Forum Replies Created
bear, i’d love to know – can you spill???
BTW are you melbear?cheers-
Minioooh prop, kinky….
peter,
yes good point,
however as you can imagine the RE agents have to give the keys to the BR people so basically they know them all. they have to be accredited or whatever the term is, they are actually liable for the info they give you, so I think you’re pretty safe actually. i mean, the RE agents weren’t recommending me retired builders (though i wouldn’t rule out using one – go the ‘grey army’!) they were recommending me proper reputable firms.The first one was recommended to me as someone who does nothing but building reports, and he was so good that i pulled out of buying the house! So no kickbacks there!
Second time, also used a recommendation from the Re agent, and have since passed on his details to other investors in the area who think he’s fabulous too. very detailed report. written.
third guy, he was called ‘his name’ building services. He was even more than fabulous – and ended up project managing the renovations i did, pulling tradesmen off jobs by using his contacts to do my jobs, sourcing labourers, and supervising the job. he didn’t charge much either! That is, he was 45 per hour, but he wasn’t charging for many hours considering that the value of what he did was in making calls and stuff rather than hours. Anyway, he’s done two building reports for me and he’s so excellent that I’m keen toinvest in that town again just because having him and the ‘team’ make it so easy, even by ‘remote control’. however I did get in that position with him by actually going over and doing one reno myself with my partner’s help, the second one my partner did himself with the dude’s help, and it all went really smoothly.
I know people who take a thousand years to do renos but we got it all done fast.All i’m saying is that all the building inspectors i’ve used have been recommended by the RE agents and they were all fabulous.
cheers-
miniHi there,
just ask the RE agent who they use for builder’s reports locally? that’s how i found mine! Even a retired builder could be OK. Seems unusual to have to get one from 4 hours away. However i did have to get one from 30K away for one of my properties…have done that for all my properties and they were under 30K or under 20K. In fact the cheaper the property the more you really need to get a BR in my opinion!
I paid $330 incl GST for my reports, NZdollars.
I agree with the comments that if you need something done and you’ll have to pay mileage every time you need a tradesman, that would be bad! there’s gotta be some locally i would think???
cheers-
miniyou guys!
Don’t you know about babelfish?you just go to the website, type in the text, and it translates it for you.
So it said…
“This is an interesting thread. I am surprised, which answer I receives, if I express myself simply waste in the thread in another language set?”
(sic)http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr
unfortunately it doesn’t do dutch!
you can have the best fun if you translate some english text into a foreign language, and then translate it back again! often hysterically far from what you originally wrote!!I speak German, it was my first language actually (though doesn’t feel like it these days!)
I also know a few words in maori, swedish, russian, and some ‘interesting phrases’
in samoan, hehe, not to mention that I wasn’t too bad at the old ‘schoolgirl french’.Also, sollen wir denn Geheimnisse auf Deutsch erzaehlen?!!
cheers-
miniPS oder soll das ‘KleinesMoegelchen’ sein?
you don’t have to. However depends on your level of due diligence. It can give you a reason to pull out of the deal if there’s something you don’t like in the LIM. I.e. no building planning permission for structure or fireplace (important insurance issue) – land used to be a dump, strip of land set for road widening, etc etc.
In a back issue of the KPI magazine there was a 2-3 page article on LIMs and what they tell you. usually they cost $100 plus and take a few days.
So you have to be ready to go with money to pay for it in advance to order one. Or else you have to have a lawyer or someone on the ground there to spring you the money and organise it.In smaller towns it is sometimes possible to get your (for example) builder’s report person to go to council in person and ‘look’ if there’s anything in the file. Sometimes they are able to take a look inside, other times, it’s just enough to say ‘look there’s something in the file, proceed with the LIM, or there’s nothing in the file, maybe you don’t want to proceed with the LIM.’
Someone mentioned people doing all this due diligence when purchasing cars. Well, i would agree that people don’t take the same care purchasing houses. If buying from overseas I would do MORE than the usual amount of due diligence and for me that’s almost always request a LIM.
