Forum Replies Created
I have always interpreted transportable homes as a complete house unit that is delivered floor up as a finished house when it arrives (aside from some plumbing connections and stumps). These modules can be joined together to make a larger house. A friend of mine lived nearby in (two joined together) one until they found a house suitable for removal for their large family. They then just sold the transportable and a truck came and picked them up and carted them off.
A kit home usually supplies you with the initial frame/lockup/fix materials to build your home together with working drawings. Usually the labour for all trades has to be located locally so you generally end up paying the same as everyone else. If you priced all the exact same materials/brands yourself you probably would get the same price. One downside is if you get some dodgy or faulty materials you cannot go to the local supplier for exchange!! One upside is that you don’t have to work out what and how much you need of materials if you are inexperienced. If you like the plans though and are organized and have a good team of tradesman then go for it.
Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher Homes.Well I have just finished Neil Jenman’s “Don’t sign anything” and although it is good for an insight into REA’s tactics, I thought it got a little personal towards the end so I didn’t really know how much faith I could put in his point of view.
I absolutely loved David Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and am now determined that my four kids will get some financial instruction before I let them loose on the world. Really good.
Just up to chapter 5 of Steve McKnights book 0-260+ prop’s in 7 years so will let you know after I finish.
I am keeping a bit of a list on some of the other titles and will be heading to the library to check them out. Thanks everyone, I am sure there are many people out there doing the same.
Problem + solution = profit (so they say) so there has to be a good answer somewhere out there.
Maybe you could level out a large section and put down a base of compacted crusher dust/silica and make a tennis court! Surrounded by a fence and mulched garden…….
….yeh I know…sounds expensive…..might get you extra rent down the track.I know everyone…I’m tired…sorry![blush2]
What about seeing if there is a young person in the area that would like to earn some money by mowing the lawn for you and negotiate a cheaper price?
I still haven’t spoken to my neighbour about the Llama yet, are you still considering that option?
Julie
Yes Mark, you don’t want to know what my husband said at the time and still says when the topic is brought up! Not a happy camper!
I think Sanjivgupta recommended Nancy Keep in a thread re HDT’s (also one of mine). She sounds really good. In this case though I called Qlds007’s accountant and he spent an hour on the phone with me (which is nice) regarding HTD’s and our situation so I felt obliged to give him a go this year.
Hi Linda
Still trying to set up financial structures (thanks Qlds007) and then sort out a DT…then I can really start looking. We have just bought some land to build a spec home so I had better focus on that in the short term to minimize interest payments.I will PM you with some details re the Llama as I will have to pick my neighbours brain a bit. I do know that a goat will be fine by itself though and we just provided a tub of water for it and gave it the food I mentioned before (it helped itself to my shrubs and trees though). Not sure on the miniture pony. There would probably be ad’s in the trading post or similar, you could check with a vet to see if they are contented being alone, type of care needed etc.
The shed is a good idea though! Is there a need for that type of storage in the area? May be a local tradesman in the area who doesn’t have enough room for all his stuff (and boy can they accumulate some stuff). Or someone looking to move to the area and needs a short term storage solution…or….endless possibilites.
Another idea. If you had room you could maybe fence off a section and lease out for horse agistment (hope I spelt that correctly). You supply water and some shelter to the yard and they supply everything else, plus your grass is eaten for free.
I’m changing my accountant this year too Mark. For the last 8 years we have worked for ourselves (and while we are builders we aren’t the ones living in the flash houses). Up until two years ago we would get a nice refund in the mail, then two years ago we took on Insurance assessing work which added to our cash flow allowing us to pay off one car and pay a lump sum off our house.
As I use MYOB I have very detailed files and I backup a copy of my files and take into them so all the information is at their fingertips but I was always getting calls to ask us ‘what are our jobs in progess worth, what is outstanding at the moment etc.
