Forum Replies Created
I don't know anything about them. However, you could consider this a free property investing seminar in your home. Let them tell you about all the incentives. There may be a couple that you don't know about. They may have a few strategies that you haven't heard of.
Your posts suggest that you are quite an experienced property investor and I can't imagine you would be easily suckered in to anything you didn't want to be. Hear them out. If you pick up a snippet here or there, then it was worthwhile.
Do you know how they got your number?
K
Go to the developer's conveyancer and see if you can find them that way.
Last year I set up a HDT with some family members. We had a terrible problem getting finance. Most of the banks wouldn't lend against it. You may want to check with lenders whether they will accept a HDT. My broker tried about 8 banks before we finally found a non-bank lender. In the end, we deleted the word "hybrid" from the front of the document to enable us to get finance.
Just my two cents' worth.
K
Lavender Lily wrote:I wasn't prepared to disclose the prices before contacting the office as I did not want to be in breach of their policy.
The dollar amounts range from $100 to $6,995 depending on the level that you want to go with your investing. I joined the forum as a friend of mine belongs to it and told me about the question regarding the FMCC etc. As I was so happy with what they have done for me I joined the forum so that I could respond. I'm beginning to wish I hadn't!!And you just happened to join on the exact day that someone asks about Discount Property Group? And you just happen to be on the forum within half an hour of me posting my last post?
Truth is, whether or not you are linked to DPG, no-one is going to give your opinion on DPG any credit. Most of the forum regulars are alert to "glowing first posts", as they are affectionately known and will slam them as soon as they appear. You are doing the company more harm than good.
K
Dan42 wrote:Lavender Lily wrote:As for how much do they charge, why not contact their office to find out?Well, you said they "don't charge an arm and a leg", so I was hoping you could share with the community how much they did in fact charge you.
Either you know how much they charge and won't tell the forum, or you don't know, and your previous post was untrue. Which one is it?
What amazes me is that when people write first "glowing posts" on the forum and get questioned by regular posters, if the first poster comes up with a reasonable response, as Lavendar Lily has done, some regular forum members just accept the response at face value.
Of course Dan42 is right to continue to question LL. I don't believe a word she says in her capacity as a client of this DPG. This bollocks about "why not contact their office to find out?" screams of marketing. My questions is, how is it that she just coincidentally joined the forum at the same time there was a post about DPG. This is not a person to be asking questions about DPG and expecting honest, objective answers. This person is related to the company.
Lavendar Lily. This is not an original marketing method. Hundreds and hundreds of people have done this before and most of the regular forum members and see straight through it. If you want to see where this sort of marketing ends up, I suggest that you do a search on "Premium Finance" on this forum.
K
You should first approach the local council and find out what zoning the land is and what can be done with it. I am a developer and if you approached me I most certainly wouldn't be telling you what the potential of the land is! I would offer you a price knowing that you don't know what can be done with the land. No offence.
If you want to make the most out of the block you need to know what your options are. Council will tell you. Then you can make a decision as to what to do. You can choose to subdivide yourself or you can put the block up for sale, knowing exactly what can be done with the land and how much the land is worth.
I wouldn't even ask a Real Estate Agent. You would be surprised at how many of them don't know the potential of land. We recently bought an absolute bargain because the REA didn't know that the block was subdividable.
Knowledge is power.
Cheers
K
blogs wrote:Every man and his dog has been able to make money out of property over the last 10 years-hardley an amazing feat.So why isn't every man and his dog a property millionaire? You must move in different circles to me. I think that going from one investment property to financial independence in 3 years is a pretty amazing feat. I don't know too many people who have done it.
Am I crediting the agent for all the properties I bought? Hell no! My husband and I put in a LOT of hard work. When our friends were going away on holidays, buying nice cars and living it up, we were painting, renovating, researching and generally spending all our time on property. We dragged our poor little daughter all over the place in the name of property investing. We did the work and we will take the credit.
Having said that, had I not used the buyer's agent, I wouldn't be where I am today. Had I not started reading Steve McKnight, I wouldn't be where I am today. Had I not been born, I wouldn't be where I am today. Does that mean that I credit my parents for the properties I bought? Of course not. You are reading something into my post that just isn't there.
Cheers
K
blogs wrote:Pffft buyers agent, property advisors are shonks. Do it yourself and save the money…..I bought my first IP, a 2br unit in Darwin, through a buyer's agent. That was 5 years ago. The unit cost about $85,000 and I paid the agent about $3,500. That was a huge percentage to pay the buyer's agent.
However, after that purchase, I discovered the Darwin market and went on to buy over 20 properties there on my own, ALL of which were positively geared and doubled in value over 2 – 3 years. I have now sold all of them so the profit is realised profit, not just my estimate of value.
If I hadn't used the buyer's agent, sure I would have "saved" myself the $3,500 but then I wouldn't be financially independent today. My job today is buying, selling and developing properties. I haven't worked as an employee for over 4 years and my husband hasn't worked as an employee for two and a half years.
