Forum Replies Created
Hi Rick,
Thanks for the negotiating tips. I will take these into consideration when calculating my budget. The owner is already aware of the agent costs, which is why she doesn’t want to sell through an agent. I’ve already made it clear to her that I would be prepared for a quick settlement and she was happy with this.
Don, thanks you for your help too! I knew the wallpaper could be removed, just wasn’t sure how expensive (both time and money) it would be. It seems to be a cheap process by the sounds of things. I’m not too concerned about how long it will take, as long as I know I can do it myself.
In regards to respraying the roof, the roof is tile and not galvanised. Would you say costs/process would be similar to a galvanised roof?
I’ll be sure to put together a detailed project plan if I get the property… I would just like to get some rough estimates done first to see if its worth going for
Cheers,
OziHi Elkam,
Sorry I can’t help, but I too am asking the same questions and eager to hear from people who have knowledge on this topic. I’m sure there are a few forumites out there who can help.
Regards,
OziHi Andy,
Sorry to hear about your misfortune. I too started looking at buying in Western/Central NY about a year ago and did months of research before heading over there. It wasn’t until I actually got there, looked at properties, met all my contacts and spoke to as many people as possible where I realised the amount of risk involved. And to be quite honest, the HUGE returns everyone seems to be promoting just didn’t stack up for me. A 20% gross rental return in NY may look good at first, but once you factor in the high taxes, property management fees, heating bills during winter, vacancy periods, tenant damage, maintenance, incompetent property managers, financing issues, etc…, you aren’t left with much of a positive cashflow are you? I believe you are better off leaving your money in the bank! I must admit the biggest issues I could see were with property management.
As with Rick, I too am yet to hear of a success story from anyone investing in NY. Maybe Steve could shed some light on his experiences? Its been over a year now since his highly publicised $1 million purchase in NY and I think he recently hinted that he is currently selling his properties due to problems (?). It would be good to hear his view and maybe others can learn from his experiences.
For anyone wanting to take on such a high risk investment strategy, I urge you to get on a plane and go see the place for yourself. Do your own homework and don’t rely on the information provided by 3rd parties who are just trying to sell to you. If I was to invest in NY, the only strategy I would be using would be buying foreclusures, rehabbing them, then selling them. For this to work, you really need to be on the ground and overlook and manage the whole project. Unless you are planning to live there, this might not be a viable option.
Also have a read of this thread:
https://www.propertyinvesting.com/forum/topic/18955.html
Good luck and let us know how you go!
Regards,
OziHi Brett,
No problems. I’ll let you know how I go. If its ok with you, I might give you a call sometime soon to talk further.
Regards,
OziHi Brett,
Thank you for your input. I did speak to the Council Planning Officer briefly about easements. All I was told is to build over an easement, I must get written permission from the underlying authorities. This is something I will look into further if the property has any easements.
I appreciate you providing Benni’s details. I will check out the website and get in contact with him soon.
Regards,
OziHi Stathism,
I’ve actually been looking into Sunshine recently. I think Sunshine is still relatively cheap given it’s proximity to the CBD (12km). Being the oldest suburb in the City of Brimbank, it has excellent infrastructure and the quality of housing is fairly good.
After doing a bit of research, I do have my doubts though. In the not so distant future, the council has plans for several new residential sub-divisions. From the council’s website, I found the following plans:
Sunshine:
* Wright Street – 90 dwellings (2008-2009
* Activity Centre intensification – 325 dwellings (2005-2031)Sunshine West-Ardeer:
*Sunshine Golf Course – 660 dwellings (2009-2016)
* Millennium Properties site – 200 dwellings (2010-2014)Sunshine North:
* River Valley/Solomon Heights (currently an industrial area) – 1,000 dwellings (2006-2014)Given the supply vs demand formula, I would expect that the newly created sub-divisions would affect future prices in the already established areas. With an influx of new properties hitting the market nearby, wouldn’t this devalue the properties in the established areas?
What do you think? Any comments or thoughts would be appreciated.
Regards,
OziJust bare in mind the HSBC won’t give foreign nationals online banking access within the first 3 months of opening the account (even if you open it in person). CitiBank however will give you instant online banking access. If you are going to be purchasing over there, I would say online banking would be important.
Regards,
OziHi Rumin,
That is also an idea I have considered. The land with DA approval could be sold off for a profit, but I think there is more in it if you develop it. I believe maximum profit = maximum use. Putting the land to it’s best use will release the most profits. Selling it to a developer will release the profits to someone else.
I like your idea of finding a buyer and building to their tastes though. Has anyone had experience doing this? I’m not quite sure how you would strike up the deal though.
