Del :o)

It would also depend upon one’s income, yes? I mean, if a person was a very low income earner, it is pretty hard to accumulate property at a great rate. I think there are so many factors affecting how well we can do in RE. I reckon income has to be a “fundamental” as to how wealthy we can become. Your thoughts on this, Del? Others? Let’s look at (for the sake of consistency) an income earner of, say, 20k. That’s gotta be difficult to buy at the same rate as someone on 100k.

kay henry

Sad how some people need to call the victim in this scam stupid. Seems she tried to get outside knowledge but was prevented from doing so. Anyhoo, I guess victims are often called stupid. I remain unsurprised at the response.

kay henry

Melvin :o)

Yep, the eastern suburbs are a very good long-term investment in Melbourne, I think. Good old establishment areas- I think you can’t go wrong with them. I think the OTP markets are skewing the melbourne market in general. I don’t think the eastern suburbs will suffer drastically. You have generations of families who will always create demand there.

Melvin, could you explain a little more about Malaysia’s second home program? Or provide a link to info about it, please?

kay henry

Yack

I don’t understand why americans make such a big deal about their IR’s- ours rise and rise, as do India’s and NZ’s IR’s, and it all passes without a moment’s glance. The Americans have been talking up this IR rise for so long- i wish they’d just hurry up and do it!

As for us, I doubt their measly IR rise will affect us. Our market conditions are still pretty stable.

kay henry

LifeX,

Sounds like you are setting up more of a “boarding house” situation. People who share houses are all kinds of people. I lived on an expired lease in the same house for 12 years before I moved to sydney- and everyone there- there were 5 of us- all were working and studying. None of us were “down on our luck”.

I think if you are targetting “down on their luck” people, then you may be fostering some possible co-dependent relationship with your tenants, which goes beyond being a “soft” landlord. I consider myself the kind of landlord that is really non-interventionist, and pretty laissez-faire… but I would not be setting up some sort of quasi-parental or refuge kind of thing for tenants- frankly, that would do my head in- I’m not equipped for such a thing.

It’s one thing to be relaxed and not overly-vigilant, as a landlord.. it’s another thing to enter into the kind of role which your post suggests.

kay henry

Plus the tradie guys get so much support from the wonderful women and wives on this Forum who support their work and do their paperwork (check out the “what do you do for a living” thread in Forum Fun to see how many women work with their hubbies Sp really, you have two people working for the trady’s livelihood- give them as much moolah as they deserve, I reckon )

kay henry

homer,

If it’s only a little town (ounds like it is) then go to google.com.au and look it up. Type in the name of the town and read every single article about it. Each article should provide you with further info, and by reading them all, you’ll become an expert on the town. By typing in the name of the town, you should be able to find out about employment, industry, crime, housing, tenancy, educational possibilities/providers, health issues, services and amenities (ie, does it have a doctor in the town) etc. Also type in “blahtown real estate” and see what comes up. I also look up things like “blahtown population” or “blahtown population decline” and you’ll get to see the reasons for the decline- so was it an industrial reason (eg mine closed down), or an “organic” reason (ie young people leave small towns to get educational/employment opportunities elsewhere). Google can pretty much help you find and understand all the structural reasons for the town being as it is. You can also find out about the history of the town, and the demographics- handy to know what the average age of the population is, etc.

Once you have that “academic” knowledge of the town, there are a whole series of checks you can do to find out about the “culture” of the town, and whether it might be a suitable place to buy in

kay henry

Melbear? got any comments on this one?? *poke poke poke* *POKE* [biggrin]

kay henry

I think in the pursuit of cash pozz investments, and in the event of the RE boom, people have had to go to smaller and smaller towns to find cheaper properties- that’s obvious. I think there is a real danger of some of these places becoming “ghost towns”. If you invest in a few properties in a town of 500 people, and (for whatever reason), people up and leave… then you’re in massive trouble.

Regionals are not country towns. Albury is not howlong or tarcutta. I guess one rule is that the cheaper you buy, the more risk there is. And some have taken that risk. People on this board are often saying what fabulous risk-takers they are anyway- noone should worry

kay henry

tonykim,

If you are looking for a place that’s suburban (ie not rural), and possibly, in my opinion, still undervalued, you could check out goodna. I reckon you might still be able to find something under 100k there if you snoop a lot.

Of course, there’s always the mining towns etc etc… Not my cup of tea, but someone else can inform you about those.

kay henry