Things people forget to check
before buying an investment property.
A PM's honest list.

Sounds obvious. Rarely happens properly. Before you start attending home opens, sit down with your accountant and work out what the investment actually needs to deliver. What yield are you targeting? What can you carry if the property's vacant for four weeks? What does negative gearing mean for your tax position?

Get an independent rental appraisal from a property manager who works in that suburb before you make an offer. Not from the selling agent, whose interest is in the sale going through. The appraisal should be based on properties that have recently leased, not what the market was doing two years ago.

Just this week I heard of a sales agent appraising a property at $800 a week when the suburb median was $675 and the property was completely average for the area. That's a $125 a week difference. Annualised, $6,500. Build your investment decision around that number and find out later what the property actually rents for, your whole cash flow projection falls apart. A sales agent's job is to sell the property. An independent rental appraisal from a PM who leases in that suburb every week costs nothing and tells you what the market will actually pay.

Build in a buffer. Maintenance comes up. Things you didn't notice at the inspection surface. Vacancies happen. If your numbers only work when everything goes perfectly, your numbers don't work.

One more thing worth saying honestly. If you don't have a buffer, an older property might not be the right choice. Older homes carry more maintenance risk. If something goes wrong with the plumbing, the roof, the hot water system, the wiring, you need to be able to cover it without it becoming a crisis. If your cash position is tight, a new or near-new property is worth serious thought. Less maintenance risk, better energy efficiency, and tenants generally prefer them. The numbers might look slightly different but the predictability is worth something.

Most people come to their first investment with a view already formed. I want an older house I can fix up. I want something established in a suburb I know. Sometimes that's exactly right. Sometimes it's not. A financial adviser and a buyer's agent who specialises in investment property will look at your situation, your cash position, your tax position, your goals, and tell you what structure actually suits you. That conversation might confirm what you already had in mind. Or it might open up options you hadn't thought of. A new build. A house and land package. Co-living. A dual-income property. The Perth market has more investment structures available now than it ever has. Going in with a plan built around your actual situation will always beat going in with a preference and fitting the numbers around it afterwards.

When you're doing the numbers, work from net yield, not gross. Gross yield is annual rent divided by purchase price. Net yield is what's left after rates, insurance, property management fees, maintenance and vacancy. A property showing 5% gross can easily return 3% or less net once all costs are factored in. That's the number that matters.

Goes beyond looking at recent sale prices. You want to understand rental demand in that specific street, not just the suburb median. A suburb can have a 1.5% vacancy rate overall while a particular pocket of it sits empty for six weeks because of oversupply from a new development.

Check days on market for rentals. Look at what's currently listed and how long it's been sitting. Think about who your tenant will be and whether the property actually suits them.

Think about suitability as a rental specifically. A beautiful property that's hard to maintain, has a huge garden, or needs constant attention will attract fewer tenants and more turnover. Low-maintenance properties with good inclusions attract better tenants and hold them longer.

At the home open, look beyond the property itself. Walk the street. Note what's around it. Government housing nearby can affect your tenant pool and your vacancy rate. If your next-door neighbour is a social housing property, it's worth knowing before you buy, not after your first tenants move out. Check for commercial uses, busy roads, anything a tenant would notice immediately but that doesn't show in the listing photos. The things that make a property harder to rent are rarely volunteered by the selling agent. You have to look for them yourself.

One of the most consistently skipped steps, and one of the most important. Before you commit, run desktop checks across all of the following.

The title search is non-negotiable. Easements can restrict what you do with the property. Caveats mean someone else has a registered interest in it. Notifications can include things like contamination notices or building restrictions that follow the property regardless of who owns it. Your settlement agent will run a title search. Make sure you actually read it rather than just signing off on it.

Unapproved structures catch people out. If there's a shed, patio, extension, granny flat or carport on the property, check whether it has council approval. As a property manager I'm not required to run council permit searches. Visually I'll note what's there and flag anything that looks like it wasn't part of the original build. As a buyer, ask the question directly and get the answer in writing.

Worth understanding how the disclosure process works. Selling agents are only required to disclose what they know. If a vendor hasn't told the agent something, or the agent hasn't done their own checks thoroughly, that information may never reach you. Agents do have a duty to make their own enquiries and not just rely on what the vendor tells them. In practice the depth of those checks varies, and if a piece of information could negatively affect the sale, there isn't always a strong incentive to surface it.

