Hi Cheezel

There are a lot of people in the world all at many different stages in life, so there will be many different strategies to be heard, but not all will apply to your stage of life or circumstance. It’s important to keep laser focus and not get distracted with irrelevant strategies.

With SMSF, the thing to remember is that some of your money is already quarantined in super anyway. Might as well put it to good use ;)

Hi @specha (aka Chattaway)

I’d been looking for your thread as I knew you intended to create one, but it isn’t as easy to find threads and comments by a particularly person any more. The link seems to have gone. Nevertheless, yes, I certainly built my portfolio with a strategy and have in mind viable strategies for each of my clients such that I know what role the property I’m purchasing for them will play in the greater plan.

+1 for paint / pets / grouting / cleaning / gardening.

Also if the window-coverings are getting a bit shabby, changing those can really improve a room also. If the room is dark, go for light-coloured window coverings such as white 50mm PVC venetians (Bunnings/Spotlight). Otherwise eyelet curtains. Also look at light globes and light-fittings. The current tenant may have put in a light globe that makes the place seem really gloomy. At last check a lightglobe is about $7 so you can solve that sort of problem very easily. Light fittings can often be replaced really cheaply with something from Bunnings too.

With paint, remember there is an inside and an outside. Painting concrete paths and driveways can really lift the appearance of a place.

Dishwashers and aircon are also good provided you can afford to maintain them. If you are early on in your investing you might not have a huge buffer and as such want to minimize the facilities provided that can break down or require a tradesperson to attend regularly.

Further to this;

If they are on fixed-term leases, you can’t evict them till the lease ends anyway (unless you intend to move in yourself, but you’d be hard pressed to say you and your family needed to live in all four of the units).

If any of them are on periodical leases or near the end of their lease you may be able to get a condition of sale that the seller is to issue that particular tenant with a rental increase notice. At least that way by the time you take over ownership the rent will have gone up or is just about to (increase notices usually have a 60 day lead time on them).

Hi Tim

8% is an extraordinary fee – was that a typo?

As Corey has mentioned, a mistake can cost far more than the fee a good BA may have charged you. Other key reasons for using BAs are not having the time to commit to research, inspecting property etc (quite a common issue for people that have children), or wanting to acquire property in a different state to where you reside.

Hi Amelia

Glad you have managed to start to see a path through it all !

Just another suggestion is to talk to each of the service providers you are going to use to explain to them the other jobs that will be happening, and ask them to help you determine which order the respective tradies should attend in. For instance, you might be advised that the ventilation system should be left till last (eg it might be deemed that there is no point cleaning that first, then kicking up more dust during the process of cleaning floors and mould, as these particles might end up in the ventilation system). No need for you to be an expert at such matters, just talk it over with each of the tradies you use. Line them up in an appropriate order, and be wary of booking them all in too close together in case one attends later than planned.

Hi LB 75

The place you want to buy in Brisbane – do you want to live in it yourself or do you want it to be an investment property?

Before you get too ahead of yourself and sell anything, it would be best to talk to a good broker and determine how much you could borrow if you kept the Laverton property compared to how much you could borrow if you sold it.

Remember that while your $10k savings won’t get you far for a deposit, an equity release loan against Laverton could beef that number up if Laverton is now worth a decent bit more than what you paid for it.

Something to keep in mind is that mortgage interest against a property you live in is not tax deductible (whereas interest against an investment property is tax deductible). So there is sometimes a good argument for having a very small loan against the property you live in, which in your case if you live in the new Brisbane property, the loan could only be small if you sold Laverton.

Chat to a good broker first and that should clear the clouds a bit to help you decide what’s best for you.

Hi Gabsy

Don’t advertise it as a 3 bedder plus study. If the fourth room is big enough to be a bedroom then call it a bedroom. People that only needed 3 bedrooms can see it as a bonus room for guests, storage, play room, home office, or whatever.

It makes letting a bit easier to have the second bathroom, but I’d take a well located 4 bedder with one bathroom over a poorly located 4 bedder with 2 bathrooms.

If the property is near facilities that tenants need there shouldn’t be too much issue leasing it out. The presence of a second bathroom and under cover car parking is a factor but not a deal breaker. Often the man of the household will be unhappy there is no garage for him, but ultimately beggers cannot be choosers. If a family needs to rent somewhere they must take what is on offer. You’d also be surprised how many single mothers are out there with 3 kids. Bang, right there is the need for 4 bedrooms. But no man on the scene wanting a garage.

Hi Ajay

On those figures, a $250k property would need to be fetching $295 per week in rent to nudge its nose into CF+ terrain.

A $250k budget is a house in the outer ring Western suburbs of Melbourne, or a unit closer in (not all suburbs).

You are extremely unlikely to find something in Melbourne for that price that will also be CF+ and also offer development opportunity, and also growth potential. It might be necessary to focus on will be getting a sturdy property that will appeal to tenants.

Hi Hendo

Not sure… it could be any number of presenters. The fact that it is a two-day seminar makes me think it might be the Stuart Zadel presentation you were thinking of. If so be sure to take along a packed lunch as they are very full days and you might prefer to utilize your lunch-break chatting to other attendees rather than standing in a queue for food at the nearest cafe.

Going to lots of seminars is a great way of expanding your knowledge, and reinforcing knowledge you already have. Lots of little bits of learnings add up to a lot. And gaining knowledge from lots of different people means that sooner or later you develop your own view on what will work for you, rather than one person’s view on what they feel is best for you.

Tread carefully with your spending at seminars – it is very easy to get caught up in the urgency of “buy this today to get a discount”. Be clear in your mind before you attend whether you are permitting yourself to make any purchases and if so what you are prepared to buy and what your spend limit is. Products and services aren’t really a bargain if you didn’t want or need them in the first place.

An important tip is that if you want to have time to chat to other people at seminars, get there nice and early. Heaps of people will show up early and many are just like you hoping for some networking. There is never enough time in the breaks for lots of networking and at the end of the seminar everyone is tired and just want to go straight home. So the time to leverage is the time before the seminar begins.

Hope this helps!