What state are these properties in?My property manager charges 5% plus GST (5.5%), One week's rental for finding a tenant, and nothing else.He also calls us first for all maintenance as hubby is a tradie.I'm in Victoria and the rental market is very strong in this particular area.

Hi To,It also depends on the style of the home.For instance, in my area a  weatherboard Californian bungalow will fetch a much higher price than a basic brick house of the same size/age/state of repair. As far as maintenance goes, I would say that a weatherboard house is higher.

Astrawan, If you signed a contract I don't think you can get out of it now, best you talk to your solicitor.In Victoria, I'm pretty sure there is no cooling off period if you sign a contract 3 days before and 3 days after an advertised auction date. I also thought the cooling off period was for the purchaser, not sure if applies to the vendor?…[Read more]

What a horrible experience!I have bought a few houses and I must say I have never thought to check whether their should be two signatures or not!I will now.You'd think one of the more experienced in this drama would have picked up on it earlier though. Firstly the agent, then the conveyancer and the mortgage company.I suppose you could consider it…[Read more]

Badgers,Try getting your tradies through "word of mouth".The best tradies aren't in the yellow pages.If you manage to get one of these tradies referred to you and you still have problems, it might be time to reassess your own attitude towards the trades.

Hi Kenzel,Most, if not all, HWS's have the date of manufacture on them. So, this should help you should you need warranty service.If you're in Victoria and the cooling system is the ducted evaporative kind, you should have a sticker inside your electrical meter box. This is from the certificate of compliance from the plumber, unfortunately it's…[Read more]

Dom, I imagine any one who is not a tradie will say yes, and anyone who is will say no!How do you decide or know what's too much?it's a bit like asking if interest rates are too high….Those of us around in the late eighties will probably say no,Those who have only had loans in the last 10 years or so will probably say yes

Hi kenzel,I wouldn't count on the services still being connected when you get there. Sometimes they do actually turn them off.I usually ring a least three days before for the gas and electricity to be changed in my name on settlement day.The water is changed over by the solicitor/conveyancer at settlement, it doesn't get turned off at all.

My settle ment is due tomorrow, and the vendors solicitor has only just let my solicitor know the bank cheque details.I need to drop off a bank cheque, which I only just got details of, by 3.30 today and its already 2pm!So I'm off now, lucky I don't have far to go…

I f you hold off, what are you hoping will happen?More stock, lower prices?Suburbs within 10-12 of cbd seem to be haing their own mini boom at the moment.Where are you looking?

How close to Rosanna station?If you are bordering Rosanna I would consider it.Heidelberg heights has had some good growth.Heidelberg west is worse. Both for reputation and growth.I lived in the Commission area of reservoir for a few years and experienced quite good growth there as well.

Ok, we have a different interpretation of a bogan.To me a bogan is more of  a stereotypical dole-bludger type.Doesn't want to work, lives off handouts, never plans to improve themselves and if they do work, its the basic manual labour jobs that they do.I agree that they don't give a crap about anything though.Now that's clearer……I reckon the…[Read more]

The cashed up bogan bit.It that someone who does manual labour for a living?Making them lower class because they don't have a 9-5 office job?Is the guy who quoted $3500 the cashed up bogan and the other guy what is he?

Do they "own" those things Dom?You can have them too, its called debt, anyone can do it if they choose to live that way.

Well said winterheart, very balanced I thought

Thanks Dave and Wylie, I appreciate your comments.I guess if the walls are a close color to the new paint, one good coat might do.I'll give it a go.Cheers,Sue

As james said above, we tradies know there are shonky dealers out there as we also have to clean up their stuff ups.One of our builders had  two building jobs at once so he used the plumber with the cheaper quote on the second dwelling.We'll start with leaking Solar Hws on the roof, two story townhouse 50% plaster ruined. By the way this is a 2.5…[Read more]

Wow, $150 per head for a baptism, that's mad!How many people did they have?I had backyard barbies too…. Same with the kids parties…goodness I must be cheap

In earlier post I stated that I am a plumber's wife….By building work I guess you mean carpentry? So it was a carpenter and not a qualified builder running the job. I see that now.I understand that you might not want to employ a builder to put a mark up on the tradies prices, however a quality builder has a trusted group of tradies that he is…[Read more]

How'd you manage to use 5 plumbers in one renovation?You didn't get quotes for the entire plumbing works?Just called a plumber to do a little job here and get another to do something else?Tradies hate that. And you're getting yourself ripped off because of all the travelling time, etc that they have to factor into every little job each one…[Read more]