SIS I agree with you that 3 months total immersion is equal to….who knows how much time at a language school. The reason being that the best teacher is necessity. Which you have while you are there.

but about the ‘all i can do really is wait and see what happens’ – say what? Did all your property deals ‘just happen’ to you then? Didn’t think so..

And what’s all this about promising friends and family you’ll be back, every month for 18 months, and not delivering?

Either stop lying or start delivering. And admit to yourself that if you wanted to be there you would so really there must be a part of you that doesn’t want to be there otherwise you would be there. Maybe you feel duty/guilt. Did I just nail it? thought so.
Is it a cultural thing? I don’t know what culture we are talking about here, but a lot of cultures do have a big guilt/duty thing.

tell us more it’s interesting to get a little ‘the man behind the music’ stuff about you.

There is no such thing as a definitive one post which says ‘this is everything you need to know about investing in Tasmania’. For every one opinion, there’s another who says the opposite.
Also,
something which was was true one or two years ago – i;m just making this up but i.e. ’15 percent yields in Hobart’ – might not be true today.

Hanging out with fellow property investors is definitely a ‘shortcut’. but there’s not really a shortcut to the ‘hanging out with’ part.

So how about this for an idea…start reading your 615 pages of search results in which we collectively spill our guts and be thankful that it’s even there to find in the first place….

And know that part of the reason it’s 615 pages and not 65 is because time after time, the new ones come and ask the same questions over and over. *sigh* no blame, just an observation

I love this thread!!!

“Do you find that if you are talking to other people, as soon as they get the slightest hint (from whatever source) that you own more than one property, you get spoken to differently????”

Yes!!!!
With a lot more respect- !

I have dreadlocks, for heaven’s sake! So they often don’t even believe me anyway. Haha. Not that I often blurt out ‘I have four properties’.

But I admit, I have…um…let it slip, to mess with people’s minds I felt were…patronising or underestimating me!! Works a treat!

people do have a lot of prejudices and hidden biases and money is one topic of conversation where a lot tend to come out.

Since I have got into property investing I find my social scene has become a lot wider. I have fantastic hours long conversations with stockbrokers at parties now, people who i previously may have thought I had ‘absolutely nothing in common with’.

I do share it with my friends. even if they are not into it yet for them, and I do desperately not try to be a property-bore with people who aren’t into it as much as i am!! But the friends who can bear a wee update on it are the ones who ask me ‘how are your properties going!???’

And tell their friends at parties about what i’m doing and then I have to explain it all!!

“Why do people assume that just because you have IPs you must be some rich #$%#@ that looks down his/her nose at those who only have their PPOR???”

Reading between the lines: You sound like you are upset because this happened to you. Was it a one-off or does it happen a lot?

Because I hate to say it but if so, you could be attracting the reaction to the stereotype by behaving like the stereotype.

i bet you’re gonna hit me now, huh

*ducks*

I totally get this question and agree with the book’s advice. We rent an 800K house in Sydney for the poor landlord’s (had they bought the property today) 2 percent yield.

Meanwhile I have properties which earn me 20 percent yields in good old NZ which more than cover my half of the rent.

And here’s the amazing bit, my properties are worth only a tenth of the value of the place I am living in – the amount of a deposit on where i live now! And the rents from my investment properties completely support me living in a place in Paddington, Sydney which I could no way afford to buy.

mind boggling huh. Cause i did the numbers, see!…..let’s say I bought this 800K place, I would have had to have 80 to put in as a deposit, had interest only of probably 1200 a week, plus maintenance and rates….which would have cost me approximately…hmmm….6-7 times what I am paying now!!!!!! Less the income from my rental properties, make that 8 times!

in case you’re still not convinced-

Like someone mentioned above, Mortgage interest on own home has no tax benefits. It’s paid out of tax-paid dollars, the worst sort! But interest on investment properties is tax deductible.

the gov’t’s way of kicking back investors for helping them solve a problem which if not for investors would mean state housing would have to spend a whole lot more money.

There’s more reasons for it too – i.e. I work from home full time, and so a portion of my rent and bills are also tax deductible. Even if you are an employee you can start a home-based business on the side I think (property investing!!) and take advantage of the tax laws.

In fact… I can’t imagine one single financial reason to own one’s own home first. The only reason is an emotional one as far as I can see.

All of this is just my opinion of course…I love a debate so bring it on. Anybody?

“Coz your landlord might be wanting the same thing.”
Not quite….me wanting to make money, as in, real cash not just ‘equity’.

Landlord wanting to lose money, actual hard cash they pay into their property out of their pocket each week, in the hope of either ‘legally minimising tax’ OR capital gains.

If all things were equal and you for example rented an identical house to the one you had as your investment property, you’d still save with tax write-offs.

cheers-
Mini

A house + land is still gives you the benefit that it has a ‘land’ component, but stick a house on it, and there’s an income stream likely to be higher than hiring it out the bare land for the local sheep to graze on.

So…you could take the 50K you could access, and use it (theoretically) to buy another property. In NZ that’d get you 30 percent LVR on say 150k worth of properties, which could be say a high yielding block of flats in a regional town of over 10000 people with half of it, and also maybe a 3 bedroom house in a regional city, and you’d still have money left over for closing costs.

