Forum Replies Created
Hi,
If you contact Dulux they have “colour consultants” who are trained to pick colour schemes. When my wife suggested we use one for one of our major reno’s a few years ago I thought she was wasting our money. But the cost was only about $200 and you got a $200 voucher for the purchase of Dulux paints.
We didn’t use the voucher but the consultant was worth her advice 5 times over. Not only did we have a full scheme for the entire house (including some feature walls and outside stonework) but she worked out how much paint of each colour we needed and gave us some advice on how best to put the paint on the walls in some of the more challenging parts (I thought I knew how to paint!). This advice saved excess paint and saved lots of timewasting and arguing. What is more the result was FANTASTIC. We never would have used the colours she chose (a mixture of greys, browns, off whites and white for a weatherboard/stone house) but the result worked.
I have since spoken with renovators who haven’t had quite as good an experience as us – but we would use the service again if repainting an entire house, or most of one.
Good luck,
Andrew
Hi,
My first reaction would be to look for a better deal – but just because it looks like trouble it isn’t necessarily so. Find a builder/renovator/handyman who you would trust to do the work and who is thinking along your lines, and get them to look at the property and tell you what they think needs doing and how much it will cost. Rising damp could be an easy fix (eg a blocked drain that is flooding the underfloor – I fixed one of these a few weeks ago for about 5 minutes work) or it could be hard.
For me, restumping is required if your floor is springing when you jump on it or if the walls/floor is very out of level and obviously sunken. If you can’t see that it needs restumping from on top then chances are it doesn’t. How many houses fall down because of rotten stumps? None I would hazard a guess. Houses have to be VERY rotten to be unsafe. Even if you have a couple of sunken (rather than rotten) stumps you can pack them up a bit quite easily if you can get to them.
Small rotten sections in window frames can be repaired with builders bog and anti-rot chemicals – as long as you can stop the area getting wet again, which can be a problem with flashing or gutters.
Termites are another story to rot however …..
Good luck,
Andrew[wink2]
Hi,
NZ lenders will lend 80%LVR (I have even heard 90%LVR). But one thing I have discovered is that they will discount your Aussie income before putting it into their servicability formulas. For example if you are an Aussie earning the equivalent of NZD50k they will only count NZD40k of it when they calculate servicability. Whereas if you are a Kiwi earning NZD50k they will count the lot when calculating servicability.
There may be exceptions – I am still looking (anyone?)
Andrew
Hi,
One thing that is important to consider the total return – which is independent of how you finance the property. In this case you are talking about 7.2% net rent yield. Sure, if you have a small enough loan the rent will cover the loan payments – but that ignores the return you should be making on “your” money (the deposit). You need to consider what capital growth you will expect in order to work out if it is a good deal or not.
Net cash flow (after you pay the mortgage) + capital growth = profit
Andrew
Hi,
Natalie Penn at elite mortgage brokers recently obtained 80% lend on a body corporate property for me. Nice rate too (better than the quoted rates from the banks).
Her email is [email protected]
Since we used her we have spoken to quite a few Aussies who had used her services and spoke highly of her.
ayen
Hi,
I’m in Christchurch for a couple of days doing due diligence on a couple of projects (one an IP and the other a work related investment).
Isn’t it cold here! -4 this morning when I got up!
Andrew
Melbourne KA2ers,
It is agreed. Let’t meet for coffee 6:30-7:00 Friday at the Coffee Club, Knox City.
Andrew
Excellent idea Millsy,
Friday after work at Knox City sounds like a good plan for all the Melbourne KA2ers.
It would be good to get a coffee and discuss our KA2 plans.
Andrew
Hi Shar,
I have considered a similar structure to the one you describe.
I realise it is easy to transfer the title from a personal name to a trust name but what about the mortgage? Would the trust have to take out a new mortgage and purchase the property from the individual? How difficult is it to get a mortgage in the name of a trust?
Andrew
The cheapie high cashflow deals, well every man and his dog is after those. get in line!This begs a question – how often do mid priced properties give good cashflows? What about high priced properties?
Has anyone any opinions or experience?
Andrew
Hi,
I did a similar deal in Australia recently and found it very difficult to get insurance. The issue was not the grey ownership but the fact that the property would not be occupied during the reno. (and couldn’t be under the terms of the contract I negotiated with the vendor). I ended up with “builders insurance” which cost over $1000 for 90 days!
Enquire about the insurance first.
Andrew
Can anyone point me to a website where I can get statistics on vacancy rates and rents (by town).
My map of NZ currently has 29 stick pins in it of towns that meet my criteria and I want some more data to whittle down my list![wacko]
Andrew
I have read somewhere that an Aussie investor can set up a trust in NZ to invest in property and the trust will only pay 33% tax in NZ. Then as long as you leave the money in NZ and reinvest it then you won’t have to pay tax in Australia on the earnings.
I have also read conflicting views – that you have to pay your marginal rate on earnings in NZ no matter whether you repatriate them or not.
I am interested in any opinions/experience out there.
Andrew
Sorry if I offended Giraffe. I regret not having discussed the idea of posting some notes with everyone when we met – however the idea only came to me when I got home.
The notes were supposed to reflect, in a concrete way, the value of exchanging ideas and networking. They weren’t meant to be specific answers to our or anyone elses problems. In fact, I tried to be quite careful to choose notes that were fairly “non-specific” in their nature. In this I may have been less successful than I had hoped.[glum]
Maybe I interpreted our discussions a little differently from you, Giraffe. Although some of your opinions are mixed up in the notes I wrote, so was everyone elses. I certainly valued your input but I also listened to everyone’s points of view, including my own.
However, given that, I am very pleased that you have expanded on some of these notes. You are generous with you knowedge and experience and I am grateful for that.
It is up to each individual to set their own goals and strategies and to conduct their own research.I can only 100% agree that we are responsible for our own decisions and hence our own results. This principle is fundamental. KA2, this forum, or advice from mates in the pub may give you ideas and tools to make decisions, but ultimately you need to take responsibility for yourself. This means treating other’s opinions as just that, no more. You must form your own opinions through research and experience.
Andrew
Sorry we missed you Millsy.
Five of us got together over a coffee this evening. It was very good to meet. We are all coming from different angles but are all keen.
Some “gems” and opinions that came out of the conversation:
– deals are everywhere so it doesn’t matter too much where you decide to look.
– finance requires lots of attention. It is hard to get banks to provide finance to Australians. There are brokers in Australia that can provide low doc loans on NZ property. Set up your finance before you go.
– one way to get finance is to get the vendor to provide some of the finance (eg. 20% then you don’t need to put up any money at all) you then need to offer the vendor an attractive interest rate on their money.
– look for towns with infrastructure, reasonable size, low vacancy rate.
– in towns like Tokaroa about 50% of properties are rental properties.
– look for the deals – the money/finance will follow. If it doesn’t then the deal lapses and you haven’t lost anything (or not much)
– invercargill is COLD
– for a bigger deal you can bargin on buying a whole portfolio from a vendor.
– there are plusses and minusses for teaming up with other KAers in your search. Plus is networking, minus is competition.
– set your goals before you go.
– don’t be limited in your thinking – don’t be limited by finance.I hope I haven’t misrepresented any of the ideas discussed – but I thought it might be worthwhile, to write them down before I forgot them.
We agreed to get together again in a couple of weeks. After we have done some more research.
Andrew
