*exasperated sigh*

yeah it’s like nobody’s ever heard of fixing interest rates.

yah one of my biggest hobbyhorses is that the media is not just biased and spreading propaganda (sept 11, war on iraq) but cares about ratings more than truth.

So yes – interest rates rising would have an effect on the market for sure – but FEAR has a bigger one – and it’s the media spreading it and shaking buyer confidence. fear and panic spread like wildfire….which makes what the media are telling us a self-fulfilling prophecy.

since i stopped watching TV (apart from Australian Idol) and that includes the news, I’m so much happier. try it. if you dare. if you can!

cheers-
mini

investing without any cashflow equals risk….borrowing the entire amount to purchase a property on top of that equals tons of risk….

Ok, even if you can get finance either for 100 percent or else
maybe a combination of either a vendor or parent financed deposit and the bank, or you have a property wrapped to you etc, i would strongly recommend having your financial sh*&$t totally together i.e. zero consumer debt (i.e. what’s the point of trying to make 10 percent on an investment if you are simultaneously paying off finance at 11-27 percent interest on money you owe for consumer debt??)

a savings record – and a cash deposit to use as a buffer.
i would say enough for three months of repayments in case something goes horribly wrong (anything from an unexpected expense like the hot water cylinder blowing up, leaking roof, losing a tenant, to you losing your job, being unable to work, a family emergency etc).

you want to make sure you can sail through the first year of owning your property. if not a few years!

it’s not a given that any fool can make money on any property at any time. and if you don’t understand that you could get burned. the buffer and good financial habits and not over-committing yourself with the borrowing will ensure you don’t. however not having much of an income and borrowing the whole lot – well, i personally wouldn’t be comfortable with that unless I had other properties first AND the yield was stupendous like 20 percent.

all in all, for you at this stage of your life, i’d say start saving for a deposit and wait a while for the predicted price drop…get a second job and work your a$%#ss off for 8 months or so. work an extra 3 nights a week, save $300 bucks a week for 8 months and you’ll have $9600 at least.
then by the time you finish uni in july 04 you’ll have a deposit…might be a good time to aim for. banks love lending to people with incomes…

cheers-
mini

the idea of a free week’s rent at Xmas time really appeals to me. I’m going to ask my rental managers what they think and how to implement it and when to announce it.

i’m taking my rental managers to lunch too. they’re doing a sterling job and besides, i’m quite curious to meet them….

!!

cheers-
mini

i thought that renovation for capital gain of more than what you spent on it and flicking it as soon as it’s done pretty much relies on you being in a rising market. if the market is heading south or flattening out you might not make what you spent on the property let alone what you hoped to make for your time.

one of the pieces of advice people give you when renovating is ‘have a budget and stick to it’. however there are always things that happen or that you discover along the way that you have to deal with, that you didn’t predict, even if you are experienced and had a builder’s report. even if you did stick to budget you might find you went over with time, which in my book equates to going over budget too.

i’m a great believer in polishing the floorboards as the cheapest most beautiful and hard-wearing flooring, if you have boards underneath. it quoted cheaper than the nastiest vinyl or carpet – and so i had it done right through the house,
(2 houses actually) – even into the kitchen and bathroom. i’m not saying it’s the best option for wear and looks, just that i think it’s the best option for wear and looks for the price.

i think the best thing you can do to a property for less than a grand is to paint it. the more prep you do the better the job.

we’ve learned a lot about painting after doing two, and we’re in the future going to stay away from low-sheen like you’d typically use on walls and ceilings, and gloss enamel like we used to do cupboards, bathrooms and doors and window frames in. the gloss is a nightmare because you have to let it dry for so long and then sand between coats, and although it gives a great finish and you’d use it in your own home, i’d advise forget it for a rental property.

ditto low sheen. although it looks great it marks too easily. use it in your own home, yeah fine, but in a rental property use an acrylic wipeable paint, which cleans up with water. we used a semi gloss now for all the doors, window frames, and even the ceiling. we did use low sheen last time on the ceiling but we’re not going to next time….oh my BF is yelling over my shoulder ‘you wanna use wipeable paint!’ as i’m writing this….

another thing we learned was to take all the clips, door handles, catches off , unscrew powerpoints etc with a power-tool before painting. saves so much time rather than cutting in or masking.
‘use a small roller for the window frames rather than a paintbrush’, my BF is interjecting ‘i’d highly recommend using the same colour on the walls and the ceiling, say an off white, and then do a feature wall to make the place a bit more alive. it’s another thing that saves time. then all you have to cut in is the feature wall.’

i also think stay away from ‘grey’ paint, it looks totally horrible
and gives a bad vibe.

here he comes again…ok my BF is now saying ‘ you also need to put an undercoat sealer on before you paint, especially if you bogged and sanded. otherwise the bog will shine through,’

……’ tint the undercoat in the colour your top coat is going to be and then you have to do less coats. you can generally say that you need one undercoat and two coats on top. that’s barely enough but you might get away with it. doors and archetraving need three coats especially if you use the roller.’

oh he’s on a roll….

