Hi Gurkosh,
One of the age old questions to reno or not to reno. It really comes back to your target market and comparative sales in the area.

Personally I think there are two types of renos. Cosmetic and a full. I don’t like it when you see houses with some new elements but not others.

You can often find for semi renovated houses people always have something to pick at especially if they are owner occupiers and on the other hand an investor will see that it has been semi renovated and deem it is not worth the price. He then buys an unrenovated property up the road for a good price and does a cosmetic reno or even a semi reno for minimal cost.

For your situation you might just want to do a paint, floors and light fittings. These alone can be done for cheap and look great for minimal cost and input.

It is not only a dollar figure. There will be time spent either DIY or managing tradies, the normal reno stress etc etc. You would wanting to be making 20% ROI from the reno.

Get on to agents in the area, got to open houses and do your research to see if it can be justified.

Along with Nearmap and Google some councils have very good websites which shows maps with zoning and measurement tools etc. Subdividing can be a daunting process but have trust in the experts that you utilise. They are experts for a reason. Half the problem is finding the site which ticks all the boxes.

On the house is not to bad. The CBA Iphone app is quite good. It is linked to RP Data and realestate.com.

What sort of reports are you after?

Areas, state, boom towns?

I purchased Terry Riders out of interest. It isn’t to bad but if you buy more than one the cost can ad up.

I have also bought a property report from RP Data before which cost 30 dollars it was fairly accurate and was within 5K of a valuers valuation.

Pending the area subdivisions can either cost an arm and a leg or they can be surprising and be relatively cheap compared to what you are getting.

DHA in smaller cities are pretty good for capital growth. However in the bigger cities DHA houses are futher out from the CBD in less desirable areas as the rent Military members pay to rent them is accross the board. So therefore if a Military member is renting a house in Windsor in Western Sydney is the same as what they would pay renting a DHA apartment on Sydney Harbour. Therefore DHA pay more rent to you as opposed to balancing it with the Military members contribution.

I think your properties have done pretty well considering the GFC however not as well as properties in the southern states.

The problem I see with DHA is there isn’t much flexibility with rent and you have to sell it with a lease. They also charge 16,5% management fees and as DHA tenant who also has a property portfolio I would be disgusted if my agents managed my houses as DHA do. DHA’s properties as far as I am concerned are a little over priced and there isn’t room for negotiation. If you take into consideration the price, management fees, and the rent which is never the top you could get if it were rented on the normal market return wise they are about even. Adding to this that not many properties in the southern states are in high growth areas. DHA houses have to more or less be brand new which pushes the areas they can be further and further out as there are limited new houses in the city and there specs are as you mentioned very specific. Which inner city houses do not normally have.

Property is a long term asset so if you do sell Medowie you may be robbing Peter to pay Paul. Why don’t you mix it up and try a mining area or a high growth capital city location? Diversity can be the key.

I think you need to review your long term plan. DHA are a very non agressive sort of investment. If you are happy for them to slowly grow and have a good nest egg in 20 years time great but if you are looking for shorter term goals I would be looking at something else.

Which reminds me I need to contact DHA about the leak in the wall they said they were going to fix a month ago

Q,
I actually received in the mail yesterday a letter and fact sheet from the ATO in regard to your question and other situations in regard to the floods, property and claims. The letter said that I had a property in the area that was flooded or they had been informed I had a flooded property by centrelink.

You might be able to download this from the net or give them a call to send you a copy.

You would contact council and a surveyor. A surveyor can give you an initial indication and for a small fee a more detailed indication.

You can submit an offer subject to a due diligence clause. This will allow you to secure the property and pull out of the deal should your research show that the property cannot be subdivided.

You have to be aware that until the property is subdivided nothing can be taken for granted. There may be 95% chance it can be done but until l it has been signed off by council it is not 100%

Ah the million dollar question. QLD has been quiet for some time now. Many people expected it to be this year but the floods have put that back and the mining tax may also be slowing it.

There will not be a true indication of prices for about another 12 months once alot of the re building have been completed. An agent I spoke to today regarding my property is that even once is has a schmick reno it will still be worth 10-20 percent lower that what it was originally worth.

I hope a boom does come soon as I am jealous of Melbourne and other cities that have taken off lol