For the two years we did the insurance work I was asked to have a ‘pre-tax’ assessment in the April; the first year they didn’t believe my MYOB figures and ‘held-over’ the profit until the following year. They would then ask us ‘how the business was going’ to which I replied “That’s what I was hoping you would tell me!” Anyway the following year (last year) we made just as much as the first year and bingo! Now we have two years of extra PAYG tax to pay in one year worth $19K. At the end of our ‘pre-tax assessment in April last year our accountant effectively gave us four week to pre-pay as much materials as we could to save on our tax, problem was all our cash was tied up in jobs and we couldn’t do too much at all.[grrr]
Sorry I hijacked your thread a bit but I am so cross about this, especially as it seemed that the only two years that we gave them an opportunity to help us structure/prepare and plan financially I think we were put in the ‘too small basket’ and paid the price. And yes I get the assistants now too. No mention of company, structures etc. Just recently he suggested we put our small super’s into a SMSF (20K) to manage ourselves. I didn’t think that that amount was worth doing a smsf…anyway[offtopic]
Richard Taylor has recommended his accountant so I am going to give him a shot this year I think. I don’t ask too much just a good team to help us get the job done!
All the best Mark I hope you find a good one!Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher HomesOh…what about a goat? We had one for a while but he wasn’t picky about what he ate…trees, shrubs, roses, kitchen scraps, lawn clippings (honkey nuts??). They don’t need shearing. Don’t get a billy goat as ours was a bit smelly; apparently this is only a ‘male’ thing so a nanny goat may be an option? We just tethered ours on a long chain to a star peg and moved it around when he had mown the lawn/weeds down. A bit of water will be needed for any of these livestock.
Hi Millions
I’m not sure if there is a sheep breed that doesn’t need shearing but there is a sheep breed that has a hairless ‘bottom’ which they are trying to encourage the gene so that milsing (milsing cuts away the woolly flaps of skin around their bums to prevent flies laying eggs in the folds which then become fly blown…very yucky and painful for the sheep) isn’t necessary.Aside from the upkeep sheep are vulnerable to attack from feral dogs and fox’s (moreso lambs in the fox’s case). Newborn lambs can also be vulnerable to feral pigs (eat them) and crows who peck their eyes out and blind them. They will also need drenching etc. Get some info from your vet…if you would like a run down of sheep care, PM me and I will get a list of the seasonal needs from my father in law (farmer).
As an alternative maybe a miniture pony or a llama. A llama is also a good companion to sheep and many farmers run llamas with their sheep flocks as the llama’s chase away and will even attack predators. Llama’s also need shearing but there could be a boutique industry that will take their wool. One of my close neighbours has a llama so I will ask her about her costs for you if you’d like.
Short of that maybe you could buy a second hand ride on lawnmower and deduct a bit from the rent if they mow the lawns. The maintenance on a lawnmower may be cheaper than vet bills and I think it is in the ATO’s depreciation shedule for fixtures??
Good luck millions and it’s good to speak to you again
Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher HomesMake sure you know what is, and isn’t, included; the trades that usually cost the most are often the ones they don’t include in your price (plumbing labour, electrical labour), so get quotes for these trades and quote up the total job first.
You are usually only buying the plan and the materials; make sure that you are aware of the quality of the fixtures supplied! Soil tests, any engineering/computations required by your local council or State, plumbing labour, electrical labour, plasterer labour, painting labour maybe. You get what you pay for usually so while cheaper fittings help you initially they don’t always last that long…so make sure you ask for the make and model of the inclusions so you can jump on the net or visit a store to see the products for yourself. Get references for the company. We have laboured for owners of kit homes, some good and some not so good (no names), some ended up being good value (when local costs were added) and some ended up being more expensive than a custom design (when local costs were added). Make sure you do your DD.
Originally posted by Terryw:Julie
I think you should have a company for your business for sure as this limits liability. But for property purchases, this is generally not recommended for lack of asset protection (the shares are an asset in your hands) and the lack of tax flexibility.
Terryw
Discover Home Loans
[email protected]
Send an email to get my newsletter.Sorry, I probably didn’t explain that too well. The company will only be for our building business and short term buy/reno/sell purchases to avoid both our names on our contracts. Any long term buy and holds will be bought using a discretionary trust. There was a couple of other points he made which I have forgotten now (trying to get my BAS done) sorry Terry!![blush2]
Julie
Originally posted by World Changer:Long live the days of the Holden Dealer Team hey!!!
On a side note,Jfisher,didnt Tom walkinshaw buy the hsv racing team last year ?
Or maybe hes just team manager now?
Im a HRT man myself![mario]But yer back to property,
HDT s , I would say just be careful as to how u set it up and who u use,as if not set up to suit yr requirements it may have limited benefits and actually hold u up,firstly in a borrowing sense and for asett proptection.
