Forum Replies Created
I lived in one of these while at uni. They were really nice places and just perfect for me as a student. They have cleaners and where I stayed they had security and where strict. So the properties where kept in good condition.
You may want to ask about how they allocate which place is to be rented and when. I spent about 6 months in one of the best units by myself because they didn’t have enough students to fill all the places. However, the whole complex was at about 90% capacity at the time.
I asked that they put someone in my unit at the very end when they were totally full (becuase I liked being by myself). They sort of verbally agreed to this as I was an excellent tenant and they were careful who they matched with who.
So what does this mean from an investors perspective? Well it means that the complex could be 90% full and you may still only be getting half your return or no return. However, it could be only 5% of capacity and you could have a full unit.
I personally would be concerned that I cant do anything about it. Its up to the onsite manager. Unless you have some guarantee or something??
I think the more control you have over ensuring that your investment makes money the better.
Cheers,
MarkyMarkJust my opinion.
I think the decision to sell or not can be taken back to the same old question I ask myself 10 times a day these days. Will it get me closer to my goals by the specified time or not?
I am faced with this same question at the moment. I have chosen not to sell even though I have profit in the deal. The reasons that I am not selling is,
a. I have a plan for the property, i.e it is a good development site so there is still profit to unlock
b. Im getting an excellent yield, so holding costs are low
c. My position on the market for this particular area is that I don’t see prices dropping from where they are now as they are still undervalued in comparison with other similar areas close by.So I have used this as a bench mark. If anything I think it has a little further to go. But im not counting on it nor do my plans hinge on it.
d. The associated debt is well under control and affordable even with considerable greater interest ratesI must say the main reason is that there is more profit in the deal and I can use that to get closer to my goal. If it was a stand alone house with no further potential accept capital gains then I would sell now and lock in profit.
But if the property was on like Brisbane river and I got it at a good price then I probably wouldn’t sell (as to me this has further potential), I suppose I would try to solve the problem (maybe cashflow) while keeping that property.
I could be wrong about point C, but then I need to take a position so that I can make a choice. I think its better to analyze the situation as best you can and then choose, as apposed to keep going um… errr…. and then something happens and your forced to sell at an undesirable time.
Cheers,
MarkyMarkI suppose it depends who you are,
Consider Bill Gates
He made this money in the 25 years or so since Microsoft was founded in 1975. If you presume that he has worked 14 hours a day on every business day of the year since then, that means he’s been making money at a staggering million dollars per hour, around $300 per second.Which means that if, on his way into the office, should he see or drop a $1000 bill on the ground, it’s just not worth his time to bend over and pick it up. He would make more just heading off to work.
Which means that the cost for him to go to the toilet is considerable if you conisder how long it takes to go to the toilet. Lets say 3 minutes?? Then if your bill Gates thats $54000. Now if he goes twice in one day then its really starting to add up.
Bill would be much better of paying someone to make coffee for him as the investment of paying a person for a full year would have paid for itself after the time it takes to make just one cup up of coffee. Based on about three minutes to make a cup.
Cheers,
MarkyMarkOriginally posted by markpatrick:
I can`t help but think that Steve and other seminar/strategy salesman at the end of the day would earn thier money in property if they could, since they can`t they play the amway/money streams game.
No malice in my opinion but it`s what I believe to be fact.I think you are ignoring a very sensible possibility. Why can’t they being doing both? Sure, they can make money from the seminar biz, but you must be aware that they have been active in property recently in both NZ and the US – it’s been in the papers.
In fact, someone in this forum was complaining that they were still active in property, and why couldn’t they leave well enough alone to leave room for other guys.
On this theme my belief is Who cares if Steve, Joe blo or anyone else is making money out of it or what the motivation is.
The mentoring is a service offered like all the other services in the world. It doesn’t matter if they are doing this because they cant make money out of real-estate at the moment or because they don’t want to work or because they are good Samaritans or for what every other reason. Who cares what the reason is. Who cares how much they make.
In my opinion a better question to ask is “will this service help me get what I want”.
If the answer is no. Then don’t do it
If the answer is yes. Then do it.What Steve gets,why he’s offering mentoring for a price etc is irrelevant to the achievement of your goals.
Cheers,
MarkyMarkHi Terry,
I also had the same problem. I think it has to with translations. All the articles come up as this.ȁÃὡ½½Âë¤äÀÄ»³¡¢³«¶È¥é¥Ã¥·¥å¡¢
Cheers,
MarkyMarkreal-estate agents have access to a data base that contains dodgy tenants. A while ago I was watching a program on TV where a nasty real-estate agent had placed this ladies name on the database for some reason. Anyway she had huge trouble finding a place to rent as everywhere she went people would nock he back as she was on the list.
Anyway, the program want on to say that there was no formal process for placing names into the database and there should be etc etc.
So apparently one does exist. Cant remember the name of it off hand though.
Cheers,
MarkyMark
p.s. I think making the auto debit from the tenants account to your (or managing agents trust account) a term in the rental contract is an excellent idea. To my knowledge even if the money is not in the tenants account it will still be transfered. Meaning no late payments.
I know that this may sound extreme and I don’t know if I would do this myself but just thought I’d put it out there. What about if after they wouldn’t pay you organised an inspection and than said “oh that front and back door is terrible” and then took the doors off and took them home with you.
The tenant can then take you to the tribunal. However, they don’t really have a hope in hell as they haven’t paid you any rent. Plus they wont be able to get the hearing quick enough. As there’s no doors on the house. Who has the head ache now??
