I sacked my property manager and didn't have any issues. You just need to give them notice.

As for insurance charging more – I didn't find this at all, in fact it was actually cheaper when i switched providers haha.

Check out this blog post on managing your own property: http://mypropertyjourney.com/2012/08/05/taking-control-7-steps-to-self-managing-your-investment-property/

not only will you get more $ from rent having a decent kitchen but you'll also increase the value of the property.

The chances of re-zoning is likely to be slim to none. The advice I have always been given regarding local council is to work with them, not against them. In other words find out what they want and then deliver it – makes for a much easier process when it comes time to lodge for approval.

I have a ton of info on subdividing and some basic feaso templates, if you're interesed flick me an email:[email protected]

I had some suspicions that it may have been a housing commission area and i was right. not sure if there's any plan to relocate the housing commission in the future.

I'll be honest I'd never even heard of it before you posted here and i've lived in melbourne nearly my entire life!!

I've done a quick look on a few websites and by all reports the median price is around the early $300s for a house which def seems cheap for that area (considering surrounding suburbs). I'm wondering what could be wrong with it haha but it seems like a winner.

I thought you had to own a certain amount of property (i.e. total over $600k accumulated) to beeligible for land tax i.e. total over $600k? or have you already reached that threshold?

Out of curiosity is land tax worked out on a percentage or is it a flat rate?

yield versus capital growth comes down to your overall strategy. a lot of investors are happy to forgo growth in favour of yields as it can provide a quicker way of achieving financial freedom. having said that, some people believe overall wealth accumulation over the long term is far better when you pursue capital growth. it's all relative to what you want at the end of the day.

just be careful not to over stretch yourself especially borrowing at close to 100%, you're leaving yourself wide open financially…

For those of you who didn't get the opportunity to see Nathan in Melbourne, you can find a re-cap on my blog: http://mypropertyjourney.com/2012/03/04/i-is-for-initiative/

Cheers,
Emma

if you're in victoria don't bother with either. with new privacy laws introduced they are pretty much useless.

i agree with a lot of what everyone has said. sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and go for it. make sure you do your due diligence and are comfortable with your decision but don't over analyse things. there are always going to be better deals out there, we can't win them all but we can make informed, decisive choices.

there's some tips on on my blog about how to find a good investment location and also how to create a check list so that you can work out exactly what you're looking for – http://www.mypropertyjourney.com