The lawyer will look over it and tell you if there’s anything of concern.
cheers-
Minihey look at these stylee ones
http://www.eon.co.nz/pages/104500407213642232.html?showproject=T&project_id=104553596219020000
the second link is if you can’t deal with the fancy flash website
No wait – there’s more!!!*screams with excitement*
not just prefabs, but ART!!!
I am so excited i can’t see straight –
http://fabprefab.com/index.htm
I just checked out the loftcube, almost unbearable beautiful, in that edgy Berlin way….wow…I want one on a Sydney rooftop!
yummy modernism for the masses, I’m all for itin fact that fabprefab site, I was looking on it for hours last night, really inspiring stuff!
Hi redwing,
the first three are hugely important. You learn everything you need to know about buying, and it becomes rather than this huge time consuming all-encompassing totally scary thing (I’m buying a HOUSE!!!!) to something normal, that you feel confident about, almost everyday.
‘oh yeah, I just bought another house’.
Also your finances hopefully got in order before you started.i think it goes faster after the 4th on because of a combination of leverage, feeling more confident with managing the investment, psychology of confidence – and maths.
If you only buy high yiedling positive cashflow property you should be able to theoretically not max out on your lending. if you can get 15 percent net returns on you investments and your borrowing costs are 8, then you are leveraging off the bank and buying property which is going to add to your income and serviceability not detract from it. Especially important for the retired, the self-employed, or those who just want to work less/retire sooner than later.
If you buy negatively geared property and try and repeat the formula you won’t be able to (without selling your investment!) but you won’t be able to buy more and more – eventually you won’t have any tax to ‘save’ and you’ll just be losing money in after-tax dollars! Either way you’ll have to hang on to that full time job, or lose the properties. Slavery.
But people love it, most Aussies are still negatively gearing like mad, mostly because they don’t know any alternative, blahblah…if you pay all your surpluses from your properties back into you LOC or however you organise it, the sooner you will have the deposit for the next one. Serviceability not a problem because you are buying +ve CF etc…
mini
yeah rapper, imagine if everyone in the world lived as Service to Others instead of Service to Self? it would be heaven on earth!
yeah muppet,
thanks heaps!! good idea, I think I might get an map book! i just got the latest KPI mag in the mail and i am looking forward to reading how much the mag reckons my properties have gone up since i bought them!I still haven’t heard from Ms Snowed Under (???) Re agent. I know a few people haven’t either. Maybe they really are deluged, if Muppet is right and the market is that hot. I know when i was buying earlier in the year there were properties that had been for sale for 2 years. not any more, jane seymour. Back to Ms RE agent, maybe i was not the only person she emailed the deal to, (even though i managed to leverage the interest for her about 50-fold!) heheh
and give myself a headache in the process! no seriously, you guys are all worth it!now over to you Paul: *peers over spectacles*
“What i was getting at is i see (and hear !!) of so many people blindly racing into the market because it’s the “in” thing to do atm… I honestly think those people (more so here in Oz than in NZ) are like lambs being led to the slaughter… “
You know what, this sounds really familiar to what someone or other has been saying ever since I ever joined up at this forum. and there were only 2000 odd members then, there are ten times that now. I guess there are some things to consider
a) a we are on a property investing foum so it’s gonna seem like ‘we are the world’ and everyone is into it – but just today, i was telling a friend i was aiming to get another four properties by this time this year and she said ‘cool, negative gearing?’ thinking she sounded smart and knowing a bit about property. So the average person is still just buying their own negatively geared home. and the average investor is still out buying a negatively geared property for capital gain. So to be able to evaluate a deal and find out it makes you money from day one (often with no actualy cash in at all -) that’s really a crazy thought to most people who haven’t read Steve;s book or similar and don’;t even know such deals exist.>Crazy prices are being paid for places in areas that 12 mths ago were less than >50% of the current asking price. And who is paying these inflated prices ?? >Investors !! Certainly not the locals !!
>As westan said an agent was selling a place for 45k that 6 mths ago sold for >19k (i think that was the figure iirc ??) – do people honestly think they’re >going to get more gains from them ??Absolutely!!! property as a long term investment, for sure! I am not saying that doubling in 12 months will happen every year – or that it won’t go down. But stop thinking of the property market like the stockmarket. if you want some quick in and out make money deals, don’t do property right now.