Definately get a few different opionions from full time investors who ve done it both ways,
with and without a trust.And Go the holdens this year ,
PS.The clipsal 500 is on this weekend in adelaide.[strum]“Don’t let yr character be impacted by yr surroundings, instead make yr character impact yr surroundings”
– Rachel Scott(17 yr old killed in columbine shooting 1999)http://rachelschallenge.com/Hi worldchanger
I’m not sure anyone knows who, exactly, owns HRT and HSV at the moment. Skaife did own one and the Kelly’s owned the other but after acknowledging last year that they were operating as one unit (not allowed) some teams want the book thrown at them. No-one is sure that Tom didn’t have control all along as he did own one or both teams years ago before he went into F1. Anyhow you would probably know more than me as I am a FORD follower, and now that i have four children it has meant that I know less about it now than I did before.
I have spoken to an accountant that does trust work this morning. He said that the ATO is looking at trusts carefully at the moment to see if the boundaries are being pushed within those structures, particularly those people that are attempting to apply the allowances of others private rulings to their own structure(I think that is what he meant). If the ATO begin to think that they are loosing too much money then they will probably issue a blanket ruling for everyone to abide by. He did mention that people that have their trusts set up properly have nothing to worry about.
After that discussion I have been advised that our situation doesn’t need a HDT; a normal DT will suffice. This is because we are able to split our income equally ourselves being self employed; we do not need to offset a higher wage against a lower wage. This accountant also suggested that we would be better off looking into a company structure, estate planning and adjusting the naming of our building licences and house titles to protect our asset base.Thanks for everyones replies and advice, it has been fantastic. Great that there is so much educated opinion out there.
Julie[thumbsup2]
Thanks Richard and v8ghia. I have placed my trust in Richard who does know our financial status and although I don’t know him well enough yet, I can see that he is certainly respected on this and other forums. So this is just to let everyone to know that I have decided to go with a HDT.
Thanks all for your posts, all the advice was appreciated and from the amount of people who read the thread, not just by me!![hair2]
Hi Kuade
In Vic a roofing plumber has to do any repairs associated with roofing and in NSW a builder can do it (we are licensed in both) so depending on Qld regulations I am not sure who you would contact but a building inspector could refer you.
Asbestos roofing isn’t always easy to walk on depending on how old it is, so be careful. Depending on the profile you will probably not be able to replace a sheet if you put your boots through a sheet, and may need to replace a whole section or worse (the whole roof). In Vic asbestos has to be handled by a Class A or B contractor for unfriable asbestos over 16 mt sq. In NSW a licenced contractor is only needed for over 200 sq mt. So you will have to find out what Qld laws are regarding asbestos if you need to remove/replace it as they all differ.
It may just be that a couple of sheets need rescrewing/nailing or some flashing or gutter needs attention so I would recommend getting a roofing contractor to have a look at it. If the area directly above the water damage has an a/c or chimney or anything else that is flashed around it you could nearly bet that it has perished or needs a bit of tlc. Hopefully a Queenslander may be able to reply with state specific advice, otherwise speak to a building inspector as mentioned above.Like L.A Aussie said the agent is playing his game. He needs time to condition the owner ‘down’ in price and he will be secretly encouraging some uneducated purchaser to place a rediculously low bid to the vendor in order to encourage the vendor down in price.
Have a look around the area and see what previous properties have sold for (you can pay for this info on some websites) and what current houses are being presented for. The quickest way to work out the worth of the property (if you are really serious about it as it costs a few bob) is to get a valuation done on it (part of your due diligence anyway), and that is not one by a REA but one done by an independant agency. They will often support their valuation by including properties in the surrounding area that have recently sold and comparing the prices and features with the one you are valuing.
Originally posted by jxf:I have one more question… SORRY!
