Hi,
I’ve tramped the footpaths up there talking to a heap of agents. The pick of the ones I met was Ashley Paulsen from Prime Properties. We purchased a property through him three years ago, and he was still around last August when I went there. Sorry, I haven’t got his contact details handy.
Good luck,
jkmt

Hi Veronica,
I can’t comment on mobile homes, but can offer a few thoughts from my experience of attempting to buy/buying sets of units in two mining towns.
The first set was in a tiny mining town in Central Qld (population 3500). Fantastic cashflow and new mines popping up everywhere. Everything was looking great, finance approved subject to valuation. Then the valuation came in more than 20% under the sale price, with the added information that several years ago the property was purchased by the current owner for $60,000 in a bankruptcy sale (we were to pay $420,000 and still considered it a very good deal). Consequently the bank pulled out as it considered it far too risky to lend any money on that particular property.
We then moved on and purchased a set of 4 units in Mt Isa in September 2004. They are doing well, there has been no problem with getting or keeping tenants and some rents have risen. I suspect I paid a bit too much for them as it was a hot market but values have continued to rise and we know that we would get more than what we paid now. We are about to have them revalued for finance purposes.
The lessons I’ve learned – 1. Don’t buy in a small mining town (my view is less than 15,000 people). 2. Market fluctuations are likely to be much greater. 3. Make sure there are other industries/ employers than just the mines. 4. Do your due diligence as you would with any other purchase. 4. Often banks ask for much more equity because the town is regional & mining – we had to put 35% down, which is a real pain when it comes to trying to move onto other purchases.
Hope that’s helpful,
Cheers,
JKMT