>Scary times people, just remember it’s an important life decision to invest – >treat it with the care, caution, and importance it deserves…”
As far as the scary part, it’s simple maths. Making more money (cashflow) that you are paying to borrow the money from the bank equals, great!
If you hold on a house for a few years (you can, because it’s making you money remember) you will get capital gain if you hold it for a few years, sure as eggs is eggs. Figures have proven that.trouble is, how can you make a five percent yielding property work for the long term, if prices might go down, interest rates rise?
Now on the other hand, if you have a +ve geared property that breaks even of holding costs and a bit more, then over time you can stick the surplus into the mortgage, thus your CF gets better over time.
anyway. I got sidetracked but I really wanted you to read this thread fatboy.
https://www.propertyinvesting.com/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=&whichpage=4&TOPIC_ID=2259
On about the 4th page, KtKiwi starts telling us …well read it, i don;t want to put words in his mouth. but basically, then I did the numbers on the supposedly bad investment and found stupendous returns. Like, a zillion percent returns. You gotta read the thread OK. Page 4 and 5 if you don’t have time to read the whole thing. In the treasure chest.
cheers-
MiniOK no more for now. i sent it to everyone up till here.
cheers-
MiniPS
it was a bummer that the RE agent didn’t put her number at the bottom of the email, but you could do what i do and look it up on the net or use directory. no I can’t give you the number for a builder’s report, accountant, or lawyer, whether you should buy in a trust, how long it takes to set one up, and why the vendor is selling. i don’t know if the house is still available (it was at the time of first posting), and I can’t tell you how to get finance/how many people in the town/etc etc. Yes you will need a fax machine.GREAT questions and all things I worked out – you’ll need to work out, in order to buy property there. And yes, there is an element of risk in buying a property. the amount of that risk, is something you can have an idea of by asking questions such as condition of house? rental demand in area?
OK i’ve been there in my last post,
I need to stop spending time emailing 45 people who each may have questions and want to ask me off line about a deal that may or may not be available since 45 people just enquired about it…and just remind you that I passed on a deal, end of story.cheers-
minijust do your measurements! at your IP and also at IKEA. I’m sure IKEA would have a good style for dollar ratio, I mean i practically live there, and maybe it’s the kind of thing you can get a builder/handyman for a couple of hours, to do the whizzbang schmicko assisting to stick the new one in and get rid of the old one so it looks professionally done.
depends on your level of skill i guess.
Having seen handymen/builders whizz around and get so much done that would take an amateur ten times longer and then there’s all the tools and getting a guaranteed good job – i know what i’d pick.
cheers-
minihi guys,
i have this feeling that the NZ boom will carry on a bit longer than Aus. Look if you are really interested in studying the market over there and you want capital gain as well (as in not just buy and hold for cashflow) – then do your research for areas that are gaining in population. A lot of that kind of statistical info is on the web (don’t say ‘where?’ – use google or look back at the other threads because the links have been posted already -) – and you could subscribe to either of the NZ property investing magazines for good measure. (I do. to both.!)
it’s all part of being serious about what you are doing. and due diligence. I mean sure you can just buy a deal based on the numbers, take pot luck, people risk more for less at casinos.
I personally – and don’t say this is news to you because I’ve been posting my ‘property investing life story’ for yonks around here – put an offer in for the price I want to pay after looking at the house (pictures at least of inside and out) and having it assessed for rental – or else the current tenancy if there is one tells me the price.) Often doing this with another agent not selling you the property is better. Also ask if they would take on the property for rental. they might say ;wouldn’t touch it – it’s next to a gang street and we’ve had nothing but trouble’.
