krazystyler & others,

Check out the Somersoft forum – there are two large groups of property investors meeting regularly in Melbourne. Take your pick!

(and say hello to Ruby for me)

Cheers,

Aceyducey

Back on the original post – ANYONE can find cashflow positive property.

There’s no trick to it, just a lot of hard work.

I would NEVER pay someone to find me a property, as I have the skills to do it myself.

I encourage everyone else to do the same.

In the final analysis if YOU can’t assess and locate the right properties for you, trusting someone else to act in your best interest adds a lot of risk to the process.

Frankly one of the aspects I dislike about this forum in particular is the large number of people who are allowed to blatantly advertise that they can find you property. I see it as these people preying on a reasonably inexperienced group.

Of course – I know they see it differently

Cheers,

Aceyducey

Monopoly,

I know Steve fairly well, he’s a good guy, though fairly busy nowadays

His approach to using different assset classes synergistically is very good & he is an extremely ethical individual.

Considering your equity position, Steve’s Cashbond approach could be quite suitable for you.

It’s a bit complex to explain here – you could head over to Somersoft where Steve posts regularly & there have been a number of discussions about his approach.

You could also attend one of his seminars – which are some of the few I actually recommend as they are excellent – though get a good night’s sleep first as he covers a lot (even when it was two days long as when I did it years ago).

More info on Steve & his companies are at:

Financial advisory services: http://www.navra.com.au
Managed fund: http://www.navrainvest.com.au (you only pay fees if you exceed the ASX 200’s performance)

Cheers,

Aceyducey

Derek,

Good tip – we use this figure alongside others in our research process as well

Plus we call or visit local schools & ask about their enrolment levels. They tell you pretty quickly the type of people moving into or out of an area.

Cheers,

Aceyducey

AusProp,

It’s unethical – bottomline.

it’s not the agent’s place to judge. If an agent EVER tried that on me I’d kick’em so far that they’d have to sell igloos.

BTW: Only ONCE had an agent refuse to take our offer to the Vendor – we said fine – went to the vendor direct. The vendor dismissed the agent & after the agreement expired we bought the property from them direct. Agent was not happy – but hopefully learnt their lesson.

Cheers,

Aceyducey

There is a mandate on banks to achieve market price on foreclosures.

There have been several cases where people have taken finance providers to court and won when the finance provider had sold a place quickly & below market rates. There’s even a case where a bank got in trouble for not adding a garage to a house to maximise the property’s market value for foreclosure.

So frankly don’t expect many great foreclosure deals in Australia.

Cheers,

Aceyducey

We LOVE buying from private vendors. We get deals super cheap & with all kinds of bonuses thrown in – BECAUSE MOST PEOPLE CAN’T SELL!

Our current PPOR we got well below market price because the Vendor both advertised very poorly (two line ad with a hotmail address only) and represented poorly….he only got two people through over five weeks at the end of the boom when it was still a sellers’ market in Canberra…we just bided our time until he was really sweating (had bought a new place, couldn’t afford too mortgages) and then made our best offer.

If you want to sell by yourself make sure you have a look around some REAs and see how they sell places. Don’t put yourself in the position of knowing nothing about what you are doing. Though if you do take this approach having no idea about how to sell, drop me an email – I’d be interested in buying from you.

We like using REAs to sell because it keeps us one removed in the process & this gives us a lot more control over the negotiation process. Besides if the REA does a lousy job we pay nothin….what’s to dislike.

Cheers,

Aceyducey

krazystyler,

Take a look at the calendar over at the Somersoft Forums. There are two major groups of investors who meet monthly in Melbourne, attracting between 30 & 60 people per event.

Cheers,

Aceyducey

NEVER offer a tenant who is constantly in arrears a bonus to pay on time.

You’re training them to lag behind because they’ll then get a bonus to catch up.

Wrong message.

Only reward tenants for paying ahead & maintaining the property above & beyond the call of duty.

Or to say thank you to a long-term good tenant.

Marisa, tell your PM that as it’s their job to ensure the tenant pays on time, if they can’t do their job you’re happy to take your business elsewhere.

See if you can get the tenant on direct debit. It’s much easier to ensure rent comes in on time using this approach.

Cheers,

Aceyducey

sizzling_duck,

It doesn’t work

Milly,

I can understand you were comfortable – a couple of assets, enough work to keep your brain engaged, your kids growing up & centrelink patching the holes.

However perhaps you have been getting too comfortable. Maybe it’s time to start looking beyond the day-to-day towards the next stage in your life

It’s best not to rely on government payments long-term in any event – you simply can’t rely on them to keep the same rules. Better to build up your assets and create a bigger safety margin for yourself.

Cheers,

Aceyducey