One version of property advice goes like this: a recommendation based on a developer relationship, a suburb report someone printed last month, and a gut feeling that the market is moving.
We’ve seen where that leads. Clients who bought in the wrong location because someone told them it was “the next big thing”. Clients who overpaid because nobody ran a proper comparable sales analysis. Clients who didn’t find out about the flood overlay until after settlement.
The 24-factor process is there to stop that happening to our clients.
What we evaluate
We assess every property across four areas before a client sees it.
Location factors go beyond the suburb headline. We look at infrastructure pipelines, population projections, employment diversity, school catchments, proximity to amenities and the economic drivers of the area. A suburb can look attractive in last year’s data while showing early signs of softening today.
Property factors cover the asset itself: construction quality, land-to-asset ratio, orientation, how liveable the floor plan is, potential for renovation or development, and the health of the body corporate where there is one. The specific asset has to perform, whatever its postcode.
Financial factors cover yield, comparable sales, days on market, vacancy rates, depreciation schedules and projected holding costs. A property can look cheap and turn out to be expensive, so we model the numbers honestly, including the scenarios most salespeople don’t mention.
Risk factors include flood and fire mapping, heritage and easement checks, zoning overlays, insurance costs and liquidity, meaning how quickly the property could be sold if your circumstances changed. Looking hard at risk is a matter of discipline.
Why a process works better than instinct
The property market is full of confident opinions, and anyone can point at a chart and say a suburb is growing. It’s much harder to be right in a systematic, checkable way and to show your working.
We built the 24-factor framework from enough client engagements to know where deals go wrong, so it catches those risks before they become problems.
Not every factor matters equally for every client. A client focused on yield puts more weight on cashflow factors, and a client building long-term wealth leans harder on location and growth drivers. The framework stays the same while the weighting changes to suit the person.
What it means for you
When Stonehhart recommends a property, we can show you why, factor by factor, so you’re looking at a reasoned case backed by evidence instead of being asked to trust a gut feeling.
When a property doesn’t make the cut, we’ll tell you that too. We’ve talked clients out of purchases they were emotionally committed to. That’s uncomfortable at the time, but it’s part of the job.
Want to see how the 24-factor process would apply to a property you’re considering? Start a conversation and we’ll walk you through it.