‘you have to clean all the grease off the wall and the ceilings and use light sandpaper to go over everything before you start. this has to be done more properly if painting over gloss, otherwise the paint will just fall off. waterbased paints dry quicker, aren’t as durable though, but far less grief if you spill it – it’s worth it.’

he also says you should paint from top to bottom.

one more thing is that we’ve painted over wallpaper. technically it’s a nono and some would say super-dodgy, but we made it work. it depends on the standard of your future renting clientele but if it’s ripped off in places you just bog over it and sand back, you hardly notice when it’s painted. if you have bubbling wallpaper just make a cut with a stanley knife and squeeze some glue in and paste it down.

really you have to do a time/money study and figure out if it’s worth it to do the alternative which is to steam off the wallpaper and re-paper, or re-plaster. if it will make any financial difference to your tenant. if it’s supposed to be an immaculate job for future capital gain of just to tidy the place up and make it look clean and bright. we did the latter because we weren’t doing renovations in a capital gain place and it was an old house. really the houses we were renovating weren’t worth putting in a brand new kitchen (for example) or steaming wallpaper off and replastering (for example) but (for example) it was worth replacing just the kitchen bench and taps and painting the cupboards.

blah blah blah
i love it

my BF is saying ‘don’t tell them about painting over the wallpaper baby’ and of course you wouldn’t do it in most houses, but my disclaimer is that these were 16K and 19k houses and they were at what i call the ‘bottom of the bottom of the market’ and as such i think it was fine to do that.

cheers-
mini

what a bombshell about cosima huh?
it wasn’t even clear whether shannon would have been the second place anyway (with votes) or whether he only got in because Cosima pulled out.

anyway…..I wish it had been down to paulini and guy, that would have been an amazing concert!!

cheers-
mini

i agree property investing takes time,

I have a full-time ‘life’ and it’s been quite a lot of work to buy three properties and renovate two since april. even though i only spent a total of four days at one of the properties and the rest was farmed out or done on the phone.

i would call it a ‘full time hobby’ – i.e. to the temporary exclusion of other hobbies, if you are trying to do it on the side to begin with.

cheers-
Mini

call me biased, but Alex Lloyd ‘amazing’ and Amiel ‘lovesong’ (the radio version which has ‘stupid’ instead of ‘^$&^%*(‘

and they’re both Aussie songs, yay!!

Also….

‘and i will always love you’ whitney houston

‘it had to be you’ harry connick

‘she’s electric’ oasis ….”she’s got a family full of eccentrics’….

‘amore’ …..”when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore….”

‘unforgettable’….natalie and nat king cole

‘i deserve it’ madonna …..’this guy was meant for me….and i was meant for him…..”

obsession – amiel “i love you, and everything you do, i need u”

beautiful – alex lloyd (off new record) ‘you are so beautiful, and you’re filling up my day with the things i can’t explain…”

eternal flame – the bangles

she loves you yeah yeah yeah – the beatles
‘and i love her’ the beatles

going to the chapel of love – bette midler

love is in the air – john paul young (also another aussie goodie)

i do i do i do – abba

say a little prayer for you – aretha …”forever and ever you’ll stay in my heart and i will love you….”

she – elvis costello

http://www.aria.com.au/eoyindex.htm

this is a link to the top 100 singles of the year for every year since 1997. You could just browse them looking for inspiration.

cheers-
mini

pin – hi! peace!

mini

very interesting! thanks for posting the link

fields, just quickly,

“see how many people have made it rich through positive gearing”

there can never physically be as many doing +ve gearing as negative, because only about 10 percent of properties would be yielding enough to be positive cashflow – so there just won’t be as many people making their money this way.

In a way, it’s true to say that Steve’s method does work – and anyone can do it – but not EVERYONE.

!!! That’s just the market, like saying, get into the consumer health area i.e. boost juice etc and you’ll make a fortune. Yes, but only until the market is saturated.

Most people don’t even know it’s possible to have a property that makes money from day one.

The reason why a positive cashflow return of 20 percent with cap growth of 4 percent is worth more to me than capital gain of 20 percent with a 4 percent yield is that a) a dollar now is worth more than a dollar in the future b) cashflow adds to my serviceability and means i will be able to get a second property faster b) debt is paid off faster meaning more equity, less risk, etc etc c)less costs accessing the return – with a +ve CF property, the money’s in the bank, end of story. Cap gain property you’d have to revalue, refinance (which costs$$) or sell (loses your $$$ in tax) to get at the money.

As far as wraps go, it’s just a way of getting good CF+ve returns in a time where ‘buy and hold’ returns have been lower.

that’s all for now
cheers-
mini