Forum Replies Created
Thanks Scott. I'd understand if this was the purchaser trying to fill in gaps for themselves, but they're asking because their pest inspection company "recommends" that they ask these questions "as part of their [i.e. the inspector's] disclaimer." I think the purchaser is being ripped off, and I feel as if I'm getting caught up in something that's really none of my business. It just feels wrong.
OTOH we really want this sale to go through, so maybe I'm just jumpy.
Just one comment; try to find a way to provide bench and storage space as well as the appliances. You’re describing a family home: chances are they’ll need at least one laundry basket and 2 dirty clothes hampers – awkward things to store.
Otherwise, great idea.
Ghoti
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
We have one. We call it the disaster plan.
For us, facing the possible disaster of divorce and then working out a way to deal with it was both a sign of trust and part of building trust.
Different strokes for different folks I guess.
Cheers,
Ghoti
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
Our home… I mean our PPOR… backs on to a big park with 2 sports ovals and a bowling club as well as a kids playground. We have a high, ship-lapped back fence for privacy and security.
We have been burgled; they came and left through the front door.
I love the park for its trees; it gives us the pleasure of big trees without any maintenance issues, and they make the yard feel about 5 times its real size.
I think it’s a matter of location and personal preference.
Cheers,
Ghoti
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
Here’s the transcript of the PM story. http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2004/s1116631.htm
I thought the most interesting thing about it was the wildly different result on Sydney prices between APM and Residex. That chimes with other reports I’ve been seeing, notably from Alan Kohler, that residential property statistics are very unreliable.
gmh54 (any relation to the Kingswood?) thanks for pointing out the rising influence of China and Europe on global money flows. I hope that will counterbalance the effect of US interest rate movements on Australia: US rates go up, Oz dollar drops, import prices rise, inflation rises, Oz interest rates rise. That’s a simple one; it can get much more exciting very quickly if you think about ongoing effects on the US economy. But the main point is that it will be good to have a few more balance points in the system.
Ghoti (ready to buy when the price is right)
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
I’ve learnt that when you fly 800 miles or so to stay with dear friends and incidentally to look at IPs you hire a car. The dear friends mean it when they offer you the use of their 2nd car while you were in town, but when you actually arrive they get nervous.
I’ve also learnt that friendships can survive property investment, but it takes effort.
Ghoti (the wheels deprived)
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
Hmmmmmm…
I guess it all depends on how lawmakers see the problem. If the problem is that too many people can’t afford the price of a roof over their heads, then increasing the GST rate looks like a very doubtful solution at best.
Did anyone predict the NSW tax on profits from sale of property? It seems to have come as a complete surprise, which might be a warning that trying to guess what governments will do is tricky unless they start leaking, and even then it’s hard to tell whether they’re softening us up or testing reactions.
I’m not an economist either. I’m just trying to decide how to estimate capital gain in deciding whether or not to buy. Right now we have no debt and money in the bank on 5.25%. The cash is for renovations to our PPOR; we won’t borrow for them. But I’m finding it hard to justify borrowing for another property purchase, even cash flow positive, when I think current values are unsustainable and the rules that affect future values are under active review.
Just risk averse I suppose. Maybe I’ll go get a margin loan and buy some biotech stocks [tongue]
Ghoti
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
Thanks Derek. That’s the first case I can think of where a compensatory tax concession stayed in force as temporary taxes so often do [cap].
However, this further reinforces the idea that present tax treatment is overly generous. Let’s say negative gearing remains too hot to touch: what changes to depreciation or CGT treatment do people think might be on the drawing boards?
Actually, just asking the question suggests that fiddling with depreciation allowance would also be extremely politically “courageous”. Which kinda leaves CGT, or something completely new. Anyone got any thoughts?… nightmares??
Ghoti
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
Did that 17 years include the last attempt to abolish negative gearing? Do you remember what the exact terms of the change were? By that I mean, presumably the legislation (regulation?) didn’t say “negative gearing is abolished”, but something about “deductions for interest on loans to purchase investment residential property are not allowable”. Also presumably, some interest was still deductible under some circumstances; do you remember what they were?
I know politicians and others regularly make noises about negative gearing and last time investors managed to make a bigger noise. But speaking as a citizen as well as an investor, I think the tax treatment of residential property investment is excessively generous and will have to change sooner or later.
Cheers,
Ghoti
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
OK it was a flip way of stating a serious general opinion. Sticking firmly to property implications, I think you need to restate your criteria. Something like:
What areas – geographical or industrial – in Australia will gain from an FTA with the US? Of those areas, which ones do you think would both (a) not gain from trade with the US in the absence of an FTA, and (b) not gain from trade with other parts of the world? Of those areas, which ones do you think are so certain to gain as a result of the FTA that the gain influences your investment decision.
I can’t think of any – which doesn’t mean they don’t exist and maybe you can. Still, when I look at prospects for growing export industries, I think they’re better if the focus is more on countries in “Rest of the World”.
As to the FTA in general, I think the pain for Australia as a whole is likely to be much greater than the gain. Nothing’s all bad, or all good for that matter, and you or I might find a way to make it work for us. But IMO it would still be a bad deal for the country.
Peace
Ghoti
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
Personally I am not interested in investing in property in the USA.
Ghoti
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
So sorry we missed you all. We found the SMH stand about (all watches are confused today) 10:25 after a bit of a hold-up getting in, but didn’t recognise anyone so just kept wandering until we had to leave – just before Margaret Lomas started speaking. We’ve brought home lots of stuff, probably as much to do with share trading software and franchises than with property. In addition to all the free stuff I bought Margaret Lomas’ latest book and The Property Maintenance Handbook from Jerry Tyrrell. No time to invest: I’m too busy reading.
