Yack,

Many years ago my tenant asked to paint the inside of my one and only investment property. I said no and next inspection it was painted. Problem was the paint on the doors and trim could be scaped off with your fingernail. I converted this house to my PPOR and spent 2 years part time fixing the mess up.

Believe me the same bug in tenants…[Read more]

Hi Robo,

There are 2 ways you can get a stencilled driveway.

The first way is they put a stencil over the wet concrete and sprinkle on colour pigment mixed with cement. This mixture combines with the wet concrete to form a 3-4 mm layer of coloured concrete on the surface. When the concrete has partially set the stencil is ripped up and a leaf…[Read more]

Hi Rebecca,

I have the same problem. I talked to a neighbour who got his cracked and old driveway stencilled with an acrylic finish. Unfortunately it looked good for a while but started to open up where the cracks were in the original concrete.

It still looks better than the old finish though.

Sheesh that’s what I call negative geared! I hope she’s got some great capital growth potential kaus……

Man you’re not realistic / over emotional about this subject (bad trait for a P.I). Sure it’s nice to give your PM a box of chocolates for getting you a tenant ASAP, but portray yourself to your tenants as a professional or you WILL be used!

You need to get out more![biggrin]

I like jparrie’s idea.

At this time in the property cycle I would sit it out for a while. You’ve got to find a way of inducing your capital gains because the market probably wont give it to you in the immediate future.

IMHO because of the large cash reserve you have I would look at developing something in the not too distant future.

I watched my father for years get “used” by tenants. He was a good meaning bloke and gave his tenants little gifts etc. When he became bitter about it and started to run it like a business he stopped having problems.
I don’t give presents to my tenants. The deal is I provide good clean accommodation and speedy attendance to all repairs. Handi…[Read more]

Gotta say commercial props can have great yields. My portfolio consists of residential and my brother is mainly commercial. He’s always bragging about how much better his commercial stuff is over residential UNTIL his biggest commercial property became vacant (for 6 months). It’s tenanted now but it sure put a drain on cash flow and his fam…[Read more]

Hi Marissa,

I’ve got 2 brothers who bought at Sydney’s northern beaches whilst I bought in the suburbs. Their portfolios of properties would now be worth at least twice that of mine. My reason for not buying there was the same as yours (too –ve geared).

I think also the next boom will be that of baby boomers seeking the sea-change lifes…[Read more]

Doesn’t the 2.5 % figure equate to 40 years worth of depreciation?

I have some serious doubts about +ve geared props long term too. I think once every 10 years they’re worth it (just before a boom). Buy ‘em ride the boom for a while and take your cg’s and move on with the profits…………isn’t that what Steve did?

Just for general knowledge, Trees very close to houses with highly reactive soils (large clay content) cause drying out of the sub soil and shrinkage of sub soil. This can cause a corner of an external wall to subside slightly during periods of dry weather. This will crack brickwork as well.
Older homes don’t have the required depth of footing s…[Read more]

I’m with yack on this one.

Only I would actively seek to reduce my LVR as I got older and close to retirement (if you’re going to hang in there working that long!)

And this is how the boom ended last time. Stories of people trying to get out of their purchase contracts etc. Next will be stories about families out on the streets because they cant meet their mortgage repayments, price corrections / stagnation in certain areas etc and on it goes……..

Yes always. You’ll be surprised what they pick up on plus their charge is tax deductible

Hi celivia,

I bought a property some time ago with 2 vertical cracks in 2 separate external walls. The cracks haven’t opened up any further (2mm) since purchase. The building report said that it was common in the area due to high clay content in the soil (expanding and contracting due to the weather). A builder buddy said that they normally run a…[Read more]