Finding a property that is close to lifestyle amenities, transport and jobs is an important part of investing in property. In this video I discuss how the webite www.walkscore.com can help you learn more about a potential location.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Okay, I thought I’d shoot another quick video on another free internet resource that I use when I’m looking at potential property investments. And that is Walk Score, you can find it at walkscore.com. Now what Walk Score is basically a number out of 100 that the algorithm gives to a potential, to a, to a property to tell you basically how walkable something is, so how easily it is to get to the amenities that you need to by foot and that’s again out of 100. So, the best way to get an idea about this tool is to look at two different properties. The properties I’m going to look at are both Meriton locations, so we’re not actually looking at anybody’s individual property, more just two sort of locations. So the first one is actually in Mascot and that’s in the inner-south of Sydney. If we look at this one, you can see just sort of looking at, at the map and then looking at these numbers, you know, it’s what they call very walkable. Okay so, it basically goes on to say that most errands can be accomplished on foot. So, that’s a really high number and what it basically tells us is that if we were to purchase a property there, it would be quite handy for tenants and that’s probably the way I use this most, really. If I’m looking between two different properties and one has a lower walk score and one has a higher and everything else is equal, you know, then I might be sort of leaning toward this one I guess so, it’s not the be all and end all, it’s not you know, it’s not a measurement that you can just take a walk score and go it makes a fantastic property, it’s nothing like that, but it is certainly something interesting to look at. So, if we dig a little bit more into what the 89 is, it sort of gives you an idea about how they’ve arrived at that number, and this their own internal methodology, it’s their algorithm but it just gives you an idea about you know, between dining, drinking, shopping, parks and all that sort of stuff, why they gave it a score that they did. If you click over here, it’ll give you an idea about the sort of terminology around Walk Score. So this number of 89 sits in that 70 to 89 it’s at the very top there, and they’re calling it very walkable. The best score that they give out is what they call a walker’s paradise. Alrighty so, if you scroll down it gives you a little bit more information over here about transit, gives you some information on the maps and stuff like that, and scrolling down again, you know, talks a little bit about the location. This website’s a little bit different to some, it’s got quite a lot of sort of support from advertising and stuff like that, it’s a little bit more clunky I dare say. But nonetheless, you know, for a free resource it can give you some, some, some pretty interesting information, especially around transport and you know, how far you are to different lines and where those rail lines go and stuff. So, that’s the first one we’ll look at and that’s in Mascot, in the inner-south of Sydney. The second one is another Meriton block and that’s out at Lidcombe, in the sort of west of the city. Looking at the score here, very different to that, to that number we saw there with, with Mascot. And again, it says here, it says car dependent, that most things you do are going to require a car. All right, so, if you’re looking at a property in this thing, then it’s important to you know, be looking for something that has a garage or at least access to car share or whatever it might be. So again, you can sort of scroll down and get a little bit more information about about this location and all that sort of same things we saw before so, look this is again just, just one resource that I do use but I consult it quite regularly, and you know, it’s an interesting thing to note especially when you’re looking at things from a tenant’s point of view. There are some websites that sort of embed this score on their listings and you know, to the degree that tenants are looking at it as a thing that sort of helps them steer toward one rental or another then it’s certainly an interesting metric for property investors to look at as well, so hope that helps, see you in the next one.
