It is interesting to know people are now shifting their focus on gold and silver. To me, I still love my properties and had bought over $5m worth of properties last year and it is now a good time to buy when everyone is looking something else. As Steve always says, do thing differently!!! There are lots of bargins around if you have the money.

The golden rule does not change – investing property is the way to go – I mean for the long term. Who cares about shares and other metals in the ground. These are for the gamblers. At the end of the day, property value always gets doubled in 7 – 10 years. I have not seen any property close to CBD area has decreased in value over time.

Hi, MC,

I came across your thread tonight and thought you are in a very difficult situation.

Based on what you described in your thread, I am not sure if you have a tenant paying rent for your company titled property. If you have no tenant at the moment, it means that you are currently paying the entire mortgage (i.e. not the $120 per week shortfall). If this is the case, your current situation is worse than what your described. Is it easy to find a tenant to rent this company titled property straight away? I am not sure if you can improve this property so that you can get more rent for it. Just a thought.

By the way, as you may know that the Sydney property market is still flat at the moment (depends on where your properties are located) and IMHO, there is no point to keep the properties for the long-term as there will be limited capital growth. I am not sure if your other new property is in Sydney or not. If so, why not try to sell the new property and redcue the debt level so that you and family won’t be affected by the heavy mortgage burdens.

Another thought comes to mind – is there any chance you can talk to other owners of the company titled property and try to convert it into a strata titled property – this will certainly increase the value of all the units. Of course, it all depends on other owners’ preference and the actual cost to change the title. Why not have a go?

Without knowing your actaul financial situation, I would suggest you to off load the properties that really cost you money as it will take a long while for the properties to regain capital growth in the current Sydney market. If I were you, I would rather sell both properties and use the proceeds to look for an investment property in the area that still has high capital growth rather than sitting on couple of highly negatively geared properties that have limited or no capital growth. The reality is that these properties are actually hurting you.

At the end of the day, it is very important for you to realise your current finanal burdens and you need to have an EXIT strategy for any unforeseeable circumstances such as interest rate rise and high vanancy rate. You really need to well prepare yourself as it is rather danger not to have any backup plan(s) and no cash reserve to cover any changes.

Don’t leave it too late while you have a chance to do something. Take action now.

Hope the above helps – only my 2 cents worth!!!

I wish you all the best with your decision.

Raymond

Hi, there,

Thanks for sharing your moving experience with us. I thought before engaging the removalist, the most important thing to to is to ask around and get anyreferrals that you can get.

If you have a good referral, it is unlikely that these people would do a dirty trick on you. Few month ago, when we moved from a 3-bedroom apartment (top floor) to a 5-bedroom house, we asked around and got a referral from our church friends. Guess what, these people are good. They would come over to assess how much stuff to move and would provide you with a fixed price for the whole job.

I was very impressed with them as they turned up five minutes early (6:55am) and waited for me from the driveway. To my surprise, there were 6 guys (big fellows) turned up (just like an army). They started from 7:00am and didn’t stop until 1:15pm, with three truck loads of stuff. All I had to do was to surprise them where to put things. They did such an excellent job that not even a stretch on any of my furniture. The whole move costed me $900. I could not ask for any more professional job done than this.

About 2 months later, I called them and paid them $200 to move a piano and one bedroom of stuff from my in-laws’ place to our house. Another good job done considering how heavy the piano was.

I have heard a lot of horror stories about removalists. Always do you research and ask around before engaging one.

Regards
Raymond

Hi, there,

I do agree with Wylie’s comment. At the end of the day, the RE agents only look after themselves. Most of them would pump up the selling price in order to get the listing and would tell the potential buyers a lower figure so that they would turn up at auction to create such competitive environment.

To me, I came across so many RE agents that were stupid enough to ask an unrealistic price for the property and ended up losing the sales. Mind you, most of the buyers would have a gut feel of how much a property is worth after searching for so long.

Today, I refuse to deal with those agents that have no ethics as they only want to get the sale and move on to next deal.

The most important thing for a buyer to do is to make sure you know your target areas well. Without such knowledge, you may end up paying too much or buying a lemon.

Never ever trust a RE agent. Do your own research and talk to the locals before committing yourself.

Regards
Raymond

Hi, Sweet,

I saw your thread and thought I would offer my 2 cents worth of comment.

As Steve told us in the past that the days to find positive cash flow properties are long gone. In fact, Steve admitted that his 11 seconds solution formula is no longer applicable in the current property market condition.

What we really need to do is to look for property that offers you the opportunity to solve the problem in order to make profit. That is ‘Problem + Solution = Profit”. We cannot buy profit nowadays so we need to think outside the square and create profits by solving problems.

I hope the above clarifies the issue.

Regards
Raymond

Hi, there,

I do agree with other comments that you don’t have to pay 10% deposit as the deposit figure is to be agreed between the vendor and buyer.

I bought my PPOR last year at auction and prior to auction, I had an agreement from the vendor’s solicitor (in writing) that a 5% deposit was acceptable.

However, my understanding from your thread was that you signed the contract with a 5% deposit as an offer and I assume you have not received an agreement (in writing) from the vendor. if this is the case, you don’t have an agreed amount of deposit for the property. If the vendor insists on a 10% deposit, that is his/her terms and conditions. It is up to you to negotiate with the vendor.

As far as I know, there is no specific requirement for a minimum 10% deposit in NSW. It is up to both vendor and buyer to agree on a figure which will then be stated in a contract signed by both parties.

Hope this helps.

Raymond

Hi, Guys,

The Accountant who gave us a talk was Mr. Ken Raiss who works for Chan & Naylor. Ken’s contact details are:

Suite 2, 9-11 Bells Road
Oatlands NSW 2117
T: (02) 9684 2011
E: [email protected]

By the way, I understand that Ed Chan will be giving a talk at Somersoft meeting instead of Ken Raiss. However, they both are from the same company. I shall be there too and hopefully catch up with you all at the meeting.

By the way, i asusme the monthly SIG meeting will be held on 29/01/05 and shall see you guys at 4:00pm at Petersham RSL. Please let me know if there are any changes to the meeting.

Regards
Raymond

Hi, Louise,

Many thanks for your help in this matter. I have sent you an email providing my email adress details. Thanks.

Regards
Raymond

Hi, Roy,

Thanks for the update. I shall be attending this meeting and look forward to meeting you there.

I assume there will be a meeting agenda to be sent out prior to the meeting.

Regards
Raymond