Hi John,

It seems you have your plan well established, and the method you have outlined – in my opinion – is the right one. I would also offer the following advice for you:

Spend as little time and money as possible in obtaining feedback from the local council as to the suitability of your proposal and the likelihood of council support. This is important in moving ahead with confidence. You can do this yourself, or have someone do it on your behalf. The decisions made at this early stage of the process will impact most decisions that follow.

Try to find an architect/drafts-person that can take your proposal from this initial stage through to the building stage. This will ensure continuity between the concepts, TPP documentation and working drawings. This should ensure there is less chance of interpretation issues.

When it comes to the administration and project management of the project, ensure you have a fixed price contract for the builder, and that there are as few "prime cost" and "provisional sum" items as possible. This will help control the costs of the project.

And, of course, do your due diligence regarding price pointing and demand in the area you are targeting, whether the proposal is to sell for profit or to hold and rent out the propoerty. No use putting together a well planned project if there's no demand!

Good luck getting your project off the ground.

There's a lot of ways to make an offer, but in my experience this has been the most successful:

Make a written offer and attach a cheque (payable to the REA trust fund) for 10% of the offer amount.
Ensure banking of your deposit is contingent upon signed contracts.
Do not negotiate for a period of seven days. Stewing time.

This method encourages the agent because they have your deposit and can feel the deal.
It also means that the vendor has something to really think about.

I also had an experience whereby I made offer on a house on the day (Friday) before it was due to be auctioned. I then explained that I was off interstate for the weekend and wouldn't be able to attend the auction. I left them with my written offer and deposit cheque and had a house on Saturday morning. The auction was cancelled and I signed on Monday.

I didn't go interstate.

That is an interesting one! I guess someone has to live near our incarcerated brothers and sisters!
If it otherwise enjoys good amenity, and the rental yields are sound, I would suggest it's well worth a look.

You can go a step further than that shahabr, you can arrange your own valuations and liaise directly with them. If you do this you will need to ensure your chosen valuer is a part of the board for that bank. If you think about it, this only gives your bank confidence that you know what you're doing.

I'm not great with the technologies, so PM me and I'll see what I can do about getting you some info.

The earlier you approach the town planning department with your ideas the better. Having said that, you also need to have some idea of what it is you are trying to achieve. To do this you need to either be able to explain yourself particularly well, or have some basic sketch plans or land use plans to help communicate your ideas. Keep in mind also that the town planning departments also have objectives (especially regarding density) that do not concur with state planning regulations, so don't let them "pull the wool".

The benefit of communicating early with the TP department is that they are more likely to "buy into" your proposal if they feel they are being included early in the process. The opposite can also be the case; drop a whole lot of documentation on the TP department and they'll have more issues to argue about! So in summary, go early, go prepared, be inclusive and understand your rights and obligations in town planning law.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your project.

This issue has bitten me before. My advice: get a sworn valuation for mortgage purposes. You can arrange this yourself, or ask the bank to do it for you.

An architect or suitably qualified dratsperson should be able to research and prepare land use digrams for $1,000.

Here are some things that have worked for me:
– Know the values by doing your own research.
– Base your offer on what you believe to be the right price – not a function of discount to asking price.
– If you make an offer, do it in writing and attach a cheque for the deposit amount. It will be taken seriously.
– Ask the agent – straight up – what the vendor's motivations are. Settlement timing, change of circumstances, divorce etc.
Good luck with your search.

Hi Beth,

You can pretty much throw (literally) anything into the concrete to act as an aggregate. Without getting too technical, concrete is made of cement, sand, water and eggregate. The aggregate is usually stone. I have used lots of different concrete on my own projects and you can either request the plant to add stuff to your concrete at the batching plant – like colour, glass, riverstone etc – or you (or your concreter) can scatter it over the wet concrete is it's being laid. After the concrete has set, it can be ground and sealed, which exposes the mystery aggregate!

Hi Leo,

Pretty much any arrangement can be bound contractually. In your case it may be worthwhile to consider becoming tennants in common on title. This protects the interests of your mother and your own interests if you are either tipping in cash or asking the bank to do so on your behalf. Later, if the property is sold in whole or part the owners on title are each entitled to a share of the gain according to their portion of ownership. There are of course more complicated trust structures that would allow the benefits to be funneled as the trustee (or trustee company) sees fit.

These are not simple structures, so make sure you get sound advice.
And good luck.