I had a client last year who bought an investment property interstate. I hadn't been to the suburb before. When I arrived to do the rental appraisal, both neighbouring properties were in complete disarray. Rubbish covering the lawns, windows boarded up. That's a direct impact on vacancy. It affects who applies, how long it sits, and what rent you can realistically achieve. Nobody had mentioned it. Simple question to ask: is there government housing next door? But you have to ask it, and you have to go and see for yourself. Don't rely on photos and don't assume that what hasn't been disclosed doesn't exist.

A few things that frequently get missed or done badly at the offer stage.

Building and pest inspection. Scope it properly

A half-hour home open where the sales agent's talking at you and ten other buyers are walking around isn't enough time to properly assess a property. You don't get to test things. Hired furniture and good staging can hide water damage, rust, things that aren't working, things that have been patched over. The building and pest inspection is your chance to have someone working for you, not the vendor, go through the property with no time pressure and no distractions.

Get one. More importantly, make sure your B&P clause covers the whole property, not just the main dwelling. The clause should explicitly include all structures. The shed. The carport. The patio. The granny flat if there is one. A standard B&P that only covers the house can leave you with a shed full of termites that isn't covered by your clause.

Read the report. Don't just check whether it says "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory." A B&P report will always find something. The question is whether what it finds is cosmetic, manageable, or a genuine problem. Get the inspector to walk you through it if you're not sure.

Electrical safety check

A B&P doesn't cover the electrical system. If the property's older or you have any reason to suspect the wiring, consider an independent electrical safety check as a condition of the contract, or arrange one after settlement before tenants move in. Any good property manager will require an electrical safety inspection at the start of management anyway, so it's worth getting ahead of it. If issues are found, better to know before you have a tenant waiting to move in.

Finance clause

Finance pre-approval before you start making offers isn't just about protecting yourself. It's a competitive advantage. A pre-approved buyer with a slightly lower offer will often beat an unapproved buyer at a higher price, because the vendor knows the deal is solid. In a market where sellers want certainty, pre-approval gives you something other buyers don't have.

That said, always buy subject to finance even with pre-approval. Valuations can come in below the purchase price. Lending conditions change. Don't remove your finance clause to make your offer more competitive unless you have unconditional finance and genuinely understand the risk.

Check unpaid rates and utilities

Your settlement agent will adjust council rates, water rates, and strata levies at settlement. Check whether there are any outstanding unpaid amounts. In some circumstances these can carry over to the new owner. Standard part of the settlement process but worth confirming explicitly rather than assuming it's been handled.

Check NBN and internet access

Tenants increasingly treat reliable internet as non-negotiable. Check whether the property has NBN connected and what technology type and speed tier is available. Some Perth suburbs still have limited access or older technology. Affects your tenant pool and is worth knowing before you buy, not after you've advertised the property and started fielding questions.

Working order clause

Make sure your contract includes a clause requiring all fixtures and fittings to be in working order at settlement. Appliances, air conditioning, hot water systems, garage doors, pool equipment. Without this clause you have limited recourse if something stops working between the inspection and settlement day.

Keys for every lock

At settlement you should receive a key for every lock on the property. Every external door, every window lock, every padlock on a shed or gate. Be prepared for this not to happen though. Selling contracts can include clauses that only require the vendor to provide one front door key at settlement, and this is more common than most buyers realise. Standard clause across many agencies. Don't push back on it before you sign and you may settle with a single key and no recourse.

This is one of the clearest examples of the difference between buying and renting. When you buy a property, you buy it as is, under contract law. When you rent it out, you're immediately subject to the Residential Tenancies Act and its regulations, which require you to provide every tenant on the lease with a key for every lock on the property. Two different sets of rules. The gap between them is your problem to solve. Know what keys exist before you settle, know what you're entitled to under your contract, and negotiate accordingly.

Settlement agent

Choose your own settlement agent or conveyancer. Don't use the one the selling agent recommends unless you've independently verified they're good. Your settlement agent works for you. Someone you can call and get a straight answer from, not someone processing paperwork in the background.

This catches people out more often than you'd expect. At the home open the property looks a certain way. Spa in the backyard, curtains on every window, dishwasher in the kitchen. You make your offer based on what you saw. Then you do your final inspection before settlement and the spa's gone, the curtains are gone, and the dishwasher's been ripped out of the wall.

Sellers are entitled to take anything not specifically included in the contract. Curtains and blinds, dishwashers, freestanding spa baths, garden sheds, split system remotes, light fittings. All of them can walk out the door unless your contract says otherwise. Specify in your contract exactly what's staying and what's going. If you saw it at the home open and you want it there at settlement, it needs to be listed as an inclusion. Don't assume. Don't rely on a verbal agreement. Put it in writing.

