Forum Replies Created
Daniella, do you live in Penguin Tassie?? It is nice there, very relaxing.
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!This would be a chillout room with the breezes from outside coming in. As it has sliding doors to the kitchen/eating area it was probably designed as a formal dining room. We use our formal dining room as my office with water views, but it didnt have any doors. We installed bi-fold doors to the main dining room and another set off the loungeroom entrance to the hall. The lounge /office has no dividing wall so its open to the lounge on one side.
It is difficult to work with the kids at home and we are planning to go up as this has become too impractical over time.
What from you description I believe is that your “weird room” is able to be closed in. Maybe a guest bedroom/TV room or a chillout area with steroe is what you may design it as. Alternatively a baby’s room close to mum in the kitchen. Just use the old grey matter, im sure if you tried you will find the best solution without much pain.
Good Luck
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!Wow $5k for a finders fee. I find that a bit rich. Anyway there are worse out there.
Hope it sells as it sounds a good deal, well worth looking further.
Cheers
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!Troy, no more tips on spraying, just on the topic of mistints. I recently had a 2 bedroom townhouse to do and I am definitely a gloss for doors and trims man. Had a sign at the bristol paints place locally for an “outback paint sale”, i thought it was a sale for a new brand of paint so I went in. It was a mistints out the back sale with a bit of creative wording.
I found that there were 4 x 4 ltr tins of similar creamy gloss paint which I immediately bought. On getting to the job I had 2 x 10 litre buckets which I mixed the paint in. Well the whole place needed 8 litres so I have most of a 10 litre still available for the next one. Walls I did in Taubmans “buttered up” a very standard soft colour and it came up really well.
As it was a bristol paint with a taubmans colour it was only needing 2 coats. A tradie type paint on a previous job needed 3 and then touchups here and there. What im saying is that the smart start, leads to a successful finish. So make sure that you get the right quality for spraying and not a bit too thick.
I love double height ceilings above the stairwell and do the ceilings all in white in all of the rooms the first day of a reno after I have patched the walls. Next morning I do all the sanding and the stairwell ceiling. Then first coat of colour on the stairwell walls before lunch. with second coat in the afternoon. Then gloss doors and trims for the evening and next day. Then finish off on the walls double coat and im done. Last is the stairs in gloss for the second coat on my way out the door.
This takes most of a week to do so spraying has time saving for sure. I only cut in on walls so its quick on cornices and then trims and doors but a bit time consuming for walls cutting in. You may say this is a waste of time but I get every other trade through the place in the same time, watch and correct any shortcuts they take and can give yes no answers to additional work on the spot. The end result is everything on a reno is done in a 7 day period max.
Which means a lot of forward planning and booking tradies is essential for the co-ordinated madness to work. Good Luck and keep us all posted as to what you end up with and what quality of finish.
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!Nice budgetting there kiwi, the other thing to be aware of is how its treated for tax. If you are timbering over timber floors it can sometimes be classed as repairs and be 100% tax deductible.
If you are removing carpet and laying a floating floor, its also classed as repairs and again tax deductible. If on the other hand you do tiles where there were carpets or lino before, then you would only be able to depreciate this for 2.5% for 40 years. Its mad, but thats our taxation for you.
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!Hi Taffy, being a fellow Welshman, it is always good to see “the little saucepan” being successful.
I think Terry is suggesting, in not so many words, that if you rent in Cairns for the next few years before settling on a new PPOR all of your cap gains in Perth are free. However, if you buy a place in Cairns to live in immediately, you would then have only 6 months as a changeover period to sell your Perth house before attracting the tax on the cap gains.
So if you intend to keep it and rent it our it would be a smart idea to get a valuation done immediately so any cap gains to date are not taxed when you eventually sell the property.
This means that from now until you sel it the tax is calculated, not your original purchase price. So if you have enjoyed $200k cap gains until now, that will be tax free. If the eventual correction takes place and you only make a further $50-100k before selling, thissafeguards the gains already recieved, with only that additional amount being liable for tax.
A big saving!!!!
