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Ditto, Turbo.
We had the good fortune to meet one of the founders of “Bonney’s Pest Control”… Claude Bonney, [a real Aussie icon, and so interesting to talk to and learn from], the termites can have nests in trees near a property, he took us out and showed us termites in our old sugar gums near and around our house, we had been getting the house sprayed yearly, but back the the termites would come, sooner or later. Claude found the nests, the queen, destroyed them…[never even had to spray our house], and so far haven’t seen any since.
We inspected an I.P yesterday where bearers had been damaged by the little varmits, and looked around the garden and found their nest in a tree, still partying! [Sometimes it is not visibly evident, you need to bore/drill a wee sample of the trunk to check]….the agent was pretty confident the ants had “been and gone”…. [that is exactly what we did].. Just a rough estimate may have been $7000 or $8000 damage, which is fine if your happy to take that on board, but it was pretty delapidated and we didn’t know how far the ‘mites had got through in other places.Welcome to the North Central Chefman, good for you, do you know that was my mother in law’s favorite pub…Mother’s Day luncheon roast with a live musician, [to listen to,…. not to eat as well,.. although I haven’t seen him in a while…].
We are over north of Birchip, more Mallee country and a little dustier. Have you given any thought to farm land investing? On and off it has been a pretty dry old 8 years around some of these parts, [some land in about an hours drive radius], is being sold for $350 an acre, others are getting $400 to $580 an acre. Owning farm land freehold means you are able to put this land up for lease, [or lease tender]. Owner pays rates, if you are able to do a bit of due diligence ensure you don’t get the blocks that need a lot of repair, [eg fencing], make sure you have a water supply [in a drought, isn’t that easy!!], but returns can be good, as in dollars per acre, [negotiable], the freehold owner still gets their lease money, despite what unfolds with the weather,some leases can be 5 year terms, [ though droughts don’t usually last forever..is it sounding a bit like investing in residential property?]. The funding of buying this land would be rural or something tricky like that], from our limited enquiries 60 to 70%, so its not like you can zip in and 95% LVR. There have been a lot of farmers have to sell up or lease out to farmers who have weathered times a bit better, I think there was a 5000 acre property bought at Litchfield, [not far from Donald], by some SuperFund recently, they are not the only ones we have heard of either, [SuperFunds buying farms that is..]. ..There was a 20 acre [irrigation with a crop on it], property, plus a rentable house sold over north of Swan Hill not long ago for $85,000, house to rent, land to lease and crop to sell, we missed out, not quick enough.
These small towns like Donald, Charlton, Boort, Birchip etc are all hanging in there despite tough times, a credit to their communities. Really nice country people like you say, some selective opportunities for IP’s and rental properties, using the old problem/solution=profit scenario. ….Good luck in the Shamrock Chefman, St Pat’s Day should be good! Is that bullocks head still hanging over the river? Regards, Pam and Red.
