Hi Jay

I am still;l getting plenty of enquiry however many investors were only buying cheap property. Perhaps some of those buyers have gone. However I am getting lots of buyers who want to buy commercial property and apartment complexes. The reason is that  we can fund properties at 60% so you can now get strong leverage. In my view America is…[Read more]

You are good Freckle  lol

However if in America you can buy properties with strong rental demand and you have positive cash flow what is the risk

I do agree with you about Australia I am increasingly worried about the Australian economy. However I still believe there is more upside in the US markets.

In Australia I have been trying to put development projects together by getting investors to buy directly into them. What I am finding is that many of these sites sell for well above what they…[Read more]

Well personally since I can borrow 60% of the value as a non-recourse loan I would buy an apartment complex in the United States for around $700,000 and be getting both growth and positive cash flow from day one.

Its alright freckle I expected your comments I notice in another post you are predicting that China will disappear off the face of the earth as well. If any of the Doomsday predictions of your happen I guess we are all screwed. 

I believe that it is a great time to buy in the United States. The economy is recovering and there is no doubt that both prices and rental demand are on the rise.

If we look at commercial property and that can include apartment complexes you can fund the property with 40% down and borrow 60% as non-recourse finance. hat means that the loan is…[Read more]

I made a decision that the only way I would deal in the United States was that I owned half the company which I do

We also own a property Management company. From my point of view it means we can offer the service to a standard that I am happy with. Frankly unless you intend to spend a lot of time on the ground you are playing Russian Roulette.…[Read more]

I would certainly look closely at Jamies comments. I do not have a problem with apartments especially in Brisbane. However there are few CBD markets that have performed well as investments. You to buy an apartment that would appeal to an owner occupier because they will in most cases have a solid capital growth. But stay away from small apartments…[Read more]

A lot of it comes down to what sort of income you have and what you can afford to buy. Frankly in Australia if the property is positive in many cases the growth will be low. If you are going to buy a property which is negatively geared then you have to make sure that the capital growth is strong enough to cover your losses.

Any company that promotes city properties in the city Docklands  area should be very careful. There is a huge over supply of these sorts of properties with as many as 4000 coming out of the ground. Many are small apartments which will almost certainly go backwards in value over the next few years.

The reason so many of these groups are promoting…[Read more]

Even if you could get finance for such an investment you are wasting your money

There will be a glut of third rate investments in Melbourne that will see the prices sliding backwards they are third rate dont touch them.

Well there are still much investments around than car parks

As I mentioned it is important that you are working o the ground with someone you trust

If you do not do this then you are flying blind

That is certainly a big problem in Australia as most quotes are gross returns. Only net returns matter

I agree with everyone else they are a terrible investment

Also in many cases they will be deemed as a commercial property so you will have to put more cash down.

Also keep in mind that rates are at record lows however they will go up again in the next 12 months. Almost no capital growth, there are really no great reasons to buy these types of properties

If my view if you are targeting $30,000 houses you will not get much. I tend to focus on Florida which is a good market but generally to get anything worth while you need to look into the $50,000 to $70,000 range. Because we get them from the bank they are under retail price.

However Australia is full of US investors who have lost money. Most of…[Read more]

Most of these people promote courses were they make what they do sound easy. However without any real estate training or knowledge most people will not succeed and often drop out after doing the original course. Then if they do show interest they are sold into a much more expensive course. Does it mean that the information is bad, no it does not…[Read more]

I tend to agree with Jamie

It is important to remember that interest rates are at record lows but will they remain at that point. Unlikely. So you buy a property in a poor area with little or no growth at 6% but then in a year or so rates go back to 7% guess what it is no longer positive anyway and you are stuck with a second rate…[Read more]

You cannot leverage with car parks and they do not tend to have high growth if any

There are much better investments around

Without knowing what you own and how much you owe it is hard to offer comments. However if you sell the property for $700,000 you will have to pay capital gains tax on 50% of your profit. So I would be inclined to borrow against the equity to buy another property.

In terms of selling properties I go by a simple equation, If you got rid of a…[Read more]