Had similar problem with a (IMO) dodgy valuation not long ago. Valuer spent barely 2 minutes in the house, took measurements very quickly and was gone within 10 minutes of arriving without asking a single question. Having been through a few valuations I was a bit shocked how this one went and had a bad feeling. Sure enough valuation came in at about $30K below what we felt it should have been. Even allowing for conservative nature of valuers this was ridiculous. Naturally we disputed and I obtained and provided a list of similar properties sold in last 12 mths in our area but all to no avail. Valuer would not budge. Considered getting an independant valuation but as it didn’t effect outcome of our finance application decided not to bother but it still left us shaking our heads.

Our PPOR is a 4×2 B+I, 13 years old, excellent condition with seperate games/home office building. Within a month a property at end of our street came on market and was snapped up within a few days. Same size block as ours, same zoning, non-development, 20 odd yr old, cedar with asbestos roof, 3×1, tired, nothing special sold for just $20K less than our valuation.

We recently purchased an IP that was pretty sound but had been rather neglected. The biggest issue was that the vendor had left the place filthy with years of built up grime, garden neglected, junk piled up, fly screens torn etc. Nothing major – we spent about $200 and a lot of elbow grease to get the place up to scrath. And it really came up well. Unfortunately in our haste to get the placed rented ASAP we allowed the property manager to assess and advertise the house for rent prior to us undertaking the work. Also, despite our gut instinct we let the PM talk us into setting the rent at $165pw rather than $175pw. Result was we had several applicants within a couple of days of advertising and in light of how well the house came up, we definitely should have stuck to our guns and asked for $175pw which is more in line with the current market. Lessons learnt…1) present property to PM and potential tenants in the condition we intend to let it (or at least close to). 2) The easiest way for a PM to rent a property is to offer it below market value rent – good for them, bad for us, 3) listen to our gut instinct, 4) its our property, we call the shots, we should manage the PM not the other way around.

One good thing to come out of all this was that on moving in the tenant (who had only seen the house in its former state) was absolutely thrilled which I suppose creates a bit of goodwill towards us. And she’s been early with her rent so far!

mitm, not use where you are but here in WA most tennants pay for their water usage. Some landlords will go 50/50 during summer months to encourage tennants to keep up the garden/lawns but that’s it. Where the property is equipped with a bore (such as our IP), tennant pays for all water. Pity we can’t pass on the water rates

I’m a project accountant/administrator working within the manufacturing sector. Prior to this I worked as a financial accountant but the long hours didn’t suit after I had my first child. Project Admin/Acct is a lot less stressful and I love it because with each new project comes a new set of challenges and I never get bogged down or bored doing the same thing over and over.

I also worked for many years within the hospitality/tourism industry in Qld doing everything from bar work, watiressing, house-maiding etc. Long hours and low pay eventually got to me so after moving to WA with my husband I went back to school to get my accounting qualifications and have never looked back. The hospitality industry isn’t so bad at the management level so I returned to it for awhile including a stink managing a new resort/hotel in Darwin. I finally got sick of the 24/7 nature of the industry though and swore off it for good.

Are they actually refinancing to access equity or simply selling up and pocketing their CG? Family freinds did this then rolled most of the profit into an annuity which subsidises their pension enough so that they are now enjoying a comfortable retirement.

My advice is look for a more modest PPOR. There are plenty of nice homes around Perth for a lot less than $350K. You can then pay off this mortagage quicker to build up equity to finance your IP’s. Remember most IP’s are negatively geared which means you’ll have to pick up the shortfall in the mortgage. You’ll find it hard if you already have a big mortgage to service on your PPOR. Another thing that we’ve often seen friends and family overlook is that the bigger the house you buy, the more furniture you’ll require to fill it. I’m guessing since you’re both just starting out that you probably don’t have much in the way of furniture/whitegoods etc and like most people your age, much of what you do have is probably of the mix and match type. So ask yourself this – once you’ve got your PPOR for $350K can you then afford to service the mortgage whilst at the same time set up a comfortable home, save towards your IP and then service the shortfall on a IP mortgage/rates etc?

What sort of train is it? If it is electric remember that thse are one of the quietest forms of transport around. In that case you might find that the main road is your biggest issue. Noise will always negatively effect property value but perhaps this is why this house is +geared1?

As an aside a new passenger rail line (electric) and terminus is currently being constructed about 500m (as the crow flyies) from our PPOR. It was proposed when we first inspected the property and being a bit concerned about the effect on property value once constructed we contacted REIWA. Their advice was that generally properties located within 200m radius of railway are negatively effected whilst properties located between 200m-1km radius usually positively effected.

So once you have the construction date, how do you determine the original value to depreciate?