I went to Dymphna s semminar at Sydney in early feb wasted 2 days and a $1000.00 in travelling expenses, there was about 2 hrs of useful information.  The rest well if it wasnt blatant   SPRUICKING  it must have been a bad attempt at comedy and I didnt have a sense of humour. Al though it was a  Joke I dont think it was meant to be.    She was making some bold claims about  returns you could make on over priced  property in the USA. You just had to wonder why she did nt buy these properties herself. She could help you buy these properties but you couldnt do it yourself  or get any-one else to help you because it was too risky and she was the only person who knew how, and not to talk to any-body else because every-body else would rip you off and no-body else had the expertise.   1st she made it sound like such a good deal you cant knock it back. 2nd she tried to scare you into only trusting her, then came the motivational speakers( absolute crap abuot confronting your fears) then the big sell Books  expensive videos, courses to learn what I thought  you were supposed to learn at the semminer etc and something like$ 8000.00 dollars for them to sell you an overpriced house, I am not sure if that included the quick tour were they fly you into towns show you houses herd you on to  the next town, before you can gain an understanding of the real situation where they are trying to sell real estate.  I did some research on the web and made some phone calls to agents and a guy I  had already bought a house from, they just laughed at theprices in such locations.  The amazing thing was the hordes of people signing up to all the salesmen at the back of the room without doing any of there own research.                                 The main reason I went to the semminar was to learn more about financing off shore and all I got was erronious crap.  She is supposed to specialize in asset protection but made ridiclulous statements  like you cant get  nonrecourse loans in Australia. I suppose  because she wanted set up complicated trust structures so she could justify the necessity of her services         Heather the wealthy people I know ,  dont talk about mindset. The only people I hear talk about it are spruickers, authors, and wanna bes who dont want to do the hard yards or take calculated risks.

Tommy I went to one of roltons semminars and could not get satisfactory answers to questions talking face to face, he was  just dismissive, and tried to make me look stupid. He was selecetive about who he took questions from.    Dymphna Boholt was another spruicker who was selective about who she would  take questions from, they all seemed to be acquaintences. When I asked a question she didnot want to answer she had to go to the toilet.

Hi ,  Badger and Dan  Congratulations to Badger on your investing  sucess. I actually agree badger on his comments on semminars and the morons who take notes on B S.        May be I was reading between the lines but  I was refering to comments about  Tim,  and comments like I am wily canny and flexible etc . that made badger sound like a smart arse but when he explained his stratetgy he didnt seem to be as  sophisticated as the impression I was getting.      It is good to see some robust discussion for a change and some-one finaly challenge some of the propaganda  and myths pushed at semminars.    My philosophy is I started with nothing and I  cant take anything with me when I go, so I am prepared to go with nothing. Just enjoy the ride. I can be be happy with nothing and was, I have  a property in asia  where I can live on virtually nothing if  if I come undone . I could make it into a back packers and make good money.  I am lazy and dont like working and dont understand why people do.   I am an accidental investor I would see opportunity and think I should buy that and kick my self that I didnt. So I decided I wouldnt die wondering. So when I see an oportunity I grab it, they seem to come along every few years usually in bunches of about 3 which can make it difficult at times. My  second property was bought using vendor finance I found out what the vendor wanted, at a time when property was hard to  sell they wanted a little more income than their pension but not too much that they lost the pension and other benefits. so they were very happy to accept a low price and  a low interest  rate but guarrranteed income for 20 years. 2 years  ago I wanted them to take advantage of the coming property  slump but I had to get them to release their mortgage, to get finance from the bank. so I went to a solicitor and got a contract drawn up I had to double what was paying each weak and instead of the loan terminating in 5 years , I had to pay for the rest of their lives.  A win win situation. I immediately went and found some tennants found out what they would pay then bought one house and some land to build another. then last year  bought a house, and  an option on some land for development, just to day bought an option on a house with large block I hope to subdivide. I also bought a house in 1997, two blocks of ground in 2003 sold the one I was going to build on for 20% more 3 Weeks after  signing contract and didnot  have to pay any stamp duty. Then built on the other.  The   deposite was part funded by  some of the 100k 1 had made on the share market by buy  5c and 25c shares in companies before they were floated. Started with$ 2000     some  went to be worth $13 now about $5 My  first invest was pivot shares for 50c     for a while they were worth $180 now probably  about $60 Now my share portfolio is probably about 300 k but l have only put in about 30k of my own money. I got into property because I didnt  know how to acess money in the share market with out paying huge capital gains tax. The bank will  still consider them as assets when you get a loan. I have also dabbled in commodity futures market and lost 17k.once but also made a bit. Yes I have 1.3million in equity whatever the relevance of that is.

