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Hi Dreamscape
I’ve sent you a personal email with my thoughts and ideas as well as a link.
This is something we’ve often considered but always ruled out, due to the concern that family relations could be affected in a bad way. I think that with property investment there is a real likelihood of differing opinions and this could cause some tension between family members.
Just my opinion – saying that, I’m sure there are loads of people out there who have success stories of investing with families.[biggrin]
Many thanks Elkam and Paul – I’ve taken your suggestions on board and we are going to propose doing 3 valuations by independent registered valuers (paid half by us and half by her). We will then ask her to choose a solicitor to do the paperwork.
Yes Elka I agree, the last thing we want to do is to take advatage of her – or have any of her relatives think that we are. And yes, I am concerned that her relatives could just come along and put it on the open market.
Thanks Paul – your suggestion makes absolute sense. I could prepare some of the docs myself, but it would make more sense to have someone totally independant so no concerns about them being biased towards us. Now I just have to find someone to do it – and arrange to have a cuppa with the neighbour to discuss it all!
Ha I am a solicitor [biggrin][biggrin]
Looks like I need to get in touch with one of my old mates!!!!
Hi all. As well as being into property, I’m also an Intellectual Property Lawyer – happy to assist without charge anyone who has any IP questions that are not too time consuming (maybe in return for answering my property-related questions!!) just email me on [email protected]
Sorry Misty I misread your email – thought you just wanted to do a title search, which will show the current owners and whether they have a mortgage or any other debts secured against the property.
When doing the search you can request all the other “no extra charge” documents available and in Victoria this can include the mortgage registration document – some of my searches have shown a stamp in the corner which has details of how much stamp duty was paid and you can work out from this how much they paid for the property. BUT I don’t know if/how you can find out what’s still owing.
Hope this helps – although again, this is only my experience, not legal advice!
Hi Misty
I’m a lawyer but not a property lawyer. I do all my searches including title searches on lawpoint.com.au However, to do them online you have to suscribe – not sure if its only legal firms who can suscribe. Even if you don’t suscribe though, they will do “one-off” searches for you and email them to you – give them a call.
An easier option would be to go down to the land titles office – I’ve never done a full title search this way so again, best to phone them to find out how much and where to go.
BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE VOLUME AND FOLIO NUMBER AND FULL PROPERTY ADDRESS.
Good luck!
NB the above isn’t legal advice, as I don’t specialise in the property law area – it’s just what I do based on my own opinion and beliefs.
Yeh I agree, you you have to be quite tough sometimes. I’m too soft, but my husband is just great at negotiating – we got great deals with our property managers because he quietly and politely keeps pushing during the conversation until the agent backs down – or comes to a compromise. He also recently bought a new car and sat quietly calmly haggling for ages whilst I sat beside him squirming!!! Some people just have a knack of staying cool as a cucumber in situations like these – goodness knows how they do it!! [wacko]
Yes I agree – Large, closely planted trees and a VERY tall fence (if council regs will allow it). Many some wire ontop if security an issue.
Also consider double glazing – very good for keeping out traffic noise so would surely be a big help.
If the bedroom is nearest the tracks, consider relocating it – better to have the bathroom there I reckon.
Oh – and ear plugs!!!
I’d recommend phoning around the local real estates and asking for names of registered valuers – they’ve always been only too pleased to help us with this issue.
Dominico, I think it depends on the property, the area and the type of tenant you’re looking to attract. We have one IP in a lovely, quiet, secluded area and none of the tenants have given a hoot about public transport as you have to have a car to live there.
On the other hand, the young houseshare tenants in our inner city property just LOVE the fact that Blockbuster Video, KFC and Red Rooster are just a few doors away! They’re not concerned about parks or good schools, but another big attraction was the fact that the train station is 2 minutes away – trains are always a big plus I’d say.
Dominico, sometimes negative things can be great for an investor – you can get a really good deal on a property that other buyers dismiss outright. This happened with one of our IP’s that is next door to a car mechanics – can’t hear a thing through the walls, in fact can hear more from the neighbours the other side. We have friends who bought a property dirt cheap because it was on a really busy main road. They double glazed the front room windows which considerably reduced the noise and relocated the bedroom to the back – now no problems whatsoever – and they have 101 shops, restaurants etc literally on their doorstep. When you find a “cheap” property with a “problem” treat this as a plus and see if you can find a solution.
Snowflake, not sure if you’re talking about building one or making an existing property dual occupancy, but we just bought a dual occupancy property in Victoria – it’s 2 houses back to back, one is 40 yrs old and the other about 100, but no dual occupancy certificate so strictly speaking its not legal to have it as 2 properties. It depends a lot on how strict the council are in your area. If you’re talking about using an existing property as dual occupancy without getting a dual occ cert then I’d suggest look at all the property rental ads in the area to see how many of the “1’bedroom, all bills included” type properties (ie on the same block as another house) are advertised and also speak to the property managers in the area themselves – it seems that in some areas “everybody does it”, but I don’t know whether councils in the inner suburbs would be so lenient – you just have to weigh up whether its worth taking the risk.
If you’re talking about building a dual occupancy, then first things first – check out the zoning on the zoning certificate – or call the Planning Dept of the council. Some zonings totally prohibit it. Does anyone else know any more?
Hi John
We looked around the Gippsland area but ended up buying in a place called Warburton in the Yarra Valley – its an incredibly beautiful tourist area and there have recently been two approvals for two big tourist resorts – word is that it will become another “Daylesford” in a couple of years, and also consider it’s less than 1 1/2 hrs from Melbourne, as well a short commute to the towns of Lilydale, Ringwood, Chirnside Park. The agents in the area actually have WAITING LISTS for rental properties so and you can pick and chose your tenants – and the property managers are pretty flexible on their fees. The only downside is that you do have to look pretty hard to find a good CF+ property, but there are some “renovator’s delights” with good potential to do up and make some money – oh and the rents seem to be going up!
What a great inspiring story, Dr X – a great acheivement. The conversation with the cleaner goes back to that subject of negative, narrow-minded people and how many of them there are around. I’ve just finished reading Richard Branson’s biography and it gave me a dose of much needed positivism – I’d highly recommend it.
Thanks for the advice everyone – Agave I agree with you that it’s sad they don’t understand or trust our abilities and judgements. As a result I’ve concluded that it’s best we don’t tell them about our latest acquisition. This is sad as it means we’ll have to hide a lot from them but I think their negativity would be more damaging in the long run – especially as I think they’re starting to get to my husband – despite all our calculations, careful planning etc etc he said to me last night “maybe my parents have got a point..” Ahhhhhh!
Thanks for that Amanda and Dr X. I’m soo glad there are others out there facing a similar situation. What makes it worse for me though is that I’m seen as the baddie leading their son astray! I totally agree Dr X that they are of totally different mindsets and that we will never see eye-to-eye as in their view, such “huge risks” just aren’t worth taking. However, we do try not to talk about our investing, but it’s difficult when we arrive covered in paint, dust etc after having been happily renovating all weekend and we have to find another subject to talk about for fear of another argument!
