Hi Anita,
my suggestion would be to phone the real estate agent. The homes may be owner-occupied, in which case the owners have “employed” the agents to sell their home. They usually prefer some notice for a viewing of their home.
Or the property may have tennants who may not appreciate you knocking on the door!
Country people are generally…[Read more]

[biggrin] I like easy questions……….

This site is the best by far !!!!!![inlove]

User friendly, great people, always helpful….

[thumbsupanim] Well done everyone

Diane

Westan is spot on with Mildura news, and the Marina is going to be a big one.

We lived there last year and could not fine +CF properties at that time, Merbein and RedCliffs were experiencing huge price increases also.

It’s definitley a go-ahead area and if people have the resources would do well to invest there.

Maybe you can surf in the wake…[Read more]

Hi Millsy,

we have 2 IP’s where we have property managers and as we are new to property investment this has given us peace of mind that someone who is educated and experienced in property management ( she has her own rentals as well) is looking after our investments.
Have been looking is country SA lately we have found the same – that many small…[Read more]

[happy3] Ditto

Thanks for a great post, & lots of helpful info.

Hope it all goes better than your expectations!!

Diane

A little off topic, but we have looked at a few properties lately that looked good on email photos and the agent told us they “just need minor repairs”.
To say we were absolutley shocked at the condition of these places and the fact that they had tennants in them left us speechless.
eg1 This one had cats living in it, plus was full of damp and…[Read more]

Thankyou both very much.
I have passed the information on.

Diane

Hi Steve,
Always look forward to your newsletter. It has timely topics in an easy to read format.

Thanks also for answering my question on vendor financing.[biggrin]

Appreciate all we learn on this forum too.

Diane

Appreciate that Jeff,
wasn’t sure who to approach first.
Thanks, Diane

Being married to a “fridgey” – the word is – it depends on the make and style of your air con. If over 10 years of age the pads need washing out every 12 months and the tanks need to be flushed out regularly when not in use. Newer models have auto systems which “dump” the water and celtic pads which don’t require such regular…[Read more]

Hi Marissa,
I agree with everyone’s comments.
A thought may be to check the hot water system is big enough to cope with the no. of people who will be using the bathroom.
Also, here in Sa if we, as landlords, install a neatheat unit in the bathroom, we are responsible to keep up the supply of globes (heatlamps are approx $20 each here). May be…[Read more]

Appreciate your thoughts Marc.

We are only very new to investing in property and have tried to follow closely to Steve’s pattern.

What is working for us is buying in towns just outside “boom areas”. We have bought places that have been rented for years and had little/no maintenance in that time – hence we have been able to negotiate good…[Read more]

I guess we were a little peaved anyway. We had made arrangements to view a property, several days in advance – the house was empty. Spoke to the agent on the morning, all was ok, drove 2 hours – no agent in sight, no phone call, contacted the office (another half hour away) and explained. After several phone calls she said she didn’t know where…[Read more]

Thanks for the quick responses.

We are having the valuations done for free as the lender’s valuer did a “bad” valuation the first time, and they offered to do both properties for us.
Also we wanted an idea of how much we could borrow.

We are also tryng to way up whether to sell one property as we haven’t got tennants in there and we could make…[Read more]

Thanks Simon,
We are trying to get all our facts togather before we approach council, but we will do this. A small home is the most suitable option for the space at this stage.

Great idea Mel – except the vacant part of the block is on the corner of two roads!!

We have time so I’m sure an exciting & profitable solution will come.

Cheers, Diane

Hi Twosheds and MM,
hope you don’t mind me adding a couple of questions.
In this case are postcodes considered also? ie if the commercial property is in a town next to a large regional centre that is expanding that direction?
We are having our 2 IP’s revalued this week. The property we are interested in is a group of 4 shops, 2 of which are…[Read more]

Thanks 1HotValuer,
we have the council guidelines and are seeking advise.
Our IP and shed are on 2/3 of the block. The vacant section is on the corner of 2 roadways and we were wondering what we could do with this land other than planting trees on it. It appears it may be a tad small to build a 2br transportable on, we are still researching…[Read more]

This is a subject I’ve often wondered about.
We pay a flat 11% management fee with our PM, and a two weeks rental fee for finding a tennant, and one week’s rent for re-letting.

We did heaps of research and found “other” agents charge the same, but with a list of extras as mentioned above.

Have learned some interesting things by speaking with…[Read more]

I agree with some of the various comments.
Having worked in a high school with 5th generation unemployed students, gave me a reality check. Education is important, however many of these students have no intention of working, they see no benefits in it. Unfortunately the only people they know who work are their teachers, for whom they have little…[Read more]

[happy3] We are buying and holding property.
Trying to keep focussed on our goals and not be wavered by headlines.
We are serious about buying two good investment properties a year, in areas we have researched well.
Appreciate all we have learned from this forum and that we gain confidence to make decisions that affect our future in a positive…[Read more]