Or perhaps you could relocate an existing house on to the site- might cost you 30K to relocate it and fix it up or whatever, but you might be able to actually get the house for free, or 5-10K if you are lucky enough to find a reasonable house for removal nearby. make a rental property that way. depends on the area I guess.

cheers-
Mini

good for you!!!

can you be bothered to share what those 20 q. are? be interested to know!

As for rental stats,
Tenancy services
http://www.minhousing.govt.nz/tenancy/index.html

is the site where you can find out what the current market rents are in each town or region.

As far as vacancy rates, just talk to a rental manager in the town not selling you the property. You can also say ‘I’m an investor from Australia and I’m interested in a property at 10 whatever street. How do you think this would go as a rental? they’ll tell you straight away what they think of the address. then you can get a rental assessment done. Also ask them how many properties they manage, and how many are vacant. Why the vacant ones are vacant. It might be that they are too scummy, or too ‘executive’. They may have a glut of (say) 2 bdr flats and a shortage of (say) 3 bedroom houses, or vice versa. Ask what it was like a year ago, two years ago – if it’s changed. if it’s easier or harder at the moment. What tenants like and want. (good heating? Close to town? Carpets?) These are all the kinds of things i ask them. just make some calls and ask them stuff.! The longer you can keep them chatting on the phone the more info you’ll get. Then repeat all the above with a different rental agent. If you do this for two major rental agents in each town you should get a good picture of the market.

cheers-
mini

do the ‘strata titling car parks’ thing in NZ. When i first heard about it in Aus (you could buy a single carpark as a mini-commerical property, leased back to the operator, for 7 percent return or whatever-) I thought how crazy, but I guess it’s the future. So AFAIK nobody’s done this in NZ, so the first person to do it in NZ I reckon would have a stampede. hmm? Maybe. then again i don’t know anything about car parks.

Or, do the Cathyjayne.com.au thing and buy blocks of flats, reno each, sell as separate title. to do that in NZ.

> “Mini – if you’re not afraid
Heya Brent!

‘Afraid’ does not compute….
what is that?

>of rolling up your sleeves and doing a little
> renovating,

I did more reno-ing in 3 months last year (two properties) than most people do in a lifetime. I do understand the concept….

>there are still a few deals which can become 10%+ yields in
> Dunedin. (Mainly in South Dunedin).

Indeed, and I guess it’s all comparitive – you balance out the headache factor of a reno (even if that’s only time spent organising from afar) and the ‘probably have to go there at some point’ time and expense factor with the entry price, with the potential capital gains you MAY or may not get (who really knows how much or how fast?) and the rental yield coupled with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the market. (knowing how that deal compares to other deals in other cities) and the economy (the factors that really drive CG)…..

so my conclusion….
I am mildly into Dunedin and not at all against it – yes, I love the city and I ‘wouldn’t mind’ eventually maybe getting a property there. no stronger than that. I am also well aware of the other several strategies you can use to make a property ‘become’ cashflow +ve…..and I don’t mean ‘borrow less’, ha ha.

But as for my personal choices, IF I were hoping for capital gains and was OK with only ten percent yields, I might choose a city which was (for example) warmer, closer to (for example) Auckland, and on the island where 3/4 of the population lives. and I would probably choose a town where population increase is not mainly driven by an increase in the number of students. (although I realise that can mean strong rental demand.)

Besides, the mob has descended on Dunedin, ditto Invercargill, forcing prices up. and i like to think I’m a bit ahead…I think Dunedin is a relatively safe bet though, but then again so is a term deposit….

10 percent, I dunno, just doesn’t really get me that excited. if i do the numbers – your borrowing is 7 percent odd and rates, insurance, vacancy and maintenance eat up the rest, then you are breaking even just, have no buffer if something goes wrong, and if prices DON”T rise lots in the next few years then you may as well not have bothered buying.

I guess I have been spoilt because I have had CG of 60 percent p.a. on my little properties on top of 20 percent yields (10 percent after holding costs) and so my bottom line of what’s a good deal is a lot higher than most people’s. And this was buying in places where people said I was crazy. A bit like Logan Queensland last year. But people that bought there then would be laughing now. i.e. vindication that you really have to be ahead of the mob to get the superb results.

> The problem is, you’d more than likely need to be on the ground for at least 2
> weeks to project manage the deals.”

Try four days,,,,,,,,,,,That’s all the time I had so that’s all the time I spent on the ground. Or, applying the ‘work smarter not harder’ rule, you employ a project manager which is how come my second property I ‘renovated’ last year I never actualy went to – still haven’t stepped inside, though the pictures look great…
and the tenants love it…

there’s actually a NSW developer called Jason Whitten who lectures or maybe mentors through the richmastery crew. You should just book a day with him for a grand or something and pick his brain.
maybe??

Marrickville. It’s in the top 10 most popular suburbs for Gen-Xers (double income no kids, but even when we have kids, we still want to live amongst the action) and the *only* one where the median price was under 500K. This courtesy of a sunday paper pull out a couple of weeks ago.

hate the place myself, but also see that it’s an ‘area in transition’.

Possibly Erko too i.e. Erskineville, maybe, not sure about under 500 though.

“a reno with capital gains potential in”…

yep I would say so. But then I’m a bit on the fence with ‘new’ on the whole.

I think federation outside tastefully opened up and add some ‘light’ inside, bit of an indoor-outdoor flow to the ‘outdoor room’ hehe, and you can’t go wrong. People just lap that shiznit up. love the Jamie Durie book, So very Sydney