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