The risk I suppose is that they take a hammer to your house. But then they are risking criminal charges of vandalism.
You know I think that’s a pretty creative solution. Anyone got any others? I mean its obvious by this thread that normal means don’t work, they are using the law to their advantage and bending it at the same time. Why cant we as land lords?
Of course this would be after you have tried you utmost for a win-win.
[biggrin] MarkyMark
Hi Milly,
It sounds to me “and I could be wrong” that you are not sure of what result you want i.e. your not sure of your goal.Maybe you could sit down and establish a crystal clear goal along with a deadline. Then once you have done that look again at your options from that new perspective.
I find that this works for the following reasons,
a. You know exactly what you aiming for
b. Once you know what you want you can evaluate your options by asking “how will this get me what I want?” or “what do I need to do to achieve my goal by the due date?”This removes a great deal of confusion. I know that this may sound a little airy to some. But I have found this to be one of, if not THE most powerful thing that I have learnt. It just makes it all so much clearer. Sometimes I find that all my options are not up to scratch so I need to find some better options.
Hope that helps,
MarkyMarkDo you think that there would be an issue with regards to noise. Like upstairs is wooden floor boards.
MarkyMark
Be constantly asking the question, “How will this get me to my goal”
Planning and deciding what is a good investment and what is not, becomes easy when you are clear on your goals. It gives you direction, clarity and motivation. Be clear on the goal first.
MarkyMark
Nice edition of Insider as usual.
Steve I was just wondering about what you said here in response to Newstarts post
“……paying top dollar for a risk that can be addressed in a more cost-effective way (for example, using rental insurance).”
When you say “rental insurance” do you mean normal landlords insurance to cover the tenant trashing the place etc.
Also,
Do you take out landlords insurance as a rule on all of your properties? I have been doing that, and have not even thought twice about it.
Cheers,
MarkyMarkHi steve,
Just one question really, what do you mean by “niche deals”?2. Making competitive offers on niche deals that the
speculators now hesitate about, since they rely on luck whereas savvy investors use skill.and thanks for the latest newsletter.
MarkyMark
I recommend them. Dale’s “Trust Magic” is really good I think.
MarkyMark
We are pretty well saying the same thing Monopoly. I completely agree with what you are saying. When I first came onto this forum I sort of thought that Steve would be much more active than what he is, and I thought that he would contribute more detailed information in response to questions. But then I suppose I realised that that is not what actually happens, and I formed my own ideas as to why.
Thank fully all of the information about property investing no matter what your strategy is, is all over the net, in books everywhere and in many cases completely free (I don’t disagree with paying for information though).
I have seen the information that Steve teaches repeated multiple times and in detail in many older sources of information. Likewise, with many of the other strategies. I’m sure you have as well.
As I am sure most would agree, the very existence of this forum is extremely valuable.
Cheers,
MarkyMark
Hi all,
I suppose from Steve’s perspective information is money and giving it away freely (that is absolutely no monetary or advertisement benefit etc) may not be something that he is interested in doing.I have noticed that often some of the answers are pretty / very light. I think it also comes down to time management as well. What should you spend more of your time on? The things that will make you the most money and maybe that doesn’t include answering forum questions
This forum is a very good example of time leverage
i.e. leveraging other peoples time.This may all sound a little harsh to some, but the reality is that this is a business and Steve is running a business and we are potential customers.
I not sure Steve owes us anything. However, I think (my opinion only) that authors of books do have some sort of responsibility to explain themselves at some level. Many may not agree with this.
Even though this is a business there are people who have put allot of trust and faith in what has been written, clarification and on some occasion expansion should be given freely in my opinion.
MarkyMark
Hi Terry,
I thought that you needed to have equity in the property in order to get the LOC? There for the LOC is secured against existing capital.Is it not?
MarkyMark
To put it another way,
Say you have a card with a $9000 limit but you have not used it in any way, so its just sitting there doing nothing (i.e. you do not owe any money on it). The bank will take the full $9000 into account when you apply for a loan.A Line of credit is different in the way that you are drawing down from existing capital.
MarkyMark
Thanks everyone,
I sat down and drew few diagrams so I was clear on what each of you were saying.I think using a 55 days interest free Credit Card for all expenses in conjunction with an offset account is a pretty good idea. Just need to be disciplined.
I have a trust set up and I have a business account for the trust. If I have a personal Credit Card and I am using that to pay expenses for investment property owned by the trust. Then is this mixing it up too much for accounting and is there a tax hit? Particularly if I put income into an offset account?
I have a business and I am so careful not to mix personal with business as you end up in tears [glum] its such a hassle. I have taken the same approach with property investing.
I think I will need to talk to my accountant about this one.
MarkyMark
Hi Scullyman,
I have a place in North Rocky near the Frenchville Sports club. I have had other plans for it. But we can have a chat about doing something with that if you want.Just PM me if you want.
Anyway good luck with your landlord.
MarkyMark
Hi Guys,
Thanks for the comments. Yeah, I think by this discussion it is evident that I could be more proactive as to communicating how I want things done.I think I have taken a bit of a passive stance and just gone with the flow. This is not really my character, I think in this case it was all pretty new to me and the bulk of my research was on getting the right property and the right price etc etc. So when it came to the management I was not completely clear.
I agree with what your saying Kay Henry in terms of minimising the tenants hassle. I genuinely want my tenants to be happy, not only to maximise returns.
Monopoly, you were saying that you get the original receipts for repairs (not copies). Is there a reason that you get the originals? For all intents and purposes copies would be ok wouldn’t they?
Thanks everyone,
MarkyMark
