Thankyou kay henry and minimogul thats wonderful, ground level information that is often difficult to find first hand. Any body else with similar thoughts. We have moved throught the ideas of investing in these types of towns, now we seem to be looking at the ground level elbow grease thats involved (and difficult to find information on)Thank you everybody.
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thanks for the thoughts bindi, bens and jaffa. Yes, I think that the idea is reasonably sound, and if you guys are doing it, then fantastic. I guess the landlord issue is something, but most smaller towns have realestate agents that operate from nearby larger places (larger is 5-6 thousand) I guess the only thing holding people back from doing it is that you often have to travel a few hours from home. Maybe a nice weekend away if looked at in a positive way.

I would be interested to know from any builders, home reno people about their thoughts on maintaining one of the propertys we have spoken of in this thread. I think the only concern is how much the maintainence would eat into your profit. Keeping in mind most really small towns have ‘handymen’ that do just about everything for reasonable prices, especially if you have some kind of relationship formed with them. i.e you could provide them with cheap, city bought products and they do the work.

ANY SUGGESTIONS ON THE COSTS OF MAINTAINING, NOT REFURBISHING, THE TYPES OF HOUSES WE SPEAK OF. I.e. any home renno people or builders regularly in this forum?

slum lord eh? made me laugh.[] I like to think I have more integrity. Thank you so much for the thoughts, it brings me back to earth a little. Kind of refreshing. Thankyou.I might try to contact westan.[] for ideas.Anybody else reading? pleae read the thread and add to it. Its still an interesting concept.

Yes I agree, they are many that slowly decreasing, but on the whole, much more static. Where do people go when they can’t afford to move? nowhere.Thats why we, as investors look to the suttle signs that the town is static, i.e. the new branch of the council shire, a remake of a sports oval, new teachers put on, a new work for the dull scheme etc. The town is not growing, and it is not dying, because the services are being created there to maintain the population. Where do you think your taxes go to? they keep these people alive and content. Content to pay our rent? any more suggestions, there must be people out there who have tried this. Is this so new it has avoided everybody? will you buy the idea and follow it religiously if I put it in a book? how can I loose? (I’m an optimist, and the rest of you must be too, but bring on the opinions theyre welcome.)

thanks for your honest thoughts guys. You wouldn’t buy all the houses in one town, you choose towns where a new establishment is going to occur, ie a new jail, a new shop, increasing the central school to year 12, suttle things that are easy to find out about. You would buy with in a region. You would buy where there is a good water supply, i.e. on a river, bore water available etc and where there is a larger town nearby. remembering that the people cannot afford to move to the larger town, and no body from the larger town, (larger means 5-6 thousand people) wants to move to the smaller town. A static population with people that want to rent because they couldn’t be bothered ‘wasting all that money’ on buying a house. And when they buy, they have to save the cash because a bank won’t lend to them, thus a private sale, very little associated costs. usually just legalcosts. I wonder if steve mcnight or mortgage broker, maybe oo7 have an opinion. This seems foolproof, maybe I should write a book about these ideas, somebody must be able to bring me back to earth. I do have a lot of experience in these areas, I lived in them and now I am doing well (by hard work, not investing). Am i speculating too much? somebody out there must be able to debate my ideas thoroughly.

Its not really my criteria, just an idea that I think would work well. I wonder if anybody else believes that it will. People with more experience than I perhaps. I think it is a very interesting idea that is rarely discussed. thanks for your input.[]

Thats good sense every body, and your thoughts are interesting, but in the smaller towns, as Im sure you are familiar with, the peole come from the lower socioeconomic bracket. They live in the town as unskilled workers, i.e shearers, shopkeepers, mechanics, truckdrivers,the odd couple of teachers even full time wellfare recipients etc. These people do not have enough money to live a different lifestyle anywhere else, and they don’t have the mindset to save and afford their own homes, so they rent for the equivalent of 4 packs of cigarettes a week, generalising of course. (50 dollars) or if your lucky, one hundred dollars if you want to deprive people of thier alcohol and gambling. This is not a criticism of these people, just the way it is. These people are content with thieir lives and they gain pleasure from the things a very small town can give. They don’t mind staying in crappy accomodation, (again a different mindset) and they are not going anywhere, you often have the tennants for life and yes it may be vacant for a period, the max I have come across is six months, because there are always unskilled, unmotivated young parents wishing to move out of home to get away from mum and/or dad. These populations are static and thus there is no capital gain on the property, and vice versa, no loss, apart from the renovations you may need to do, and really, rennovations are as QLD007 put it, rewiring etc, not adding rooms or spas. these people don’t expect or really wish for that.I guess the challenge is to find the property in these places that will need renovation in 15 years time, use the positive flow from the last ten years (first five paid for the property) and then sell the property. The number of these types of places you could own is infinite. I.E. property buys itself in 5-10 years, you use the flow from the next 5 years to finance refurbishment, then you sell the property and all the others you own. your goals are set by the financial sum you wish to receive at the end. Noting that many people in the very small town are willing to undertake their own maintainence, i.e again its the mindset of rural, hard working people. Any more thoughts people, this is an interesting topic, very stimulating. NOTE: the only person who you could wrap with in these places is another property investor, I feel. Not may are interested in buying houses. People struggle to raise even half the funds needed for a 20G house and banks don’t want to know these people (unfortunately?) I guess, overall, we are considering the option of maintaining people in a state of hopelessness, but this is not an ethics string, its a business and investment string. More thoughts on dirt cheap property in these types of places??? this is good.[] NOTE most of these places are sold privately, thus no realestate costs.

thanks qlds007. One query… wrapping properties in the areas I speak of is difficult. They are awesome for having a property pay itself off , but difficult to sell.. I.e a house on an acre of land in the middle of a town of 400 people. Sold for 14,000 and rent is 50 dollars a week. thus in only 5 years you have 14,000 with minimal effort, and a bank manager eager to lend you more money. BUT it took 3 YEARS to sell the property. See the dilemma.There are often no capital gains in the places I speak of.

thanks chan. appreciated. I will do my best to add to this forum with my thoughts and experiences as time moves on. Be my decisions prosperous or not, I will have learnt from my actions, reading and advice from others for if the means to an end is satisfying, then the end is never reached. [^]