as a rule of thumb allow $10k. when they do it go down there and watch them – i have now been ripped off twice now, once when they buried all the rubble on site and i had to pay to get rid of it again, secondly when they left a bore housing which shouldnt have happened if they raked it to the required depth. oh and once they claimed to cap the…[Read more]

Hi MArisa, yes GST is a real kicker, the admin side of it alone is a real pain.

i have done a spec home in St James…. it has been dragging on so many years now it is almost funny. last week the kitchen cabinets went in, albeit all the wrong colour. turns out they belong to the house next door so they all need to come out again.

I am also doing…[Read more]

Marisa do you plan to sell your homes? I am getting terribly twisted up on the whole sell/hold decision. if i develop and sell i am up for 10% GST plus full tax of say 50%, leaving around 45% clear. If I hold then sell after a while the effective CGT tax rate is only 25%, leaving 75% clear, but the value will not be as much as a tenant has been…[Read more]

Hi Mikala – I have been deliving around a lot on this subject lately and I would say:

if you plan to hold and rent it you can’t claim the gST back.

GST can be retrospectively adjusted but I don’t think it will apply in your case anyway.

http://www.megainvestments.com.au

John Carroll

yes it is a consideration. you need to consider what is unique about the property, is it worth paying for in terms of cap growth and what is the rent % like. I have always invested inner city and close to transport. Buying in the ealrier stages will mean you are closer to the train station and should be rewarded accordingly. Singleton is very good…[Read more]

I love the incluisons and packaging of Impressions – corian benchtops, the solar heaters etc. Pity they take so long to (a) draw the plans and (b) ever get them built.

went to a spec home I am doing for a site visit today. geees the building industry is hopeless at the moment… kitchen cupboards are all the completely wrong colour, so they will…[Read more]

ps I think Wellard is an excellent estate, a village style development around a train station has to be a winner

http://www.megainvestments.com.au

John Carroll

Marisa my concerns with Singleton were that the supposed train station is only a proposed one which will quite possibly never happen – any thoughts on that? I note that at Lakelands the developer paid to have the ear marked train included in the first round of train stations. when weighing up the Anchorage at $130k against Singleton for similar…[Read more]

of second importance is GST. if you build and sell you need to register and lose a further 10% of your profits. it pays not to be a developer!

http://www.megainvestments.com.au

John Carroll

as far as r/c ducted goes I have just considered that for an IP and it really isnt a smart decision economically speaking – you will never recover the cost in rent let alone make money on your investment. personally i would install a evap unit and get a plumber to put a gas negus point in.

http://www.megainvestments.com.au

John Carroll

I saw a fascinating article a couple of years ago that attempted to disregard the effects of building and renovation such as Dazzling has described. The long term suburb winners were…..

Mt Lawley and Shenton Park.

But times do change and areas such as Anchorage didnt even exist back then so it is hard to compare apples with…[Read more]

dont get too excited Redwing – all Steve Navra says is that he does a calculation using rent yield to see if a propety is fairly priced (with a few fancy graphs thrown in). Dont we all do this?

I see the couple under discussion have consistently bought property over time – could be a lesson there in not trying to pick the top and the bottom of…[Read more]

I have no doubts about the quality of the subdivision… but the sales rate doesnt surprise me. where hasnt been selling that fast???

http://www.megainvestments.com.au

John Carroll

Thanks for the link – so easy to use!

http://www.megainvestments.com.au

John Carroll

very true. if I was a Seller and you offered to buy my property on 5 cents deposit I would reject it, especially in todays market. I think a lot of people believe an unconditional offer will just sail through to settlement – unfortunatley it is common for settlement not to occur for whatever reason and at least a decent deposit protects the Seller…[Read more]

Buy, hold, sell… it all depends on the price

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John Carroll

really? wow. I suppose if I had invested in the entire all ords I would have done ok. Unfortunately I had the likes of coles, david jones, telstra, amp, fleetwood. prior to that were the real dogs such as annaconda and erg and a string of other losers. I made a little on the ups and downs of bhp. oh well, i have a nice fat capital loss that I can…[Read more]

Cap growth on shares? I have never seen it. in my experience the volatility of shares (and usually in a downward direction!) makes the dividend a negligible consideration. am i bitter???

http://www.megainvestments.com.au

John Carroll

I would prefer to keep the jobs in the country and buy a locally produced car. this country needs more industry than just building houses. just buy a commodore on gas if you are that worried about it.

http://www.megainvestments.com.au

John Carroll

Exactly – cap growth inthe property will make the small amount of principal reduction on your loan seem small in comparison. The aim would be to reduce your payments to as little as possible to free up your cashflow in order to fund further investment. If cap growth rates take a breather in a few years time you could then look at consolidating and…[Read more]