Thank you. You make some good points Trakka, and I feel less concerned now as a result.Maybe I'm being too much of a control freak I'd be interested to know whether the majority of investors review the tenancy applications though. I wonder what happens with all those tenancy applications in investment books; i.e. do people really use them and do…[Read more]

That's a fair question. I guess I want to assess the application for myself, since the PM surely won't accept liability for an error of judgement.I think that my uneasiness comes from a few things:1) I've always been sent the applications in the past, so this just seems weird2) The initial grounds for refusal were rubbish, and the subsequent…[Read more]

I laid the Ikea glue together version through a kitchen, dining and living area about 8 years ago, and it's holding up extremely well. The installation was slow, but I'm quite pleased with the result – you can't kill the stuff. The glue-together stuff is less forgiving if you don't have a strong straight starting edge. I ended up with a few…[Read more]

Some of the challenges I've identified so far are:Most onsite vans/cabins for sale are for holiday use. This means you can only use them up to 150 days/year. But I haven't strayed too far from coastal areas.Few of the parks I've spoken to are interested in permanent residents. Where they have them, they use the park's vans.There is complexity…[Read more]

Hey Glendafull,Any news? I've been making some enquiries but have not had any luck as yet…Daedalus

I agree with your analysis. I wanted to see Tieri to see if the real thing matched my expectation – which it did.Which Middlemount mine closed? An open pit or underground? I know there are works on 2 or 3 new ones – I'd assumed that they were new pits to replace a pit that had been mined out.Have you been up there long?Daedalus

Dysart is a bigger town, and is more central. It services large mines to it's North and South, and accommodates people who work near Middlemount. As a town, it is less 'artificial' than Middlemount. It started life like Middlemount in the 80's, but the mining company has been selling off housing for a long time – so there is a much higher level of…[Read more]

Nebo is a funny one. There are a few mines nearby, but it doesn't have a boom feel to it. It is predominantly a cattle town.At the moment there are a number of vacant and unsold houses. Some of these are actually leased though to one of the energy companies.There is talk of Nebo being set up as an 'inland port'. I understand this to mean that…[Read more]

Hi lou73,The majority of houses in Middlemount are owned by one of the mining companies (Capcoal, off the top of my head). They have a couple of mines around the town, but there are also 2 other mining companies with working mines in the area.Capcoal provides the housing to their workers. Since they own most of the town, if you don't work for…[Read more]

Hi,The only lease agreements I've seen in this area are for 'annual' use i.e. holiday usage. However, with those there is little security. You can be evicted pretty easily. With some they'll remove your van and charge you the removal cost.I don't know if this is different for permanents, but I suspect that you don't get much security for your site…[Read more]

propertyboy wrote:
^ no one was talking about the median house prices, your post makes no sense

 Yeah, OK. It's not actually about median prices though, it's about the information you're using to base your opinions on. Sorry if it was a bit abstract.I'm trying to point out that you need to check your assumptions about why it's not possible to…[Read more]

The problem with economic theory is that is must deal in statistical generalities. It discusses the behaviour of the market like 'the market' is a conscious entity. However, it isn't, it's an agregation of the behaviour of innumerable individuals.This will lead you astray when researching for investments. e.g the median 3BR house in smithville is…[Read more]

I had a tenant request a new hot water system once, because the existing one kept going cold. A quick inspection of the shower head revealed that it was one of those big, never-had-water-restrictions type of shower head.For about $30 I replaced it with a water saving head, and saved a LOT of money by not needing the hot water system. The tenants…[Read more]

From the above posts, it seems that a landlord can set up as a CentrePay "Participant" i.e. you don't need to go through a property manager?I've been trying to get one of my tenants onto CentrePay via the property manager, but the PM has been pretty slack about ensuring the paperwork is done. I'm thinking of just sacking the PM and setting up the…[Read more]

crashy wrote:
dont use floating floor.one drop of water and its ruined. Its noisy, looks crap, affects resale and warps in the sun.

We have clearly had very different experiences with floating floor. I've had floating floor in a kitchen for 8 years, and there is no water damage whatsoever. It also gets a LOT of sun and has not warped or faded.…[Read more]

Depending (only to a small extent) on the 'quality' of the property, I'd go for the floating floor. The cost will be similar or significantly less – especially if you have to get funky with sanding off glue, filling nail holes etc. and you are guaranteed of the quality and consistency of finish.It could all be over in a few days vs a few weeks as…[Read more]

The strategy was to go hard on CF neutral/slightly CF+ to build the asset base. I've got a fair amount of equity available, and I wanted to max it out then let capital appreciation do it's thing, with a revaluation each year and topping up the portfolio with the increased equity.As it happens, my plan didn't consider that lenders would only take…[Read more]

Hi,I'm a subscriber to their alert service. It's interesting, but I doubt I will renew. In spite of their advertising, only a minority of their properties are cash flow positive. Some are though, even after the finders fee but haven't met my other buying criteria. Most are cash flow negative or neutral at best, but at a discount to market.Needless…[Read more]

Hi Anny,Congratulations, you've taken your first step. Regardless of the detail of the investment, you have already set yourself apart from the masses.The next thing IMO is to try learn from this investment, whatever it may teach you. The reality is that you will need to wait some time before you would be able to sell without making a loss (if you…[Read more]

PS Loved your response SNM Daedalus