Forum Replies Created
Leilah, I know you say you had the money to pay for the wedding you had, and that’s great and all, but when I look at your equity position what you are saying is that you spent 25% of your net worth on that one day. That to me seems excessive and short-sighted. Especially when you say that “I do agree that you can have just as wonderful a day having spent a lot less”. If the day could be as wonderful, then why not spend a lesser chunk of your net assets?
If we look at it in more simple circumstances if you had a net equity position of $1m, would $250k be acceptable for a wedding or a car or some other non-investment purpose?
I was very lucky in that both of our parents put up money for our wedding and we walked away having not paid for anything plus over $20k in our pockets. yes it was a great start to get and I know that not many people get that opportunity.
My wedding cost in the vicinity of $30k and was not being extravagent because we had over 200 people at the wedding. but taking a step forward a few years it was now an enjoyable day of memories and something that would be the same in my mind had we spent $10k or $100k. a wedding day is what you make of it, as is every day of your life and your marriage.
Anny, I totally agree with you that considering the circumstances of the people you have desribed none of them should have been having weddings of that extent. I would suspect it has something to do with outdoing others in most cases based on girls that I know who are in very similar circumstances to what you mention finance wise and taking out debt to achieve this wonderful day.
and lets face facts, one in 3 of them is going to head to the divorce courts in the end as well.
true michael that the council doesn't really matter. when i do numbers it's based on % and has no bearing what council it is. as far as i am concerned i don't know of a good council.
vicgirl in response to your question, when looking at a single house development i'm more thinking along the lines of inner east, where the sinlge house development will cost me the same as the outer east 3 townhouse development in total and return similar margin overall.
the benefit of single house development is i can live in it as my principle residence for a period, and it's in a more ideal location for me, hence no capital gains tax, GST and council contribution costs to deal with accounting wise. when you factor in those costs the option of living in a place you build which is of good quality is attractive. the inner east market at present has a lot of appetite for $1.2-1.5m properties suprisingly. the hardest thing is getting the house to knock down to stick a new place on.
i would say a lot of the 20% growth we've seen more recently is currently flowing out. i've recently sold property in the outer east near the new freeway and the price recieved exceeded my expectations. indications from properties on the market show that there's currently strength in the outer established market at present as people move out into the next ring of suburbs.
I have dealt with Maroondah and found them pathetic (probably an understatment). I had to put a $34k deposit bond down down (regina, FYI you can place this down as a bank guarantee so you still earn interest on the money in the bank however it does still hold up $34k of your funds), they tried to fine me for 'destroying' a tree that was bluntly approved to remain as part of the building permit and they really had a who cares type of attitude. i haven't got my deposit bond back either but have paid for my drive and stormwater in full.
i am reluctant to try and deal with maroondah again as I found there was no reasonaning for lots of their decisions and they went out of their way to try and make things difficult for people. they have forgotten that they are there to serve the community. all we're trying to do is make the comunity a better place to live and they are trying to slow the process dramatically.
i constantly felt that they wanted to put up another hurdle to stall the project. it was a joke.
i have recently purchased in knox but have not yet dealt with the council. their contibutions do seem very hefty. it's a 3 townhouse development in wantirna south and it's a great spot but from memory on the planning permit contribution is up to 8.5% or something around that. that's obviously a hefty sum.
i'm actually thinking of offloading this property already if i can get the right price in the market and buying something a bit closer to the city to knock down and build a large single house on. surely that can't be as complicated as this planning stuff at council.
in summary i don't recommend maroondah council as a target for your next development. i've heard from other developers in the area that knox is better. sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
We are currently in the building process with National Builders and have just finished fixing stage so we’re very close to completion. I can not praise them enough to date. We haven’t moved in yet and had final inspection but the whole process has been great with them. I know people who’ve built with other big names and I can honestly say I don’t know anybody that’s gone as smoothly with their builder as we have to date.
PM me if you’re interested in more detail and I can give you details of the builder they allocated to us (won’t announce it here but if you get the same one allocated you should be happy) and also the salesperson we dealt with at National Builders (I can give you their number if you are interested because they were very very helpful with the process).hallg, that's very interesting that you mentioned the topic of your friends dad and telling him to spend up a bit and enjoy it because my husband and i were having this exact conversation last night.
his parents are of the view to spend up and die with nothing in the bank and nothing to leave behind. mine have an asset base that returns enough money to live well. they would never sell the asset base as the returns give them a lifestyle they desire and they do not want for more. if they did, then i guess they could sell it off and spend spend spend.
but they want to leave behind for their children to live a comfortable life as they have managed to build up.
what is more interesting to think about – those that flitter it all away are the ones that the government gives the pension to. the ones with the money who've worked hard and put money away to retire on get nothing from our government. doesn't really make sense. in the US it's a very different model where those who have saved and worked hard for the country they live in are rewarded by government.
so far only responses about not splashing out.
now to actually answer the question at hand:
WHAT LUXURY DO YOU BY YOURSELF. &
HOW DO YOU SPLASH OUT ON YOURSELF ?
