7 Quick Comparison Steps When Doing Your Due Diligence

Forth Action Invest on December 6, 2020

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So what will your next investment property be worth after it has been refurbished?

Getting this number right will be the difference between making your investment profitable or not. B

Below we have outlined 7 easy steps to doing your Due Diligence like a valuation surveyor:

Size

(overall square metres)

Size does not always matter, Unfortunately in property.. it does. One of the first things you should be checking when searching for comparables with your property is the size. One quick way to check a properties size without having the measurements available is the onlineEPC register, Once downloaded this should give you the total Sq Area of the property in Metres as well as those on the same street.

Number of Rooms

Total number of rooms? Well that seems obvious enough. However it can be easy to just count the number of Bedrooms rather than the number of rooms the house has altogether. E.g Bathrooms , Receptions rooms.

Style

(detached, semi-detached, terraced etc)

What style is the property? Comparing a Terraced to and End terrace will not necessarily give you accurate results.

Radius

9/10 a surveyor will choose his comparables withing 1/4 Mile. If there is no comparables within this distance than broadening your timescale by another 6-12 Months will more likely give you a better comparison than looking an extra mile from your current location.

Condition

What level of refurbishment does the property need ? This will often be the first thing you look at when identifying your next investment property. This will also need to be taken into account when looking at your comparables. Once we have found a similar property it can be tempting to just use that for data, however doing some further digging into what standard of finish the comparison is, will give you a much more solid Idea.

Amenities

What does the local amenities have to do with valuations? We are not talking about how many Just Eat Takeaways are nearby. Having a garden and garage may be considered an amenity by any valuer so making sure you factor that in is advisable.

Demand

How many properties have sold within the last year? and what was the average selling time. This is also something we believe surveyors take into consideration when doing valuations. More often than not if the comparable properties are taking a longer than average time to sell or rent out, It will may be deemed as an undesirable location resulting in a slightly lower valuation than you are hoping for.