Well done! That was good that he was there for that. Good luck.

kjs

Family, that is worse! Well you have tried the agent, and I am guessing you would really like to hit the seller on the weekend face to face now? You can push him for what his lowest would be. I reckon a few comments like “family, you won’t see rent from that” and “I hope you are able to evict family when a sale is about to settle?” or “you don’t…[Read more]

Yes, that face to face is tough. He may need to think about it for a bit too, or he may just snap you up straight away, hard to tell.

The thing that worries me a little is that the agent doesn’t sound like much chop. He may help or hinder the process. Maybe if you do face to face he will see you are serious? Has there been many others at the open…[Read more]

The owner may not be there on the weekend? How about give the agent the written offer asap, and go to the open house as well? They may accept the offer and cancel the open house? If the owner is not there on the weekend, then the agent may spend all day running around open houses and may not work too hard to get your offer to the owner on the…[Read more]

Hi, I am not in Melbourne, but I have heard of people going to the auctions. Not sure what name. You might find some of the smaller hardware places locally may be better priced on some items? I will have to watch my DVD again, but I thought Dean said Bunnings as he didn’t have time to run around town to different places? We have found the Mitre 10…[Read more]

Good points above. Could I just suggest that family and money are very touchy, and if you push too hard you may damage your important relationship. They feel secure in their paid off house, and if they are scared, then they may be very angry if you don’t drop the subject. they have everything to lose, and at this stage you have had a good…[Read more]

Hi Jenny, I have no real idea, so this is just my dealing with council. Sorry if this offends anyone, but…

If you ask council, their eyes gleam and they say fill in this little application and we can charge you now, and then when we can inspect, and then if we see something…. Sorry, I am a cynical person. I believe if they can’t see into your…[Read more]

Wow duckster, thanks for the short version, that was heavy!

kjs

Yeah, they are a bad look those strips and will really be obvious. Good luck, and although you will be cursing doing it, or paying for it, that first impression is a deal maker or breaker. Good luck with the tree roots. It may just be movement in the ground.

kjs

Getting back to egos, never be worried, this is a business deal, and these people are not your friends.

I had a hairdressers years ago, and they were looking at a divorce property for sale for $135,000 (I said years ago!). Her husband offered $100,000, then $101,000, $102,000 and was accepted at $103,000. I could not believe it. Sometimes people…[Read more]

Did they build themselves and use old or second hand fittings? What other cheap alternatives did they use in construction? This sounds like a bit of a funny setup. Either the agent is lazy, forgetful, or the sellers lied? Good pickup on your part, as you would expect a 3yo house to be containing fittings of it’s era.

Has this made the house…[Read more]

A path with tree roots gives such a bad first impression doesn’t it?

I wondered if putting down road base/crushed rock/small pebbles might be an alternative? It depends on the situation, and will the new concrete have old concrete near it and look obviously new?

Will the trees be damaged by mucking around with the roots, and are the roots…[Read more]

Hi Sanjiv, thanks for the link, it was very interesting for my area. I live in a small town where I know much of the population, and the figures looked very accurate. I didn’t know so many people owned their place outright though…very interesting. I knew the age breakdown and some other stats were certainly accurate to what I would have…[Read more]

Also make sure you get get some sort of access to check references? Don’t just ring the number given on the reference, it may be their friend answering [eh]

kjs

I agree look into the sinking fund, maintenance costs etc. Do you have to resell through the managers? What horrific cost will they charge?

I never like the sound of any property where I can’t appoint my own manager, or selling agent, or tenants, or am locked into putting money into maintenance and sinking funds without having control of those…[Read more]

I have a friend that manages about 6 or so of her own properties. She is a person with bad time management, works full time, and has children. I recently spoke to her about one of her properties (she needed a hand printing a letter, her printer is STILL not working – come on a printer costs less than $100) She was writing to the tenants to get…[Read more]

I looked into time share type units in Gold coast, and one thing I was warned about was if the managers don’t care for you, or you didn’t suck up to them, then your rental figures could be down compared to others that knew the kind of smooching to do. Also, you can’t take you business elsewhere to manage as stated above. At least if you own the…[Read more]

I reckon my biggest hindsight mistake was actually buying a house in Wodonga, and owning it from 1989 until 1997. The market did not grow at all in that time. We started at interest rates of 15% and by the first monthly payment they had gone to 17%. If we had rented during that time we would have been better off financially, and the stress would…[Read more]

Thanks Terry. I think they are possibly a bit dear too, as the capital growth, while it has been good around that area in the last 5 years, is only following the city, but not as consistent. I wondered myself about the chance of further capital growth over the next 5 or 10, but I thought the return was not bad, compared to current Sydney &…[Read more]

MBs are expert in their field – maybe, and that field is not financial advice. Some of them are not even expert at being a MB. To be proffessional you get paid, but some get paid even if they know next to nothing.

I have a friend who had done a several monday morning course, and purchased a program from a particular MB company. Then they let her…[Read more]