karina,

I mean thiswith all due respect- forget the past- think about 2004 if you’re going to buy now. Almost all areas have had CG over the past decade- HC and non-HC. Past performance doesn’t mean future gain etc.

karina, with all properties, I think there’s a few things to think about. I gueass you want some sort of guaranteed rental- or the IP is adead weight. This is probably where a bit of local knowledge comes in (or fining someone who lives in that neighbourhood to tell you it sucks or doesn’t suck). Eg… I was speaking to a property investor who said he had bought up a lot of IP’s in an area I know very well. I said to him “let me guess- Blah Street…” and yes, he had bought places in the worst part of the area. The absolute worst! Everyone knows not to buy in that part of town- but he just worked on price. RE’s in the area know that tenants will move out as soon as their short-term lease expires- even if they don’t know the area, because the crime and environment is such a shocker. I’m not suggesting here that all HC houses are in shocking areas- no way. What I am sayinhg is that if you are buying a really cheap house… then it is often cheap for a reason- and local knowledge is essential.

As Wallflower said, these buildings were often very well built, so your BPI may come in healthy

But as to tenancy and associated problems, it is the LAST thing we need- to be in a constant state of worry about our houses.

Having said this- hehe… you could have an IP in a blue-ribbon part of town and the tenants- having snorted too much cocaine off the bauhaus table- may decide to redecorate and rip the walls out

kay henry

Is she charging too much? Depends on what she’s doing Marck. Is she removing cancers? Or is she doing lip implants so movie stars can look like this: :+(|)

There are lots of people I think are overpaid- pro basketballers in America… actors in America.. oil barons in saudi arabia… the royal family in England.

Childcarers in Australia, nurses and teachers, are some of the lowest paid occupations, and yet they have huge responsibility for caring for others’ lives. Sometimes it would be good if the work fitted the payment.

Sorry for being off-topic, wezwaz.

kay henry

Well, that’s a pity about your friend, trish. She mustn’t have gone to the same public school that John howard went to (Canterbury boys’ school). Howard is the first Prime Minister to have only attended public schools in his education- seems now though, he has the same feeling as forum members- he just doesn’t like ’em.

If we think a bit globally… some countries don’t have private school traditions at all. Some of the smartest people I know went to public schools, because in their country, all schools are public- in Austria, Vancouver, former Yugoslavia, Holland. My friend Caroline, from Vancouver, was telling me that private schools are sneered at there, and thought to not provide the same quality of education. So it just depends on where you’re coming from.

70% of Aussie kids go to public schools. nothing wrong with private schools at all. I figure though, if I want a private education, private heaolth, or private transport, then I should pay for it. Imagine if the public transport system was completely starved of funding, whilst the govt spent a heap- or sent us vouchers- to buy private cars.

kay henry

OK Steve- when’s the launch? Dates and venues, please [cap]

kay henry

Sounds decent, Yorker… and I’m just trying to have a go at you here… but one can find details of past sales on realestate.com.au or through a RE for free. One can find details of median prices through a variety of home price indicators on the web- for free… and rental yields and trends and percentages from API, for example- for every town, city and state- with data updated each month. Predictions – over 5 years- for your particular property, can come from Residex- for free. (Personally, I think predictions are a bit useless, but it’s a bit fun to do).

One can find anything really, on the web, or in magazines like API or Your Mortgage mag. I guess for those who are completely new to property investing, they are probably new to finding the right resources, too. Ot there will always be some who just want it on a platter. I just think these reports date so quickly.

As an investor, I’d be hoping that your report covered stuff I couldn’t find easily elsewhere.

Having said that … :o)) I think that there’ll be a market for what you’re offering. New investors will probably jump at the opportunity.

kay henry

hehe rogue.. I think you were referring to David, but as I am also a pedant, thought I’d make comment on the spelling thing… if one can spell, one doesn’t need to “run a spell check” on anyone else )) The spelling mistakes just hit ya in the head when reading them. hehe. Nice use of the word boffin too, rogue!

kay henry

rogue,

Fortunately, that article has been widely disseminated on activist circles, and who knows… it might become as big as “yes Virginia, there is a santa claus.”

I really enjoyed Shane Maloney’s speech. (Here’s where I got it from:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/31/1093938920514.html

I enjoyed his use of irony- that the privileged kids can’t help their parents’ legacy, and that hopefully they’ll make something useful out of themselves despite their background… a nice discourse, I thought.

Rogue, I can imagine you’d enjoy this article with your interest in status issues. Thanks for posting it.

kay henry

hehe Yorker… wouldn’t that info belong to your employer? :+P

By the way, I read the news article with your hotspots mentioned. I know they are probably going to be valuable, Yorker… in that suburban kind of way… but would you ever live in those kind of suburbs? They are so far out of sydney they’re in the middle of nowhere! I reckon if you buy in sydney, you buy in sydney- what’s the point if it’s not in the urban centre?

Anyway, nice to see a fellow forum member’s name in print, Yorker… makes me feel like a vicarious superstar… hehe.

kay henry

That’s hilarious, always! hehe. Actually, selling off underperformers at the top of the market is not a bad idea. It really depends on where your property is (booming suburb?) ands how long you’ve had the property (under one year and selling would not be good for CGT liability). The old adage of buy low, sell high… is as fundamental as “location location”, I reckon.

Selling is probably only an idea for underperformers though, or if you are super-stretched financially. My properties in NSW, for example, are buy and holds probably forever, because of the newly imposed exit duty. So I now buy properties that can live for the next 40 years, and not fall to pieces.

Thanks for the kitten analogy- it’s very funny!

kay henry

mslod,

$50 a week on each property would be doing well these days. Hotrod has achieved such returns on buy and hold CF+ properties, but if you use Jaffasoft’s calculator (on this board) you’ll find that many such properties in Australia are achieving maybe $10. That’s all good- mine are losing about $50 a week, so that’s $60 a week more than mine are making. Re CF+ properties, once you factor in all costs, properties have to be achieving quite a decent rent or it gets chewed up.

I think most would agree on here now, that potential for CG is a reason for buying CF+ property. Earning say $20 a week with no potential for CG… well, one may as well deliver catalogues for an hour a week to get the same money. There would be less stress in that one hour a week than there is in owning a property and having to deal with tenants, repairs etc.

Property is considered a decent investment because it *generally* goes up in price. If the property you buy doesn’t go up in price, then you’ll own it at the end of the day, courtesy of the tenant, but it could be a high maintenance way of earning a low amount of money.

If you earn $50 a week from each property, you’d probably want about 25 of them to make a decent income- and you’ll still have to pay tax on it. And you’ll be paying them off over 25 years…

There are still 50k properties around, and they might even get $120 rent. As you’d be aware, you have to go to smaller and smaller places to find them, or to mining towns- which are often remote.

Yield isn’t everything- it’s only one of the measures in buying property. If you can buy a cheap property in a good location- yay! Bit it isn’t easy to find post-boom.

kay henry