I buy myself a coffee every morning. It’s $4 a pop and it’s one of the best luxuries. no matter where I am in the world a coffee prepared by somebody else is a luxury to enjoy each day.
We take holidays every year – next year is already booked, skiing in the canadian rockies and Las Vegas on the way home. Already planning the next trip to europe and then japan!
holidays and great food and coffee are what i love splashing out on.
And great properties – there’s nothing like the feeling of buying that property that you’re going to turn into something special and put your own touch on.
and no, i don’t have a plasma. but we’re thinking about it next house. our tv is only 4 years old (plasma’s were way too expensive when we purchased it) and we can’t justify throwing out a perfectly good tv.
and i’m planning for the day i can walk in and buy my BMW coupe in spare change.
are you serious $200k for 110sqm!!!! no way.
we're building a 200+sqm townhouse – single level not double, but 3 BR + study plus 2 living areas for well and truly under $200k.
I love skiing and snow and love the idea of owning property in a snow village, BUT there’s a big problem with the aussie snow season. It generally lasts for the months of July and August (if you’re lucky you will see some white stuff in June and September but that’s a good season here), and the last few years have had very minimal snow cover and disastrous skiing. So, the long term outlook for snow property is that these resorts will have to become year round resorts, not just relying on the ski season. How and when and if that can occur are unknowns. If you are up at Hotham anytime that is not ski season it’s generally a ghost town. There are a handful of staff that live there year round. If you want to invest in a ski town I would recommend focussing your interest overseas somewhere like Canada or Japan where there is much more stability in year round use and also in good snowfall to attract the visitors. I have no idea or comment on if there will be snow in 5, 10, 20, 50 years time, but with all the talk of drought, global warming and rising temperatures, it doesn’t mix well with snow which requires moisture and cold temperatures to happen! From an investment point of view I would say there are better investment vehicles than snow property. Good luck.
well my saga continues. over a week ago the council planning guy told me that he couldn't give a permit because the tree is already 'destroyed' so they've referred it to the infringement guy for enforcement. I asked if he could please get that person to call me before giving me a fine so we could discuss the matter and i could be told specifically which law I have broken (I still dont' understand how I've broken the law to be fined when i have permits for everything I've done!!!).
Anyway, I've heard nothing and then today my husband and I receive an infringement EACH to our shock of $537 EACH.
I will call the infringement guy to discuss but this matter has just put so much stress on me. I feel like council has no idea that people can not understand the entire planning and environment act and local planning schemes.
The guy who referred the matter to infringement verbally said to me he understands how I feel about the matter and he would be fighting the fine too! can you believe that?
i'm going to request a meeting with council. I've already offered to the first guy to plant more trees but he told me to speak to the infringement guy regarding that because he was the only one that could rule on whether to fine me or not.
VCAT fees are $237 and i'm guessing i would have to pay that per infringement (by the way, are they meant to send each of us a fine?) and it just seems so unfair that I will have to spend this money when I have done everything right.
Council also conceded to me that if i had applied for this tree removal prior to the slab going down they would not have had an issue with this tree being removed. I also need to call my building surveyor about his thoughts on why he approved the building permit if council was going to rule the building has infringed on the laws by destroying the tree.
Can anyone advise on how VCAT would view this type of application? Anyone with experience.
I know this sounds more complicated than it should for something so simple but I am really searching for any advice possible. any PM's if you have any knowledge in this area at all would be greatly appreciated.
I hope I can resolve this soon as it is causing undue stess on me more so than i would've thought such a matter would. The council takes nothing into account other than their planning documents – they seem to have forgotten that they are there to represent the municipality and that logic should sometimes prevail. It just seems like money-grabbing to me, especially because the planning guy has told me they would've had no problem approving the permit and that he would be disputing paying the fine too!!!!!!
we are not looking back far enough. the earth goes through warming and cooling cycles.
we don’t know if due to human activity that the heating we are currently experience will ever change, however the likelihood is that the earth will go into a cooling stage. if it is soon enough is the question that needs to be answered.
agree that more needs to be done by industry and political parties however to limit our interference with the planet.
it was only in the 1970’s that there was discussion of the earth cooling. this proved to be wrong, but things seem to follow media hype as we all know.
i’ve never heard of colour preferences.
if you’re buying a new car the contract has the colour. in 90 days they can make you one in japan and put it on a boat in the colour you like.
that sounds crazy. you shouldn’t have taken the car.
in the overall cost of things the gas conversion over to it’s own connection won’t be much – just a guess but maybe $2-3k max. will depend where they are connecting it to, what trench they have to dig etc.
the bigger overall picture and cost will be in getting a subdivision through to sell one off.
