Forum Replies Created
exactly – like a consultant, or information broker. We are not making investment decisions for people, but we do help clients find out the information they need to be able to *make* those investment decisions.
Re cash under the counter,
All my businesses have legit records and tax returns and generate tax invoices for services with the appropriate ABNs an ACNs and all that kind of thing. GST has it’s own set of rules and criteria and I would advise getting your accountant to answer the questions such as 1) do I need to use GST now or in the future 2) understanding the paperwork involved and the schedules, compliance etc etc 3) making a business decision as to how to run your business based on the above plus projected income, time frames, tax position, GST being a nightmare, etc etc etcall that stuff
joy to the world
well said ablaze
and then, invested in property, you see the million never shrinks, it grows in value over time and so does the income, which if it’s rent, is indexed for inflation. So a million dollar block of flats returning 10 percent could be a 2 million block of flats returning 200k in 8 -10 years…isn’t that the length of time they say that property takes to double?
joy to the world
hey Tung,
“I’ve not been able to sleep (excitement keeps me up til 1-2 am”
Yeah!!!!! I’m posting this at 2.45 am and I hear you! it’s almost like…the dawning realisation that it just could work and you could get there too…if not in 3.5 years then certainly in a couple more…and then…you have options you didn’t have before..which you can see unfolding far into the future…and so you get so excited you can’t sleep. and people that don’t get what you are going to do from an investing point of view then can’t understand why you’re buzzing at 2am. but you are, and then from then on life is never going to be the same ever again, and you can never go back to the way you were before when you didn’t realise you had choices…and then the sky opens up, and then….
ok gotta go sleep now, I’m delirious
joy to the world
Versace Trackies?
well I played at this $4000 a head (for charity of course!) ball at the Palazzo Versace the other weekend with this Famous Rock Star whose name I am loathe to drop, but suffice it to say he’s a musical genius and I do what I do with him for the fun rather than the money. it’s an occasional thing and odd bit of pocket money rather than money I need for rent and bills etc. So we got to stay at the Palazzo Versace too. The only 6 star hotel in Australia apparently, and everything in it is Versace from the crockery and cutlery to the fabrics, upholstery, curtains, soap, towels, even the coffee in the rooms is imported from Italy. Not my style etc but when I woke the next day on my feather pillow with Versace pillow-slip I thought ‘yeah I get this style’. it’s not some Freedom Furniture rip-off designed with the Australian mass -market in mind, it’s silk pillows and Italian cotton and great design and quality. So I had a little looksee in the Versace shop, which is a mixture of bling bling logo stuff, plain well-cut stuff, and funky leisure stuff. All ages and tastes could find something to suit. So I was kind of mucking around and killing time and so I tried on this tracksuit. Kind of a hi tech luxurious fabric with a bit of lycra in it, in dark almost-black navy with silvery beige raglan sleeves, a hood, a cute silver versace dangle on the zip, and dark pants with a satin stripe sewn down the leg. cute versace silver square toggle on the bottom of the pants too. in my size! kinda ‘what Gwyneth paltrow would wear to yoga’ style. Really flattering and the first time I wore it I was accused of having lost weight. Gotta love that. So anyway the price tag was exorbitant compared to, um, kmart. let’s say ten times the price of a K mart. but then the price was the amount I was getting paid to be there. So i figured, I went to be a rock star for free and stayed at the Palazzo Versace and came back with no money for my day of luxury but a little souvenir of bling instead. That was how I justified it in my head!So yeah there is +ve CF. But the secret weapon is capital gains. So you can make like ten times the amount of capital gains in a year than you can cashflow. but the cashflow is the reason why you can painlessly hold the properties in the first place while waiting for your capital gains, while still retaining your ability to purchase Versace tracksuits (or whatever makes you happy). Cause if you spend the cashflow this week just have the tenant drop some more in for you next week. I love that about them.
joy to the world
Acey,
in the end it comes down to you and I being different in our fields of expertise. Mine includes bird-dogging and NZ investing. It’s your life and you can fill your time with whatever ‘big problems’ you like.
All I know is that I do the best I can, operate on full disclosure between my business partner and I and also with our clients, and can sleep at night. I come on the forums for fun and to try and answer some questions and give out some advice about things that I am knowledgeable about.
Do you know anything about Karma? It’s just that you may in the future have to experience someone telling *you* to stop saying something you never said..or saying publicly ‘dodgy dodgy dodgy all the way down the line’ about *you* and your chosen business.
