Hi cjay11,

I'll do it.

I'm sitting here in sunny L.A by the pool looking for something to do and love to talk property to like-minded folk. That's why I'm on this addictive forum all the time I suppose.

Drop me an email with a few questions to test me out. I don't know it all or profess to, but I'm happy to help. No obligation – just friendly advice.

If it's not meant to be an ad; what's it meant to be??

You can't win F;

it's like talking to a 'born again" – they have an answer for any logical argument, and you will go mad trying to upset them.

By the way rejoice, I have many dark thoughts about severly hurting scammers, but I haven't done it and nor will I.
I have many thoughts that I am Donald Trump, but I'm not him… yet.

But you know what I've done; I stopped wishing and started doing. I've spent many years working very, very hard, getting educated, saving my pennies, taking action and now enjoying the fruits.

By the way; what's an "SGR AFFILIATE"?

My 2c worth;

I did a reno on our last purchase and in the bathroom we kept the hand-basin and bath with original taps and spouts, but replaced everything else.

I added;
1. new shutter blind ($15 approx)
2. re-tiled shower/bath area ($100 approx)
3. new IXL-tastic (included new wiring for this) ($200 approx)
4. new floor tiles ($60 approx)
5. new shower curtain. ($10 approx)
6. re-painted whole room ($70 approx)
7. new shower rose. ($20 approx – period style)
8. new mirror over hand-basin. ($80 approx)

Total cost was less than $600 dollars. I have done other bathroom renos that were more expensive, but this illustrates just how inexpensive it can be done.

The only work not done by me was the electrical work. I removed all the existing tiles and laid new ones, did all the painting, installed the mirror and blind. It looked great.

Tiling is surprisingly cheap and easy to do, and has a BIG impact on the look of the room. You need a good tile cutter and angle grinder for this work.

Also; use the correct paint for wet areas – use good stuff.

We had to do it when we moved over here to L.A. It has been a successful financial move. I wished I'd done it a few years earlier.

Now we have seen the light, and will be moving back to Aus next year and continuing to rent our PPoR. We will find a nice house to rent for ourselves in the neighborhood.

Our plan is to rent a house for ourselves for less than what we are getting for our PPoR, thus creating even more cashflow, and rent for the foreseeable future.

Getting your head around renting when you could live in your own, beautiful PPoR is the hardest part. But my wife and I are on the same page, and we know the benefits of taking this unusual (for most people) step.

Our goal is to be totally retired in 4 more years, and work when and where we choose for fun – not because we have to. By taking this course of action, we have accelerated those plans.

I have no doubt that all our friends will be thinking "what are they thinking?" but we don't care. I'm tipping that once a few of them see the benefits they might be tempted to try it.

So does that mean my jokes are getting better?

If a company has been spotted by Neil's radar;  you know it's dodgy.
Send him a private email and ask some questions. He is most obliging and will tell you what he knows.

You absolutely must have it!

It's a couple a hundred per year, but is tax deductible and worth every cent. The P.M doesn't stop the tenants from doing damage or doing a runner.

The insurance covers you against this and more.
There is AAMI, Property One, and various others. Do a google search, or ring your lender – sometimes they provide it, or ring your insurance broker if you use one. Even the P.M might be able to suggest someone.

Yes, that is correct. The advantage of this strategy is it gives you extra cashflow now. If you pour that money straight back into your loan, or use it to minimse your personal debt, it will save you considerable interest on your loans over the future years.

Basically, you receive your tax return weekly instead of in one lump sum at the end of the year.

Your accountant can do it for you; they send a letter to your employer telling them to withold less tax than normal – to the value of your tax return divided into weekly repayments, or whenever you get paid. So, for example; if your tax return was to be $5,200 for this upcoming year, you receive an extra $100 in your pay packet each week if you get paid weekly.

There are 2 problems with this strategy;
1. most people are tempted to spend the extra $100 on c.r.a.p. If you receive your tax return in one lump sum, you are less likely to blow it on junk, but re-invest it back into your I.P loan or pay down personal debt (I hope).
2. the actual tax return may not be totally accurate, which means that you will need to revise it in next year's return. It could mean you owe the A.T.O more tax next year, or you may be owed more. It is not a major concern, but it can get a little messy. This is probably why most accountants are reluctant to do it and will try to talk you out of it.

