Hi,

I would have thought that if he's been doing some work for you then there will be a charge. There is also a verbal agreement that he would do your tax return which is why you sent him your details.

However I'm not a lawyer.

Whenever we get a new accountant – we had to get one since we've recently moved to Oz, I interview them. I get them to explain things to me since I need someone who can explain things simply. My first accountant in the UK was a nightmare since he could never talk down to my level. I'm happy to say I now have a good accountant in the UK (been with her for years now), and I think I have a good one here too. We'll see once he's done my tax return!

HI Julian,

Being a Pom who's recently moved to OZ I don't know of buyers agents in the UK. It's not that common.

To get it re-valued contact a local surveyor (from the RICS website in the UK – http://www.rics.org) and they will do a valuation for you. They will need access obviously probably through the letting agent. I lived in the SE of the UK and had to do this on our flat in the NW of the UK so I've been through that recently.

To furnish the property you can talk to letting & managing agents in the area, and they often have people who offer furniture packages. Otherwise I know a guy who does furniture packages in Birmingham but I think his company will go anywhere. His name is Abid and he supplies a lot of investors in a property seminar forum in the UK. He's also an investor himself. I haven't used him myself but I know a lot of people that have and they are very happy with him. See his website http://www.awatrading.com/. If you decide to contact him tell him you heard about him from Karen in PM. And no I'm not on commission.

Hope that helps!

Hi Richard,

We're not doing badly – 3 IP's in the UK and 2 here in Australia. And of course we are on the lookout for more now.

Good luck to you.

Hi Richardgr,

I think a lot of us go through that phase

I've even been in the situation of about to place a deposit the next day and almost talked myself out of it because I got cold feet. No matter how much you read, how many courses you do you will always learn more when you start doing it yourself. Always make sure that you know what you are getting yourself into financially, whether you are going for positive cash flow or negative gearing.

And of course you always have this forum to ask questions.

Hi hgwells,

It's sounds like you are wayyyy beyond your first step

Your goal is to quit your job, so which part of property investment do you like best? Do you want to be doing renos full time? If so then improving your skills in those areas and putting them into practice would seem like a good move. Would you want to do the renos yourself or get a good team around you to do it? If it's another area of property investment then you can do the same thing in that area.

What would I do? Good question We have a fair amount of money having just moved over from the UK. We paid for Steve McKnights home study course while we were in the UK but never ended up doing it (although I downloaded all the recordings). So for us we're going back to that course to improve our knowledge of the Australian market. We have already set aside a certain amount that we won't touch and is earning a higher interest , the rest we want to spend on cash flow positive properties, probably fairly local to us. This may mean adding value , as well as finding cash flow positive properties but we are not developers (yet).

We find it useful to set the target in the future and work backwards to see what we have to do along the way.

Hope this helps,

Thanks for asking the question Misty1 since I thought it was the settlement date. The contract for our house was signed in February when we were over from the UK, but the settlement date was in June. So I assumed the date of sale was in June.

So much to learn……

Karen

Wow Hayley! How do you chose your tenants? This is actually a serious question. When I'm letting out by the room because I only deal with professionals I'm actually interviewing them to see if they are suitable for the property. I also get a credit check carried out on them.

I once had one guy who just spooked me. My husband wasn't around at that interview and I wasn't sure about letting the room to him. We needed the money but I wanted a happy house too. Anyway I was talking to a friendly letting agent and he mentioned this weird bloke who had spooked his receptionist, and I checked the name. It was the same guy! He didn't get the room and I learnt to trust my instincts!

It doesn't mean that it will always go right, but it cuts down the chances of it going wrong.

How do other people check their tenants?

Have you tried doing house shares with professionals? We've done this in the UK but not in Australia (yet!).

The house is a smart, new house and would usually rent out for 900 GBP but we get 1500 GBP but letting out the rooms individually. We pay for a cleaner to the communal areas once a week, and we pay the utilities. Obviously you have to work out that you are going to make a positive cashflow after those extra expenses. The house is near a university, close to the town centre, airport and business parks so that if we can't get professionals we have other tenant pools around. That has worked very well for us there.

It's a shame you weren't on the live call a few days ago since Steve and the coaches were actually talking about the deals that they were doing. There was also talk of the deals the students were doing in the chat boxes.

If anyone is thinking about renting out by the rooms in England and Wales then please note that there are new HMO (Houses of Multiple Occupation) rules being introduced in April 2006. These rules are being backed with a fine up to £20,000 if not complied with and the tenants can claim back 12 months rent from you as well. Although there are general guidelines every local council is interpreting them differently and so local councils need to be contacted. Some estimates place the changes at about £5,000 per property (obviously depending on the age, facilities in the property and the council concerned).

This doesn’t mean that letting by the room is a bad idea but that you make not get the cashflow that you thought you would.

I know of some landlords around Peterborough who got caught out since the council actually has the manpower to call the ads that are placed in papers, and that is how they got caught. They are now applying to become HMO registered.

Karen

Counting down the days until we leave the UK for Oz – June 2007!