I don’t think there is a law against making such comments. It might help your pondering to relay the precise comments in your mind, and remembering the nationality of your tenants, to try and understand why the neighbour feels this way, and address it accordingly.

While Wikipedia can be edited it gives a bit of a guide. Sounds like if it is verbal you cannot do much. Only if it is written, pictorial or published. Depends on which state it occurs in though. It differs quite a bit between states.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_in_Australia

monkeyjai wrote:

1. Should I go with agent to rent out my property?

Up to you but quite honestly, they don’t get paid much considering how much hassle they shield you from. It probably isn’t worth your time to self-manage.

monkeyjai wrote:

2. What are pros & cons of agents rather than self management?

A few big cons of self managing are having to keep across residential letting laws, having to deal with troublesome or non-paying tenants, and realising your insurance company wants to charge you more for your insurance because they deem your property to be at a higher risk of damage or rental default when you attempt to self-manage.

monkeyjai wrote:

3. What are reasonable commission rate for agent? (I’ve read on this forum that it ranges from 5%-10%)

As you say it ranges depending on area. The average is circa 6.5%

monkeyjai wrote:

4. What sort of insurance are required to protect my rental property?

Building insurance including public liability (which may be covered by the owners corporation if such a thing applies to your property… and in your case it will apply because it’s an apartment), plus landlord insurance to cover things like malicious damage, rental default, and rehousing the tenant if your property becomes unliveable due to an event such as flood.

Hi Steven

Well done for saving a deposit at such a young age – and what a great opportunity to get in the market while your overheads are low (still living at home with parents).

We might be able to comment a bit more if we understood how much deposit you’ve saved, and roughly what your salary is.

I definitely would not consider investing there. Too far from a capital city or independently major regional centre. Also there is some reliance on the renewable industry sector which can be a bit turbulent every time the government changes its mind on funding distribution.

The yields on offer would need to be substantially above more major regionals or the metropolitan suburbs for me to even spend time thinking about it…, and the yields are most certainly not substantially above such an average.

Tread carefully with how you finance the original purchase. Your lender won’t be pleased if they suddenly find they hold security over a vacant bit of land rather than what they originally financed which had a house on it. The act of doing the demolition will make the site worth less for a period of time.

It’s quite nice that you returned to let us know how you’re going now after originally posting this thread :) Good on you !

Never mind about the price. It’s not a great investment proposition. Just looking at the holding costs quoted in the ad, it is cashflow negative even if you bought the place without a mortgage.

38067-31611-3604-5922 = – $3070 per annum. That’s a loss of $3070 per annum, even if you bought the property for cash without the burden of mortgage repayments.

Shannon wrote:

APAS have suggested/promoted OTP style properties that will be negatively geared at a cost of no more than $100-$150 per week out of pocket expense to us.

Wow ouch. You’re happy to lose that much per week? That is a decent amount to be out of pocket every week. Also it will be worse if you were suddenly not working and had no income to gear against. Also it’ll make getting your subsequent investment properties much harder because your ability to service the loan with your available income will be severely compromised.

Often OTP properties that are recommended to you earn the recommending party a nice hefty commission.

It might help to understand the motivation… or lack thereof… behind the property manager’s approach.

Firstly, if the property manager is an employee, they are more than likely on a fixed salary. No extra cashola if the landlords are happy or if the rentals are achieving higher rents. It is MUCH easier to rent things out cheap. Less open for inspections which equals less work for the property manager. It is highly unlikely they get paid extra money if they have to put in more hours to get a particular property rented out. Not saying this excuses apathy, but it goes some way to explaining why the results might be as they are.

Second, a rent roll has a value. Not just the income it produces. It is an asset that can be borrowed against, or indeed on-sold. So long as things are rented out then excellent. There is not a massive difference on the value of the rent roll if you fetch an extra $10-$20 per week on a particular property.

This doesn’t help fix the dilemma you address in your original post, but hopefully helps you understand the motivation of folks behind the scenes. It is not reasonable to expect a property manager cares more about your property just because you do. The wage a property manager earns is not huge, and in return for their troubles they work in an environment where they get their fair share of abuse. A bit of courtesy and gratitude to your property manager can go a hell of a long way and may mean they care that bit more about your property over someone else’s in the portfolio. Food for thought.

Also if you subdivide first your council rates are likely to go up by a decent amount as you’ll have two titles.