harb wrote:

wealth4life.com wrote:
The major banks are making it very difficult for burrowers and are applying pressure on reputable valuers to get it right or else. Some banks are that concerned with some areas of the market that they have shut down lending in some of their banking sectors.

What country are we talking about here ? I sniffed…[Read more]

Here are some tips that worked for me when choosing my PM who I’ve been very happy with (sorry they’re not in Ormeau): Get a minimum of 3 PMs to come to the property to give a rental appraisalFind out how they run their business. Will there be just one PM or several looking after the property? Where will they advertise the property? When a lea…[Read more]

A PM from another agency just offered last month to give me free rental appraisals on all my properties to assess where the properties are at. All they needed was addresses, number of bedrooms/bathrooms/living areas, extras eg. alarm, dishwasher, intercom, security shutters etc, car spaces and any other information which I believe is value adding.…[Read more]

I would have thought that the PM could give your tenants notice that they were going to enter the property and take some photos but I could be wrong. My PM has done that before. Have you shown your property manager your research into rental prices? Giving them some examples of similar property rented for more may change their tune. At least then…[Read more]

A place like Bunnings can also organise a plumber and/or electrician if you want. Personally, I found it easier for them to do that as well. Or you can organise your own trades.Pulling out the old kitchen is a good way to save money and get involved first time round, but be wary of asbestos and take appropriate precautions.

I found Seven Steps to Wealth by John Fitzgerald and How You Could Build a $10 Million Property Portfolio in Just 10 Years to be very helpful when I first started investing. They talk about how you can build up a property portfolio of multiple properties over time.

With our property manager, we normally leave it up to them to find us a tenant and do checks as to whether they are a good tenant. I figure that’s what we pay them money to do. They will call us if they find a tenant and give us the opportunity to accept or reject a tenant’s application. I do like to be an active investor myself so I will keep…[Read more]

When I first started investing in property, I privately managed my property. I found it very hard to increase the rent. I also found that the tenants seemed to ask for things a lot more since they had direct contact with me. They would ask for things like curtains instead of drapes in the bedroom, vinyl instead of carpet in the lounge…the list goe…[Read more]

I would normally choose a P&I loan for a property I owner occupy and interest-only on an investment property as the interest payments are tax deductible anyway. That way, you can free up cashflow to get more property.

Hi Matt, I think your plan to buy a place now and convert it into a rental in 12-18 months time is a great plan. It's good to just take action and get started. If you don’t have a big deposit, you can still buy a property. You may have to adjust what you’re looking for accordingly. Go for a unit rather than a house, look a little further from the…[Read more]

It's in a group of 4 so I guess being in such a small group it is possible to have no strata manager. My concerns are with how it's run. I am also very sceptical about how it will all work without having any meetings. I agree, there won't be any way of knowing the outgoings and what's been going on with the group.Thanks for the advice. I will look…[Read more]

Hi Murtle,I think it’s better to buy as much property as you can as soon as you can. You might need to change your strategy to suit the market at times. For example, when I first started, I just bought and held property as the market was booming. These days, without the same market growth, I look for ways to add value to get more equity out of m…[Read more]

I sure do!

I used to own a 2003 BMW that I bought from new and lost $13000 in value in the year and a half that I owned it. I wish I had read The Millionaire Next Door sooner. Upon reading it, I replaced my BMW with a 1995 Daihatsu Charade. I only recently bought a second car, a 1998 Ford Falcon. I prefer having the cheaper cars as I'm not fretting abou…[Read more]

Hi donkey33,I bought my first property on a single income when I was 23 years old. I decided to live with my parents for longer and rent out the property I bought so that the tenants could help me with my loan repayments. I didn’t buy a house as they were out of my price range. Instead, I bought a 2 bedroom Torrens Title maisonette in the s…[Read more]