My husband and I have been reading and gaining as much information about positive cashflow investments as we can. I am all ready to go out and find that elusive first property, but my husband is still reluctant and feels he doesn’t know enough yet to get started. How can I help him feel more confident and where is the best place, at the moment, to start looking for a positive cashflow property so I can show him how it works.
Rachderick[blink]Rachderick,
Research counts for everything and enthusiasm not for much when you’re starting out!!
I think you will find +ve cashflow properties are very hard to find – they are out there but its not as easy as lets go find one and snap it up.
Take your partner’s caution in mind to perhaps temper your own enthusiasm and do some more research. Enough is never too much. Stick around the forum for a while and see what you can learn.
Matt
Still in pursuit of much more knowledge before taking that all important next step.
I am almost as new to this as you and I was in the same position as your husband.
By nature, I am not too high a risk taker and I kept telling myself I wasn’t ready to start because I did not know enough.
But eventually I managed to get my bum of the seat a month ago and started going for inspections, exploring areas, etc. While I still haven’t bought anything yet, the experience and knowledge that I have picked up wold never come from any book. Not to mention that networks that I am slowly establishing.
In short, go out and start looking while at the same time continuing to read books, magazines, etc. You don’t have to buy anything until you are totally comfortable.
If you think you are ready, do a dummy deal. Go through the steps required, and see if you believe you have any deficiencies in information, fix it.
As you have been doing, ask around here. There is a thread around somewhere, youll have to search, on the order of buying a house. That will help too.
Follow the advice given previously, and you are on your way.
Cheers
“Looking forward to the day when I can tell the boss where to go”
rachderick,
It costs nothing to do some checks through realestate.com.au Why not sit with your husband and check out properties on there? You can choose a state- perhaps the one you live in now, and just look at different areas. Another thing I do is look at Australian Property Investor Magazine ($8 from newsagents) and look at all the cheapest towns in different states. Most of them, I’ve never heard of, but it gives a starting point, and it’s easier, visually, for me to see the cheapies, than doing random searches on the net.
It’s fun to check out RE all over Australia. It costs nothing to look, and then you can find out price ranges. The only way to find places is to look. And if your husband is as enthusiastic as you are, you can look together.
I find that I see properties, and then the more I look, the easier it is to find better and better places. So I might see a place, think it looks good, but then I find another place, that has more land, is in a bigger location, has a newer property, etc etc etc. Comparisons help.
Then you can ask on the forums things like “is anyone investing in south-est WA?” or something. You can also ask about specific towns, but people sometimes like to keep deals under their hats, so people don’t nick ’em.
Finding properties isn’t hard… finding *suitable* properties is a bit harder.
kay henry
Originally posted by rachderick:I am all ready to go out and find that elusive first property, but my husband is still reluctant and feels he doesn’t know enough yet to get started. How can I help him feel more confident and where is the best place, at the moment, to start looking for a positive cashflow property so I can show him how it works.
Hi Rach,
I suspect until you address the substance of your husband’s ‘what ifs or buts’ you will struggle for a period of time. My advice is to try and elicit what it is specifically that is holding your husband back and then address these in a strategc manner.
Property investment is something best achieved if you are both reading from the same page as things will go wrong and at these moments you both need to be committed to the same goals.
Some hold backs I have seen/heard are ‘more debt’, ‘no tenants’, ‘interest rate rises’, ‘poor choice of property’, ‘the kids are off to uni’, ‘new car’ and so on. Really the list can be endless and the points need to be satisfactorily addressed for your long term success.
Having said all of that – ultimately you will need to buy a property so you both really know what it is like – that’s when the fun and all the learning takes place.
Derek
[email protected]Property Investment Support Available. Ongoing and never stopping. PM welcome.
That’s a good point about being on the same page, Derek. My wife and I suffer from differing views when we look at properties.
She has a higher expectation of the place she would like to rent as a tenant, so the houses that she likes tends to be of a higher quality (i.e. newly renovated).
While me on the other hand, have a much lower expectation, so a plain liveable place is good enough for me.
Rach/Bennido,
I have to agree entirely with Derek’s advice. In a relationship you must maintain a sense of individuality, but in property, if one is interested/passionate and the other is not then it will be bloody hard work and will hold one partner back. However, you mention that the difference in the relationship is in comfort levels in property. Great! Therefore you both are in the game, otherwise this can be the biggest set back in a relationship and investing where one is passionate and the other partner prefers ‘golf/netball’, for eg. At least your both on the same journey in the same car! Eventually no matter who takes the wheel, the quickest path will speak for itself.
Good luck,
Regards,
Gatsby!I dunno, folks, I think I have to disagree. Hoping that partners might have the exact same interest in property, is almost like hoping they might have the same interests in other activities. Some partners like fishing… others like knitting. I think it’s ok to have really different ways of seeing. Whislt I think it’s more *ideal* to have the same excitement, for example, about pozz gearing, or neg gearing… but if people are not into the same strategies, then they can still work it out. There are some relationships where one person does the “property bit” and the other person is more a “silent partner”, because they either don’t have the same understanding, or more likely, that they don’t have the same passion for it. I know many couples where one partner loves and buys property, and the other sits back, and doesn’t. I think it can still work.
kay henry
Hi kay,
I guess I answered what I wanted to say in a confusing way, because your reply is what I was on about. You must have your own life individuality in a relationship. My comment was that if one partner chooses PIing and the other is anti PIing, then you have a hard battle on your hands.
Cheers,
Gatsby!Hi rachderick,
Differences can work to your advantage, they can save a marriage (but not necessarily your sanity!!!) When it comes to property investing, my husband is the conversative one, and I am the more passionate, or as he would call it “fanatical” player in the game of real estate. I am the one who spots, researches and enquires about them, then we inspect them together, and discuss (well, argue mostly!!) about whether it’s a “goer” or not.
As frustrating as it can be at times, I am grateful, because if it wasn’t for my darling literally tearing me away from numerous properties at open for inspections, I may have made some dreadful mistakes (yeah right!!!)[blink](Bless Him !!!!)
Like just recently, I wanted to buy a block 10 of units, but his fear of huge debt made him tremble at the knees especially when I pleaded “but honey, they’re so cheap, only 150K each if you buy the lot” at which point he turned a ghostly shade of pale and walked off on me!!!
[blush2] I shouted after him….”Oh well, I take it that means no????” Go figure……Jo
Thank you to everyone who replied to my post. It certainly has been some food for thought. I am probably a little to enthusiastic and wasn’t giving Derick enough time to absorb information. I probably felt we had stalled a little, but from reading the advice from others I know that my husband and I are on the same page, so to speak, and we will become property investors eventually. We have begun looking at properties on the internet just to get a feel for what is out there and it certainly feeling like the ball is rolling again. Thanks for all the advice.
Rach
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