There are so many negative comments on this forum about property advisers with people saying "save yourself the money and read a book". It's not as simple as that. Often people need a kick start to get involved in property investing and sometimes getting others to do the initial work is well worth the money. Sure I think that there should be caution in which property adviser you choose to go with but I find the blanket rubbishing of all property advisers on this forum to be incredibly narrow sighted.
I managed to turn that three and a half grand into a couple of million in 5 years. Best money I ever spent.
Cheers
K
What state are you in? I'll have a look at the legislation.
hbbehrendorff wrote:Diamonds are worthless… They are scattered on the ground in AfricaThough offer gold and silver bars/coins…. and your talkin….
I'll head into the jeweller this afternoon and grab myself a couple of diamond rings then. I'll bring in a copy of this post and I'm sure that the jeweller will just accept the gold value in the rings.
Sheesh
K
I agree with Podney. Bunnings has them for quite reasonable prices.
K
[/quote]
Thanks for your opinion but I am not after opinions. I was just asking for advice as to how to work out the interest etc.
[/quote]Obviously "not_so_lucky" is "A" and is getting cranky at being called greedy.
It all just sounds very complicated.
If A and B's father always intended the boat to belong to both of them, it would be far easier just to sell the boat, pay back A the $4000 he has spent on the boat and then split the rest between A & B. So what if A also had a mortgage and could have put the money towards his mortgage? The boat was a gift. A and B were always going to have to pay maintenance on the boat. The fact is that A has has far more use of the boat than B and has had greater benefit. The maintenance on the boat was probably due to A's wear and tear.
Nitpicking over every last dollar is only going to lead to a family rift. If A genuinely doesn't want to be greedy then just take the four grand off and split the rest.
Cheers
K
So for a relatively straightforward project, ie, no ground issues, no design issues, no funding issues etc, would 6 months from the laying of the slab to handover be considered a good turnaround time?
K
Hi Singer
I hear what you are saying but I would never sign a new tenant on for more than 6 months. As a landlord, it is too hard to get rid of difficult tenants so I only ever sign on initially for a maximum of 6 months (in Darwin, my initial lease is for 3 months). If the tenant is good then of course I extend the lease and don't normally up the rent. If a new tenant said to me (or my agent), it's 12 months or it is nothing, then I would let that tenant walk, no matter how good their references are.
Cheers
K
It does sound like overkill.
BUT, I wouldn't be doing anything to discourage a thorough PM. If she wants you to be there, then be there. She sounds incredibly thorough (taking over 100 photos) but when you read all the problems with PMs that people on this forum have, just be grateful that she is so thorough.
Go to the first inspection and then if it all looks OK, don't go to any further ones. Tell her that it was obvious from the first inspection that she was doing an very good job and it is clear that she has selected and kept an eye on good tenants and that you have faith that she will continue to look after your interests.
Cheers
K
Hi trakka
You have raised a very good point and one which, to be completely honest, I don't have the answer. I suppose if the banks were to go strictly by the application form that discloses ALL liabilities but only assets in individual names, then company directors, trustees and others who have signed guarantees would never get a loan.
If I was filling out an application form and was asked to disclose all liabilities, I would ensure that somewhere in that form I would also be disclosing all assets as well, whether I was asked to or not!
I have two companies and two trusts and I go full doc with a bank. I know my business manager asks me about ALL assets as well as ALL liabilities, so everything is accounted for.
But, as I said, you have raised an excellent point.
I think I have changed my motto from "only disclosed what you are asked" to "only disclose what you are asked unless it is in your interests to disclose more!".
Cheers
K
I just had the floor polished on a reno. For three largish bedrooms, a loungeroom and a kitchen/dining room, I paid just over $2000. Get a few quotes. The price varies dramatically.
Cheers
K
CBA only do 50% on vacant land.
Hello Trakka. I haven't seen you on the forum for a while. Welcome back!
Just going back to your original post, I have my own thoughts on declaring other borrowings. I am an ex lawyer so this doesn't constitute advice but just how I would approach disclosing other borrowings.
I think it all depends on the application form. If the application form only asks for borrowings in my name, that is all I would disclose. Borrowings in a company are in a different structure and are not in my name. I am only legally required to disclose what I am asked in the form. If a bank did a search and came back to me and said "you are a guarantor on a, b and c loans" my response would be "you only asked me for borrowings in my name".
However, I imagine that most banks would require disclosure of all liabilities. And loans for which I am a guarantor are my liability. I think the difference between this and the example you gave earlier on being guarantor on your child's car loan is that the car loan would be quite easy to accidentally overlook. I think you would still be required to disclose the car loan on an application form that asks for all liabilities, but if the bank did a search and queried you on your failure to disclose the car loan, the bank would probably accept that it was simply an oversight. I think you would have a harder time explaining away failure to disclose guarantees on significant assets (properties in structures that you are a director, trustee etc of) as simply an "oversight".
I expect that as lending criteria have tightened, the questions in application forms have become more specific. Every time I have applied for a loan in the last few years, and there have been several, I have been asked to disclose ALL liabilities, whether those liabilities are in my name or not. Perhaps that wasn't the case when Steve started out several years ago.
Just my thoughts.
Cheers
Karen