We really do reap what we sew and you don’t have to be a Xtian, Bhuddist or anything for this to be true. It’s universal law! So. Just so you know.
cheers-
minimy indulgences:
too many to mention. anything from seminar fees, trips overseas, magazines, cigarettes, entertaining, concerts, every time I buy an expensive brand of anything, designer clothes, spontaneous days or weeks off, etc.But here’s the magic thing about +ve CF. Firstly at day one of investing you don’t need to *give up* anything because you actually have a cash surplus which increases the more properties you buy. and provided you don’t increase your ‘luxuries’ spending to match your new income, the surplus gets greater and greater the more you purchase so the more you can purchase.
and then there’s CGs…
So what I actually found is that my appetite for designer goods and just ‘doodads’ in general went considerably *down* once I started investing. I’ve cut down my designer clothes spending to a fraction of what it was. Nowadays I look like shit, but hey! I have four properties! No seriously, the *desire* for the trappings of luxury goes down. Again it’s almost philosophical – instead of buying things that make us feel special and treated on the outside, our investing makes us feel special and treated on the inside and so the outside seems to matter less.
Wow, who knew giving up luxuries could be so much fun and that we could actually enjoy doing it and get a kick and a buzz out of it.
I get much more of a kick out of eliminating my consumer debt (maxed credit cards had been a life-time affliction prior to when I started investing!-) now than the pleasure I got from whatever I used to spend money on.
every week I take an armload of ‘stuff’ up to St Vinnies and I certainly don’t replace it with more ‘stuff’. then again the other week I bought the most comfortable and divine great colour great cut great fabric great quality flattering Versace tracksuit (subtle non-bling though, hidden logo) in the whole world which I have hardly taken off since I got it. So i think I have balance, honest…hehehe
joy to the world
I agree, I feel also that darlinghurst is an area in transition. Moving away from the Kings Cross scummy thing into the up and coming, new apartments and trendy renovations, double income no kids, urban cafe society phase. doesn’t mean I am quite ready to live there myself being an eastern suburbs kind of a girl but as an investment I think the only way is up – it’s a walk down the hill in to the city.
I also have been looking (peeking and dreaming, more like it) in double bay, which I think I have noticed going down in value (i,e. correcting). I believe double bay to be an a-grade suburb which will always hold it’s value long term and that now or soon or in the next year or two could be a good time to buy. Double bay i reckon has appeal for renters and home owners. I think rushcutters bay is A-grade too or becoming more and more a grade.
I remember being at a seminar and Jason whitton saying (who specialises in developments and OTP apartments) re the sydney apartment market, that a grade locations would never suffer the market corrections that the b-grade sites would, because there is always a demand for them
I would agree with that
cheers-
Minijoy to the world
Yep I agree, ‘definitions’ as per the law are a complex thing and so really the only person that can tell you if what you want to do and the way you want to do it and where you want to do it is legal or not is a smart and clued up property lawyer in the state where you are going to be bird-dogging.
I certainly don’t have a clue about every law everywhere but I do know that the way I bird-dog properties in NZ is very much legal, and we have worked with many lawyers on our team to draft up the appropriate documents for the way we do business.
Also the fact that we have got so many deals over the line (probably around 50 this year or so) and in the process have dealt with so many vendor’s solicitors all over the country means that many lawyers have dealt with us and inspected the way we do it from a vendor’s point of view. If it wasn’t fully kosher we wouldn’t be still in business and have a great reputation with lots of repeat business, basicallyand one final thought, if you want to do something that *most people* don’t do or understand, you will find that *most people* will tell you it can’t be done, is illegal, ‘if it wasn’t, why aren’t more people doing it?’ kind of arguments. But you have to find the professional can-do people that say it can be done, legally, and this is how. Of course those people are thin on the ground, but you can find them.
that’s basically the plight of the entrepreneur in any genre, going against the *most people think…* thing. But that’s where the opportunities are.
something to ponder anyway
joy to the world
yes, it’s nuts and bolts as you would expect of an ex-accountant! anyone can think a house is pretty but once you know how to work out whether a house is going to make you or lose you money, you are away. Yeah, read Kiyosaki first to get mentally pumped, ditto Richard Branson, then read Dolf de Roos to get a simplified property investing overview, then read 0-130 to understand the NUMBERS behind how that is actually possible.
then read 1million in 1 year to ‘get’ how ANYONE who actually puts it into practice (rather than deciding what book to read, haha) can do it! Then go do it.!
joy to the world
who gave you advice and why doesn’t it sound good to you? cause in the end you will shop for advice until you find some that tells you what you already believe.
