Forum Replies Created
G’day Hewson.
Basic info like this is provided every month in Australian Property Investor mag. There is a different focus every month – this month’s issue is Unit Prices for all states and next month’s will be Median Rents (S.A. included).
Here’s a link to a .PDF scan you can download if you’re interested. It’s of the table in the December API mag featuring median rents and yields in SA. The link should be valid for about 7 days:
http://download.yousendit.com/E1B8DAC53E35017B
I’m not sure where data in this kind of form is available for free on the ‘Net (feel free to enlighten me, anyone) though some pay sites allow you to do free postcode searches which provide basic info. If you want to pay for info you can get some solid statewide research from Residex (www.residex.com.au). Other sites include http://www.propertyvalue.com.au, http://www.reports.rpdata.com.au and http://www.homepriceguide.com.au.
I’m not advocating the quality or reliability of the info on these sites, just pointing out that it is available.
Cheers,
Art‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Hi.
1. Personally I like this design. It’s a tie between this an 4. To me this says ‘Yes, this house can be yours’ and also has the upward (read as cf+) thrust of the tick.
2. Looks to me like cash is flying out the door of the house! Why would I do business with a company that is going to make money fly out the door?
3. Is more abstract and it took my eye a minute to figure out just what was going on. It’s clever but maybe a little too clever for those new to the game?
4. This is my tied choice with 1. It says ‘Look, you can have lots of properties…and they get bigger!’.
Cheers,
Art‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Hello Angie7.
I completely concur with Sanjiv. There are people out there who do make successful property purchases online without ever visiting the property but I’m willing to bet that all of them complete extensive due diligence checks before they buy. Of course you should always complete due diligence checks before any purchase but when you don’t have the benefit of your own eyes then you really need to be doubly careful.
By way of personal example, I was looking at a couple properties a few hours from where I live. On paper (or, to be more accurate, the computer screen) everything seemed okay. I called the agents and asked a number of questions with their answers being satisfactory. In fact, one of the agents even faxed me a whole bunch of plans and a site survey etc. After a couple calls to council to verify a few points I was going to go ahead with placing an offer with a ‘Subject to Due Diligence’ clause on one of the places.
Then I had a hole appear in my schedule and decided to drive up and take a look at the properties myself. Long story short it turned out that the place I was interested in sloped down to back onto a school oval and was waterlogged in a good 15cm of water. Suffice it to say I didn’t go through with the offer and ended up saving myself a couple hundred bucks in report fees and a week or so of time.
The second property was all good and it’s now in my portfolio.
The moral of the story as far as I’m concerned is that if you can sight a place yourself (or get an unbiased pair of eyes to sight it for you) then you may very well save a lot of time and money.
Cheers,
Art‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
G’day Blogs.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that deals like this don’t exist but I will say that if this is your target then maybe you have to think outside the box a little. Are you in a position to develop land? Or perhaps to form a syndicate and purchase an existing block of units (thereby lowering the individual cost per unit)? It may be that there aren’t stand alone deals out there but who knows what’s available with a little creative thinking?
We wanted to buy a new 3×2 near a major east coast university for under 280K with rental of around $280pw. One of the closest things we could find was a solid 50 year old 3×1 with rent of $210pw for 295K. We bought it, renovated it (at $5000 total cost), re-let it for $270pw and there’s enough land out the back to build the new 3×2 we were looking for in the first place. When all is said and done we should get that 3×2 for less than we were hoping for (or thought possible).
Cheers,
Art‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Hola,
I too use Mack and Co.
Partner Tony Maclean is an investor and a gun when it comes to any tax questions I have. I got onto them because my uncle, a former investor in Perth commercial property, swore by them. My wife and I now live in Sydney but still use them as our accountants.
They are on Havelock St in West Perth.
Cheers,
Art
(though Tony knows me as Gibson)‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Hi,
Given the other stats and the fact that it’s Domain I would tend to agree that it’s Private Treaty discount.
Nice explanation of the discounting rate though, duckster.
Art
‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Thanks for the replies. It’s good to know I’m not alone. I’ll forward the link to this thread to the administrators and see if there’s anything that can be done.
I don’t know if it’s because today is Australia Day and maybe the server is having a beer with some mates but boy, is it bad today. I timed how long it took to get this thread up from the ‘Help Needed’ thread list and it was over 2 minutes!
Art
‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Wow, this thread has taken a turn for the weird.
Art
‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Hi.
FYI, there’s a good piece on retirement property in the new (Feb) API mag.
Cheers,
Art‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Hi Linda.
Thanks for the tip. I’ll be looking to redo a kitchen in the not-to-distant future and will give them a call.
Cheers,
Art‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Hi Wylie.
The guy who runs a tip I went to the other day told me that his quick test for asbestos is to give it a tap with something hard like a key. According to him asbestos materials have a sound almost like tapping glass or porcelain whereas non-asbestos materials have a softer sound. Doesn’t sound fool-proof to me but seems as it’s coming from a guy who’s job it is to tell the difference I’ll assume it’s a good start.
Cheers,
Art‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Hi Sean,
My wife and I are in the middle of a small development (front reno, rear subdivide and build) and I’m happy to share our experiences so far.