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!Building sites where some trades have finished are excellent, have a look around and always ask the site forman for permission. We got enough treated pine from excess frames I cut up on site to put a storage area in our roof over our extension. All that extra storage was a selling point when we eventually sold.
Odd tiles 1/2 box here and there when they are building 20 houses can do a small bathroom ina townhouse, and 1/2 tins of paint can be a good undercoat or sealant. All saves money, which to me is making money!!
Go hunting and have fun
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!Cordell Building Publications have a trade prices guide they put out. You can calculate how many square mtrs of what and then there are tables to accurately estimate each job.
Might help.
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!Harley2, with most investors trying to squeeze out every $$ from their investments, keeping a rental property vacant is not viable. Ok so maybe some minor paint is scuffed and you need to touch up here or there.
Its better to do minor touchups while you still remember the paint colours six months or 12 months later, than then having to start again with a full reno.
I would suggest a photo record of before so you can check things accurately on the tenant leaving.
Anyway good luck with your investment.
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!And you bought in Manoora…..no wonder its a reno and flick.
Very colourful place indeed.
Good Luck
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!Im going to buck the trend. With so many units and townhouses carbon copy vanilla colours, I went a bot rad and did Taubmans Mayellan which is a blue for all walls top to bottom in one of my townhouses. White doors and trims and the first couple to walk in(as I was finishing the trim), the wife said “wow, nice to see a good cloour. Leased it for 12 months then moved to another one 100 yards away when they needed a garage.
That one i went totally off the wall and did Taubmans “Acid Rock” a very in your face green, again with gloss enamel doors and trims. Came up perfectly for the couple of young people now living there(know your target market), again with a long lease.
I have also done 2 vanilla townhouses with Lemon Chiffon walls and double strength Lemon Chiffon doors and trims for one, and the other with British Paints “butter” walls and a gloss enamel trim and door set in mixed cream( 4 mistints well mixed together to be cheeky, and boy did it work well). Enough left to do next reno trims and doors too.
It is all perspective and choice, so have fun making yours.
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!Well with the tiling I always do my own buying of the tiles and take them to site, then pay the same guy the showrom recommends but a “cash price” of $25/mtr to lay and not the store price of $35/mtr for the same job.
This is in Qld though.
Bunnings sell kit kitchens if you have time, inclination and are close enough to do yourself.
Good Luck
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!Make sure you seal and double primer your tile paint before applying 2 coats. Looked great a year ago when I did it, but now with the soap scum lifting the tile paint below the soap dish in the shower down to the floor, its another redo i didnt want to do.
Been like that for a while the tenant now tells me. Doh!!!!
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!goto renokings website, lots of tips(and advertising) there.
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!Like any sourcing body or organisation it may be they charge you nothing directly, but then they have all of their costs swallowed in the purchase price of anything you buy. Which in effect means you pay for these services anyway.
They usually charge a percentage of the purchase price, so it is in their best interest not to discount the pricing for you.
I offer a service on a flat fee basis so I dont have a vested interest in the end price paid for property. This means I DO work for you directly and this leads to the old addage “you get what you paid for”.
Derek also asked the question, quite rightly, about ASIC compliance. Well I had the NSW fair trading call me recently regarding trading as a buyers agent and not being a real estate saleman. When I explained I was a qualified Financial Planner and do not source NSW property, only Qld WA and Tassie at present, they went away saying they would get back to me. That was a month ago and I am not holding my breath to hear from them.
Derek is 100% right, I looked at his list and went wow, thats thorough. I did a mental check of where I stand with each point and came away smiling.
CF+ are becoming hard to find unless you do a punt on increasing your return through a reno, or buy in remote one horse town localities. Unless you choose to take your buying offshore, and be aware there are foreign exchange issues as well as different tax considerations, it is unlikely you will experience the magic returns locally in major centres.
Buying outside major centres is like buying non blue chip stocks. Its all a horse race and a punt. I havent heard of IPS and I have 5 with Rams myself.
Another group that you need to be aware of is The Investors Club. Which prefaces everything with we are not agents or a financial institution etc etc, but go on to show their totally managed process where you buy their vetted properties. When a sale is made the “Club” gets upto 6.6% from the vendor of the money you have paid for the property.
