No marketing please …

Hi all, (oh and Martin I’m sorry I didn’t call you when I said I would but I have been away).

I have only been with Dasa for 2 months. I can’t say I am all that fond of them but it’s kind of like the better the devil you know. Changing managing agents seems like a real battle given all the hoops I have gone through so far.

A crappy experienc…[Read more]

Thanks for your comments. Having bills sent to me in Australia is probably worthwhile based on your comments but I usually like to have my property managers pay everything to make record keeping easier. Another point to this is that I am not yet set up for internet banking (need to be a HSBC customer for 6 months), and paying by cheque can be…[Read more]

Well I purchased 3 properties in Buffalo this year. I spent 10 days really getting to know the place and I think I bought well. That said, whilst the gross returns are very high (32%), the outgoings are equally very high leaving very little if no monthly cashflow. Don’t invest in Buffalo if you are looking for a cash cow because you are likely to…[Read more]

I have been investing in th UK for around 5 years now and in that time have secured 14 properties, the most recent purchase was in November last year.

When I started it was relatively easy to find properties with yields greater than 15% but this is much harder now. Londoners have been pushing prices up drastically and accept yields at around…[Read more]

Hi Gazza,

There is some good advice and sound warnings here. I have met too many people take the recommendations of so-called financial advisors or investment houses only to regret it. Not that you will necessarily lose money but as your confidence and experience grows, you may find that you could have done a lot better.

A few other words of…[Read more]

Hi Mark,

If I was you I would put all the money into your own home and then use the equity to purchase an investment property.

How many investment properties you buy will be dependent on your income and comfort level. For example if you purchased an investment property for say $300,000 and you had a taxable salary of around $35,000 then the…[Read more]

If you are after genuine positive cash flow real estate then you might like to consider investing in the UK.

I have purchased 10 properties with rental yields around 20%. The best part about them is that vacancy is rarely an issue since they are in major cities.

I’m not talking about London here, but deals can be done in the likes of Leeds,…[Read more]

Rick

I have some figures in front of me rating the return from 1980 to 2000. It shows the gross return of Melbourne as being 17.1% (9.2% growth and 7.9% yield) compared with the gross return of Brisbane as 15.7%(8.3% growth and 7.4% yield).

Hope this helps although I must confess to being very Melbourne-centric when it comes to investing.

Anthony

Thanks Robin,

I am probably one of those most at risk as I have a fairly large exposure to negatively geared property. I myself accept that interest rates will rise and if BIS Shrapnel say that 2006 is the time then I will monitor their warnings very closely.

Having said that, I predict that by the time rates get to that level I would have…[Read more]

Hi Northy,

Seems like a good idea to me. When it comes to purchasing your next property though you might like to consider channeling the surplus funds into a negatively geared investment property in a high growth area to balance your portfolio. A find a good mixture of cash positive and negatively geared property helps balance my portfolio. My…[Read more]

Hi Leigh,

A couple of years ago I set up a company (albeit in the UK) for the purpose of buying UK property in partnership with others, but more recently I had a solicitor draft up a joint venture agreement (first draft) to do it again locally.

If you like I can fax you copies to see if they are of any use to you on the proviso that you do the…[Read more]