Forum Replies Created
Hi Shaun
The yields are good to cover tenant risk. My PM won’t go north of Salisbury as they have too much difficulty getting good tenants. And it is not just tenants but neighbours. There are some pockets with good prospects (I have a number of clients in the area so I get to see inside some of the better houses) but you have to hunt and I don’t have the time as I live the other side of town.
Margaret
Hi Folks
We regularly get rats dying under the floor. And occasionally possums dying the same. They get into the roof, then walk down the cavity, drop off into the under floor space, then can’t get up again. And we can’t get down there either.
The smell from dead rats becomes bearable in about 2 weeks and disappears in another 2 weeks. For possums read 6 weeks and 3 weeks. The hotter the weather, the quicker the carcase disintegrates but the fouler the smell in the meantime.
You should be right by May if the warm weather continues.
Margaret
Hi Lee
Have you investigated the ones sold on this site? Go to Online Shop and browse. Then ask on the forum re the different programs and how useful they are. I don’t yet have any of them so I can’t help you there. I only know they come recommended by many others.
Margaret
Hi Lee
How good are you at spreadsheets?
It is not too hard to write a spreadsheet for yourself. It just takes time and effort which you may be better using looking for good properties. A few hundred dollars buying good software easily pays for itself if it means you can easily do what-ifs to your scenarios.
If you do decide to write it yourself, just remember to take into account all expenses including repairs (you will need to estimate this as it depends on the property and the tenants), management fees and all government charges, taxes, levies, duties, etc.
Margaret
Hi MGR
Re your second question first, have you tried providing references from renting overseas, and/or references from your employment or other people of good community standing?
Re your first question, the ABS quotes average income, not median. In this instance, average is much higher than median as it is skewed by the very high incomes paid to CEOs etc. I’m not sure where you could get median income.
BTW, what is the average rent in outer Melbourne? Take home pay for someone on $30K is about $500/week. Take out living expenses of $203 for single person (figure from lender’s table) and that leaves about $300 for rent and savings. Might be tight for a couple with single income ($297/week for living expenses – FTB & parenting covers living expenses from lenders table for children of low income families) as that would leave approximately $200 for rent and savings.
Margaret
DD
You took my answer right out of my mouth.
Other suggestions for vines are passionfruit, jasmine (though don’t ever tell my husband I recommended this as I object to the smell), various natives especially hardenbergias, wisteria (though that is relatively slow growing and deciduous), climbing roses (some of which grow quite quickly although again deciduous). Or, espallier a fruit tree (I did this with a lemon tree for one of my IPs to cover an ugly wall at the back).
Bear in mind that some vines will grow to the top of the trellis and flower there, leaving bare areas underneath. Not a problem for you as the trellis is an extension of the colourbond fence. However, you might not get the full benefit of the flowers and/or fruit if your side is the south side of the fence.
Margaret
I’ve seen the following in several properties recently.
Leaking pipes in bathroom walls may not show up on the bathroom side if the tiles have been applied properly or repaired recently. But can show up on the other side of the wall. Puffy rendering or plaster is where I saw it first. Like the early stages of salt damp on kitchen walls behind the shower is more common than I would like. Poor quality or old tiling is the usual reason but leaking pipes can also cause this.
Also, went to one open inspection a couple of months ago where leaking pipe behind the toilet cistern was so loud. Yet the agent had not noticed. Fairly easy to fix but this wasn’t the only reason I declined this property. I only remember the incident because of the attitude of the agent.
Does anyone else check for water hammer these days?
Hi Sally,
There are quite a few of us from Adelaide but apart from Dr X we seem to be quieter than others from Q, WA, NSW and Melbourne. Keep posting and you will find us coming out of the woodwork.
You can also email those of us you find, including me.
It looks like there are many different experiences with fly screens out there so I thought I would add mine.
I generally have fly screens and air cons already in so my tenants don’t have to ask for them. And, again generally, I don’t have problems with tenants over the fly screens.
Except for those tenants who have cats despite the no pets rule in lease. Or tenants who are “a little” rough going through doors. Ripped screens are common with these tenants. While I will fix once they move out, I draw the line at fixing for people who won’t look after my lovely property.
Screens are easy to fix with the right tools. Even for clumsy me.
