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  • Profile photo of LeonRLeonR
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    @leonr
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    February 27, 2014 - 4:29 am

    Seeing that your property is in Mackay – Queensland …..

    I remember hearing of one guy in Queensland that had a similar problem to yours regarding carpet beetles. Thinking outside of the box he caught about a dozen cane toads and placed them inside his home. After about 2 weeks most of the carpet beetles where gone and the well fed cane toads where then destroyed. (As they are considered a pest).

    Note: Not sure if story is actually 100% true, legal or for that matter an effective solution.

    But I agree with The Dark Knight that good quality carpet should cost a lot less, floating floor boards might be OK, but could easily be scratched by tennants.

    Profile photo of LeonRLeonR
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    November 11, 2012 - 5:47 am

    Derek and Richard many thanks for the information.

    Profile photo of LeonRLeonR
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    November 6, 2012 - 4:25 pm

    Not sure how real or accurate these Debt Clocks are.

    World Debt Clock, with Europe looking pretty bad.

    http://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html

    –

    USA Debt Clock, click the link below and watch the USA debt grow.

    http://www.usdebtclock.org/

    Profile photo of LeonRLeonR
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    October 30, 2012 - 4:47 pm

    We're in the process of doing something similar (in Adelaide) and also interested to know if its possible to minimize the capital gains on the sale of the rear block.

    Profile photo of LeonRLeonR
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    September 26, 2012 - 7:29 pm

    Actually its not far from the truth ……… my Greek friends can understand-relate to the story.

    Profile photo of LeonRLeonR
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    @leonr
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    September 26, 2012 - 7:05 pm

    I am <u>not</u> writing this to knock Nathan Birch, as I do admire what he and his team have achieved in such a short time.

    From Nathan's Binvested facebook site, a few comments made by some of his clients:

    •  "in the last 12 months we have purchased another 7 properties, and will be shortly settling on another 4."
    •  "We now have 3 properties – settled; another 3 will be settling in a few weeks; and hopefully 4 more in a few months time. It's been a HUGE learning curve for both my husband and myself, both exciting and scary at the speed everything is happening!"
    • "In just 8 months, I have managed to build an investment portfolio consisting of 8 properties worth over $2 million dollars yielding 8.9%."

    I guess that $200k could give you a property portfolio worth about $1 million, but with it comes a $800k loan.
    The 8.9% yield mentioned above is impressive, but after all the expenses are paid that rental net yield is more likely to be around the 5.5% to 6%? Maybe a bit higher if depreciation, tax deductions are allowed.

    What I do not understand is, isn't it dangerous to have so many properties carrying such large loans? Especially when considering the current world's economic situation?

    Profile photo of LeonRLeonR
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    @leonr
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    July 25, 2012 - 8:17 am

    About a week ago I saw on Foxtel a show called Your Money Your Call, hosted by property guru Margaret Lomas. One of her guests mentioned that 85% of apartment blocks completed since 2000, have some type of structural defects.
    The three most commonly cited defects are,
    1. water leaking within the building
    2. internal and external cracks
    3. water entering the interior of the building from outside

    No wonder strata fees are so high.

    Strata-defects1.jpg

    More information – http://blogs.crikey.com.au/theurbanist/2012/05/22/is-strata-title-keeping-up-with-rising-density/

    Profile photo of LeonRLeonR
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    July 11, 2012 - 3:27 am
    Derek wrote:
    Hi JP,

    Never bought one – probably never will.

    Being OTP there will be significant financing issues you will need to consider as the vendors and their contract will require you go unconditional within 30 days (or similar) BUT the bank will not provide unconditional finance until they can value the property – and this only happens right at the end when the property is completed.

    In between time you have either gone unconditional or at the very least signed a contract which you haven't been able to fulfill and are therefore at the vendors discretion to re-sell as you haven't met the terms and conditions of the contract.

    Another issue is that estimations for body corporate and rates provided by the developer tend to be on the low side so the purchase of an apartment appears to be more attractive to prospective buyers. When the property is completed the strata fees, in particular, get significantly ramped upwards thus making the investment less attractive.

    The value of your apartment will rise and fall with the market. There is not a lot you can do to influence the value of your investment.

    Some quick ones off the top of my head.

    Good points there Derek, though surprised by your opening comment – “Never bought one – probably never will.”

    As I had a look at the links in your signature which seem to promote apartments. Unless you mean you never buy an apartment at full price, compared to developing/buying apartments at cost price?

    Profile photo of LeonRLeonR
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    July 9, 2012 - 6:44 pm

    I have to agree with Nigel’s straight to the point comment.

    I visited Detroit back in 1993 and it was a basket case back then, with dirty slums, dangerous african-american gangs, thugs at every corner and crack addicts roaming around like zombies in downtown Detroit. I do remember feeling sorry for the police and paramedics having to deal with all that violence and mayhem. Post GFC I imagine that things must be 100 times worse in places like Detroit, Cleveland and the like.

    I cannot understand why anyone would travel to the other side of the world and risk their hard earned money to buy property in cities like Detroit, Cleveland? Plenty of comments/posts on these forums on foreign buyers getting ripped off one way or another, yet people are still investing-queuing up to become slum-lords.

    You can do as much ‘due diligence’ as you like, but at the end of the day you are trusting some Schmuck that you hardly know, who is on the other side of the world to manage/refurbish your property – alarm bells anyone?
    Not to mention the low quality tenants you find in these cities.

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