Have been in this situation and the agent did exactly that, which I believe is the correct way to act. I understand NAT12 being frustrated, but if I were the vendor and found out they did this they would have a very hard time getting their commision from me. NAT12 just avoid this agent in the future and spend your time with the ones that wont waste it.

Regards,

myoung

Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure as hell can mitigate a lot of things that make you miserable.

BA XR8, fun and 80% business use on a $15K car allowance
96 Jeep for the wife on Gas, family truckster

Regards,

myoung

Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure as hell can mitigate a lot of things that make you miserable.

Appologies if they have already been covered:

-Don’t forget to spend time with your family, it’ easy to get carried away.
-Research, research and research.
– The more you learn, the more you will realise how much MORE there is to learn.
-Ugly ducklings are goldmines – less competition and easier to get bargains. Focus on ones that are structuraly sound and cosmetically challenged.
-Listen to friends and relatives but filter out the fear – you may still pick up something you haven’t considered but don’t let THEIR fear stop you acting on a well researched idea.
-Land appreciates, houses do not (generally, unless a major cost of construction rise is underway, ie inflation).
-Don’t be afraid to make low offers.
– set monetary limits and STICK to them – don’t get emotionally involved unless it is your PPOR and even then set limits.
– If your time constrained, and are going to look in person in an area, line up lots of houses to look at and hopefully find several to buy and go after them in order of preference. Can save heaps of time going back to find others if you can’t get the first deal your after.
-Do your calculations – personally made a mistake that cost me 000’s in tax because I was buying for gains and not considering rental yield several years ago.
– Remember, even though you can build relationships, agents work for the VENDOR.

Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure as hell mitigates the a lot of things that make you miserable.

Hi Jenny1,

I bought a property in 98′ in Vermont Vic. It was an ugly duckling. It was on the market due to a marriage breakup and had been unoccupied for a few months – the grass in the back yard was 5 feet long(I’m not exagerating). It was 860m2 in a court with a 11sq weatherboard that had some interesting renos but wasn’t finished. The base boards and half the weatherboards were stuffed(husband had removed aircon from bedoroom and nailed a crate base over the hole!), but it had nice polished floors thoughout and gas hydronic central heating. We offered $117 for it(wanted $139) and the bank was a week of foreclosing. Got it and spent about 12K on it including stamp duty, fix all the weatherboards/baseboards/repointed the roof/painted inside and out. Rented it for $195 per week for 2 yrs to the tenants from heaven(garden was in better nick than when they moved in). Sold it in 2001 for $240K, even gave the tenants the last two weeks rent free they were so helpful in allowing potential buyers through and keeping it clean.
Lessons learnt:
Look at return from rent before deciding who owns it(cost me a bit in CGT as I just put it in my name rather than my wifes thinking it would be negative geared). Hey I was a novice back then, but at least it helped fund my 2nd PPOR which we built.
Don’t go to auction unless their are several seriously intersted prospective buyers, cost me 2K in adveertising on to pass in on vendor bids and sell 3 weeks later.
Agree with Dazzling, don’t buy the tarted up ones, much better gains to be had with the ugly duckling, much less competition too.

Not if you rent something that is in a low yield area and buy an another investment in a high yield one.[buz2]You’ll actually be in a better lifestyle at a lower cost.

Lukisp, that is the point i was trying to make(obviously didn’t do it very well). All I’m saying is that if you aquire more property THIS YEAR IMHO you will be waiting a while to make money if you go -ve geared for capital growth and I believe now more than ever is the time for +ve cashflow to ride out the possible lull or storm.

We are at a point where something has to give IMHO. Either rental yields will increase to drive further price growth, prices will contract somewhat or a combination of the two meeting in the middle.

Spent the week on hols(reason for delayed response), looked at some houses in the areas and they are going for sale prices that deliver 2% gross yields!!!!!!!

Lukasp, my point was that property is long term and I believe we wont see the gains sustained that we have seen in recent yrs, if your going to hold property over a tough period I would rather have it making you money(while it is not appreciating much) than funding a -ve geared place waiting several years to see any gains(ie next boom cycle).

ONobleone, seems a little like emotion from someone upset that Bush won the election rather than a basis in reality.

BTW – read Steve’s 2nd book – great read and a different twist on your existing reading.

John, reason I say that is IMHO the market has hit a point in the cycle where we will not see a continuing rise like we have, anyone no matter how ignorant could have made money in property in the last 5 yrs, I think we will see a downturn before another price boom, yields are still too low to support another price boom, so unless your being creative to make your CG I would prefer to ride out the lull/downturn with a property that is paying for itself. If you in for the long term then you will get CG eventually on just about anything, except a ghost town. Just my opinion. Personally I have just recently consolidated and been through a gratification stage;-), planning to get back in and go both positive and negative(later) for more CG, but I feel this is further away – say 5 yrs.

Another alternative would be to buy the property you want as a PPOR but rent it out and rent yourselves somewhere less expensive and hit the mortgage hard with any surplus funds and move in a few years later.

Firsty, good to see people starting young, I wish I had thought more about this at 22yrs old.

Rich Dad Poor Dad is worth a read, not as a how to but more a why? It is a fairly inspirational story that will most likely be different from what most Australian’s are taught growing up.

Steve’s book 0 – 130 properties is a great book(no sucking up intended). I’ve read probably a dozen or so property/rich dad type books( and have 3 licensed estate agents in my immediate family) and this book I thought was not only good at the basics but had a few interesting twists and turns not covered in the others, it also reflects well to Australian markets(being a local product). IMHO you can’t go past the Internet for information gathering(especially before you build a network of contacts) to research area’s, types of properties in the area, industries supporting the area, typical rental returns etc etc. Fastest way i know of to find your targets without spending your life driving or flying everywhere(do that if you want when you’ve narrowed your targets).

Finally a basic understanding of accounting and economic cycles are very useful and may help prevent you getting badly burnt.