Already own property? A checklist for reviewing your portfolio

Start with the question behind the review

Write one sentence explaining why you are reviewing the portfolio now. Perhaps income has changed, repayments feel heavier, another purchase is being considered or you want to simplify. That sentence gives the review a purpose and helps separate useful analysis from interesting but irrelevant detail.

You do not need several properties to do this. The same preparation works for one investment property with a decision ahead.

Build a one-page property register

For each property, record the legal owner, ownership proportion, loan balance, current repayments, rent and expected recurring costs. Include upcoming works and known deadlines. Mark estimates and add the date each figure was checked.

Use supporting documents to resolve inconsistencies. A loan may be secured against one property while the funds were used elsewhere; keep the funding history available for your accountant rather than assuming the address on the loan answers every tax question.

Look at the combined cash commitments

Add the property budgets together and compare the result with the funds available to support them. Note when expenses cluster. Several annual bills arriving together can create a different pressure from the same total spread evenly across the year.

Prepare a second version reflecting a scenario relevant to you, such as a period of reduced income or a known repair. This is a planning exercise, not a prediction of what will happen.

Identify changes since the original purchase

• Employment, business income or household commitments.
• Ownership, entity documents or people involved in decisions.
• Loan arrangements, redraws or refinancing.
• How a property is used.
• Upcoming sales, purchases or substantial works.

Ask which changes require tax analysis, which need a broker and which require legal advice. Give each unresolved question an owner and a next step.

Leave with a prioritised sequence

The useful output is a sequence of decisions: what needs checking first, what information is missing and what further work is worth commissioning. It should be clear which assumptions are provisional and which findings are supported by documents.

Use the holding-cost checklist for the numbers and the sale preparation checklist if a disposal is being considered. The $1,650 Initial Review includes a consultation and your property strategy roadmap; detailed modelling and implementation are separately scoped.