This matters doubly for an investment property. If you're planning to lease with certain inclusions and those items disappear before settlement, you either replace them before your tenant moves in or renegotiate the lease. Neither's a good way to start.

This is where a lot of buyers get a surprise. A property can be perfectly fine as an owner-occupied home and still need work before it can be legally tenanted. The main areas to check.

Minimum security standards

Under the Residential Tenancies Regulations 1989, all WA rental properties must meet minimum security standards.

If the property doesn't already meet these standards, you'll need to arrange upgrades before a tenancy can start. Factor this into your purchase costs. A property with old-style lever locks on external doors and no security screens will need work. Source: WA Consumer Protection.

Smoke alarms

WA requires interconnected smoke alarms in all rental properties. They must be hardwired or powered by a non-removable 10-year battery, positioned on or near the ceiling in the correct locations. If the property has old-style battery smoke alarms, they'll need to be upgraded. Your PM will check this as part of the pre-tenancy inspection, but better to know the cost before you buy.

RCDs

At least two residual current devices must be installed in every WA rental property, protecting all power and lighting circuits. Many older Perth homes don't have this. An electrician can confirm compliance and install if needed. Factor the cost in before you make your offer, not after.

Blind cord safety

Any looped or free-hanging blind cords must be secured or replaced to meet safety requirements. Quick and cheap fix. Has to be done.

Swimming pool

If the property has a pool, a current pool barrier compliance certificate is required before the property can be tenanted. Pool inspections need to be arranged through a licensed inspector. If the barrier is non-compliant, the cost of rectification can be significant depending on what needs to change.

If the property already has tenants, the due diligence list changes. You're not just buying a property, you're inheriting a tenancy. Here's what to check before you make an offer, not after.

Get advice from a property manager before you put in your offer on a tenanted property. A PM can review the lease and ledger and tell you things a buying agent or real estate agent might not flag. For example, if the rent hasn't been reviewed in two years and is sitting well below market, you need to understand the minimum notice requirements before you can increase it, and factor that into your cash flow.

If there's no PCR on file, or the one that exists is poor quality, that's a risk you need to price in. At the end of that tenancy, your ability to claim bond money for damage depends almost entirely on the quality of the ingoing PCR. If it's inadequate, you may have limited recourse.

If you're buying a unit, apartment or townhouse in a strata scheme, the due diligence list expands. The property isn't just the four walls you're buying. It's a share in the common property and a share in the strata company's financial position. That company's health matters as much as the property itself.

Request the last two to three years of strata meeting minutes before you make an offer. Read them properly. You're looking for recurring maintenance issues, disputes between owners, major works that have been discussed or deferred, and the general tone of how the scheme is being managed. A well-run strata has clear minutes, prompt action on maintenance, and a healthy sinking fund. A poorly run one has arguments, deferred works, and barely enough money to replace a light bulb.

Check the sinking fund balance. This is the reserve fund held for major capital works. Roof replacement, external painting, common area repairs. A depleted sinking fund in a building with ageing infrastructure is a serious red flag. If the fund's low and the building needs work, a special levy will be called and every owner pays. Find out before you buy what the fund holds and what it should hold. Ask whether any special levies have been raised recently or are being discussed. Factor strata fees into your net yield, not just the management fee and rates.

Two policies, both essential.

Building insurance covers the structure of the property. Make sure the sum insured reflects the rebuild cost, not the market value. These are not the same number. Get this in place at or before settlement.

Landlord insurance covers loss of rent, tenant default, malicious damage, and liability. Read the Product Disclosure Statement carefully before you buy. Not all policies are the same, and some exclude certain property types or tenant situations. Many standard policies exclude self-managed properties too, so if you're planning to manage the property yourself, check the policy explicitly covers that.

This decision matters more than most buyers realise. The right property manager protects your investment, keeps you informed, and manages compliance on your behalf. The wrong one costs you money in missed rent increases, poor tenant selection, and maintenance that gets ignored until it becomes expensive.

Don't just go with whoever the selling agent recommends. Ask around. Check Google reviews and look for responses to those reviews. How an agency handles negative feedback tells you a lot about how they handle problems. Look for a manager who specialises in property management, not one where it's a secondary service to a sales business.

Meet the person who'll actually manage your property before you sign anything. Ask them how many properties they manage, how they handle maintenance, what their rent review process looks like, and what happens if a tenant stops paying. If the answers are vague, keep looking.