Agree with AIF. If you try and talk them down too far they lose their margin and given its off the plan, the presales need to show a 20% minimum profit otherwise the bank won't fund the development. Asking price is usually there for a reason and you'll find its usually cheaper than a 'retail' market price..

As Illuminati said, if the new house and land is good value, and will meet your needs then go for it – a lot of developers wouldn't offer this. It gets you debt free with a house which is, all things being equal, a good position to have. Don't get greedy would be the only advice I'd offer, there's plenty of stock out there for developers to build on, if you make it less of a good deal for them (and ultimately the bank funding it) they'll walk and find something and someone else that will work out, and you'll still have a negatively geared property with a mortgage.

Not suggesting you let yourself be walked over, no way, but keep it realistic. Some people seem to get ridiculous ideas in their heads when someone says the word 'developer'..

Best of luck with the venture if you decided to go with it.

I always suggest going out and doing some research yourself first and foremost. Property development is taught at TAFE and Universities, so there must be text books, literature, and other forms of media available out there for people to access. State Libraries are always a good place to start, as is the internet. While tedious, you can search and start to put together a picture of what's needed. There are a ton of threads here and on other property related forums as well.

Now, question is, what is more valuable to you – spend $5K or whatever it is on one person's course, or invest your time in doing your own searching and spend a few hundred at most. You will learn from doing, believe me. all the courses in the world won't help until such time as you're out there giving it a go, talking to people, listening and learning, and of course, doing.

I've met Bob in person, only once, nice fella. Of all of them (Carly, Rolton etc) who are doing things in the development space, he's the only one I know of who's actually a developer. That said I've never looked into Carly or what she's done or hasn't done.

Without meaning to sound harsh, because I actually think he's a nice guy, Bob's jumped on the education/seminar/home study bandwagon for another source of income, fair enough. Power to him. I tend to think (personal opinion only) the whole industry is a bit off selling dreams and using hard sell/manipulative language etc.. I've just done Jordan Belfort's Straight Line Persuasion course and man the things you learn in that you all of a sudden see through all the other BS out there for what it is. 

Look at it this way – $5K for say Massland's course and $30K for their 'mentoring', or probably less than half that for a university or TAFE accredited and industry recognised qualification teaching the same things. Might take you longer, but hey, you're still learning the same things right? What's the worst that could happen? You learn something?

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Yep, is a how long is a piece of string type of question, some things go to plan and go up in 6 months, some take 18 if council delays things or weather or materials delays.. etc etc.
Civil works (sewer, roads etc) can also take a while.
Easiest thing would be to ring a builder and ask. they'll only ever give you a guesstimate anyway.. but at least it'd be an accurate guess!

Good luck with the assignment

Get it under option first. Developers won't talk to you unless you do pretty much, or, they'll try and get the address from you and get it themselves. It's relatively small, so you could start ringing around smaller builders to see who's looking for projects. Real Estate agents may know who the local players are, Master Builders Association may also know.

I'd be aiming for nothing less than a 12 month option on that with some 3 month extensions just to be safe.

Agents don't like options as there's delay involved between when the property is taken 'off market' and they get their commission. While options are common in larger development scenarios their use isn't so well known (although still common) in smaller subdivisions. Vendors generally aren't aware of them either and to them it sounds like not such a great deal despite the fact that it's probably one of the safer methods to use in a property transaction if used ethically.

At the end of the day, education and frustration is part of the process. Not everyone will see it your way, nor will everyone be open to it. Have a plan B, C and D and some flexibility in your negotiations so that if option A doesn't take, you have some room to manouver. You can only state your case honestly and openly, either they'll like it, or not. If not, move onto the next deal.

Best of luck.

Knowing Council, especially the BCC, if the DA isn't actually lodged they 'could' argue it doesn't exist, thus the uplift in value on the property doesn't either. If you tried to lodge now, they could argue that you 'should' have known about the Cross River resumptions therefore its not 'their' fault.

Playing devils advocate here, but I'd suggest going them for anything above fair market value, given you havent' actually lodged the DA, is going to be difficult. I only say that a) as an opinion obtained from having watched people at work here to DAs all day and hearing their conversations, and b) based on media reporting on how sensitive the resumptions issue is with residents and home owners (rightfully so).

Best thing to do is seek legal advice now rather than later. You may be able to get part compensation for costs incurred prior to the media release as prior to that point you'd acted on information received from BCC in lodging the DA without objection etc…

again, just pulling rabbits out of a hat here..

Funny that transaction mentioned prior through Sandfort…that's the same company name that Mark Rolton and Massland use…

coincidence perhaps?

Hmmmm..