I’d hold the cash and wait and see what the tenant asks for, every tenant is different and what may suit one doesn’t always suit another. Besdies if you’re still doing the reno then you may find that there’s little things that you find that need fising along the way that will eat into the funds available anyway.

Good Luck. We’re down to painting the skiritings an dwindow frames on our reno and it feels like it’s taking forever.

PK

Everyone’s strategy is different. If $115000 is what you have available to finance the deal the you’d be silly to be looking at properties you cannot afford.

As for capital growth, I don’t know, you may be limiting yourself by cutting out areas that have had growth, it is possible they have had growth becaseu they are in areas that will experience more growth, it is also possible that the twon has already had it’s run. I wouldn’t limit the towns by growth, I’d look at why, how much etc regarding the growth and make it a factor of my decision but woldn’t rule towns out simply becasue they have had growth.

Good luck
PK

Niki,

Running away from the problems isn’t always the answer.

Is there any chance of refinancing any of the properties with the cost of the recent expenses included over a longer term to bring the repayments down ie: if you had 23 years of the term left, then add the expense and refinance over 25 or 30 years.

ONce this has brought you expenses down a bit then reassess whether the twons are any good for the long term, if not then look at selling them off, if they should be good then perhpas drop the rent a little to try and secure a tenant to help with paying off the loans now.

Lastly, put osme aside for unexpected maintenace ie: perhaps 20% of the +ve cashflow should be put on one side for maintenace and do take out landlords insurance so if a tenant wrecks a place again, then it’s not out of your pocket.

Well, hope some others have some ideas for you too.

Good on you for sharing.
PK

You can also purchase reports from the Valuer General’s office ie: $44 for the last 100 sales in an area.

Their reports tell you the numbersof bedroom, bathrooms. kitchens. lounges etc so you can compare what a house had against the price.

Regards
Judy

I manage one myself and never had a problem but I did do a “To Let only” lease through an RE so they could check the appropiate databases etc. Tenant has been great.

Looks like I had one more I’ll need to manage when renovations finished.

Other 2 are managed by a PM and I sometimes wonder if it’s worth it. In one, the tenant has been there for 2 years but in that time the agency has had 4 differnt PM’s so no continuity.

The other PM won’t speak to my strata title companys, rekons she can’t speak to anyone but the owner, I find that one hard to swallow as they’ll ring repairmen when needed, but when it comes to repairs on the common property that tenant may have reported, they refuse to speak directly to strata company, I fail to see teh difference, they are still jsut ringing someone to have a repair carried out. The principal of the agency agree this is how it should be done. So waiting for agreement to fall due and will chagne that one.

I don’t want to manage porperties due to time issues, but sometimes it seems to work out better.

On that note though, I only give the tenant my mobile number and not my home number, at least if there’s a falling out I can turn the mobile off. I do tell the tenant to tell me when they ring if they need me to ring back, that way the cost doens’t need to be borne by them if ringing for a genuine problem.

Well, good luck. Perhaps just try managing one first and see what you think before you take the whole lot on.

Regards
PK

Marissa,

He probably did mean $23 negative for all 5 and they were mos likely houses, especially if he bought over 12 months ago as Armadale had a bit of a jump then. We were lucky and bought one there prior to the jump in prices (they went up around 20-25% over the year), it is now neutral (if you include the tax return we get from it).

And the vacancy rate is great. When we first bought we had a choice of tenants and that was a very nice feeling.

ActToaday, Well DOne on having the foresight to get 5.

Regards
PK

Well for WA….

for captial gains I’d still pick Rockingham and Mandurah

for +ve cashflow I’d pick Merredin, Geraldton (if you can find any left) and Kalgoorlie (if you can whether the ups and downs of the mining industry).

PK

Hi Wayne,

sorry it’s taken so long to reply but looks like you’ve had heaps of replies anyway.

Now we didn’t go cool breeze, but we’re up in the hills so wanted heating with it, went refrigerated (Fujitsu). As we’re on water tanks evaporative would ahve been no good for us as they use water and although water is precious everywhere it’s not so bad when you’re on mains. We had tanks and sould afford the exra usuage evaporative would have been. Don’t panic it doesn’t mean they use heaps, we have a 32000 gallon tank that in a dry winter may only get two/thirds full, if we run out we have to truck water in. Refrigerated doens’t use water so it suite dour situation best and that is why I liked that fellow he listened to our actaul situation and then gave his thoughts on what woudl be best. Others just quoted on what was cheapest or didn’t quote at all.

I’m sure there are other good ones around too and if you don’t need particular requirements then it might not matter who you go through. I recommended him becasue we had good service from him.

In a previosu house I had a breezair unit, but don’t know if it was the brand you are talking about. Thankfully, it was under a 4 year warranty because in that time we have 2 news motors, a new drain kit and some other thing I can’t remember. That was the down side. The upside was that each time it was a different repair person come out and each one, said that it was very unusual to experience so many problmes with one a Breezair unit, so, well, make of that what you will.

Hope you had luck
Judy

Try Airconditioning Solutions 93981777. I found them to be very helpful in advisng the right system for our situation ie: we’re on water tanks, are few degress higher than metro in summer and have frost in winter. The consultant we had was Tony Ryan and from emroy I seem to think he might live up that way.

Others ones I faxed for quotes at the time didn’t even bother to come out to the house to look at what we were trying to aircondition!

Good Luck whatever you decide.
PK

Do a search on FHOG on this site, there has been quite bit written about it. I think from memory that you have to live in it for 12 months and have to move in within 6 months or it coudl be the other way around, but have read of what has been written on this topic previously.

Regards
PK