Forum Replies Created
I feel obligated to point out that the line in the bible quoted here is not “money is the root of all evil” as is so frequently quoted.
It is in fact “the love of money is the root of all evil”
Makes a big difference.Keep smiling
Felicity
Hi Rubbachook
You could try talking to a property investor or wrapper, I know I regularly pay investors 15% on their funds so that I don’t have to find my own deposits.Keep smiling
FelicityIf you submit a WRITTEN offer in Victoria (and usually have to pay a holding deposit too) then the agent is legally bound to present the offer to the vendor.
I now there is one agency I’ve dealt with a few times where I doubt very much that any of my verbal offers get past the sales manager. I know the agent I deal with there is getting very frustrated with the manager blocking things.
As a recent example, I put a reasonable offer on a house. The vendor counter offered a couple of thousand higher, I agreed (but at this stage the only written offer was the original one).
At this stage I started getting feedback that the stumbling block was the deposit – I’d offered $5000 as opposed to 10%. I was told that without a 10% deposit, the deal was off.
I stood my ground, and that was it.
I’ve wondered since whether it was really the vendor who had this concern, or the sales manager who wanted to see enough money in the trust account to cover the commission….
Or maybe I’m just being cynical! []Keep smiling
FelicityThe problem with the word “retirement” is that it conjures up images of grey haired men and women shuffling along on the bowling green…..
My hubby and I are no longer in “paid” employment, but with everything going on in our family’s life, retirement is not a word I would choose! []Keep smiling
FelicityPS Crikey, just worked out I’m expected to live to 91!
Better go and check hubby’s life expectancy…Hey SIS
Maybe you need to get people to SMS you…
Or have a messagebank message that suggests it. []Keep smiling
FelicityHi sis
and if I was a teacher and you were in my class and answered your mobile, I’d kick you out too.
Just like I’d regularly like to kick people out of meetings, lectures, performances, movies etc where they don’t have the common courtesy to turn off their phones.
If it’s that important to get a call, put it on vibrate and leave the room before you answer. It’s incredibly disruptive to everyone else if it rings, let alone if you answer.
Now I’m off that hobby horse… []
I have to agree with the comment that teachers have actually had some very good improvements in salary over the last few years. I do the pays for the staff at kinder, and last year I worked out that in the previous year (1 year!!) the average pay increase was 16% over all the staff.
As staffing costs are our main expense, how much chance do you reckon I had of convincing the parents to cough up an extra 15% to cover that?
The corresponding increase in government subsidy for 4yo kinder students hardly even scratched the surface.Keep smiling
FelicityYou can also try http://www.groups.msn.com/PropertyInvestment
Keep smiling
FelicityTalk to another bank!!
Keep smiling
FelicityHi CornelBasson
Remember how many rental properties there are and think about how many this sort of stuff really happens to, and relax. Yes, it happens, but not frequently.
Now that you’re relaxed, make VERY VERY sure you have at least building insurance with a public liability element, and if you can’t afford to cover cashflow if your rental property is out of action for a few months, or a big repair bill, get landlords insurance too.
Yes, it costs a few hundred dollars up front, and hopefully you will never need it, but I can tell you one thing, if you’re in a situation where you need it and you DON’T have it, and don’t have the money to cover the problem, you are REALLY going to regret it.
Horror tenant stories shouldn’t scare you, they should encourage you to be prepared for every eventuality.Keep smiling
FelicityNoel is the same as any other person with theories on investing – you take everything they say, churn it all together with a big pinch of salt, and come up with what suits you and works for you.
Keep smiling
FelicityKiwi
If you have enough equity to make it worthwhile selling your home (ie after commissions etc), why not refinanec it and get a line of credit against that equity? Then you could use that to start investing, and still have your home.Keep smiling
FelicityHi Moonrock
I’ve yet to find any lend above 80% LVR that doesn’t involve mortgage insurance. Quite often even below that level, the loan is still mortgage insured, even if you don’t pay the premium.
As for loans without LMI, they are around, I’ve found a couple at 80%, but mostly you’re looking at 75% LVR or less.
It probably all comes down to numbers. I borrowed at mostly 90% initially, even with the LMI premium, because the LMI only cost a couple of $1000, whereas supplying another 10% to avoid it cost me $15000. So borrowing more spread my funds further.
However that can’t go on forever! Even if your serviceability holds up and you still have deposits, at some point the mortgage insurers will consider themselves overexposed and pull the pin on you anyway. About the only way to avoid that is to buy properties in different areas. I’ve been told I can get LMI if I buy in Tassie, but not in Melbourne.Keep smiling
FelicityPerhaps it is simply a case of, there are only so many subjects on which to express an opinion, and only so many times it’s worth expressing the same opinion. [
]Keep smiling
FelicityTerryW
Not sure about other states, but in Victoria you can only use the and/or nominee clause to transfer property to a related party (ie your spouse, or a company you’re a director of etc).