1. There are 2 categories in our (Adelaide) yellow pages under Transportable Buildings – (a) Buildings Prefabricated &/or Transportable (commercial and industrial), (b) Buildings Relocatable & Transportable (domestic).
2. Dave, you might check with your newspaper and/or Trading Post to see if there is a market for private sales of transportables.
Hi Surrey
It is going to depend on who built the crossover in the first place. If the developer and they are the ones who put the caveat on your land, then you have a case against them.
But if the council and they had no knowledge of the caveat, then I suspect you will have to foot the bill. Councils are a law unto themselves. We have had an ongoing battle with outs who refuse to build ours even close to Australian standards. We asked and they said they would try when they repaved the street earlier this year but no such luck. And they take no responsibility for the contractor not doing what the engineer requested.
Thanks for that, Richard.
Next silly question – what if there are additional features such as views which which only one of the properties gets after construction? Adds value to one of the subdivided blocks but not all? Is this ignored in calculating the cost base?
Hi Luciano
We have LPTs in our share portfolio as a sort of surrogate cash component as they produce good steady income. At least the good ones do.
If the 2 end properties are different sizes, who gets to decide how the costs, etc are divided for calculating CGT?
Can the owner arbitrarily decide what cost went where and effectively delay some of the CGT by putting more of the costs to the first sold property?
Would it be better to get valuation/appraisal done at the time of sale to divide costs based on the relative values?
Take care with distributions to non residents as the amount of withholding tax depends on
1) the type of income distributed (ie interest/dividends) and
2)the beneficiaries (tax) residencyAlso, don’t forget imputation credits are wasted on non resident beneficiaries.
Can’t the trustee distribute interest income and unfranked dividends only to non-residents? You have to pay withholding tax to non-resident beneficiaries. But you can keep the franking credits for Aus beneficiaries by paying franked dividends only to Aus beneficiaries?
A quick update – the property was withdrawn from sale this morning.
Thank you for your help everyone. I have learned heaps.
Margaret
What we did for our kids was set them up with a small (about $10-20K) share portfolio while they were still at school. Benefitted very well over the years – over roughly 12 years they roughly quadrupled and the kids also learned about long term objectives as well as the nitty gritty of share investing. We put no limits on what they could use it for, just that we should be involved in their decisions until they turned 21. One spent some of it on education and holidays. The other is investigating her first IP.
Thank you, thecrest.
You have been really useful. Begs the question as to how much of your additions to the leases comes from bitter experience of your own or others close to you.
Have you had many commercial tenants get really picky over who does what to whom and when?
And, how often does a lessee sub lease or sell their business and you don’t like the new owner of the business or even the new business that comes in?
Thanks
MargaretThanks for the info, Dazzling.
1. The property is up for sale as deceased estate.
2. I understand your reasoning re buying with an established tenant. I have added that question to the list to ask – why sell now when they could have sold 6 months ago with a tenant.
3. Re leases, since this is my first, I thought I would get someone else to write it to ensure I didn’t leave anything out due to ignorance. Are there copyright issues if I take the first one and revamp it for subsequent leases? When you wrote your own, how did you go about all the extra stuff that isn’t in residential leases? What if I buy a property already tenanted and use the existing lease as a pro forma when negotiating subsequent leases?
4. Thanks for the tip on measuring everything. Walls on older places are rarely square and lots of double checking look like being on the cards. I haven’t used my drafting skills in a while so it will be good for me.
5. So far, I have not asked the selling agent much other than obtaining the brochure. Although he said they would show me through any time I wanted, they wouldn’t open up for the first couple of options I gave them. Looks like I will have to make myself available when they want rather than the other way around. What info I have gleaned so far is from other publically available places like newspaper and internet ads.
6. I think I will try and learn as much as I can on this, set myself a low price, attend the auction, and be very happy to lose out to someone with more money. Then, what I learn on this will help with the next investigation.
And any and every bit of help will vastly improve my knowledge and be greatly appreciated. Once again, thank you.
Margaret
Hi Stargazer
Don’t you mean community title for shared driveway?
If company title, then you will have difficulty with finance. Banks and others don’t like company title or even moiety title (there are still some of those around the Glenelg area).
Also, check out the property manager if you are going to continue with them. Are they related to the original developer? In which case, there may be some cross-linking which you are paying for.
