The same things you need to keep in mind when buying anywhere I’d say.

Location
Infrastructure
Price
Yield
etc

Where are you located?

Over what timeframe are you talking? Where is the property located and when did you buy it? It may be due for an increase.
Lots of people make the mistake of thinking their property is going nowhere, only to sell and see it skyrocket a year later.

I have a mild interest. It does show generally if things are hot. But if you didn’t know that without looking at the numbers you shouldn’t be in the property investment game.

The results also don’t tell the whole story. Go to a few auctions Nd you’ll see the lengths agents go to to get a sale. In slow times agents talk vendors in to taking lower than their reserve. So yes it sold but st a good price? No.

Also looking at passed in prices. If bids are low the agent will put in avendor bid so it looks like it was passed in at a higher price.

The numbers are not everything, as they can be twisted.

I have a VERY small 1 bedder in Potts Point. I bought it in 2008 when everybody was saying we werre crazy toi be buying property in this market.
We were looking at studios and this one came up. As no1one was buying places were sitting for a while. This opne had reduced in price already but we didn’t know that until later so we offered a low price. We were laughed at. We 2 weeks later the agent rang to askl us if we wanted it for $2K more. Of course!! It was cheaoper than some of the studio’s we were considering.

It went up about 40% in 2 years. In the last 4 years it’s gone up another30% so we are very happy. It’s also cash flow positive.

When looking be careful of serviced apartments. The yield looks attractive but there are big ongoing costs plus there are so many of them that CG is lower. Also consider the restrictions placed on them.

Also be careful of very large complexes. Smaller boutique ones are better. Check the strata report VERY carefully. As the buildings are VERY old maintenance costs can be onerous.

Also be aware of those units on company title. I’m not saying don’t buy them but be aware of what it means.

I wish I had bought more at the time. Things have gone up quite a bit so I’d wait until the hype dies down before looking there again.

That’s true Andrew.
I think unless someone is personally attacking others or being downright rude, they should be able to have their say.

Sometimes people throw in comments from left field but sometimes it just makes you think outside the square.

I have read some amazing threads where it’s got heated but is SO interesting and you learn something. If you don’t want to read it you don’t have to.
Can you block certain posters on this forum? If so people could just do that so you don’t see their comments.

I got a private message from him/her saying how he was banned!!! Don’t know who it is/was? Maybe he/she just sent it to everyone??/

You can claim from the time the property was available for rent. So technically if you were renovating no (aqs it wasn’t available for rent).
If auditted you will be asked for the rental contract you have with an agent to show it was available for rent.

You can claim depreciation the same, even if you got the report done a bit later.

Good points “just do it”

I agree. If you want to live in a certain suburb where yields arte low you are often better off renting and buying in ares that have a higher yield.Having properties with a higher yield means you can purchase more because when you are puting your hand in your pocket all the time there comes a time when the pocket is empty.

I love Cashflow because it gets me closer to retirement.

Some people say renting is dead money, but this is only so if you do nothing with the extra cash you generate. Making your money work smarteris the key, whether this be for a PPOR, an IP or other investment class.

There are quite a few that offer house and contents and say it’s a landlord policy but you need to read the fine print to be sure you get what you think you do.
From my past checking it worked out cheaper to get house insurance (which includes public liability and some contents) then get landlord insurance separately.
NRMA (I think it was) states you have to have the landlord policy if its rented.
You really need to ring around and compare. It varies a lot, even for different properties. I tried to get all mine under one company but in the end some were cheaper with one company and others cheaper with another. Crazy. I thought having a bank of properties would get me a better deal.