this is likely to include site survey, arborist report, landscape plan, engineering drawings with drainage plan. depending on your site coverage of property and council you may have to put large stormwater pits in.
you’ll have to clear the existing structure in the backyard and create new garaging or space for the front property. there may be trees you need to remove which will cost money, and a new driveway will more than likely (almost certainly) be required.
these are jsut some of the things that i can think of at the moment. there will be things that pop up along the way. you don’t say what state the property is in but i definitely wouldn’t recommend doing it if you are living in a different state to the property, especially if you’ve never done it before.
you have to really want to do it and do some budgets that are pretty reliable. if you’re not really wanting to do it you will quickly get sick of the phone calls to council about matters and chasing things around constantly. development is a job in itself.
is there a need to upgrade your home. you still have a very substantial mortgage on your PPOR to consider, yet going to a $1m property would potentially add another $300k to yuor debts.
the only option i see if you definitely want to pursue the PPOR upgrade is to sell off the investments and move to the $1m property. you'd still have a mortgage of $400k though on your PPOR.
I'd be aiming to eliminate PPOR lending as quickly as possible and then pursuing more investment. Maybe hold off a few years before upgrading your house.
well an update on the situation.
I went out to the property to get some photos that demonstrate the fence's current situation and found the whole fence has been removed. I have not authorised the quote they've given me and have typed a letter to them but have nowhere to send it.
This morning i rang the builder and asked if they decided they are paying for the fence replacement in full becuase i was suprised to turn up and find the fence gone altogether. He said no but he's not waiting around for a response to the quote. I believe I have 4 weeks to respond and then they could give me a notice to fence which i can then dispute still.
I asked for the owners address (i've never spoken to the owner) and he's given me his number and I have left a message for the guy, but I have nowhere to send any response at the moment.
i am very frustrated with the whole situation as if they had not developed next door I am sure this fence never would've been requested to be replaced by the small house previously on the block. the fence was not in great condition but it was upright and served it's purpose. I have one photo from before the development of the top area of the fence on the block. It shows it is structually standing and ok.
The builder cracked it at me on the phone today and said well he'll just leave it open then and not worry about a fence. he was been a bit immature. he's the one that decided to go and pull the entire fence down without authorisation!
this whole project next door has been a bit of a mess. the original guys that pulled areas of the fence down ended up running off with a heap of money and this guy is a new builder that came on the scene. he doesn't care to listen to anything, and hence why if i get the same response from the owner I might have to leave it to mediation or a magistrate to decide. I may be willing to pay a small portion of what was left of the fence that they've pulled down yesterday but i don't want to pay for the sections they removed without permission which allowed them to then build to the fenceline.
i guess it’s all supply and demand.
It’s not hard to sell. Getting to the point of been available to sell is the hard part – ie. actually completing the subdivision and all the requirements.
If this is on a block that you live on and are cutting the back off be careful because there will be a CGT component for the block of land.
Oh, and another point of advice.
Go and tell that agent that land is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it and this relates to the simple laws of supply and demand.
And yes, he does have to submit your offer. It is illegal for him not to present it.
the rates notices usually have a land value and improved value on them. request this from the seller. but these can sometimes be off the mark too. That’s the easiest form for getting an idea on land, because it uses historic comparable data.
Also, submit your offers subject to finance, and the bank will soon value the land and give you an idea on what they can lend against.
The first couple do sound a bit expensive.
You have to remember when doing units the cost per square is higher than a normal put it on a block in craigeburn type scenario.
Something that may be impacting your price, but it is not clear from your post is if there are connections down a driveway to the back of a block. (because you mentioned a front house I assume there is a long drive of 20m or more). This can add $10-20k in costs. Plus if you have to put pits in for drainage and this is built into your cost that can add to it as well.
I would expect around $200k should get you over the line for a basic type set up including the connections, some pits and clearing and so on. so the 3rd quote might be the way to go. the others sound a bit too expensive.
also, in regards to st george, re-check the status there.
i’ve recently had some problems with their lenders in regards to construction and two brokers have now advised me of changes in some policies there in relation to certain things. Have moved to westpac for this work becuase st george was like beating your head against a door.
without interest my costs come in at $650k for the process of getting the land from a block of land to having all permits, clearing site, selling costs, construction, contingency, etc.
you also need to consider if you can get a block that will fit 3 units in clayton at that price. I think maybe mulgrave, unlikely clayton.
do some very extensive spreadsheeting and feasability before you start chasing banks for money.
my numbers calculate after your interest costs you’d be lucky to get close to $100k out of this $1m project. very risky deal by the looks of it. if it was a $500k project and you were getting $100k then it might be worthwhile.
in this situation you will need to put up some equity to be able to get the money from a bank. also very unlikely on the numbers that you have provided that they would capitalise your interest. you’ll need to make repayments on the borrowed funds.