Anyway if it all sounds ok i negotiate and put my offer in, subject to builder’s report and title and other things being satisfactory. rental documents, if there is a current tenant. rental demand in area. population of area – stable? rising? new industry going in? don’t have a problem with towns being small, as such, if they are stable. only when ihave the house tied up and the offer countersigned – and BTW my solicitor views it before i sign anything and words the clauses with me – then it;s worth paying for a builder’s report and other stuff, LIM etc to find out if you want to proceed. You might find out you need to spend a bit on it. In my opinion the cheaper houses ALWAYS need something done, from 2-10 grand. I’ve proceeded 3 out of 4 times after a builder’s report. The building inspector is your friend! Oh and BTW tha should include electrical and plumbing too. Pest not so necessary, builder will tell you if there’s borer, not the need for separate pest report as conditions different to AUs and we don’t have white ants etc. 5-10 percent borer is still OK and par for the course on older weatherboard homes.now over to you fatboy
“
Ok, in that case i’ll have two ip’s in Melboune, 2 in Sydney, 2 in Brisbane, and 2 in Nth Qld thanks… 15% yields would be good but i’ll settle for 12% if i have to… “you missed reading the bit i wrote ‘if I have a mind to’.
I know you were just being sarcastic etc but really the only way I vibe making money in the Aussie market at the moment is to rent!!! hee hee! Live beyond your means, I say, and rent a million dollar home for someone else’s 2 percent yield, that’s what I do!! meanwhile sink your cash somewhere it can make you 15 percent clear. Ok that could be shares,etc, it’s just that I could care less about shares. I have a vibe for property more, and so I’m still in my ‘total immersion’ phase of learning about it, looking, reading, logging on to the forums the minute I get home, networking, etc and as a result I got too many deals and thought I might take 3 minutes of my time and stick them up for others. thinking there would be 2, 3 replies.
So many replies that it’s been mind blowing.
(i said)
“I’m in the process of trying to get this NZ RE agent to join up the forums and start posting a bit, be there to answer questions! “
fatboy said)
‘Now THAT is a great idea… ‘thank you – I’m into time leverage as much as anyone. The RE agent could get customers and people could get deals and advice on the ins and outs of the market from a RE agent’s point of view without any ‘advertising’ being done as such.
‘And it absolves you of any “blame” if someone buys a place that becomes vacant or whatever…’
Even if I was richmastery.co.nz and I’d found a deal not much different from the two I listed, and I’d charged you 3000-6000 bucks for the privilege, you STILL wouldn’t be able to blame me if a tenant left. that’s the investor’s risk.
“i’ve only managed to achieve the stupid part…”
BTW i don’t think you are stupid at all being the devil’s advocate here. i mean if it’s against me, i will debate until the cows come home, I love a good debate (I was a champion at school so *watch out!* hehe) but if you are saying ‘people ask questions’ then you are quite right, and I am all for that, in fact I have been known to ask such questions myself.keep being smart people
cheers-
miniwestan, nooooooooo
*runs screaming*
aaaaarghhh!! make it stop! this is crazy!!
i had no idea! OK, no more emails for now.
wait till I check with the agent to see how she’s coping.This is very very interesting how many people wanted to look at the deal. I guess finding the deal is the hardest part of investing. Could all this interest cause a boom in that area? Hmm, the boom is a cumulative effect of all the investment $$# that have been pouring in, much like Aus.
maybe tha market is a year or so behind Aus.A lot of the towns might only have 2 or 3 properties in the bottom price-range left – of course, it’s where most are looking because the yields are good nearer the bottom of the market.
If it was singlehandedly possible for me to cause a boom I would have been smarter about it and bought some properties there first before giving out the deals, hehe!! When i was there in person there was nothing this agent had in our pricerange, hence the emails now.
Also these deals might be in small towns. i don’t know how small, but not Sydney, put it that way. But unlike Aus, where the small towns can be remote and in the middle of nowhere, NZ is smaller so nothing’s too far away. One ‘small town’ i bought in is 30K from a city of 45,ooo complete with airport. Another ‘small town’ of 3500 i bought is 3 hours from Auckland on a main highway.
true, – yeah! and also cause we kiwis can only afford properties up to about 26K….
hahahahaheheheheeeeeeeeeeee
hi fatboy,
“Just to play Devils’ Advocate – I’m just wondering if any of the people so keen to do a deal on Mini’s kind advice actually do their own “due diligence” and investigating ??”
kind information sharing rather than kind advice! and due diligence, yeah, I would hope so! I don’t think these deals are on the net yet, and therefore these 20 or so people have an advantage on the rest of the world. I haven’t checked out the deals myself whatsoever, and so therefore i have no clue about them. if you guys need someone to hold your hand then use a buyer’s agent.
