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Thanks Paul: We got that book a week ago – and you’re right – it’s a great educational tool – we learnt a lot from it. As for Birsbane – we went, we had afantastic time – but as you would have read in my previous messages – we had some very strong boundaries in place. All the best, Sooty.
Hi Alffie355: True story!! No matter how many ways we did the sums we can’t find ourselves a cash flow positive property here at the moment. Palmerston is going crazy… have chatted with lots of real estate agents in the past month. They must be sick of us!! But they are all saying the market’s got a bit of get up and go left in it. Moulden is going crazy – but it was overdue I guess. Interesting – Elders have just bought Raine & Horne in Darwin and Palmerston. And today’s paper mentions a couple of ex-elders agents going into business with another estate agent. There’s movement at the station … Anyway – I would love to buy in this area again – but it’s getting tough and I guess you know what they say about having all your eggs in the one basket!!
Thanks Adam: I cut and pasted these Myth Busters for future reference.
Whoops – I meant ADAM not Ada.
I have had solid, reliable advice from contributers to this site such as Ada, Simon and Derek – you will find their comments in this thread. My husband and I took their advice seriously, we used it and have benefited from it.
Sounds like you already have a good idea of the important people to catch up with when you visit.
One thing we found was to ask the same set of questions to everyone … it might make you sound a bit lame at tiimes – it certainly helped us determine who was “safe” to listen to. We listened out for consistent advice.
The other thing we did was ask everyone who offered us advice about the properties they owned, and about any recent purcheses they had made. Got to tell you, a startling amount of ADVISERS and REAL ESTATE agents either do not own their own property or have not purchased in recent times. This is important to me … right now I am dealing with a broker who freely admits that he is an investor – he will probably sit back a bit (all the others did!!!) when I get a little specific and start asking for details! (Bit of an advantage having a media background – I do know how to ask the questions!!!
Keep reading the forums here – look forward to hearing how things are for you.
No – but we have been meeting with a broker. Will let you know what we get up to. BTW, have emailed you with a couple of thoughts on local issues … let me know what you think.
Cyclist, I am not “storing up riches on earth” – I am doing my best not to be a pain in the proverbial to my kids when I reach pension age and the pension is no longer available …
Funny thing about the Christian scene Steve … someone expressed grave doubts that hubby and I could possible have a Christian faith AND be pursuing property acquisition … now we’re struggling to know what one to give up!!! (LOL).
My my … what must they be saying about you Steve!! Oh, I know, they could quote scripture, “What would it profit a man to gain the whole world (now that’s a LOT of real estate) yet lose his own soul.”
(Just a little fun with I am Sooty, hope you don’t mind too much).
Oh dear – re read my message and thought I sounded uppity re Moulden – I own an IP in Palmy and spent a good portion of my recent Saturday arvo in a potential reno in Moulden doing my scaled-down version of due diligence – do truly believe in the area and the turnaround is almost unbelieveable. Hi-fives to all who invested there in the last 6 years – we’ve certainly doubled our investment!
Thanks for your feedback -we are benefitted greatly from the suggestions from people on this site.
Re Tipperary – we do the rounds every weekend at the moment and have found a couple of goodies – Dinah Court – we didn’t jump on it as it was a little out of our range – but I couldn’t fault the property, location, potential rent – very sweet … and very large 3br apartment.I also think Palmy (!!!) is a safe bet. Have you checked out Moulden lately. Poor suburb with very bad name and not much better reputation – but the tide has turned … what do you think?
By the way – I am still smiling about our brissie trip – no buyers remorse for this little ducky. Also, the book we purchased at the Brisbane airport was Secrets of Property Millionaires Exposed.
I also went into Nexta is Cas today and got the latest Money mag – it had good info re the property market around Aust.
I looked up an interstate property investors club (found them on this site) and they are meeting in Nhullunbuy in March … but I couldn’t see any meetings arranged for Darwin … so now I’m mifffed!!!! Could it be that our Southern folk think that Gove is our Capital!
We had a fantastic time – got back home after 1am – typical airline times into Darwin – back at work this morning!!
Our time in Brisbane was pretty amazing. We spent all day Saturday looking at various properties and areas. Sunday was pretty intense. We spent the morning going through the finances and looking at various options. We spent the afternoon looking at three specific properties that the company was promoting.
As you might know, we had a specific goal and a one specific paremeter. Our goal was to gain as much knowledge as possible, both of the area and the various options available to us. The one guideline to override everything was our unbreakable pact not to sign anything on the day. This was very important to us. It is quite the romantic thing to do, don’t you think, travelling interstate, looking at properties, getting advise from consultants, property analysts and even a lawyer who gave us some advise on Pty Ltds, Trusts and other issues. It would have been all to easy to sign on the line.
We had good leverage – as in we decided when we would take a coffee break and also the lunch break. It helped break the intensity of the sessions and allowed us time alone to reestablish what our boundaries were and what our expected outcome was.
Having said all this – we were were very interested in one property in particular. While we were reiterating with the Lawyer that our intent was to go home and do our own due diligence, we were informed that the property had been taken.
