.au/sold_info/


7. Money.NineMSN.com.au - Suburn information in detail with maps
http://money.ninemsn.com.au/aussiePriceMapping.aspx?formType=results&statesID=1&suburbID=34392

8. Walkscore.com - what is around the house you are looking for
you will get a score based on walking distance to things like restaurants, transport, education etc
http://www.walkscore.com/


9. MortgageShop.com.au - a quick simple 1 pager for rental return calculation
http://www.mortgageshop.com.au/calc_prop.htm


So here they are, if you have any which arent on the list please post it up and i will add it in. Happy to answer or help in anyway i can....good look