There are probably just as many property investment tips and tricks as there are investment options, but to manage a successful property portfolio you really only have to do one thing: be a farmer and not a hunter.
By saying this, we mean what you really need to do to succeed in Britain’s diverse property market is to buy the right assets, hold on to them in the long-term and finance them correctly.
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In other words, you’ll be a farmer. You’re experienced, sow your work’s seeds before you reap the rewards, have already started planning for next year and don’t get too concerned by a couple of clouds on the horizon (or your weather app).
Hunters, on the other side, are all about the quick kill. Do it now and think about it later. For the property world, this means that some investors try to outsmart the market by using strategies like only following the really big trends – even when it’s too late – and not factoring in real life trouble.
So what exactly is a property farmer?
What kind of property farmer you are depends on what it is you’re looking for in your investment.
Overall however, the most important advice is to always keep one thing in mind: your investment property will be someone else’s home.
So the more liveable, the more desirable it is, the more likely you are to find the perfect tenant. Or a new tenant once you perfect tenant moves out. Or even a buyer if you ever changed your mind.
But what makes a property desirable? Undoubtedly, location is one of the key factors. This, however, doesn’t mean you need to buy in a city centre. Urban centres are expensive, which means they’re automatically putting a higher risk on your investment.
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If instead you invested in a location close to a city centre, you’d probably still attract a fairly big crowd of tenants, but minimise the risk of over committing financially to begin with.
Another good tip is to make sure you create a diverse portfolio. The same way a farmer rotates what crop their growing, you should make sure you cover different types of dwellings as well as different locations as they all come with varying perks and benefits.
So go out there, do some research and then some digging and build yourself the perfect property farm: long-lasting, diverse and very liveable.
