Wed 6th June
-asked a carpet layer for a rough cost on 3 bedrooms
-typed a list of window sizes so I can buy blinds while on sale at Spotlight.

Yes, I did very little toward reno today. Working at this J-O-B seems to make it quite difficult to get things done. Now if I could just find a way to pay the bills while I wait for the Reno profit to come through……

Hi Handy Andy. Rendering the front is part of the plan. Probably just paint the rest.
Hey, check out this link to see what sort of final product I am aiming for:
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=103744866&f=20&p=10&t=sol&ty=&fmt=&header=&c=10859477&s=vic&snf=rbs&tm=1180697085

Thanks for responding locco. How is business?

Teus 5th June
– called a couple of renderers and a tiler to get rough per metre estimates.
– went back to the house to measure windows and everything else. Started on the outside as the agent was not there, called him when he was 15 min late and he had forgotten, so I could not get inside the house.  Still, I measured up all outside, and have a pretty good idea of inside so should be able to estimate most things. Will probably have to make another appointment soon to measure inside.
Hopeful67, where in vic r u? We are in Berwick. Looked in Mulgrave for houses for a couple of weeks and made an offer on one but got rejected. Then started to expand the search a little and found the one in Noble Park North.

Mon 4th June
Today was getting a couple of loose ends sorted:
-took out insurance on the house.
-appointed a solicitor and gave their details to the RE Agent for conveyancing purposes
-made an appointment with REA to go back to house tomorrow and measure all windows etc so we can start organizing materials and quotes.

Hi Hopeful67, thanks for replying. Are you from this area??

 We just bought a house,(Yay!) so to continue the story I am going to start a new post in Adding Value section.

Also, we found out today (Monday 28th) that the vendor wants $340k or more, and our offer of $330k is as high as we could go. So on to the next deal!
Also today I:
– booked mortgage broker to come tomorrow night for a refinance and a pre-approval on investment loan
-called the council to find out what is still required on a house with planning permit for unit at back that I looked at.
– called a REA to ask what happened after an auction we went to that was passed in
-inspected another house in the target area and chatted to the agent about prices for a good half hour. She told me of a vacant block she has for sale, possible for 2 dwellings, so there is another deal for me to do some numbers on.
-photocopied plans of the above mentioned "unit at back" to take to some builders for estimates
-did some forum posts!!!!
And just for fun I worked 9 hours to pay the bills, got kids breaky, helped feed, water, and bed the kids at night, and fixed a dodgy lightbulb. (Just in case you wanted to know that)

Thanks Terry and APerry I have subscribed to that site and got some of the aritcles. Looks good.

Not a wet blanket at all. As I said, that’s why I did this post. I have asked a good accountant who is doing some research and getting back to me. We are also asking a business advisor who is into property and good with structuring for his ideas.
At this point it looks like some sort of a Trust – perhaps discretionary, or unit – will be the way to go. But still early days in the research. Perhaps also in combination with one or more companies.

This is what we are hoping, and this is in fact the very reason we thought of starting a syndicate/company/whatever it ends up being called. We would hope to approach a lender with the details of a well researched property presented as a business proposal, and have the property as the only security for the loan – aside perhaps from some cash in the bank of the trust/company.
I guess time will tell if this hope becomes anything more.

Thanks everyone. Keep it coming.

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. – Jim Elliot

Thanks Terry
That’s a great looking site. You may have just saved me some $ in legal fees for the future.
Your advice seems very sound. Thanks

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. – Jim Elliot

Thanks PropertyPassion for the reply. I still have some more research to do before I go ahead. This forum is part of the research. I have certainly been learning a lot so far by preparing to DIY that I would not have learnt by “leaving to the experts”. Learning is one of the goals, getting a good price is the other. Hopefully both will happen.

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. – Jim Elliot

Thanks cjm for your thoughts. I will definitely be using a good solicitor to advise me and handle all legal aspects, so this should deal with most of the legal risk in selling. If I have no interest myself and I decide to try an agent I will certainly not choose based on price. I will probly even offer some sort of incentive commision to try to get everyone at the agency doing their best for me.

Dr X, great to have your opinion. I agree that I probably need some experience in selling.
Last year we bought a house in the middle of nowwhere in NT. There was no agent in the town and the seller had done nothing to prepare for the sale, nor did he want to do any work. So it was up to us to write the offer, get a solicitor, make sure the vendor had a solicitor, make sure he got the contract ready, make sure he….. Then the solicitor turned out to be pretty slack in our opinion so we had to call them every couple of days to keep them moving. In the end the sale almost fell through because of the loan offer expiring, but we managed to get it all over the line in time.
My wife and I figured if we can organize the vendor and the solicitors and ourselves, and do most of it from interstate, then selling our own home might also be worth trying.

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. – Jim Elliot