Going back to the cups catching rain analogy. Is it better to have a few large cups or lots of small cups to catch the rain. By that I mean is it better to by lots of cheaper properties (say properties in regional locations at about the $100,000 mark – which can be easier to positive geared). Or is it better to have only a few houses in the already substantiated suburbs? (So places worth .. roughly $250,000 plus).Cheers for your viewpoint.
jxfHi jxf
I had the same question when I started researching suburbs 4 months ago. I am from a regional city but felt compelled to look to the cities. I have now decided there benefits and negatives in both so as my knowledge has grown so has the strategy that I will put into place. I have used Residex to help narrrow down suburbs but good old fashioned homework, which can be done on the net, is usually needed to check what is going on in an area (start with council websites and go from there). Basically I have decided that rather than buy a heap of cheap properties which some investors are doing, I will pursue a mix of both. Some cash flow positive cheapies from the lowest risk regional areas combined with some good metro prospects for capital gain. Hopefully the mix will even out in the wash somewhat and looking further down the track I may consider then selling the regional homes to pay out the good capital performers (I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it). The Australian Property Investor magazine has many interesting articles in it which can point you in the right directions for research, advice and inspiriation. Good Luck.I bought the last copy of Residex’s top 100 growth predictions for the Country areas. On the top 10 for victoria, Skye was number two; I believe that is near Frankston Nth? With that in mind you would think that a well researched selection around these areas could be a great long term performer. Good luck.
Hi Daz
Please make sure you do your own due diligence (research) but I have Residex Top 100 predictions report (results ending quarter June 06) and Narre Warren Nth is rated 9 out of the top 10 country Vic for future growth predictions. Median value was $510.5k. If you are only going to resell then you probably wouldn’t worry about claiming too much back in the short term as it will only be added back when selling (I think that is how it works), although if you kept it you would get the building write off of 2.5% per year for capital works and there are probably some fixture/fittings in there that can still be depreciated quicker. Speak to an real estate agent and find out what the resale market is like for houses in that price range and area. You don’t want to spend that much and end up like the current owners did at their auction…no-one bidding!
Cannot help on the structuring and joint venture sorry.Originally posted by v8ghia:Hi Julie. HDT pretty much came to an end in 1988, when HSV took over Holdens’ ‘performance’ division after disagreements with the late Mr. Peter Brock. Having ditched my long love of Holdens around the VT Commondore era, I am more interested in Tickford, and of course their ‘evolution; into Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV) now…oh wait – ahhh wrong forum, this is real estate not cars! Sorry. HDT ? I’m thinking Holden Dealer Team, not Hybrid Disc. Trust ! [confused2]Seriously though, it can be a bit daunting (even confusing) with what appears to be the majority of investors using one of a variety of different trust types. If it works for you as they say, but I found what Margaret Lomas had to say on trusts in her very latest book made me take a more realistic approach. That said, I can certainly appreciate why many people feel more comfortable using a trust of some sort. All the best with your journey Julie.
Funnily enough I come from the home town of Rick and Todd Kelly (whose dad owns the Holden Team now) so I probably understood more about the top half of your reply..lol. [laughing]
Seriously though, I have read one of Margaret Lomas’ books and really liked her approach. What is the name of the book you read?
Thankyou Sanjiv, I am certainly interested in your accountant as she teaches MYOB. I have used that MYOB accounting software for 7 years and it still amazes me that my accountant and his staff still have to ask me to provide information (that is readily available on the disc I provide them) in order to finalize my returns every year. It would be soooo great to hand someone my well kept accounts and not have to explain them..(I’m not an accountant).
Thanks Amanda for your support. There are many threads regarding these types of questions. I suppose that when people start out it is very daunting but they only want to get info specific to them; then they see hundreds of different opinions and worry that they will listen or take advice that doesn’t suit their situation best. It is great to know that experienced investors with financial knowledge can let you know which direction to head and where to find answers.
Ta Richard, in a perfect world many people would have Dale Gatherum-Goss looking after their financial affairs, but I have read on another forum that he isn’t looking for more clients. I was hoping that he would reply to this question in the somersoft forum as another accountant was fairly critical of HDT’s. The feedback on that forum has not been as positive of HDT’s as on this forum so I am pleased that some forum members have raised the flag for them.[rambo2]
Julie
Originally posted by Jaffasoft:No It’s hopeless, I don’t know how I’m Gunna find her so far?
Was that dyslexia? Is that the problem that I hsve and you have recognized that I have it?
What experience have you had with anyone other that that has this disability?
That’s a shame! Maybe an ad’ in the paper with a photo? Someone may have found her and decided to keep her?
My nephew has dyslexia but his is genetic and permanent (doesn’t stop him from achieving anything I assure you), whereas yours was painkiller induced and only short-term…lol.
Hope Roada turns up eventually.
Julie
Daryl Fisher Homes
