Forum Replies Created
Be careful, as your husband is right – it it all goes pearshaped, your home is collateral too and may be claimed by the bank.
Family and business are a poor mix, in my personal opinion.
Get them to save a deposit, or if they are desperate to start, look at how they can raise the cash themselves. Instead of mortgaging your future, spend $30 and buy Steve’s second book – in that a couple who were very far in debt bought several properties over the course of a year by applying themselves and their ingenuity. They have a much better chance of making and holding onto wealth if they have to do the work themselves.
Above all, get them to get good advice on this.
(You might want to read the book yourselves as well!) [biggrin]
Originally posted by foundation:Originally posted by Wylie:I think you can have lack of stock but a slow market. Unless I had to sell right now, I’d be holding off, hence the lack of stock.
Yes, but I dispute that being the ‘problem’ at the moment. It’s not a lack of stock, it’s a lack of sales. Average time on the market is up around 50% in east coast capitals, indicating an excess of stock outstripping demand. To see for yourself, use one of the online RE sales sites – count the total number of properties for sale in a suburb, and check back regularly. Believe me, the numbers are rising.
Cheers, F[cowboy2]I’m sure the numbers ARE rising, but not so as to stimulate a fall of over 60% in value (current median is around $208,000). That, as you rightly point out, wouldn’t happen in a vacuum and would spell a disastrous fall for real estate across the country. It also wouldn’t happen, as the amount of cashflow positive cheap roperties would have us all buying as fast as possible, thereby supporting the price.
It’d be good if the forum automatically adjusted to the screen width.
I don’t know whether it’s coincidence, but today’s quote is:
“Be known as much for the deals you leave behind as the ones that you purchase.” (It’s the fish John West reject, that make John West the best.)
Anyone who has walked away from what felt like a really good deal but which didn’t stack up in the final analysis knows both the pain and the pleasure of doing the walk.
Steve3556’s compliment misses the mark. To me, you WON! Your game, your rules, your victory.
gilad,
There are more assumptions in your post than you may be aware of. Maybe one flat isn’t a good investment, but what about a whole block that you can strata title? Would you say know to a postive cashflow apartment? What about a commercial building where you didn’t even own the land it was on, but which returned 15%
Deals aren’t good by their nature, but by their numbers. There is at least a qualitative difference between residential and commercial, but it all comes down to the bottom line and your aims in investing.
Without defining these for yourself, you can’t answer your own question.
Cama,
Think about your options. I’m guessing that you have very little, if anything, in the way of deposit (hence your shopping limit). Perhaps you could look for a no-money down deal? Or wait, and save – peoperty prices apper to be going sideways at the moment.
Search out properties that you could ‘reinvent’ to make them cashflow positive. Find a new use for them etc. Don’t limit your searches to the net, get out and get in the face of RE agents.
practice making offers that work for you, and get used to being knocked back.Check out the favoured attitudes of various of the more established posters here and see what they do. If you like it, approach them directly.
There are many actions you can take, but don’t just sit there and ask “Where are the properties?” They don’t just fall into your lap.
But most of all, get your brain into gear. That’s the part that you use to add value.
Originally posted by westan:it makes you realize how hard it will be for our younger generation (under 25’s) to partake in part of this nations wealth, (unless they inherit it). Given that a large part of people wealth is in Property i would assume that these people purchsed in at a time that real estae was a lot more affordable.
I’d call that a big assumption. When I was first buying (and I am not yet 55) the cheapest house in my city was $65,000 and the second cheapest was $72,000 (that was the one I bought). My salary was maybe $20,000 p.a. and interest rates were 11% plus you needed a 10 year savings record to be given a loan by a bank. Building societies existed but charged an extra 1-2%. Within 6 years interest rates had reached 18%.
More generally, there are statements that housing is as unaffordable as it’s ever been. When you read the article, it says that housing has reached its lowest affordability for 20 years. What that actually means is that when I and others my age bought, housing was less affordable than even in the days of 18% interest!
Rule 1: Don’t panic.
Think about your options. Is there a way you can raise the $7000 and keep your heads above water? Have you checked the exact rules surrounding the FHOG, like how long you have to live in the house?
Think of strategies that might work, not of the difficulties you face. This could be an opportunity like no other.
Piggy,
Have you also seen this thread on Somersoft? It was crossposted here a while ago and I assumed that anyone planning to go to the US would have read it. Not updated since my latest trip, but I haven’t sorted everything out yet.
I’ll have to disagree with Muppet. Buying is not easy, but it’s the easiest part. Finance is a real struggle and management thereafter has it’s own pitfalls.
Free advice, Mabbott? I’ll give you three pieces:
1.) Know your objective
2.) Do your due diligence
3.) Prepare for the worst (and hope for the best)I don’t believe anything could better prepare you for the US market.
