Welcome beamseeker,

Nebo is not a place that I would invest right now. I investigated some properties for sale there in January. My guess is that they are the very same properties that you are now looking at. I drove by them on Sunday; they are still for sale, and they are still empty.

Nebo is close enough to the coast that it is feasible to live in/near Mackay and commute to Nebo to work. There is a bit of big industry setup/setting up, and yes there are a number of mines nearby, but Nebo has few indications of flow on prosperity.

The pub is nice though.

Daedalus.

Hi Tim,

Just got back from Dysart, and it seems as bouyant as ever. Existing mines are augmenting, and there's a new mine going in to the east of the town.

I can't confirm about the subdivision rules, but can recommend Paul Ingledew (Mackay 07 4954 8535, 0419 712 277) for building inspect. I've used him twice and he does a thorough job. He teams up with Ian Chataway of Deadstop Pest Control (Mackay 07 4954 7555, 0407 759 791). They'll share a car out to Dysart to keep travel costs down.

Good luck with it,
Deadalus.

Hi Mark,

I think building would be more expensive than you might expect. Local builders would be expensive (based on some quotes for maintenance work that I've had), and as you've read above, accomodation is tough for visiting trades.

Having said that, the established houses are pretty simple i.e. not an expensive looking design.

There are a few new houses in these towns, so somebody must be building…

Daedalus

Hi BuilderBob,

I have not researched Proserpine, but I'll look into it. Thanks for the tip mate.

Daedalus.

Hi guin_ness,

I was at the weekend too – wasn't it great? (I was the guy with his arm in a sling – it was a great conversation starter so we might have chatted )

I'd identified these towns about a week before API published on them, so by the time I acted my first 4 choices were under contract. That said, my thinking was along these lines:

1. I tried to think of resource-based activities that should be reasonably reliable for the next 50 years or so (I'm being hopeful )
2. I figured that with some minerals it might be harder to pick a winner over that timeframe. Eg metals get used for various things, and may come in and out of favour. Iron ore for example used in steel would be a good bet. But others I know less about and are more specialised eg tantalum???
3. Then I thought about coal, and the fact that even though it's got some green energy challenges, there are 2 things I'm confident about: Humans will continue to increase their energy consumption and it's unlikely that they'll come up with a more economical alternative in that timeframe.
4. So I looked at the major coal areas around the country. Those in NSW and VIC had pretty ordinary yields, but the Bowen Basin was still pretty good. Emerald had seen a bit of a boom, and I thought might flow out to nearby areas. The Surat basin south of Emerald had average yields, so I looked north.
5. Further research revealed that a lot of the coal taken from the Bowen is coking coal, which is used to make steel from iron, so that matched up nicely with my earlier conclusion about steel. Also made me feel a bit better about the green thing. The bowen basin is pretty much all coal, and it's a huge basin. I don't think they'll run out in my lifetime.
6. Then I analysed all the mines, and looked for towns with more than one mine, and more than one mine operator in the area. Then looked at the age of the mines and any activity associated with opening new mines. I gravitated towards the larger towns.

After that it was all about offers and building inspections etc. I didn't travel to see the places until after I'd bought them, so all my due diligence was remote. The good thing about these towns is that there are only about 4-6 types of house in each town, because the mining companies built them (presumably with 4-6 builders!). So I really only needed an assessment of the condition of the house to decide.

All research was on Internet, and a few phone calls to agents and councils.

I hope that helps your investment journey,

Daedalus. 

Hi Matt007,

I haven't been to Ayr or Townsville, so can't really offer an opinion on them.
As I understand it, a fair proportion of Bowen Basin coal goes out through Bowen, and Ayr isn't far away. If there's infrastructure development going on, that's a growth sign though…

Regards,

Daedalus.

Thanks Bendbanks and Linar for these views.

This makes sense to me. Ben, I've sent a personal message re the services your company provides.

Thank you all for a stimulating discussion!

Daedalus.

It's not about trustworthiness, it's about who makes an important decision about my income stream for the next 6 months or more – and what information they consider to make that recommendation. It's usually a good idea to make your own decisions about that kind of thing. If I was going to a job interview, I wouldn't send someone else in my place to sus out the prospective employer.

As far as trust goes, I don't feel the need to go on inspections to check that they tick the boxes on the form correctly. That's not a function that significantly affects the income stream. I've bought most of my investment properties sight unseen, so again, I don't think it's about trust.

Interesting point about the number of properties managed and the amount of chasing. What have you found is a good guideline? I haven't done that enough to get a good feel for it.

Thanks

Daedalus