Buy and Hold.....
Under this investment stragtegy, you buy a property, hold it for the medium to long term and rent it out to hopefully good tenants. The investment makes money when the value of your property rises and/or you have more rental income than property and finance expenses.
What are the critical success factors?
Location
The better the location, the better the chance of appreciation equity. For example, a property that is close to amenities such as schools, parks, and shops stands a much better chance of rising in value than something that is less well positioned. If you're looking to maximize location, then you're probably likely to shop for the worst house on the best street.
Tenants
The type of property that you buy will dictate the type of tenant that you are going to attract. For example, a studio one-bedroom Inner City apartment is not built to cater for a family so the proximity of schools isn't likely to be important. All manner of tenants will apply to rent your property, but he real challenge is to find the right tenant for the right property.
Property
The construction and condition of the property is also important. Brick homes are generally worth more than their weatherboard counterparts and period style homes attract emotional charm that generally raises the price too. What's critical to know about the property is what you can't see and being a savvy investor means making sure that you know what you're buying.
The Numbers
There's no point buying a property under the buy and hold strategy if you can't afford to own it for the long term. That's why it's important to avoid buying on emotion and gut feeling and instead focus on the facts, which really means that you need to complete a full analysis of the numbers.