Also, I have a mentor who has his finger in pies ranging from 3-6 unit subdivisions right up to multi million dollar land banking (he’s putting one of these together in WA as we speak) so I’d be happy to talk to him about sharing some of his stories as well.
Oh, and if you haven’t come across it already there is an interesting quarterly mag called Residential Developer that’s into its 3rd or 4th issue now. I pick it up at my local newsagent. It’s mainly focussed on large development (communities and highrise) but apparently they are going to start showcasing smaller projects in coming issues. There’s also lots of development-related news which is what I find interesting.
Feel free to PM me or we can converse here in the open for all to benefit (and have their 2c worth).
Cheers,
Art‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Hi.
I’d be interested in reading the piece. Is there a link to it somewhere?
I’m in agreeance with Sean on the subject of RE books. I’ve managed to get something out of almost every one I’ve read but I do crack every spine with a preparedness for skepticism. There tends to be a lot of Rah Rah and flag waving in the RE authoring community and some of these people do tend to get carried away with their own accomplishments and leave out certain details vital to their success. The key as far as I’m concerned is to try to look behind the text for the nucleus of the knowledge and to use that, rather than any particular method, to your advantage.
Art
‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Oh yeah…and another thing,
You say you can’t afford more than $500pw repayments but don’t forget when working out your figures that stuff like insurance, rates and maintenance have to be paid on your properties as well. This will increase the annual (and therefore weekly) amount you’ll be paying out of your pocket on top of loan interest.
Because these are costs incurred in the course of generating income (ie rent) they are generally tax deductible but still have to be paid out of your pocket when they are due.
And never, never, never underestimate the value of spending time (and money) talking to professionals. This forum is a great place to throw ideas around and get a feel for various things but when it comes down to specifics you really must talk to a professional (or professionals) about your SPECIFIC needs.
Please understand that I’m not trying to chuck a bucket of cold water over your ideas (far from it, it sounds like you’ve got some great plans), I’m just putting it out there for you to factor into your vision. Better to make a smaller, well planned move than to boldly stride forward having neglected to pull your pants up.
Cheers,
Art‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Originally posted by lyndon_g:Thanks for all the great responses!
Originally posted by Mortgage Hunter:Should you draw that $100K to buy a Lexus then your original $300K loan remains 100% deductible. If you had kept the money in the home loan and redrawn it then you will now have a loan with $200K deductible and $100K (for personal use) not deductible.
in reference to the above quote, when you say “deductible”, are you saying that this is the amount on which interest must be paid?
and if for example you take the 100k out of the offset account for shares etc, then why wouldnt you then go back to paying interest on the full 300k loan?
i am beginning to understand it, though there are still some grey areas that im not sure of yet!
cheers
Lyndon
Hi.
‘Deductible’ in this instance refers to the amount on which the interest paid is tax deductible. You can (generally) tax deduct the interest on money borrowed for investment purposes. So, if you have a $300K loan with the bank for investment purposes then the interest on this $300K is (generally) deductible from your taxable income.
I should point out that I’m just an investor and not a tax professional. This is just general, theoretical info.
Cheers,
Art‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Thanks for the heads up. We’ve been shopping around for air con systems and will certainly take this into consideration.
BTW, if anyone else is looking at air con systems I’ve noticed that Grays Auctions often has a couple lots of them available in their online auctions (www.graysonline.com.au). I’m not endorsing them, just putting it out here.
Cheers,
Art‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Hi there.
Personally, for the 5-9% (tax deductible) fee you’ll be paying an agent, I’d avoid all the headache of self management every time.
Having said that, if you’ve got the time and willingness to learn and you think that is worth the 5-9% (pre tax) savings then go for your life. There are plenty of people who self manage with no (or few) worries at all.
Search the archives for previous threads on the topic. There’s loads of useful stuff around, healthy debate as well. Here’s a couple threads I found using the query ‘self managing’:
https://www.propertyinvesting.com/forum/topic/25682.html?SearchTerms=managing,self
https://www.propertyinvesting.com/forum/topic/26172.html?SearchTerms=managing,self
Cheers,
Art‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Hello all.
I’m saddened to hear the news. A friend of mine, also a young guy, ended his life last Easter after battling Depression his whole life and it’s still haunting all his good friends and family.
If anyone out there, particularly men (as we don’t tend to be as inclined to seek help as women), are trying to cope with the often debilitating symptoms of Depression please, please, please seek professional help. Friends and family are awesome support but they aren’t qualified to treat the source of the illness.
Please take a moment to check out the National Depression Initiative at http://www.beyondblue.org.au and refer it to anyone you think might be at risk.
Peace,
Art‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Hey vyaw2003,
There’s loads of material on this very question already on the site. Do a couple searches for ‘Trusts’ and ‘Company Structures’ and you’ll come up with loads of info. Here are a couple existing threads to get you started:
https://www.propertyinvesting.com/forum/topic/22093.html?SearchTerms=trust,advantages
https://www.propertyinvesting.com/forum/topic/26310.html?SearchTerms=trust,advantages
Cheers,
Art‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
Thanks. I’ll check it out.
Art
‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.’ – Albert Einstein
