“Houses will fall 10%”

Which houses exactly? One property I own is in a suburb that was red hot three years ago when I bought it, and has now apparently (according to the experts) had dropping house prices. Recently for refinancing reasons I had the house valued while in the middle of a major renovation (the front half was gutted – no floors, no…[Read more]

Yeah, recruitment agencies are only any good for candidates who “tick all the boxes”. Thing is, they receive so many applications, they have to screen them quickly and efficiently. It’s easiest to immediately cull the 80% that don’t meet ‘requirements’ (as per what their client company has requested) straight up, and start narrowing down from…[Read more]

Regardless of the copyright issue…

Are you sure their house plans are applicable to your block? In addition to drawings, an architect will have considered council regulations pertinent to their property. And an engineer would not simply have looked at the architects plans, he would also have had to look at their property, and consider…[Read more]

Your council should have information on how much they will charge you to lodge a subdivision application etc.

Surveyors cost several thousand dollars for even a tiny plot, so three decent sized blocks will probably cost quite a bit.

Biggest cost is probably time – as you will be purchasing with the bank’s money and have no income coming back…[Read more]

I’m not sure that I quite follow the details of your potential agreement – but I think the best thing is to talk to a solicitor and/or tax specialist about your options.

One problem I can see arising – if you are officially purchasing the property today, but will then hand the proceeds to her unofficially in ten years time – is the tax that you…[Read more]

Be aware that the real estate agent doesn’t work for you, so their answers to any questions will be skewed to elicit a sale.

You need to be a master of you own destiny here, and do research on what type of ‘investment property’ you are looking for. The Gold Coast is full of smooth operators trying to sell shoddy apartments/houses to the…[Read more]

Originally posted by debtdogg:

If you are prepared to do the work it is not the area but the actual property that will improve your position financially

Uhhh… While you can add capital value to the actual property, that won’t help much if: there’s DA approval for a McDonalds to go in next door; you buy in a monoindustry area that closes up…[Read more]

Buy the book first, and see if the person doing the seminar is good at explaining his/her ‘knowledge’ (and if it sounds solid to you). As with any education course, some are good and reputable, and others are shonky snatch-and run-jobs.

If you attend any professional (psychology, astronomy, medical, business, etc) seminar/conferance you can…[Read more]

You can value-add by offering them the use of something they want. I.e include a tv if they pay an extra $10 a week.

If it is a furnished property, you can agree that if they sign a long lease (5 years) they will own the furniture at the end of the lease. (Seeing you will depreciate most items over a 5 year period, on paper this will not cost you…[Read more]

You’ve already paid $315K and stamp duty even though the project isn’t completed yet?

Usually the point of ‘buying’ off the plan is that you don’t pay out anything more than the desposit until final settlement, which occurs upon completion.

You put a clause in your contract that you may onsell the contract (or closed ‘option’) rather than…[Read more]

Yep, invested in some residex data when purchasing my first investment property.

There’s a lot of info floating around both for free and for a price, and you’ll find that it at time contradicts. Different data companies collate their info in different ways – which explains the differences.

I think Australian Property Monitors only analyse…[Read more]

Originally posted by LKGK-88:
There are lots of books or seminar that educate +ve cashflow but then the example they are using is all based of property $50k-$100k, which hardly can be found in qld I am not sure other state. As I said on my previous forum, I have been searching for so many properties with realestate and hardly can find one. I might…[Read more]

Obviously cash-flow positive properties are particularly difficult to find in the current Sydney market (where most people look for capital gains rather than good rental return) but if you look good and hard one will turn up… eventually.

Looking in cheaper areas of Sydney (or outside Sydney) – where the property itself is less expensive is a…[Read more]