Between us some friends and we own 9 properties in Morwell. Yields are very good even now. When we bought we were buying in the $80k bracket and so we have had some surprisingly good capital growth. Management is the big thing in both Moe and Morwell. A good manager is worth gold and a poor one can cost you a lot of time and money. You can still…[Read more]

I do it. Followed the outline in SM’s book and bought in areas that gave me yield. The funny thing was I’ve had good capital growth as well. I only buy ex-Housing Commission properties in Victoria. I imagine they are in what you might call dodgy areas. They do need good management but I could not have got into property any other way. The secret is…[Read more]

I don’t want to get into a drawn out argument. My point is quite specific. I think I did not get my money’s worth. No more no less. I have paid 1% of the price to attend a property function, where it was made clear to me that I would be pitched to, and got more. So good was it in fact I went back the next year. I am far from a sceptic.
There…[Read more]

I won’t be returning for Sunday. I am unhappy that I’ve had to sit through a series of pitches for products some of which have a tenuous connection to investing in property. The straw that broke the camel’s back was Aussie Rob. 90 minutes of fluff and pitch. What annoys me most is not the waste of my money or time but that I put off helping some…[Read more]

Just out of interest I went to the Lloyd’s site and took up the option for a free DVD on options. We’ve previously had one from Carly Crutchfield. Anyway had a call from someone at Lloyds and what ensued was a sales pitch for the system, there was a one sided discussion about when I would call back to dicuss my $9900 membership of their option…[Read more]

I managed to buy my first property at 17. It could be done 30 years ago. I had to visit a judge in chambers and he deemed that the various contracts could be enforced against me if I defaulted. Find a lawyer and ask if it is still possible (this was in New Zealand) if you have somewhere in mind. I had vendor financing so no bank was involved. It…[Read more]

Can comment on the paint. We use a water based paint called Aquanamel. In our bathrooms. It comes in gloss and semi gloss dries quickly.
Bunnings would have it I imagine.

The best thing you can do if time is on your side is to do a bit of research. see what your council requirements are for various options AND find yourself a good surveyor. Make sure that the surveyor has a town planner on their staff. The difference between a good and a bad surveyor is months or even a year or more in time as subdivision plans are…[Read more]

hawthorn wrote:
I 100% agree with fatboy i'm an investor from canberra i own 3 properties in canberra and 1 in nsw i went to morwell 2 weeks a go as its an area i've been studying for about 3 months i was amazed at how strongly positive cash flow property was there so impressed that i bought 3 properties with my brother it has cost us $348,000…[Read more]

It is what we do. We don’t sell. We work well under the median house price. Cheapest so far was $86K and most expensive $147K, each yielding a building site. The general rule of thumb for us is that the building on the back should turn the whole proposition into a cashflow positive deal if it is not already. Better if you ask questions of me. It’s…[Read more]

We buy cheap (currently under $200k) properties and subdivide them doing up the existing house and building on the back. We’ve followed a deliberate policy of going for cashflow. we get our capital kick from the subdivisions. We started with next to nothing in our 40’s and made a virtue of necessity. In our longer term plan we KNOW that we will…[Read more]

About October of last year I wrote about buying CF+ve property in the Latrobe Valley. Specifically Morwell. I’m sorry I’ve taken so long to get back to the forum but we were bedding down a subdivision in Geelong.
I was asked a question about Housing Commission areas. Was it wise to buy, subdivide and build in such areas? That is all we do so it’s…[Read more]

There is a lot that can be said about making rather than buying a cashflow positive deal. All of that has been well covered in many posts. The burning question that doesn't get answered is "are there cashflow positive deals available of the sort outlined in Steve's books?".  We have found a place in reasonable proximity to Melbourne where you can…[Read more]

I must agree that finance is not necessarily a problem without an ABN AND in our case a part time work history of only 15 months in Australia. We had about $60k in savings which we brought with us from overseas and as far as the bank knows that’s it.
I was very sceptical about getting finance and only went through the motions with the bank to keep…[Read more]