Great posts here,

and thanks Steve, your website and your books have been a huge help to me in my investing airplane!

Cheers

Must have been typing at the same time Shahin!

I found my architect has always kept the construction cost at the back of his mind when designing. They make sure there is no wasted space. Just what I have found in the past.

Cheers

D

Look some of them are 70 – 80 years old but funnily enough they can still be applied today. Think and grow rich was written in 1937 and I still learned a lot.

I haven't seen to many new titles of anything being published unfortunately as ebooks haven't taken off yet, yet paper books are not being printed.

I've also just got my hands on The Ascent of Money which they made a 6 part tv show of about the way money etc works.

Your best be for current property investment info is API magazine and YIP magazine (monthly), there is also a rebranded development mag coming onto market too.

The more educated you are in the way investment works, the better!

Hope this helps……

Cheers

How amusing!

There are so many people out there who have said to me, or in front of me regarding Steve's books  'Oh you could never do that today'. Have they really tried to, nope. Have they gone and looked for property that has great cash flow, nope. Or maybe they have, you know in the centre of Sydney. 'Steve's book doesn't work!'

Lol. Of course it doesn't work if you don't try!

There is plenty of opportunity to make money from property Steve is showing how at the moment in USA. He's pretty much replicating the Ballarat deals in another country.

But even here in Oz there is plenty of CF+ property getting around, you just need to go and hunt for it. It's not going to come banging on your front door!

Keep your optimism santh, go buy the books if you have to (then you don't have to take on your MIL negativity) and go ahead with making your own way

Cheers

D

This is very interesting.

I think the reason people are seeing rents as unaffordable is the price of paying a mortgage is now reaching the tipping point where it's the same each week to buy as house as it is to rent.

There is also no explanation of where these properties are. The same properties located in Syd and Melb would probably cost another $100-200 to rent per week. It's all relative. And interesting!

Cheers

D

Getting a bit confused here. In theory if you have a cash flow positive property, wont you have to pay more tax when you lodge your return? Because you have to report all the income you are earning from the property….[/quote]

Hi all,

Some great explanations here.

Basically, if you make money you pay tax. The more money you make the more tax you pay. (The more you pay your accountant to minimize this tax for you.) If you think of property investing as a business you would never want to make a loss, because the more losses you made, would mean you would eventually go bust.

It depends on what you want to do going forward, I have negative property, but it's for development, so a short term loss doesn't matter. But long term investment has to be sustainable, and depends if you love your job and you want to keep working there to pay the mortgage, while you wait in hope for the property to go up in value. That's why a property that gives you cash straight away in your pocket every month can be a good thing! Think about it!

D

Hi Belinda,

Feel free to give us a bit more detail so we can give you a hand!

What about vendor finance? There are people on here who may be able to give you some pointers with regard to on-selling this property via this method (I'm not an expert) and increase your cash flow etc. Paul Dobson is the resident expert on this.

Can you give either of these properties a quick reno to increase either the rental return or get a better sale price? Sometimes selling is the answer, better a small hole or an expensive lesson than a big hole!

Cheers

D

Well put livewildcard.

They want the housing propped up by private investors. It's so much cheaper for the Govt to provide a tiny tax break than to have to own heaps of rental properties. Personal wealth has increased through property ownership which means the govt can also have lots more taxes.

Should still be interesting to see how quickly the govt makes this topic of discussion go away. Heading into an election year!

D

Great points there Tom, it's really about picking areas that have the infrastructure and the appeal of being 'next door' to the nicer parts. Gentrification happens all the time, slower in some areas than others but look at places like Richmond, St Kilda, Brunswick. Years ago these areas were 'dogs' but now…. cost a fortune and full of nice places.

Cheers

D

Great thread, it's good to get both sides to any argument.

Personally, I would not touch USA (or any other OS market at this stage), I know my limits and who I am as an investor. But I have followed with interest the last couple years as this area has taken off in a big way. PI.com has positively filled with both Aussies and Yanks chatting about buying, the perks, the pitfalls etc.

I think the reality is that if you got on board at the start (several years ago) and bought well, and had back up on the ground, contacts etc, then you were onto a winner. I think Steve has his American counterpart Tommy Senatore to collect his rent and carry his guns.

There are probably a few Aussies who don't have these contacts and have gone in thinking Oz/'Merica it's the same right? But it's not. I have seen a few people do well, and some get absolutely stitched up buying blindly.  I think the Tour of Duty should be mandatory for people going in to the American market, and if not with Steve then with someone else/other program who is equally knowledgeable.

The only problem is how many spruikers are there now? And are the deals as good as they were at the height of the madness?

Wouldn't be surprised if the window of opportunity was already half shut.

Just my thoughts.

D