>Go do some of your own searching and deals like >this ARE out there !!
totally.>It’s like watching lemmings to the slaughter, >geez people, Mini can’t provide an excellent IP >for everyone !!
hey, unfair! don’t tell me what I could or couldn’t do – if i had a mind to! and don’t underestimate me either! *you have been warned!*
but yeah, it did blow my mind how many replies there were to this thread. It means there IS obviously a demand for ….well, something. not sure what exactly! a helping hand?
tell you what, i’m not gonna do it this way again. too much mucking around. I’m in the process of trying to get this NZ RE agent to join up the forums and start posting a bit, be there to answer questions!
cheers-
mini*grin*
not exactly sick of it, but wouldn’t do it every day! but it’s been interesting, to judge the interest – I think I should get the RE agents to join up the forum and start posting!
cheers-
MiniOK I sent it to everybody!
I heard back from the agent on my voicemail after asking her if she was coping Ok with me sending a bunch of people her way??she left a message back, something like’so far I haven’t been inundated with emails and calls from the investors who are supposedly going to be contacting me’..
*hehe – thinking – ‘just you wait!’*
!! well some of you *are* gonna follow it up aren’t you?cheers-
miniwow, so much interest!
I don’t have any problem telling people NZ is a goood place to buy RE right now. I’m into abundance. Of course if the entire population of Australia wanted to buy properties in NZ there wouldn”t be enough to go around. That’s just maths. But right now, there are still more opportunities than i can take up personally and I’m not set up to make money from it or do it on anything more than a casual basis. Of course my friends got the email first. but why not let the agent have a bunch of calls, and help show that there is a market of investors here which is alarge one!
Maybe I can convince the agent to join the forums and answer questions as a NZ RE agent.
just waiting to hear back from said RE agent that it’s OK to send her some more enquiries – everyone that posted their address after my previous post.
cheers-
Miniinteresting topic. Here in Australia we have the same bell-curve in the population, too. When Australia was settled there was like 16 working age people for every old person. Now there are only 7, or something. That is why taxes are high and pensions will be scrapped. the country just can’t afford it. It has been suggested that immigration will make up the shortfall in the working age people if the population becomes too unbalanced, in Australia as well as America.
Dolf de Roos says buy into old-people -friendly accommodation. A lot of older people are selling their 3 bedroom house with 1/4 acre and moving to low-maintenance units with little gardens. Also disposing of their assets before the government take it away to pay for them when they go into a home.
So i think there will be a perfect tenant if you buy low maintenance rental units within walking distance of shops, even more in the future than now.
I think old people’s accommodation is a growing thing, and developers will do well if they build them now.
Oh yeah, just remember a book I read ages ago, by Stuart Wilde, who said he thought America would completely crash when oil ran out, because their economy is totally reliant on it. Interestingly when recently some nations started trading oil with Euros, (they’re not supposed to, because the US$ tells the world we have to buy oil only with US$ -) – well guess what? the Euro went up, and the dollar went zooming down. US financial crash alert! Fast forward a few terrorist attacks, and US wages a little war on the naughty nations that had been trading oil in Euros. oh, i mean, terrorist nations. whatever.
OK, i digress!! however, the point was that the oil thing (it is expected to run out in the next 20 years, isn’t it? I guess, until they happen to find a whole bunch of oil in a few countries they just had a war with???) – and the running out of it – is another thing which could cause the US to crash (and not just the stockmarket) in our lifetime, because if the dollar devalues too much, the true extent of the US’s debt will be exposed. I read that this was 18000 US per head of population debt to the world bank. that country’s financials aren’t that good, is the bottom line, and yes, it could very well crash for more than one reason.
cheers-
mini