The only time you can transfer it to a non related party is if you have an existing agreement (ie JV agreement) in place prior to signing the offer.
Otherwise double stamp duty applies.
Makes flipping prior to settlement a heck of a lot harder.Keep smiling
FelicityPerhaps you would prefer the word “Labelling” rather than branding.
To quote Kay Henry:
“I think they are unethical.”
And your reply:
“I couldn’t agree more with Kay”There is also a big difference between reducing your taxes by all legal means available to you, and tax evasion, which is illegal.
I think that everybody has the right to structure their affairs in any way they can to utilise existing tax laws to their benefit.
But earning cash income and not declaring it is tax evasion, and that’s illegal.Keep smiling
FelicityMatt
I find your ethics interesting.
You brand wrapping, which is fully legal (in most states) as unethical, and yet you consider earning cash income and not declaring it, which is illegal, okay? [?]Keep smiling
FelicityJust before Christmas I went and visited all of my wrappees to deliver a Christmas hamper.
All I can say is – it totally reinforced to me why I continue to wrap. They are all so ecstatic to finally be in their own home, they’re having a ball improving their houses, and quite a few of them already have plans about when they’ll be able to move into mainstream banking finance (not non-conforming).
Yes, I make some money too, and none of them have a problem with that (we talk about that before they even enter the contract).
Maybe the wrap scenario isn’t perfect, but when someone bursts into tears and hugs me because they were so thankful that their 2003 Christmas was going to be totally different to 2002 when they felt at rock bottom, all because of me apparently, I can’t accept that it’s all bad.
The more I do this, the more I enjoy dealing with the people who buy my houses.Keep smiling
FelicityOr you could find someone to wrap a house to you, pay the loan down for a year and then try again to move into mainstream finance.
Keep smiling
FelicityBrendan
You’ve made some very big generalisations in your post, most of which are not always correct.
“I feel it is taking advantage of people who are not too smart”
I certainly don’t plan to suggest to any of my buyers that they’re not too smart, I hardly think they’d be impressed. Sorry, but I think this common suggestion that somehow people only buy into a wrap because they’re not smart enough to know better is incredibly condescending.
“charging them huge interest”
Says who? Most of my buyers are paying around 9%, and that was with basically 100% finance. I’d like to see one of the non-conforming lenders offer a rate under 10% in that scenario (which they never would, because they don’t lend 100% to any borrowers with “issues”)
“overpricing the property to start with”
Again, says who? Using Rick Otton’s strategy, the idea is to buy the property under market value and onsell it fairly close to market value. I certainly don’t mark up my properties by huge margins, mostly they’re no more than $10k above fair market value – which allows for the fact that it costs me around $10k to buy the property in the first place.
“If someone can not get finance then a wraper should not set them up to fail only to take the house back of them and leave them worse than they started.”
This is a common fallacy, that because someone can’t get finance, they’re a bad financial risk. Sorry, but this is rubbish in my experience. Peopel can’t get finance for a multitude of reasons, most of my buyers have been knocked back because of credit issues, lack of deposit, cash based income, permanent casuals etc etc. They often earn quite good money, it’s just not the sort of money that banks and other financial institutions recognise as valid income.
I also don’t EVER go into a wrap hoping it will fall over – if anything I go too far the other way, doing everything I can to make a wrap work. Out of all my buyers I have one guy who’s had some job issues, and has missed far too many payments – but he’s still in the house, and we’re working on a way for him to continue on.
Brendan, I appreciate that you want to protect people, but at least if you’re going to start making accusations about where the wrap process is unfair, don’t repeat the ridiculous generalisations floated around in the media without basis in fact for most wrap deals. Yes, some people do some crappy things when it comes to wraps, just like they do in most businesses. But that doesn’t mean that everybody operates the same way.Keep smiling
FelicityPaulpaul
Why does he have to be either? Maybe he’s somewhere in the middle – a man with lots of strong opinions who gets lots of media coverage.
Personally I regard Neil in the same way I regard most information I receive – I read/listen to what he says, analyse it for myself, and determine my OWN opinion.
I don’t think any guru is truly an “angel” (sorry Steve! []) – in the end they are all human beings, and all human beings have their moments when they are less than perfect in some way. Perhaps instead of elevating people to guru status, we should stick with accepting they’re humans who’ve been very successful at a certain field of endeavour, and value their information on how to duplicate that, instead of assuming that they will be just as successful at other, unrelated things or that somehow that success makes them perfect in every way.Keep smiling
Felicity
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