Ellerslie rental, $698,000. Gutting, stripping, sprucing, $7,000. Trade Me marketing $149 (what’s up with that anyway?!). Nifty internet tools to up your investment game? Priceless.
Take a look at some of these neat little tools for property investors:
Walk Score
Walk Score represents the modern ethos of healthful and energy conscious living that is community focused and celebrates local engagement. Every property available on Google Map is being given a walk score out of 100. The more local amenities within walking distance, the higher a property would score. If your property has a high walk score, why not tell potential tenants about it? If you invest in an unfamiliar suburb, the Walk Score result page also gives you a list of the most popular local amenities.
Pixlr
Pixlr is a free web based photo editing software that can either be accessed on the Pixlr website or downloaded as an app on your smartphone. Basically it is Photoshop for dummies. In case you are ever unhappy with the quality of your marketing photos, you are always able to do quick fixes on Pixlr. The most useful Pixlr feature has to be the brightness/contrast and the exposure adjustors that can add more light to your pictures.
Homestar
Homestar is the brain baby of BRANZ and the New Zealand Green Building Council. Homestar is a residential property rating tool that gives an indication of the energy performance of your house. Take the Homestar test. A rental home with a high Homestar score will definitely be appealing for tenants especially those with a family.
NZ.Stat
NZ.Stat is an online app published by Statistics New Zealand which allows everyone to make sense of the Census data collected. This is an incredibly powerful tool for investors in terms of pre-purchasing research to fulling understand the area of investment, the demographics of tenants and their average income. Not only does NZ.Stat summarise existing population data, it also projects population growth and behaviour which can give you the added assurance for a selected area of investment. APIA workshops are being planned in the pipeline to help our members use this great tool.
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