G’day all,

My tip is to replace all of the power points / electric wall sockets and light switches. This, combined with a coat of paint throughout, can make a very big difference in the instant appeal of a room/house, and thus makes an increase in either value or rental income.

Thanks,

BDM

G’day Fullout,

Standard rates for “unknown” authors are approx 7%-10% of retail price, depending on several things.

Bryce Courtney / J K Rowlings (spelling?), etc probably get a fair bit more….

I am also guessing that McKnight Enterprises Pty Ltd might be in a position to negotiate another percentage point or two when “From 131 – 700 Properties in Another 3.5 Years” comes out….

Have a good one,

BDM

G’day Apollonia,

Suggested reading for facts / figures / how to / etc :
Anything by Jan Somers – but particularly “More Wealth from Residential Property”

Anita Bell – “Your Investment Property”

Dolf DeRoos – “Real Estate Riches”, part of the Rich Dad advisor series.

Steve McKnight – “0 to 130 properties in 3.5 years”

Suggested reading for motivation and general concepts :
Anything by Robert Kiyosaki – but particularly “Rich Dad Poor Dad”.

Peter Spann – “Wealth Magic”

Once you get through that lot, or possibly even before, I’d recommend actually buying a property or two !!

Have a good one,

BDM

G’day Judith,

I would strongly recommend buying the book first…. The title is something along the lines of “The 7 steps to Automatic Wealth” – I can’t remember exactly.

I have my own copy, and have read it several times. At approx $25, it is substantially cheaper than the 3 day seminar. And it is easy to go back and read the bits you want to again.

Have a good one,

BDM

G’day Ausclaud,

And therein lies the wisdom of “due dilligence”…. making sure that as much as possible is saying to go ahead or not with any individual purchase.

The only guarantee that you will always have a tennant is to lower the rent. As long as the property in question is suitable for human habitation, the simple act of lowering the rent will fill an otherwise empty property.

So – do some serious number crunching and factor in as many “worst case scenarios” as you can think of. Then assess the risk. If the numbers are acceptable to you, then go for it.

All investing carries some risk. The key is to work out how to minimise this risk. This may mean simple number crunching, or renovating in order to increase the potential rent or potential tennant interest. Or get your tennants to sign 12 month leases rather than 6 month leases, or only buy cash flow positive properties, etc, ….

There are a million things you can do to minimise the risk you mention, but you will never remove it completely.

Have a good one,

BDM

G’day Gordon,

So far, my wife and I have exactly the same setup you mention : 1 loan secured by 2 IPs. It is a Line of Credit account, and as such we can withdraw up to certain limit, thus having the next deposit in theory available through a “hole in the wall” ATM.

Pros – easy availability of funding the next deposit / repair / renovation / etc. All incomings / outgoings in the one account.

Cons – bank has us by the short and curlies. If everything goes horribly wrong, it would be easy for the bank to say “yoink” and take the lot. It makes it hard to calculate whether each property is +ve or -ve cash flow.

With only a few properties, this is a good setup. However, with many properties, I can see it would be a pain.

So far, this has worked extremely well for us.

Thanks,

BDM

G’day QueenBee,

From what I understand, you personally cannot access the equity built up in the property owned by your company….

But your company can, or at least the directors of the company ( probably you ) can on behalf of the company.

This is all done in much the same way that you would if you owned it personally – simply go to the bank and ask for more money, based on the increase in equity.

Thanks,

BDM

G’day Ms Elvis,

A suggestion would be to take any blue suede shoes you may have access to for a walk, and do a search in this forum under “Links” and “Sooshie”.

Sooshie maintains an ever increasing post here that has links to anywhere and everywhere about property investing – including SA.

Also – you could take your hound dog and have a sniff around http://www.realestate.com.au

I’ll get out of your way and allow you to get on with it – perhaps a little less conversation and a little more action – and stop with the exceptionally bad King humour.

Uhthankyaverymuchhh.

BDM

G’day Fullout,

Once settlement occurs, the property is yours. In 99% of cases, any “problems” discovered after settlement are simply bad luck and too late.

Therefore, it is a good idea to do some simple checks perhaps a day or two before settlement – you could go and give the place a final once-over and make sure that it looks like it did when you signed the contracts.

Any “serious” checks, such as your suggested building inspection, are best done during the negotiation phase – you would sign a contract subject to a favourable building/pest/finance/etc results to you, the purchaser.

As far as attending the settlement personally, it’s amusing to attend one or two, but after that it’s a bit of a waste of your time – better let your solicitor/conveyancer do it for you.

Basically, the actual settlement process is like a rugby scrum…. some people – yours, the vendors and the banks people – all huddle together, trying not to let each other know what they are doing, they push and pull and shove documents at each other here and there, and suddenly the “ball” ( ie the final cheque ) pops out. The vendor ( or his solicitor/conveyancer ) then grabs it and runs away as fast as possible, more often than not laughing very loudly and shouting things like “whoopee !” and “whooohoo !” …….

Have a good one,

BDM