You've heard the estate agents mantra 'location, location, location', but how true is it when it comes to making money from property? If you are buying yourself a home to live in for the next few years, then location can be very important, but if you are planning on buying a renovation project, doing it up, selling it on and pocketing a profit, then location can be a secondary consideration.

Property development comes down to money and profit. How much will the property initially cost? How much will it cost to do the work? How much will it sell for? Making sure the sums work out is more important than location. Properties in the less popular locations sell, just as they do in the good locations, the only difference is price. But if you can make a larger profit from buying and selling in a cheaper area, then location shouldn't be the first thing you think of.

Buying something like an ex local authority flat may not at first appeal to you, but they do have an upside. Landlords love them as they are cheap to buy, yet the rental returns on their investment can be impressive. Also worth considering are the first time buyers. As the property market has surged ahead in the last few years, people can find it hard to get on the first rung of the property ladder, and there has been increasing demand for the cheaper properties.

During a property slump, such as the one experienced in the UK during the early 1990's, the bottom end properties tended to have a larger percentage fall than those at the top end of the market. As the market picked up again though, these very same properties provided handsome returns for those who had snapped them up. And they continue to rise in value thanks to the rental returns and buyers being priced out of the rest of the market.

If you are looking for a property to renovate, then consider all properties that are on the market, do the sums and see which one will make you the largest profit. The problem then becomes not picking properties in the right location, but finding enough properties to give you a large enough selection to be able to select the right property at the right price.

Spend your time talking to estate agents. Not just estate agents in your local area, but also estate agents in the neighbouring areas. Get the property details of any property that interests you, then figure out the prices of similar properties in better condition in the same location. Walk down the street, and neighbouring streets finding the For Sale boards, and find out how much similar properties are selling for. This should give you a good idea about prices and whether the property you are interested in has any profit potential.

Spending your time phoning around estate agents and visiting their offices can be a tedious time consuming activity. Nowadays most estate agents list their properties on the internet, so you can do a lot of property searching from the comfort of your own home. There are also websites out there that can do your searching for you, websites that specialise in renovation projects. RenovateAlerts.com searches through estate agents listings looking for properties in need of renovation and emails you the latest ones every few days - this can save you a lot of time and effort and even find you properties that you might have otherwise missed.