All the numbers, stats, pie graphs and percentages mean nothing, if a new location doesn’t get the “gut feel” tick of approval,

So I’m in the midst of researching new locations right now, and as I get closer to finding that next spot to invest in, I hit the pavement for some time on the ground, which for me is the most crucial element of the buying decision…

If I don’t get a good feel for the location, then I am not parting with my money and investing there. And if I wont put my money there, then I wouldn’t spend your money there either.

But to clarify, Gut Feel is totally different to love… whereas love is like an obsession, a must have… a gut feel is a feeling that this is a sound location to buy in. Combine that with the numbers and market timing… and Bingo… we have a location.

In the last week, my travel has been more intense than usual, with a trip to Brisbane where I purchased three properties plus two outgoing inspections, then home the following day.

Then a trip to Melbourne to be re designed ( last weeks Blog ).

And then lastly a quick 5 hour flight over to Perth to research three new possible WA locations, and back the next day. I would normally spend a lot more time on ground on location but I know these locations quite well, well at least I did…

Seriously, I spent more hours in the Qantas lounge than the office in the last week.

So on my trip to Perth my Dad decided to come over for a look again (retired man who loves property). Funny though, the fun part about traveling with my Dad, is when we walk through the metal detectors in the airport. You see, Dad has plenty of pins and rods in his body from many years of motorcycle racing & on our way home at Perth Airport he walked through the metal detectors and as usual they beeped… After waving the detector over him they asked him to walk over to a private section where he could strip down to his underwear, to be thoroughly searched.

Here come the rubber gloves!!!

Leaning up against the wall in just his underwear, I was 10 metres away rolling on the floor in tears… sorry Dad, I just had to tell that story…

Hire car collected we hit the road with a quick coffee stop and off to location No:1 Girrawheen plus the surrounding suburbs.

This is where Gut Feel told me within 3 minutes of arriving that I should have packed some armor and got a faster car…

I couldn’t leave the area fast enough for my liking. There were huge amounts of household junk left out on the footpath from houses, and it wasn’t for Council Pick up, it was simply piled anywhere and everywhere. Most houses had security shutters installed. One house even had high spiked fencing with barbed wire on top with security cameras on the house.

The houses for sale on the Internet failed to include these little extras in the photos…

This is why I travel to every single location before giving it the thumbs up… I place high value on my own instinct on whether to invest there or not.

Having said that, I have knocked back two locations in the past. Whyalla in South Australia was one of them. Being a regional hub for a mining town, Roxby Downs, it made no sense to me why 2 out of the three pubs in the town were shut and boarded up. Miners love a beer, so for this to occur, something had happened that I didn’t know about… (at the time, no amount of dial up internet research could of told my why?)

Now that may seem trivial but it was enough for me to keep my wallet in my pocket. Now sure, Whyalla did increase in value over the years, as did my own location, but true to form I stuck by my Gut Feel and now with BHP canning a $30 BILLION project in Olympic Dam, I see some serious house price corrections in the future for Whyalla.

Back to my trip to WA… So on we went to location No:2 & 3 and instantly I gave them both the thumbs up… I bet you thought I was going to divulge their locations? They are neat and tidy suburbs with neat and tidy houses. There are limited new properties being built which creates a higher demand for rental properties. I actually didn’t even walk through any properties in the area, its the overall general feel for an area that influences my decision. Now all I need to do is go back to the office and do my last research checks etc before giving them the final tick of approval.

With the market dormant and virtually no one actively buying property there currently, this means the timing is right and the market is mine, allowing me to buy well below market value.

So in the next few weeks we will be launching both a QLD location and maybe one or two WA locations, time to get organised now if you want to get in early and take advantage of some early deals…