Choose washable paint, choose a pale colour (magnolia or something similar) that won’t go out of fashion, keep to the same colour throughout the house … it makes the rooms seem light and spacious. Make sure you make a note in your files of the exact shade and brand, so in years to come you know exactly what you need for…[Read more]

1992 Holden Nova for everyday use, and for fun a 1978 rubbernose MGB which my husband has had great fun restoring and on which we hope to get all our money back when we sell.

I would just add that one of the first rules of negotiating is to ask for more than you believe the seller will give you. Then you can concede something that you didn’t really expect to get, and end up with exactly what you really wanted.

In this scenario, I suspect your buyers wanted $15K off the price, so told you the estimate to repair was…[Read more]

Yes, I’ve been a tenant. I like to think that I am a better landlord because of it … I know what used to upset me when I was a tenant (landlords ignoring maintenance requests being the most annoying) so I make sure I treat all my tenants really well (fair rent, all repairs attended to straight away). They must like it, they seem to all want to…[Read more]

Thanks Aceyducey and Kay, best regards investorgirl

Hello again Aceyducey, yes maybe this was perhaps a bit naughty. However, it was posted in the hope of getting some feedback on the book. I felt that people might hold back with their comments if they knew I was the author (rather like when someone says to you ‘do I look good in this dress?’ when you know they are not expecting a truthful reply).…[Read more]

Yes, definitely only the portion of the month, until the new tenant moves in. I also believe that while you are responsible for the cost of advertising (which in your case seems excessively high) you should only be paying pro rata for the reletting fee. So if the agent charges $500 to the owner for reletting, and you only have 3 months left on…[Read more]

I agree with Jarrod. What good tenant is going to want to rent next to the sort of houses you have described? You can’t rely on the council to do up the houses, they might put their plans on hold for years and in the meantime you will be struggling to find a decent tenant. investorgirl

“The Real Estate Rookie – practical advice for the first time residential property investor” by Teresa Wainwright. and published by Choice Books.

I have written this book to provide rookie investors with practical tips on what to look for and what to avoid in a rental property, how to arrange finance, formulate a winning offer, and lots more.…[Read more]

Hi Leo, you might like to read my book, The Real Estate Rookie by Teresa Wainwright, published by Choice Books. It’s been written with newbies in mind, and is available from bookshops or from the Choice website at http://www.choice.com.au regards investorgirl

Cheers guys, I’ll check out your suggestions, thanks again, investorgirl