Nope,

If it's not a government grant, they'd have to be getting this $30k grant from somewhere. Me says, that somewhere would be your bank account (government gets it from there to, let's not get into the specifics tho ).

Although i'm sure there's people out there who have implemented his teachings successfuly,

The ones I know who have paid to do his courses, the money they spent they could have put a deposit on a house or two, I'm yet to see an outcome to their 'education'.

My dad built some major extensions to his property a few years ago, saved about $40k in management fees and did a very high quality job even by professional standards. In saying this he is pedantic and well organised, I manage projects for a living and am still learning my fair share from him doing a project together right now.

A man living down the road from them has been building his house since 1998 when we moved to the area, it's still a work in progress and has now completely run out of money.

From experience, i'd say the latter story is an extreme version of what is most likely to happen. If your up for the challenge (and with out a doubt, plenty of stress) it can be very rewarding, on the other hand, leaving one loose thread in the project timeline will cause it to quickly unravel with budget blowouts and poor quality finishings running rampant.

Also have a couple of places in St Marys, you'll find if you do spend the extra cash (ensuring you will get those returns making it break even as such), you will be able to be more picky with your tenants. Then again, leaving it as is means you won't need to worry too much about 'damage'.

Is it rented at the moment? Will you loose rent during the renovations? I think most places will rent there renovated or not, just depends on the quality of tenenant your after.

Settlement is on May 28^th. I have a 3 bedroom fibro 1 street away renting for $360. This is a much nicer 3 bedroom brick veneer. Will rent it to existing owners mum for $340/wk which will benefit in that I can carry out repairs on the other building and claim deductions (all under one title).

Talked to a few agents in those 20 mins before I made an offer :p and the whole lot would rent for $450/week. However renting it separately after council approval (already in the process) it should rent for about $620/wk minimum.  I don’t know why the place behind mine sold for $450k, I really wouldn’t pay more than $380k for something similar to mine in that area even in mint condition.

Will probably sit on it for a bit, pull out equity in a year, study the Victorian market in the meantime. 2 properties and pumping money into granny flats at the moment has eaten up all my cash and strangled my cash-flow L (lesson learnt).

Feel free to throw them our way – haha

Am struggling to find these great deals, still inexperienced. The last one I bought for $310k with two dwellings, the house behind just sold for $450k. To be honest, that was a fluke, I was actually on my way to see another house down the road and was curious why the real estate agent (who I had seen previously) hadn't mentioned it.

Turns out the vendor was a nightmare to deal with, they never wanted to call him, and greatfully, not many people ever saw the inside of the house before me after months on the market. Realised it was a bargain and made an offer within 20 mins.

Hey c-man

I recently started myself and now understand nobody can answer those questions but you. Questions to ask YOURSELF should be more along the lines of:

–       What are your aims and by when;
–       What level or risk/debt are you comfortable with;
–       How much time can you dedicate to learning and improving;
–       What changes are you willing to make to your lifestyle to save more.

From house to apartment, you can make a profit on both. Personally I prefer houses that require small changes. I don’t do major renovations or any sort of special financing (flips, vf, etc). You may want to start with something simple by buying under-priced property which require minor renovations.You’ll be surprised how little you really know about the process until you take action. Everyday is now a learning experience wether it be negotiating with vendors, council, or my dad (who seems to know everything)

Again that is my opinion and everybody would advise differently.

IMO, start with 2 books:
1. From 0 – 130 properties in 3.5 years by Steve McKnight;
2. 20 must ask questions for every property investor by Margaret Lomas.

Theres dozens if not hundreds more books and articles you may read from there. Oh and network with people who know more, they will not only inspire you, they will also save you a few bucks by helping you NOT make a mistake.

As for structure, there's plenty of advice here, personally buying a couple under my own name to take advantage of land tax thresh-hold, rest will be in discretionary trusts.

Gluck!

Hmm, I think that may have more to do with either a naive PI who feels they are doing the right thing as you were such a great long term tennant, or they are receiving poor advice from the PM.

I asked my dad why his rent was so low, was renting to tenant for 3 years and rent went from $300 to $330 in that time. A quick look at rentals in the area, he realised rent for that house should have been $400. Fired agent on the spot, their explanation "they were such nice people". Now renting for $420 (went from negative to positive geared).

Incomes are increased by inflation rates every other year, I read somewhere, average house rent can be up to 30-35% or the persons average income. So if incomes are increasing, then so are rents.
Thoughts?

BankWest down 32 basis boints it seems.

That puts me at 6.23% and 6.15% for each property. Think they are both automatically positive geared now (after all expenses, pre-granny flat construction yet after 10/20% deposits respectively – wohoo…)

Any word on what BankWest is doing for existing customers? Watching it like a hawk, tho only seen mention on drop to 6.98%.

Haha Dwolfe… was thinking the same thing myself this morning.