Go to your accountant and get professional advice. opinion shopping here will give you responses from a whole lot of investors. some earn 300k per annum from a job and own 2 negatively geared properties and 1 CF+ve one in NZ. Others earn 10K p.a., buy in their own name and own five in NZ.
others have family trusts and distribute earnings to (i.e.) their mothers.
some have fancy structures within structures that cost them hundreds in fees per month!
it all depends on things like how much you earn, how many properties you want to buy, how much income they will make, whether you want ‘asset protection’ i.e. so you can’t be sued for your property because ‘you’ don’t own it, etc etc,
your income bracket and how much tax you are paying, time frame, etc etcOnly a professional can discuss this with you and give you the right advice. And even then, take it with a grain of salt because SOME want you to have complicated structures just so they can get the fees for starting and running them each year
joy to the world
hey kirsten,
you could either just put a contract on it and then pay someone to inspect it (builder’s + photos) i.e the house inspection company
or else you could get a rental assessment with photos and an idea of what would need to be done to tenant the property and for how much (at an agency not selling you the deal) and make an offer based on the numbers. you might be able to get that for free or for 60 bucks or so. OK it’s not a builder’s but it might be enough to make an offer. then you can go the builder’s when your offer is inspected. but it’s cheaper than going there yourself. and cheaper than missing out on a great deal!
It’s all about leveraging your time so you can look at more deals
cheers-
Minijoy to the world
Hi AliG, I can TOTALLY relate!!!
I had a lot of negativity from family and friends and people I wanted to run my idea past. Ah! where do I start? I wanted to buy Waiheke Island, which was CF+ve for 100k house and land. I didn’t, because an Auckland wanker friend of mine (I say that in love!) told me it was a terrible idea. Well, it went up 127 percent in a year and that’s just the MEDIAN price.
Just looked on the net and the cheapest property with a house on it is 295K. Under that, you just get a building site.!!!
So my family and friends and my unsureness cost me 200k. HMM.
So I found another place, where I was looking at 58K rents for 130 p/w. Seaside town 1 hour from a major city. friends and family told me about the gang problems, and put me off – even though I KNEW the gangs were gone, there was a new supermarket there etc and I’d been there and spent time and they hadn’t – I again let myself be put off. what is that worth now? 90, 100k.
So bummed and depressed I let another six months slip by until I thought ‘bugger the lot of you’ and bought three houses for 80k for the lot! in a place (again, like a broken record) people said I was nuts. I got them cheap because I was one of the first ‘outside’ the town to invest there and they were extremely +ve CF anyway and then the wave of people behind me made them go up in value heaps to boot.
Then all the people who had dissed what I wanted to do said they wished they’d done it too and I was ‘lucky’ I bought there then.
I grit my teeth and smile. They have NO idea what we go through, do they!!
But we are showing them that if you do what everyone does you’ll end up with what everyone has got and if you do what Steve McKnight does then you’ll end up with something a little different…heheh!!
Also lesson learned from that time: Trust myself!
My research, number crunching, and vibes were dead on! Back myself! And don’t take advice from poor people and people who don’t know and don’t invest!!!cheers-
Minijoy to the world
re: “The second factor to watch is world oil prices.”
Michael R said: Correct. But in the not too distant future, the world’s economies will be less reliant upon oil as a primary energy source.”Michael R –
I agree with you, but don’t you think the US economy is buoyed by all the bazillions of dollars floating around as the world is on this ‘buy oil in US dollars, or else!’ thing?
Don’t you think that if oil runs out and we move to other things, that will affect the US and the US dollar??Richmond said “it can’t go on forever without something having to give. Then again, I’m not an economic expert, just trying to look at things logically.”
Well said Richmond. Michael R, that was the thing which was logical to me too.
You said “If it was logical I very much doubt George W. Bush would be in power.”
American TV news – 95 percent US content and 5 percent about the world. More, and the yanks will change channels, and we can’t have that, we need to sell advertising. Ok, so it’s not their fault because they only know what’s on TV. So therefore perhaps it is logical that Bush is in. The guy with the biggest campaign who’s on TV the most and diddles the odd vote count is gonna get in, surely? Until the public won’t allow that any more. But that’s up to the media/TV to let them know what is going on so they can react.
I salute you, Mike Moore
joy to the world
Hi Ali,
I actually would recommend getting pre-approval and borrowing in NZ not Aus. then go shopping! Yes, Aus is a lower rate, but many of the gurus (like Dolf de roos) recommend borrowing in the same country because it’s a hedge against currency fluctuations.
also pre-approval anecdotally from many clients seems to be less strict on where and what you buy than finance on a deal by deal basis.
joy to the world
Hi guys,
I have a friend who went to it in Brisbane and had a video set of the seminar. I kept falling asleep watching it as like people say there is a bit of ‘speaker’ and then a LOT of watching them play the game ad nauseum (properties posted around the walls of the room, you do pretend property investing and there are some that are CF+ve and some that are CG, you have to grow your pretend portfolio and the winner gets 10k of real money) – it’s as if whenever the organisers sense people’s energy levels dropping they call the game for a bit. And play loud ‘motivating ‘ pop music i.e. “absolutely everybody”.
