Have a look through API magazine for the last year. They had an article on setting up syndicates and what you needed to cover in agreements. They described an actual development and how they did it.

That’s a difficult one. I think to find out the true situation you really need to visit and do a proper assessment.

The blurb below is trying to illustrate just how different things are in south east asia to Aus/NZ.

Medical care in Malaysia is very different to Australia and NZ. My wife’s uncle has diabetes and had problems with some of his…[Read more]

Originally posted by Scarecrow7:
I also have the luxury of considering property in Malaysia where the devaluation of US$ is bringing tremendous buying opportunities, so again with calculated risks, there is a selfish silver lining in the A$’s momentum for me.

Good luck Scarecrow7. I’m sure you’ve seen the number of abandoned houses and abandoned…[Read more]

Originally posted by SergeMaton:
The GST is chargeable at 0%

Does this mean I have to register for GST if I’m buying this investment?

Is it possible for me to take the apartment away from the hotel operator and rent it myself as a normal residential rental (for example, if the hotel operator is not performing)? Would this trigger any GST…[Read more]

61m2 for a type “i” 2 bed ground floor apt inc patio.
Type “e” 2 bed 41m2 inc deck

This is another trick these companies use. They include the deck or patio in the floor area they quote.

This sounds like a promising opportunity. If I was looking at it I would also check how big the development is. If it’s got more than about 50 apartments the banks tend to be wary of them, which can make it hard to borrow money on them. This may not be an issue for you but could present problems if you ever need to resell. I looked at a 200…[Read more]

Sounds like a serviced apartment deal to me.

8% won’t pay your costs. You need to be nearer to 10% in NZ.

If it’s downtown Auckland CBD you may have trouble financing it (without additional property as security) and it will be even harder if it is a serviced apartment.

LIM = “Land Information Memorandum” (I think).

It’s basically a copy of the relevant files held at the local council, it can tell you if there are any outstanding issues with the council (such as drainage problems or work that was started and never given final approval).

I think it also tells you about the council rules for the area (like…[Read more]

That story has a bizarre ending. It’s illegal in NZ to ask for more than two weeks rent and four weeks bond on a normal residential rental. The landlord could get into trouble for accepting the $6,000.

I prefer to leave the loan on interest only permanently as long as I can make principal payments should I want to.

This makes it easy to check that the bank is calculating interest correctly.

When I decide I want to reduce the loan balance I just pay some money back.

My ideal loan type is revolving credit as this gives you full control of what happens.

muppet, I’m curious to hear what you think after you have been to the sales pitch.

I also did the calculation on the richmastery seminar, I assumed 500 participants (from counting tables in the photos) and $1,000 profit per head. Not a bad way to get $500k and I think they are running two seminars in October.

I can see when the current property…[Read more]