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Articles by Salesh Chand.

How to Avoid Buying a Property Lemon

AUTHOR: Salesh Chand
Partner and Director of Business Services

POSTED: 24 July 2025

As the saying goes: You make your money when you buy a property.
In other words, if you buy the wrong property, or for the wrong price, you can suffer financially.

But buying the right property for the right price will generate income for you (rent or trade profit), create equity, and allow you to keep building your portfolio.

So how do you make sure you buy the right property?
By conducting thorough due diligence, analysing physical characteristics, the area, and the numbers.

In this webinar, which we held on 22 July 2025, we take you through the process of how to undertake a full assessment of a potential purchase. Scroll down to watch the recording.

We covered:

What comprehensive due diligence involves
How to analyse a site – are there flooding issues or problems with services?
Comparable sales analysis – working out what the property is realistically worth both before and after renovations
Checking the neighbourhood – does it have good amenities (e.g. transport)? Is it a gang area?
How to run the numbers – renovation costs, rental yield, profit if selling, capital growth potential if holding
Red flags – properties and issues to avoid

I hope you enjoy the video. If you have any questions about how we can help you with property investment, contact the team at GRA on +64 9 522 7955 or via our online form.

Request a Meeting

Salesh Chand
Partner and Director of Business Services

09 522-7955

[email protected]

© Gilligan Rowe & Associates LP

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Disclaimer: This article is intended to provide only a summary of the issues associated with the topics covered. It does not purport to be comprehensive nor to provide specific advice. No person should act in reliance on any statement contained within this article without first obtaining specific professional advice. If you require any further information or advice on any matter covered within this article, please contact the author.

Comments

Testimonials

Hi Salesh, I just wanted to send you an email on behalf of GRA to say how fantastic we have found your company to date. As you know, Ben and I joined GRA a couple of months ago and have just found you so amazingly helpful in getting our new property set up correctly and sorted out. We have what I would consider a rather complicated structure as a result and it’s a fantastic feeling to know that we are getting everything done in the best way possible. We have just had approval to put a minor dwelling on the property which will make a massive difference in terms of cash flow and obviously value, something we would never have even thought of without GRA and which we are very excited about. During the buying process we attended a seminar with Matthew and from the outset thought he was fab. We therein signed up for property school and found this nothing short of fantastic. The content was relevant, up to date and comprehensive, but more importantly it was taught in a way that we could actually understand and really get value out of. I wanted to mention also, that everybody GRA have recommended to us has been just so efficient and absolute masters at what they do. A wonderful network of people that we feel very lucky to now be able to call on. From Kris Pederson and Bryan Rist who put our mortgage together to the insurance guys they then referred us to, I’m super impressed. Within GRA, Ellery has probably turned things around for us faster than I’ve ever known before, something which we appreciated so very much when it came to crunch time. She’s always a pleasure to deal with and again, we’re stoked. We’ve just settled on the property today and are about to go and get the keys. I’m pretty pumped and hence this email is probably rather excitable. So, a massive thank you to you Salesh, the partners for such a fabulous 6 weeks at property school and everyone at GRA for their help. May this be the start of our property empire. Thanks again, - A & B - July 2015

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Gilligan Rowe and Associates is a chartered accounting firm specialising in property, asset planning, legal structures, taxation and compliance.

We help new, small and medium property investors become long-term successful investors through our education programmes and property portfolio planning advice. With our deep knowledge and experience, we have assisted hundreds of clients build wealth through property investment.

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