I haven’t been to Antony Robbins but I am sure they are copying american ‘seminar strategies’.
OK as to the content of the tapes, the main guys are Phil Jones and David Howes. Phil Jones has an unfortunate unhappy kind of smirky scowl which I’m sure he thinks is a smile and really he doesn’t look like he’s having the best time presenting so I found him hard to watch.david howes I found easier to watch, a bit brainier and quieter and nicer, that was just my vibe
also they are slightly of the ‘how to screw down the vendor’ at times and I would say bordering on the unethical. i would have to watch it again and get actual quotes (which I can so not be bothered doing) but their style does smack a bit of the ‘get as many bums on seats as we can, get the past attendees as free labour, and laugh all the way to the bank’ kind of thing. Compared to a Steve seminar which is of a much higher vibration and tells you how to ‘create’ wealth rather than to ‘get it’ or ‘buy it’ by screwing down someone who’s selling.
However if you were a beginner and in ‘analysis paralysis’ you may gain confidence and knowledge by going to a seminar, and it might just be the thing to set you on your way to taking action. I know that for me it was steve’s seminar that was the deciding factor to make me go and actually find deals after the seminar and buy them, not just go read another book.
I just realised then ‘oK i geddit’ and went and started. The first deal is the hardest and after that it’s a piece of cake. honest!
joy to the world
Used to be a gold standard. Countries had to buy oil in gold.
In the 80’s I think it changed to a US$ standard, countries have to buy oil in US$. The yanks said so…
All these bazillions of oil US dollars floating around kept the US currency buoyant.
Then the Euro launched. The US laughed.
Then some countries decided ‘bugger the US, we’re going to trade oil direct in Euros with Europe’.
Those countries included Iraq.Result…Euro up, US dollar down.
Are you following me so far? This is basically the guts of a brilliant article I read in the Age.
So US panics. They are the most in debt overspending nation etc in debt 18000 US per head of population or something, and if their dollar devalues they are as Steve said likely to collapse. Stuart Wilde predicted this anyway once the oil runs out (he reckoned that would be in 2050 or before)
OK so just coincidentally (not) there is a war against Iraq for various reasons (i won’t go there unless someone asks me to…hehe) and suddenly oil trading with Euro stops, goes back to the US dollar, dollar goes back up and euro back down and US breathes a sigh of relief. For the short term.
Long term, yes, they are on shaky ground. I predict one day the dole cheques will bounce, and there will be a country up in arms! !!! Oprah will have a field day! “How could you mismanage things so badly!” And then some states might even break off, saying ‘you guys are a crock, we no longer want to be involved, we will self-govern’. Thus breaking up one of the world super-powers…and then there’s Europe and China.
I dunno, but it all seems logical. Besides, i’ve read Stuart Wilde….
It’s a subject that I pondered a lot and read a lot about since sept 11 which is when I first started ‘noticing the discrepancies’ shall we say.
joy to the world
Basically this is what I would reckon.
1) talk to a property lawyer and discuss what you want to do and how you want to do it legally which protects you and your client, and figure out the best way to do it legally and get documents drawn up – whether that be assigning, deed of nomination, signing up ‘as agent’, disclaimers, and ABN etc
or you might decide to find deals and then sign them up in the client’s name directly.2) get clients
3) get deals your clients wantNo good trying to get deals without clients, waste of energy – and won’t help your cause with agents being taken seriously if you tie them up but don’t get them over the line
no good trying to get deals your clients don’t want
so figure out how to attract clients and what they want and go get ’em.
Know your stuff and do ten times the amount of research you would for yourself.
remember you are working for your client first and yourself second and the real estate agent NOT! if you forget this and put yourself before the client you will end up pushing a deal they didn’t want or talking them in to it and you will get the results of that later which won’t be good (karma, or worse, you’ll get sued or whatever)
good luck
cheers-
Minijoy to the world
Hey Sonja, there is another person on the forum in the same boat as you X 2 (re your son) so I will draw her attention to it and maybe you guys can be moral support etc!!
Re the blind guy, yeah, a real estate agent was telling me about him. and I can put you in touch with the RE agent. PM me!
joy to the world
You never know, you can sometimes pick something up. the thing is that the cheaper the deal the more people want them!!
but yeah, we have something under 50 for sure
You would have to be on our mailing list thoughjoy to the world
Crashy! nice to see you again…how’s things?
joy to the world
As for your philosophical question as to how to get cashflow from equity, well call me old-fashioned, but what is wrong with RENT????
i.e. equity
go buy loads of high yielding CF+ve properties (or create them by building extra bedrooms, renovating, selling off a slice of the land, whatever it takes) and live off the rentsBlocks of flats can work quite well
