Depending on location, parking… if it is near somewhere there is not much onstreet parking but a high demand for spaces you could maybe install some electricity and some parking meter ticket machines.  You know the kind.  Park your car in this field, pump money into machine which gives you a ticket and you display it on your dashboard.  No need to pay a full time parking attendant that way.  You would want some way of checking people have not gone overtime and how to fine people if they do. 

Another idea is billboard space, if the land is on a main road where signage visibility would be desirable.

The dilemma is that I suspect each of these would require a rezoning permit on the land to operate in a commercial capacity.  You could check with council…

Muddying the waters a bit trying to factor in capital growth.

If I were building a shed in that suburb I'd also be putting in a sink.  For obvious reasons.  In that suburb there are lots of tradies and blokes that spend ages doing goodness knows what in the shed.  If you pay attention, "Attention tradies" is used on the real estate ads of a lot of the properties that boast double garages.

Hi Luke

Nobody knows for certain what the capital growth of a particular suburb or property.  However, an educated guess can be made, using factors such as:

– The historical capital growth of the suburb

– Proximity to a capital city or major regional city

– Promixity to educational facilities, in particular private schools

– Promixity to a major hospital

– The proximity to employment

– The proximity to public transport

– The proximity to lifestyle amenities such as restaurants

– The proximity to water (eg beach)

– The income level of the target market (which in turn is related to how much they can afford to pay for buying such a property)

– Forthcoming infrastructure projects that would make living in the suburb more desirable.  Things like a new train line/station a new shopping centre, a new freeway

The rear pages of the Australian Property Investor and Your Investment Property Magazine have statistics in them.  One statistic in particular that will interest you is the 10 year average annual capital growth figure.

Does this help you?

Cheers

I always get my solicitor to read the contract before I sign it.  The solicitor can add in the B&P clause as a special condition.  With the correct wording, you can get every cent of your money back if the result of the B&P displeases you.

Hi wood,

You would not have to put in such a large deposit as you can get an 80% lend on smsf residential property.

If it were me I would instead look at a few lower priced properties. Say four $300k properties with $60k deposits.

With such a large startup fund your smsf could look at purchasing one house for cash in exchange for a hefty discount, and then put it under mortgage with a bank. You could repeat that again with property number 2 as well…

Each purchase should still be done under a bare trust to allow the plan to work.

Does this help you?

Hi wood

I presume you mean $600k each?

A $600k property would need to be fetching around $800 per week in rent for the SMSF to stand on its own two feet… or you'd have to put in very large deposits.

Can I ask how much is in your SMSF at the moment?  Might make it easier to answer the question of what'd be best for you to buy

I agree that Ballarat is also an excellent proposition at the moment.  Perhaps not quite as good as Geelong, but slightly more affordable.  They both have trains to Melbourne and are large regional "cities". 

In terms of proximity to Melbourne, they are similar, though Geelong is definitely closer.

In terms of tourism:

Geelong also has the forthcoming international airport and the surf coast.  Freeways are being built beyond Geelong in the Colac district too.

Not sure Ballarat can complete with these big ticket items. 

Melton is certainly one to watch.  It's within daily commuting distance to Melbourne, Ballarat, Werribee and Geelong – all of which are employment hubs.  It's got the Lerderderg State Park nearby which is of no major consequence, but it is a natural feature.  It is within 30km of the Hepburn Springs district.  

If Ballarat is to become a major hub, you would suppose that it would eventually get its own domestic airport.  Since the next decade will be focussing on Avalon's upgrade, you're probably talking more like 20 years.  Yup, an additional airport, near a major hub, still commutable to Melbourne… on flat land, and near the trainline to save on costs.  Anywhere from Ballarat through Ararat would do the job.  Closer to Ararat would mean a nice tidy 30minute car commute to the Grampians National Park for tourism thankyou very much.  Since Melbourne already has Tullamarine and Avalon servicing it, it makes more sense to me that any such third airport would make an appearance on the Ararat side of Ballarat, providing for growth in that area.

Tread with great caution. I don’t think it is wise to invest in a town for the first time without going there and using your eyes to see what the situation is. Go to opens, see how many people show up, etc

How long has the fence been there?  If you can prove it's been there for the relevant amount of time you could claim the fence now defines the new boundary and the land is yours.  It's the adverse possession law.

http://www.relv.com.au/advposs.asp

Indeed.  Sorry Dark Knight super bad idea.  Let's say the three properties you are talking about are each worth $300k and that the bank was doing 100% lend.  For the purchase of IP3, why on earth would say hey bank people, if I miss a payment on this one $300k loan, I tell you what, you can seize not one but 3 houses.  Insanity.