I am very familiar with DHA houses as an ex military member and from having one in the early 90’s before the boom took off in QLD. They are definately a -ve cashflow investment and the management fees have just gone to 16.5% on a brand new home!!! Have you passed out yet? You do pay an inflated price for the properties because of the guaranteed rent and I had a friend who only got just below market rent for her property for years from them and could not get a rent rise. Also when the glut of them comes on the market at the end of the 9 year lease its very hard to sell and you cannot break the lease and move into it yourself at any time, if you need to sell it must be as an investment property. I’d look elsewhere for putting your dollars to work. HG

I have a tenant with an elderly Mum that he looks after, a voucher for dinner is his present for being a great tenant. Was thinking of a hamper but thought dinner would be nicer. HG

We had huge difficulty with a recent valuation. We have a 3 bed townhouse, two bathrooms right on the beach/lake (limited views) which was valued at 170,000 after a total reno. We were totally shocked and queried the valuation – aparently because of the lack of properties and the fact that if you manage to grab one in this sleepy seaside town then its better than winning lotto, he had nothing to compare it to to value it against, hence the low valuation. The front 2 bed unit 1 bathroom no garage no courtyard but with views just sold for 300,000! So if there have been no sales of similiar properties in the area then be prepared for the shock. It was lucky that we were only using the equity and the 170,000 valuation covered what we wanted to borrow easily. HG

I have a great tenant in one of my properties, he asked if I would consider putting in a garden shed if he did the concrete slab, was happy to do that! Have also bought some sleepers and soil/mulch for him to do a garden bed out the front and he asked if he could paint the pergola to match the downpipes – said go ahead – just loooove those handyman tenants. I am going to give him a gift basket at xmas for being so great, he wants to stay forever and i’m happy to let him! HG

Guys, Guys, I take the weekend off to go away with the other half and come back to see what you have all been up to – what wonderful deals you have made – how you’ve found 50 11 second properties and wrapped 20 deals and I find that YOU HAVE BEEN HAVING FUN [] – i’m shocked! love all the responses shows that we all have a funny side to us. HG

I always start low, you never know how motivated the vendor is to sell and you can always work your way up to a mutually acceptable deal if you wish to. [] HG

thanks Simon, interesting points to consider in the articles. HG

this one has been around a long time but always gets a laugh. As an ex RAAF member is has been attributed to our pilots, Qantas and various military air forces. I have one real life one to add to this one, in 80 was at RAAF Fairbairn in the ACT which had 5 SQN – Iriquois choppers, a new troop posted in was found to be a know it all, so the Senior Engineering Officer and some of the Sergeants decided to test his new found skills, one of them raced up to him and said, quick get off after that chopper just lifting off and signal him to land again, his A.S.H receiver is not fitted correctly, the newby raced off flagging down the chopper to land (whilst the whole engineering bay watched) and told the Pilot that his A.S.H receiver was not fitted correctly, the Pilot looked at him, saw the rest of the Squadron rolling around on the ground wetting themselves and said “Son my ashtray works just fine”. His nickname for the rest of his career – Winfield! HG

2 – Jasper a seal tabby point Birman and Annabelle a seal point Birman. Fluffy blue eyed semi long haired cuties who rule the house. Mainly indoor cats but do go out for a play when Dad comes home from work – always with bells on so the local birdlife have time to bolt before they come a prowling. Annabelle is very protective of her surrounds, one day a small kangaroo jumped onto the vacant land next door, she dropped into the hunting crouch and my Husband laughed so hard – then the roo took off and she went off after it – he didn’t find it so funny having to chase her for 10 mins to get her back home!!!! HG