The people we worked with are commited to a 30km radius of Brisbane. I’ve got to say that I am interested in some areas a little further out too.
That night we headed out to the airport and bought a property investment book and a property analysist from Syndey started chatting with us (he saw the book we were buying). He too had good information and this gives us a good contact in Sydney who also works the scene in Brisbane and Melbourne.
Good news, our IP in Palmerston is about to go on the rental market again – and the agent expects to get over $300 a week for it. Considering we owe $144000 we remain very happy with it.
So, what about yourself – what are you thinking about the rest of the Darwin market, apart from the DHA deal. Also – did you know that if you go for a DHA deal in Darwin, Newcastle, Ipswich and somewhere else before the end of April – there is a closing date – then they will refund you the cost of the stamp duty?
Hi there: I am in Brisbane as we speak! We have gathered lots of information throughout the past week – and came with one of Steve’s books, as well as one from Margaret Lomas, plus a property investing mag. We’ve trolled around Brisbane today – checking out various suburbs within a 30KM radius. We also visited with acquantances who are looking to sell their property in Ipswich and took an indepth inspection. They will get back to us with an evaluation.
We have spoken to absolutely everyone we can find regarding the area and what their impressions are of the market (as locals) and devoured every local rag we could find.
The Brissie trip is just a small part of our overall pursuit of knowledge re investing right now. We have already had an appointment with a finance broker (before we left Darwin) and spoken with our bank, so we are informed re our current equity etc.
We have written up our goals for the next month (as per Steve’s templates in Kickstart).
We go into the meeting tomorrow having already explored as many options as we can – and ready to glean more knowledge in order to make some right choices – according to our Goals set out as above. We have our ‘unbreakable pact’ in place – not to sign anything until we have further discussions with our accountant and finance broker and will also chat with a couple of people I have met on this site who have been generous enough to offer their input.
Will let you know how it all turns out. Cheers.PS: Re defence DHA can’t supply enough blocks to meet the public’s demand – as I understand it people wanting to purchase property have had their names put into a ballot to be drawn. Best to check this though. Me thinks govt might regret not buying up the land when DHA offered it to them!
Thanks for feedback. Will consider and let you know the outcome. Re broker – we were going to see our Bank next week – perhaps a broker instead … or …?? Any ideas, we’re open to them. Cheers – back to work for now.
Finished Steve’s Virtual Kick Start disk in the early hours of this morning – I think it goes for two hours!! Very good.
Thanks for your suggestions. We both sat down and reviewed all the advice last night. It was valuable. We will keep looking at the market, keep paying off the consumeable debt and keep learning like crazy.
Just one thing – the housing market is climbing rapidly here – like every couple of weeks the properties appear to be on the rise. Is there a place for purchasing another property before we completeely pay out the debt – or that just a big no-no. We have held off – but know that we are missing out on some significant IP’s along the way.
In short most serious investors will prefer to take interest only loans so they can stretch their serviceability as far as possible. Obviously this is a personal choice but the difference between P and I and I/O can be significant.
What is serviceability? Ability to access the funds??
Thank you for your comments – I need to say clearly – one of the houses we live in the other we rent – so I think that makes one IP … re selling property – this is exactly why I am on this site and actively looking for info, knowledge etc – we are in an expanding market there is growth here for at least the next year. There is capital gains to be had here!!
I am listening to Steve as I write talking about Self Leverage Strategy and buying for scarcity not location.
We are visiting properties for sale each weekend and are looking at whether to sell or to use properties for equity.
Why am I hesitant to think of myself as knowledgeable in any way? Well, we purchased one home and lived in it for 6 and a 1/2 years before purchasing the second home which we moved into, renting out the first. In that time we had not paid any off on the first home. However equity was significant and bank gave us total cost for 2nd home plus purchase costs. In 18 months we have paid off the purchase costs plus a little more which is good. We have the other home (which is now the investment property) on interest only repayments. We have also specifically focused on paying off needless debt which is dwindling rapidly.
I know we are doing RIGHT things – paying off needless debt, buying houses that have fantastic growth. But we think we need to restructure the IP from an interest only. I say THINK here – because we are not sure.
I have more questions – and will stop now …
Thanks Derek: The website is : http://www.premiumfinance.com.au they have been operating 18 months. GUESS WHAT! Steve sent out the Virtual Kick Start Resource, so I have started that tonight … We are on a little journey of discovery. We know that we are infants here – we have just two (2) houses – NO, there is not a Zero missing at the end of that 2 … they are doing very well – one has doubled in value in 8 years and an agent has just recommended that the other one would go on the market for 70k more than purchase price 18months ago. So Steve’s course will help us know what direction we take. That’s it from this little chatterbox!
Thank you for your responses – yes I have had a name change – using my name not hubby’s now. Have learnt a lot from reading the messages on this this in the past week – it’s a bit like a live take on Steve’s books – a chance to see how people actually put it all into practice and tell about it while it’s happening. One thing I got out of it was a reminder of the basic order of processing through property ventures. Will be seeing the bank in the next week to get a clearer picture.
