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