Cheers,
OziHi Alistair,
Thanks for your input. As I’m trying to increase my portfolio and equity, my immediate plan would be to hold onto the properties and not sell. Instead I would refinance at the end of the project and use the equity to help fund the next project. I agree that if I was to buy-develop-sell in today’s climate, the stamp duty and CGT would more than likely chew into most of the profits.
Regards,
OziHi hb,
In regards to when the next boom will be, who knows? Your guess is as good as mine [eh] I am guessing it won’t be for a few years yet. I don’t really take much notice of all these predictions by gurus as I find it hard to believe anyone can accurately predict the markets in 15-20 years time. Its a bit like a weather man giving accurate weather predictions for the next 3 months.
Thanks for the comments grossrealisation. What you say makes sense to me. I thought it might be the case that option 2 would be the way to go. I should point out that I won’t be buying bare land, rather I’ll be buying land with an existing dwelling, so there will be some income coming through. However, I can see that not developing the sub-dividable land in a flat market will not produce the most profitable outcome.
Reading back on my goal which I quoted above, i.e. “My goal is to build equity quickly in the short to medium term which will allow me to increase my portfolio”, it makes sense to create the equity NOW instead of LATER (using the above methods).
Regards,
OziHi all,
Just in case any of you are ever tempted to reply to such enticing offers via email or through this site, I urge you not to. NEVER EVER REPLY TO FRAUDULENT/UNSOLICITED EMAILS!! Basically, the way these crooks work is they send out mass emails to addresses which are normally either randomly generated or page scraped from websites (for those of you who display your email addresses in your signatures or posts, you are asking to be spammed!). Once you reply to one of these emails, what you are doing is letting them know that they’ve succeeded in targeting an “active” email address, so you can expect to receive more and more of these emails in the future.
Email spam is a part of life these days and its next to impossible to eliminate it, but taking the above advice will minimise your vulnerability. Unfortunately, there are many people out there, mainly computer illiterate users, who fall for these scams every day.
Regards,
OziThe ASB in NZ is affiliated with the CBA here in Australia.
Regards,
OziThe thing with programmers is, most of them can’t spell [biggrin] My boss often uses me as a human spell checker to proof read all his documents before they get sent to the client. Ah the joys of IT.
Regards,
OziHi Richard,
The deal you closed on Friday, was that for a property in NY State? If it is, that is more than reasonable.
Regards,
OziHi Jo,
Sorry I can’t be any help, but people have been trying to crack this old nut for a while now. All I can say is good luck [cap]
Regards,
OziHi Steve,
The new format looks good, but I have a few suggestions:
1) As muppet stated, the text is hard to read. a) increase size by 1 or 2 points, and b) change the text colour to black, or change the back ground colour. Grey on blue doesn’t work.
2) The sash menu on the right hand side makes the main forum frame too narrow. I would prefer it if this menu was removed completely. The only thing that really interests me is the “Member Functions” and this can simply be placed at the top of the page. I understand you have this for advertising purposes, but maybe only use it on the homepage, and not in the forum?
Just my thoughts…
Regards,
OziHi jenwren,
Thank you for your input. I think my sister may just need to find a new solicitor. I will get her to act on your feedback. Hopefully all goes well.
Kind regards,
OziHi all,
Just to keep you updated, my sister is still battling it out with the developer trying to break the contract. She has spoken to her solicitor and he says there is not much he can do. The solicitor told her she will need to sort it out with the developer.
Anyway, the developer is yet to find her suitable finance. Settlement was meant to be 1 months ago.
Does anyone have any ideas on breaking the contract without losing the deposit? I was thinking she could:
a) transfer all of her money into another family member’s bank account and say she no longer has the deposit. No deposit, no finance = no deal [biggrin] Will this work?
b) Put all of her money into a term deposit for say a 6 month term. She can then say her money is tied up in other investments, so she can’t come up with the deposit.
c) Buy a house. Although this would tie up her money elsewhere, I don’t think she has enough time to do this.
Does anyone know if the above options are feasible? I know they are a bit cheeky, but I’m really out of ideas.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Kind regards,
OziHi Don & Liz,
We all like to joke about the crime rate in Buffalo, but not all areas are bad. Believe it or, but Amherst (a suburb in Buffalo) was voted the safest city in the USA a couple of years back. It has since fallen down the ranks and is now the 3rd safest.
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20051122/1026210.asp
I was there recently and it is a nice area, great country feel to it! The homes are also nice, but you won’t get the high cashflow everyone is talking about!
Regards,
Ozi