Well what a disapointment that turned out to be badger. I thought maybe your were a clever investor. I guess you just  dont know what you dont know. May  be you better read some more books.  If you are as smart as you pretend you wouldnt be  paying CGT or selling costs , especially if you bought quality investment property in the first place. You should get at least  10% growth  and 4% yeild.  Use low intrest rates in the UK to levearage in to the UK market  with a 1million deposite.  To sell a property last year wasnt  very smart there was no real down turn only good buying opportunities. Also if your so smart you would know the fx rate is not an issue as it can be hedged. also I  dont consider putting money in to super a smart move perhaps it is ok if it is self managed , but it is too restrictive and the fees are too high.  If you property prices are falling  obvoiusly you were not smart enough to buy the right investment grade property , it is  still growing strongly.  Property is usually at least  a10 year investment why puy a heap of property if you plan to sell it  after less than 4 years, must be bad investments and you cant pay for it. That is the only reason you would sell property. Your strategey seems very unsophisticated to me.

 Novice I  would look at units in carlton. From experience and  looking at data CG on units   either exceed or at least equal that of houses.   if you buy new units  you will get a lot of depreciation. but with 50k   you would only by older units that have already depreciated.     With units generaly they  are sitting on higher value land perhaps worth millions. The land to asset ratio is higher.      If you buy a house in the  suburbs the land  component  is small may  be only be 100k  and  the house 300k then you  have mainaince / garden issues to worry about. With a unit there will be a sinking fund and manager  to keep it in good condition so depreciation isnt an issue, infact it s  value can be increased by good management wanting to do improvements.             There will be Body Corp fees but this is compensated for by low rates and Insurance.

Vinay,   I would be cautious. there is often over supply  of innercity apartments and not much scarcity value hence not the best capital growth potential.     The tennants are usually young and mobile and will quickly want to move to  the latest new fancy building, other words short term tennants. New buidings will be built and the older ones may become less desireable.  I also agree with what Kate says.

 Pascoe if you buy a property through metropole it would be a good idea to lodge a caveat on the title, it only costs about $120.00  and could save you tens of thousands.   They probably wont advise you to do this.  Must agree with V8ghia I think they will push whatever property they want to unload, and only buy in expensive suburbs I guess  so they can get more commision and ignore perhaps better deals in other suburbs.       I have noticed some areas they warned about buying in  have performed better than where they recomend, at least in the short term.

 Darvio     If you are going to invest in proprety you are going to have to start thinking like an investor.    Depreciation and tax  deductions depending on tax rates means Peter and Paul can be paid at the same time, by Peter having less tax taken out of his pay packet.    By leveraging of one property Peter is also doubling his assets meaning he can also double or tripple or more his capital  growth .  10% increase  on 1.2 m  is a lot more than 10% increase on .5m. So Peter is getting paid twice.     Peter has the ability to pay of his PPOR in perhaps 5 years instead of 30 by using income or more likely increasing equity in his IP.    Giving Peter more tax efficiency by not havin to pay non dectible debt for very long third time Peter gets paid . The big pay off though is  that Peter can Save 25 years  interest on his PPOR.

     Clover I was hoping you would refute my figures and show how these units are cashflow positive.  It appears as if you are having trouble selling these units and have resorted to devious methods to market them.      You mention Aztec Devolpments  under every  topic, even  under finance but don t  mention who you got finance through to make these units +CF  you would  need to get finance at 5% to make these units CF+. It would be useful information for us all.    But you mention Aztec developments organized it.     Why is  this post posted under investing in Mildura  .      Has this Marina been approved by council my understanding is it hasnt.                                   

Yash,     I can tell  you who NOT to use unless you want high rates and fees, want to repeatedly lodge papper work and want to wait months and waste time,  the money depot.