If you could do with the extra cashflow to help with a neg geared property, and your tax return looks as though it will be a significant amount, I would recommend arranging the "variation" with your accountant.

We ran a B&B for a few years in Red Hill, about an hour south of Melb. I'm not sure about other states' rules, but in Vic we had to follow a few basic guidlines. It was surprisingly easy. You don't need lawyers to get started. Ring the local council and tell them of your plans. They will send out an inspector to view the property and let you know what, if any, changes you need to make.

It is s a good idea to do the local Tafe B&B course before you do anything else.

We had to install a hands free sink – we had 2 spearate sinks in the kitchen, so one had a hands free tap installed.
We had to install fridge temp guages and keep records.
No other changes required, but we converted one bedroom into a bathroom so we had 3 beds, 3 baths.
We had to provide guest parking. We had bought an ex-farm property on 5 acres, and there was an enormous shed used for farm machinery, so we had an automatic area.

I think from memory that 5 or less guests doesn't require a business registration. We had 6 guests, and already had a company name and business trading name so didn't need to do anything, but we registered the B&B name anyway as a separate business name.

A couple of tips:

1. Do it an area of high tourist demand with a good number of B&B's already there. They network each other well, and refer overflow bookings to each other. It is a good idea to invite all the local owners around to your establishment for wine and nibbles before you open for business. You will get to know them and they you, and start the network process. Also, it is a goodwill thing.
2. Register yourself with the local Tourist Accomodation Agency in that area. They will send business your way for a small fee.
3. Don't do any media advertising at all. Total waste of time for paid ads in phone books and newspapers; get a website up and running instead. The tourism agency will get you bookings, and word of mouth. That's all you need, but get a flyer and business cards composed and printed – short sweet, simple to read, maybe a photo.
4. Get a good accommodation industry software package for invoicing, bills etc. We used M.Y.O.B (very early version) and it was fine. The newer versions will be adequate.
5. Set up an EFTPOS/debit/Credit card payment system and take payments in advance.
6. Allow one night stays until you get very busy (you will). Many established B&B's which don't need the business don't take single nights, and they will refer them to you. We got most of our early booking from this (after wasting money on ads).
7. Use the best quality linen,towels, etc. Don't scrimp on anything. You will get lots of repeat business with a quality product.
8. Set up a separate mobile phone exclusively for B&B bookings and buy a good, compact bookings diary for you to carry around, and a proper professional one you transfer the "in the field" bookings to when you get home. People won't book if they get an answering machine. Be accessible at all times by phone.
9. Get very good insurance with $20 mill pub/liability.

One more piece of advice; don't expect to get rich doing this. It is a lifestyle job, and very work intensive, unless you pay someone else to do all the cleaning. It is almost all weekend trade; very little midweek unless you get someone in for a week booking, but most people who want to do that will rent a private house or go to a resort or motel.

It is adviseable to offer breakfast ingredients for the guests to do it themselves, but you need very good facilities for that – self contained cottages or separate kitchens. If you are doing the meals yourselves (as we did) you will do a lot more work and a lot less free time.
The self contained option is more hands off and frees you up – it is far less commitment and stress.

As for Holiday Accommodation; I worked as a real estate agent in a holiday destination for a while, and we ran holiday lettings out of the branch as well. The season for renting was short and labour intensive for both the agents and the vendors. Quite often the only time you can get holiday lettings is when you want to use the place yourself (summer, easter etc), and the cost of up keep can be high as you need to have the place cleaned, any furniture and other fittings replaced or repaired after each tenant. Most only stay for a week or a weekend, so the cleaning time and cost can be high. Holiday letting management fees can be high as well. This is offset by the higher rents, but in my opinion not enough to be attractive in a lot of cases.

In reality, many people buy holiday houses with the idea of using it themselves, and making an income out of it too, but they find the hassle isn't worth the money and they aren't able to use the place because of a tenant, so they give the idea a miss and use it for themselves.