Thanks for your thoughts meakinmaster60, you guys offer great help!
I will remember to keep a cool head regarding PMs.
The buyer agent was fantastic. Very smooth transition from dream to reality and they were always available for queries. I would recommend them to anyone interested in using one. I also used a fantastic mortgage broker. The only…[Read more]

I’m a complicated girl ctaing [stitch]
Thanks for the advice. The accountant doesn’t think there is much point in doing a depreciation schedule because the house was built in the 70’s (and not renovated since then – psychadelic rooms). The only new things it will have are a gas cooker ($610) and a security screen with sliding door ($1630 after…[Read more]

Can anyone confirm that if you let the REA arrange everything from carpet cleaning to key cutting (billed to your monthly account), you can still claim it back as a tax deduction easily?
Also, we are negatively geared and the property is in both of our names (with my mum as garaunteer), but I’m not earning a wage. I spoke to an accountant who…[Read more]

Thanks so much for all the advice! This is a brilliant forum for new investors like me.
I ended up narrowing it down to 2 PMs in the local area that charged less than 9.35% management fee. The cheaper one (8.6% fee inc GST) sent me out a contract and crossed out additional fees and wrote a cheaper price for them all. I decided not to go with him…[Read more]

I emailed agents in the local area via realestate.com.au last night and this is what one of them has sent through:

FEES CHARGED
INCLUSIVE OF GST
Schedule of Fees
Property Management

Management Fees – 9.35% of the gross collection for unfurnished
11.00% of the gross collection for furnished
17.25% of the gross collection for holiday…[Read more]

Being a beginner and looking at the charges outlined, it seemed a little steep to me. It seems that I need to do some phoning around and ask questions about how they deal with unpaid rent, how fast, do they have regular maintenance workers that they use, how many on books? The house is a 1970s 3×1 on 804sqm. We are currently making cosmetic…[Read more]

Interesting points of view! We bought the place through a buyer agent, due to the Perth Market being so heated, our lack of experience and feeling overwhelmed. They inlcuded a property managers details in the report in which a draft contract was included. I know that we don’t need to feel obligated to choose them,but it goes like this:
Management…[Read more]

For real. Thaks for the advice, I’ve got a few different areas in mind and will continue to do research for at least the next 6 months. I hadn’t heard anything about buyers agents until recently on the net, then I found out a friend of a friend went through one. It cost them about $2000 and then one I saw on the net worked out to be nearly $4000!…[Read more]