Not once in their discussion last Monday night did they cover how you were to afford the neg geared properties and vaguely put up the living off equity down the track scenario. This is at best a deflection of an uncosted process. The properties all started at $300k and went up. This would mean that at the 6.6% the wouuld get $20k of your money. $10k is then given to the “Club” management and the balance trickles down the food chain to the solicitor, broker, your sponsor etc to cover their “expenses”.
Seems quite the nice little pyramid structure to me. So be careful and keep getting in here on the forum and be careful. Its the slower times in the cycle that the scammers seem to rear their ugly heads. All with smiles and glossy brochures and big pockets.
Happy Hunting
DD[cowboy2]
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!My wife and I went last year and it was great. Yes there is a bit of Ra ra and American hype but thats to keep everyone awake.
It was a big step to get me there and I was not going to be brainwashed but approached it with an open mind.
It has changed not only how I relate to others, my relationship with my wife and kids, but also made me more determined and focussed on having a good life and getting challenged by what I do.
Yes go, dont look back, pack snacks and take a thermos. It is a full weekend and full on, but if you dont get something out of it, I would be truly amazed.
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!With 8 people there on Valentines day we had our montly meeting. 3 new members and some regulars attended and we discussed “The Investors Club” meeting some had attended the previous evening, which had been advertised in the local paper under “who wants to be a millionaire”.
Most comments were in the negative category due to the highly managed process of limiting access to all properties if your financials dont meet the criteria for larger or different property types via limited access codes for their website. The fact membership is free to join is good, but on the same token, the club getting up to 6.6% from each $300k sale being $20k would suggest that by buying their “vetted” properties you are actually paying them quite a substancial fee above the true buying price, in a very round about manner.
Out of the $20k, $10k goes to the “Club” management, with the balance split down the line with some for the broker, some for your assigned “partner” etc.
Of such a system which never once truly covered affordability and concentrated on LOE(living off equity) in later years, did nothing to really excite or encourage the basic wage earners predominant in the meeting.
Some of their existing “club” members complained that in Coffs they only had minimal phone support from the club and no one locally to chat too.
The presenter and the guest speaker, a mortgage broker, were both from Newcastle. The broker who was approachable, intelligent and informative, but even through his presentation was good on cross collateralisation, bank assesment criteria for loans and new lodoc options up to 95% and including commercial for the first time, they seemed to not want to touch on cheaper properties than the $300k in their examples. One reason could be their limited commision on smaller deals??
A basic caution is always warranted when you get something for “free” and this case is no different.
Our meeting went off to discuss local developements and issues and wound up reminding everyone that our accountant from Sydney is coming to talk at our next meeting.
So here we are planning for the 14th March meeting already. Hope you can all make it. It is always good to talk to like minded people.
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!Tassie you fools tassie!!!!!!
Well east coast anyway, with little or no reporting and lots of new jobs happening down there its a hidden sector of the market few even think about. House pricing there……we bought a 3 bedder for $116,500 in Oct last year, val came in at $125k. Last week a house 2 streets away that looked identical sold for $145k wooohooo!!
Rent for that is $170/wk too, not your perfect ratio but with the cap potential it still looks good to me.
DD[thumbsupanim]
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!ANZ lost one of ours and we had to apply for a reissue. We were tight on finance time on the next deal which was a biggie so we raced in and did it the same day in their offices in sydney. Still took 3 weeks but we scraped through with a day to spare.
Lots of scotch that month!!!
DD[glum]
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!So you are advocating buying a new house in Logan which achieves a whopping 4.6-4.9% return just to get better depreciation?
I think that maybe a 2 bedroom townhouse with 7.2% return with less building depreciation but the same fixtures and fittings depreciation and actually covering its own mortgage might just be a better bet for some of the novice investors with limited funds available.
And guess what? Same cap gains forcast in the Logan area, but unlike house pricing which remains stagnant, there has been 9% growth in unit/townhouse pricing last qtr.
Sorry to burst the bubble.
DD
Buyers Agent (Dip Financial Services(FP)
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!