Did anyone count the number of canal developments in south east Queensland that were on display?
Ghoti
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
Two more for tomorrow morning. If you see a pair of grey-haired lovebirds sharing happy delusions of teenhood it’s probably us.
My main interest in the expo is the commercial property seminar, which starts at 11.30. Apart from meeting forum folks of course.
Ghoti
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
“I can see where Rugbyfan is coming from, but it wasn’t done to “scare” anyone… we have no control over every person’s interpretation, so it comes down to the individual…”
On the other hand, Richmond, part of the newsroom’s professional skill is to know your audience. That knowledge is one of the critical influences on how stories are selected, written, presented, and followed up. If it weren’t, you wouldn’t have the ratings you consistently do.
Ghoti
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
Aha!! But they were too quick for this one, about the timing and reliability of real estate information.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/17/1079199293378.html
Hi Bear,
The game I’ve noticed under discussion is Robert Kiyosaki’s “Cashflow 101”. There’s also a Cashflow 202, which uses the same board with different cards. Both are described as educational games, set up to teach Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad” principles of money management and wealth building.
You can find online stores that sell it, but if you haven’t tried it you might like to give it go before you buy. Look for gatherings in you city where you can play it with people who have a bit of experience with the game. There are a few websites where these get organised.
We went to one around 3 years ago. We enjoyed it, though the day got a bit lost in the excitements of getting married not long after. I’ve been thinking about it recently (the Cashflow day that is; I think about being married quite often), because one of the organisers said she was now living on the income from property investments. She also said she couldn’t find anywhere in NSW that met her buy criteria. Don’t know what her criteria are, and I’d love to know if there’s anywhere in Oz now that meets them.
Hope this helps
Ghoti
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
Danger Will Robinson!!
In NSW Land Tax was payable this year if the combined UCV of your properties, apart from your PPOR, on 31 Dec 2002 was $261,000 or more. The threshold for 2004 is $317,000. One house in Sydney might create Land Tax liability; two almost certainly will.
In Victoria the Land Tax threshold for 2003 is $150,000. I’m not all that familiar with prices in Melbourne, but that seems very low to me.
Details at http://www.osr.nsw.gov.au/
Equivalent sites for other states are:
Tasmania: http://www.treasury.tas.gov.au/
Victoria: http://www.sro.vic.gov.au/
Queensland: http://www.osr.qld.gov.au/
South Australia: http://www.revenuesa.sa.gov.au/
Western Australia: http://www.dtf.wa.gov.au/cms/osr_index.asp
ACT: http://www.revenue.act.gov.au/r_ltax.htmlNT does not charge land tax.
The rapid capital growth over the last few years has brought many people into the Land Tax net who haven’t realised it yet. The nasty part is that many won’t realise it until they go to sell a property. They might then discover that they’re up for several years tax which should be paid the sale goes through.
Is that what happened to your colleague Mopsy? It happened to us, which is why I’m so clued up on it.
As for what it does to your +ve cf property… I guess that depends on how +ve it is. Land Tax is just one more cost of ownership.
Good luck,
Ghoti
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
I know about community gardens and I’ve met several systems for distributing nutritional supplements and alternative health care products. But the thread got onto those things from talking about venture-capital and investment in alternative housing materials as ways to rebuild social capital.
Those sounded to me like big things that Other People do. I got to wondering how people like us, who receive some or all of our income as residential rents, might use our properties to rebuild social capital and/or to contribute to other common resources, such as clean air and water. Not just win/win for owner and tenant, but win/win/win for owner, tenant, and the general population.
Make sense? Anyone doing anything like this?
Ghoti
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Without music, life would be a mistake.
My first thought about this was that I’d rather put the money towards a box at the 2004 New Year Test. My next thought was maybe this is off-shore. My final thought was, CG would probably be excellent on a box at the SCG, if only…
I don’t know much about units [
]With reference to the “liquidation sale”, if the deadline is real they have 7 days to sell 7 units. $200,000? – I don’t think so. I know the house market in the area pretty well, but I don’t know much about units (see above) and I don’t know where the good buy price would be. Assuming there is one.
Ghoti (with prematurely festive flippancy)
Without music, life would be a mistake.
The agent says his instructions are to sell by Christmas; he told the vendor that if that’s a serious instruction then the price has to be serious; the sign is intended to attract attention, which it certainly did.
The units are for sale singly – i.e. the entire block is not for sale (I think because the vendor doesn’t own it all). Some are tenanted at between $120 – $147 a week. Some are renovated, some aren’t. They’re small – 34-35 sq. m. The agent suggested they might suit someone who lives elsewhere and wants a Sydney base. He did not call them superb investments, which strikes me as a point in his favour.
One not so usual feature is that part of the land is on a 3-year lease “by the strata” (does that mean by the body corporate?) to the RTA “for parking”. I didn’t follow that up, but it might indicate a small income to the body corporate, which might enable lower strata levies and/or better maintenance than other similar blocks. However I’d say there’s also a strong possibility that the RTA will want to buy the land some time, which would probably not be good for the value of the units.
Obviously they aren’t +ve cashflow, but if anyone wants a really cheap unit in a not-so-good (aka busy) road in a pretty good suburb in the 5-10km ring from the Sydney CBD, they might suit. I’ll email more info if anyone wants it.
Ghoti
Without music, life would be a mistake.
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