ANOTHER pointless and belittling post Phil.

BTW, did you ask repetitive newbie type questions when you started out on the road to your “incredible wealth” or where you just born with unlimited knowledge?

Ready to leap into the unknown? Make sure you know the “unknown” before you leap anywhere!!

I would seriously consider buying again once I saw prices starting to trend up which won’t be for a number of years yet in most areas.

In the meantime keep reading guys and improve that “unknown” bit.

Hi Jess,

Check with a few panel beaters as they deal with them everyday. Tight insurance companies usually “force” the panel beater to do a lower standard of work just to score the job.

I have found AAMI to be a good compromise between quality repairs and reasonable premiums. AAMI will also allow you to increase your excess and lower your premium if you want.

Hasn’t Rocky already gone up considerably over the last year or so? Check the SS forum there’s a lengthy post about Rocky (lots of great info too).
The vendor is probably selling to grab the CG’s for something better. This deal could leave you with a property that will stagnate in value for years without providing an income.
Do your DD…….

Hi Thames,

Just had my domestic relationship agreement finalised about 2 months ago…….lucky you!

If you can keep your financial affairs seperate to you GF you dont need a DR agreement although, she can claim from you non financial contributions to the relationship. Non finanacial contributions are, for eg, her forgoing a career to raise your children from a previous relationship. A court would seek to have her compensated for that.
Your DR agreement can also become your pre nup agreement if you so desire. Alternatively it can become redundant at the time of your marriage if that’s what you want.
Dont bother trying to do it yourself as there are set rules to enforce this agreement and if they are not followed to the letter the agreement might be set aside at a later date.
My solicitor took about 3-4 hours to do the agreement which finally cost me a touch over $1000. This also includes valuable advice that is probably unique to your situation It’s a small price to pay to know it’s been done properly.

Good Luck

I remember pre boom Tasmania had houses perpetually for sale from the last boom! (some 10 years!)……………Then along came the investor………..

You can see why remote some vendors resort to dirty tricks to move ‘em because out of a boom he might be holding it for a mighty long time.

Hi Michael,

In my view the CG’s at the northern beaches has been way too hot over the last few years. I put it down to the baby boomer phenomenon. Well off north shore people are selling up and buying units/ townhouses down there for cash mainly (with a little bit left over to “party” with). These people are less affected by interest rate movement so talk of interest rises are less of a concern to them ……….more demand.

If you owned a freestanding house there you were sitting on a goldmine, as the developers would offer you just about anything to secure it. The suburbs median sale price was severely distorted too as developers would pay double the street value to get stock to develop! If you were doing your usual DD this suburb would look incredibly good hence even more demand ensued. Unfortunately where there is huge demand the developers soon create an oversupply. This is what’s happening now. Nothing like oversupply to curtail and further CG’s.
Although, don’t get me wrong, I still believe in the Northern Beaches ……….long term.

Real case of my brother will show you the price volatility (and CG’s) of this suburb:

House purchased 1992 (fibro dump on 1000sq m) for $212k

Best developer offer late 2003 2.3 mil

Today approx $950k and probably take a lot of time to shift!

First Mistake, don’t believe the agent when he tells you that it will be worth high 300’s when its finished. Things are pretty lean for agents ATM and he’s probably looking for his commission above your concerns! See what refurbished places like this actually sell for. Note carefully what the market is doing in this area. Is it stagnating or worse is it falling? You must do your own investigations to get the truth.

Renovating in a rising market is easy. You should make a profit. I know of one forumite (on another forum) that painted the front of his IP, put up a picket fence and made $85k in 12 months. He honestly believed his “renovation” attributed to this. Unlikely, in fact the area was on an upward swing with prices, that’s what gave him the CG’s.
I have an old acquaintance who used to renovate a lot (many years ago, now retired) and he reckons in a flat market renovations get you your money back plus 10% “hassle factor”.
Have you renovated before? It’s NOTHING like the shows on telly in fact its bloody hard work if you do a lot of it yourself and if you don’t you’ll make your tradesmen rich.

And what DD said.

Good Luck

Try this

http://www6.sbs.com.au/insight/archive.php3?archive=1&artmon=11&arty=2004#

IMHO I don’t know if owning property in Hunters Hill is the answer either. Two things that come to mind is if the property sits on a substantial block land tax would kill you and your potential pool of tenants is considerably smaller.

I’ve noticed in the past that when the economy is going bad these high ticket properties become difficult to rent because the corporate high flyer who rented it has now downsized because he’s been retrenched, etc. Sometimes these properties can rent for not a whole lot more than an average house in the suburbs.

I like the Steve Navra principle: Buy in suburbs which have a median price that equals the capital city median plus 25-30%. This will keep you out of crappy suburbs with crappy tenants but not expose you to the expensive properties that demand the high rentals.