Speaking as one of the ones coming over there, I’m not actually looking at california now. Over valued and overheated in most areas I’ve seen, although it’s MUCH to varied to make such a generalisation stick.
What I really meant was that you need to define what you are investing for. Cap growth? Then you’ll have to add value, generally. The boom has been running a long time and may have exhausted itself. Cashflow? Same applies.
My point? You need to be examining specific properties and deals, looking at your methods and aims. Newspapers mould opinion, sure, but are pretty lousy when it comes to facts and figures.
You go to the newspapers to analyse a property deal? And if they say it’s bad and no-one’s buying, you don’t buy either?
Not making a buy/sell recommendation here, just suggesting you look at your information sources and methodology.
You could do worse than to read Foundation’s stuff vs. the market bulls in here to actually get some meaningful information and two sides to the picture.
I actually think it comes from a 1997 ABS study and may cover structures. If so, it’s horrendously out of date
It may be the red wine, but I see a communication train smash about to happen. Let’s start from basics: you need to know what your aim is before you invest.
I have met Michael and would recommend him to anyone committed to the capital gain, value adding model. But I’m not sure that this is what jgray1982 is either seeking or can afford.
An explicit statement of what you want, how you intend to go about it and what information you need will get a better result. It may require some consideration on your part before you respond.
And Michael, you, like I, should probaby lay off the combination of red wine, internet and Friday night. [biggrin]
Two reasons: Many people are too politely inculcated (indoctrinated?) to be able to do it.
More importantly, many scam seminars are too well constructed to permit such an interruption. In a hall of 1000 people how do you (unamplified) shout down, or even question, a wired up speaker with no compunction about giving equal air time?
It’s not that easy for most, and especially for the vulnerable which is what makes scam seminars despicable. Having said that, my wife and I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on seminars and have not regretted it at all. The worst value seminar I went on was ‘free’.
Some were certainly better value than others, but even where I thought I had been dudded, more value came out later than I had really paid for.
This is going to sound rude.
If you are doing the course solely to impress, professionally or otherwise, you have rocks in your head. It will not work.
Only ever, EVER, do a course that you have belief and faith in or it will be a millstone while you are doing it and useless thereafter.
I speak from experience.
Foundation,
I thought, being relatively new here, that you were nothing but an old curmudgeon. I now have to eat crow (fortunately not difficult for one born in South Australia) and admit that you are a wily, cranky, experienced curmudgeon. You may not be a hoopy frood, but you really know where your towel is. (I’d note that TJamesX may be young and unpropertied, but is also worth a listen.)
Foundation, I agree with everything you say in your latest post. And I’ll add to it. Mum and Dad really aren’t going know that they are making a loss, admit it. But they are making a loss, and will for at least the next 5 years at a guess. Where Mum and Dad will come unstuck is if the RBA forgets about them for ONE second and lets interest rates get too high. ONE wrong decision and then we will have a crash, and not one that will be good for M&D.
I should know, I have some refugees from the 89 crash as tenants.
What I hope, for M&D’s sake, is that they come out of their investment with about the same return as they would have gotten from super, after all the charges fees etc. But I’m an optimist.
Anyone reading this had better apply just a bit more analysis than M&D if they want to do better.
Positive end message: Look at Foundation, the property bear (in today’s market) STILL prepared to buy if the deal is right and the value-adding opportunity is there. Good deals in a hard market are made, not found, and if you haven’t figured that out, buy the book that the word book will doubtless link you to.
Going back to the original question, if the course seems empty to you, are you then not wasting your time? Can you find a similar course which touches on the areas that do interest you?
You could approach it by asking if having the diploma will benefit you and the money and time cost is not excessive.
Make up your mind, Tom1000000. Nobody said property was easy. But if you ever bothered to read Steve’s books you would find that he believes that those who don’t have a passion for property won’t make it succeed as a wealth.
Lesson 1: He has a passion for property as many of us do. Why should he give it up? Especially a he hasn’t achieved his goals yet?
Lesson 2: If you don’t have the same passion, what are you doing in the property market at all (if you are in the property market that is)?
Lesson 3: Stop whinging about others and do something for yourself.
Here is a challenge for you, or anybody else who cares to whinge. I will Guarantee to find you, for less than $100,000 Australian, a property yielding 20% gross returns AND I will sell it to you. I will have a good management agent in place and organise all your title insurance, search and survey, buidling inpection and legal expenses thrown in for no extra cost. I will also introduce you to a lender who does 30 year fixed rate loans to foreigners. You don’t even have to move out of your chair for this one.
Now put up or shut up.
Speaking of the tech wreck, anyone want to guess the highest capaitlised tech stock today? Google, at $80 billion which is a P/E of 50!!
Put option, anyone?
This brings on another point – the risk that super funds are going to contribute to the enxt stock market train wreck, not by withdrawing funds but by investing inthe wrong things and losing big time whenthey crash. As they did in 2000.
