Estate Agent London News

London as The Best Place to Invest in Property

Investing in property has been a very popular way of improving financial security for a wide range of people. Investing in property doesn’t necessarily require a huge amount of investment capital; it is something that is accessible to the average person with savings to invest.

However, finding the right investment opportunity is easier said than done. The wrong investment can be a financial disaster; it is not a decision that you want to rush into.

Using property websites like Greater London Properties (GLP) to begin your search has a number of advantages when looking for an investment property. Here are some of the pros and cons you need to know about.

Pro: Tailor Your Property Investment Search To Your Needs

Any property website worth using will give the user a range of filters that they can apply to their searches. By using these filters, you can easily narrow down your search and ensure that you are only looking at properties that fall within your pre-determined parameters. This will speed up your search while also making it easier to identify how many properties there are that meet your criteria and what sort of price you can expect to pay.

If you don’t know what you are looking for in an investment property, then you might find it useful to identify some key criteria beforehand. If you are starting your search blind, it is going to take you longer to find the right property, no matter how you go about it. Being open to different property types isn’t a bad idea when you are looking for investment properties. However, you should also be realistic about what you are going to be able to manage in terms of size and number of rooms.

A common mistake among first-time investment property buyers is to only consider the cost of the property while failing to factor in the maintenance and administrative costs that come with buying a property. You need to include these when you are working out what your available budget is; otherwise, you might find yourself having to offload an investment property long before you are truly ready.

Cons: Miss Out On The Human Touch

There are a lot of property companies in London, some of which specialise in providing a specific type of property. If you want to be able to hone in on the cheapest property in London that matches your specifications, then using a website will enable you to identify suitable properties quickly, but you will miss out on some of the benefits that come from working with a human property agent.

For example, an agent can let you know what the history of a property is and how that factors into its value as an investment property. The history of some properties can add significantly to their value, and there are occasional opportunities to buy a historical property or a stake in its ownership, for a lower price than usual. For example, if a historic building loses its listed status, it might be sold on the open market. These properties are often purchased by interested groups or investors, depending on the history of the property.

Pro: Search for Property Investment Through Large Databases Of Properties

When you are searching for available properties online, you have the option of either searching through an individual property agent or through a comparison website that enables you to compare available properties from multiple different sources simultaneously. This massively speeds up the process while also making your life a lot easier. Most sellers today will list their property online in some form, so being able to search through a range of online sources at once will make sure you include as many properties as possible in your search.

Even if you are searching through a single online database, you can include many more properties in your search than you would be able to if you were looking manually. It pays to be flexible when you are looking at potential investment properties; there are a lot of different options out there for you to consider. Searching online will expose you to as many available properties as possible, meaning you get to consider as many different potential investments as possible.

Con: Miss Out On Unique In-Person Deals

After many years of working in the property market, many estate agents have developed a list of contacts that they can call upon when they are looking for deals. On the other hand, when you use a website to search for available investment properties, you won’t be able to take advantage of any personal connections that an estate agent can bring to the table. This means that you are potentially missing out on the investment deal of a lifetime. Some of the best opportunities are never going to be included on an online property website.

The best way of ensuring that you get to see all of the best deals available is to utilise both online and offline methods for searching for an investment property. While the best property websites offer extensive property databases that can speed up your search significantly, these platforms have their limitations. If you can’t find the right investment opportunity using online searches, then don’t be afraid to ask a property agent to help you.

Pro: Find Property Investment Websites With Local Experience

Having local knowledge is always helpful when you are dealing with property. No matter where you are buying property, or for what purpose, it is always beneficial to go into your search with as much local knowledge as possible. While using a property website to search for investment properties often means that you have to forego this valuable local knowledge, this doesn’t have to be the case. There are now property websites that are dedicated to showcasing properties in a particular area within a specific niche.

Some property websites are focussed entirely on enabling you to find the best price possible for your next property, whereas others aim to assist you in identifying the best place to invest in property for you. If you are willing to take your time searching through the available property websites before committing to a particular one for your next property purchase, you can find a property website that is likely to go above and beyond in helping you to find the right investment property.

Pro: It’s Easy To Find Out More About Any Properties You Are Interested In

The internet is full of useful information for property buyers. As well as containing information about what properties are on the market and what the asking prices are, the internet will also contain plenty of information about individual properties and their histories. Having an experienced estate agent to talk to about properties and to ask about their histories is always beneficial, but even if you don’t speak to a human agent, you can still find out a lot of this information for yourself.

Once you have identified the best place to buy property for the kind of investment you are looking for, a property website is a great way of drawing up a shortlist of potential investment properties. In the case of the best places to invest in property, there will be no shortage of potential properties showing up in your searches. Searching for each one online might be time-consuming, but it is easy to do and will often give you just as much information as an individual estate agent could.

Con: Miss Out On Group Investments

Some of the best property investment opportunities out there involve investing in a property as part of a larger group. The exact nature of these investments will come with their own exact terms and specifications, but will usually involve either buying a stake in a property or in a company that is being setup to operate a property commercially. These investments can represent some of the best opportunities around for investors, but they are easy to miss, even if you are looking for them.

When you use a property website to find the best property investment for you, you are often only looking at a small selection of what’s available. Even the best property websites will only represent certain properties in their listings; there will be many more than aren’t represented. If you want the opportunity to join in some of the investments that aren’t going to be represented on a standard property website, then you will need to expand your search to other mediums.

Using a property website to search for potential investment opportunities can be a great way of speeding up your search and helping you to draw up a shortlist of potential investment properties for you to investigate further at a later date. However, even the best property website is only going to show you a small selection of the many investment properties that are available at any given time. If you want to maximise your chances of finding the right investment opportunity for you, you should combine a property website with other ways of finding the right property, such as speaking to the experts at GLP.

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