Forum Replies Created
Hi KP,
You said:
“Sal if you’re buying to hold then follow what Jan Somers says and that is it doesn’t matter when you buy, as you will pick up all the swings and roundabout over the long termâ€Actually that’s not completely true. Jan does warn about buying around the time of a boom in her books!!!
Hi Tru,
Hmmm, do you really think being an agent today is worth it? In my area 2 agencies have closed down and amalgamated with other agencies in other areas. I think these people are “battening down the hatches†for the lean times to come.
I now also get pamphlets in the mail all the time from REA’s introducing themselves and begging me to sell my home.
Becoming a REA today would be like opening up a wagon wheel fabrication plant!Wait a bit longer salacious,
Wait for vacancies to tighten up and of course rents will invariably start to rise, then make your move. (Duh stuff I know but worth noting……….. again!).
I reckon you’ll have a 2-year head start on the rest of the general public this way.
Exactly Monopoly,
There would be some sort of time delay that might test your serviceability but like last time they tried it rents did skyrocket.
I’d love to convert my NG portfolio to even a neutrally geared one and buy more that’s for sure!
Hang in there Property Lee. Soon your ex will grow tired of majority custody when she cant go out on a Friday /Saturday night because she cant get a babysitter. Always offer to take the kids at every available opportunity and document it. The more you get them the more you’ll get them (if you know what I mean). Before you know it you’ll be in a least joint custody.
I have my kids’ week about and it’s hard work but extremely rewarding.
Oh, and to keep it relevant I like property investing.I did some telecommunications work in the Isa many years ago and Greg F summed it up nicely.
Some parts of the Isa are really crappy. Stay away from them.
Some unit construction is so cheap and poor you’ve got to see them to believe them!
Good luck
Hey mono,
Pity the family law courts don’t see it like that (what’s yours is yours and what’s his is his).
Marital assets are marital assets no matter whose name their in!!!!!When it comes to investing as a couple or going it alone give me going it alone any day. My ex loved to spend and was a real drag to our financial independence. Since we parted in ’99 I have more than tripled my net worth without her (courtesy of the boom of course but I am far more focussed financially). Also of great value is a good mortgage broker they can work miracles.
The only real down side is you don’t have a backup (working partner) if you dropped out of work for some reason. The way I addressed that was to keep a lot of my cash out of the deals and put them in offset accounts against the IP loans. There they can be utilised if I stopped working for any length of time.
Hi Brisbane 04,
At this point in the property cycle +ve gearing leads you offshore or to the back of woop woop and –ve gearing has you paying out for years and years waiting for CG’s.
So, for some to make money, a form of property investment “cannibalism†emerges where market savvy investors try to feed off the not so market savvy investors.Always do your own DD I reckon!!
Hi Calvin,
Yeah , but what’s left that’s +ve geared and worth it?
If one is that desperate to make $20 a week without the fear of your original capital declining, problematic tenant issues, maintenance etc etc, then just bring in a home made meal to work everyday instead of buying it!!!.
Sit it out a bit longer T D. With so many developments in the pipeline I reckon you’re going to see more price corrections with units in Sydney.
If –ve gearing disappeared a lot of investors would disappear.
What do you think would happen to rents for those investors who held on?
This is what happened last time they tried removing –ve gearing.
Don’t be afraid to sit it out for a while to see where things are heading! I think real estate is soon going to NOT be the flavour of the month (so to speak).
Good one Geo![biggrin][biggrin]
Hobnob,
Who did your divorce? Did it end up in court or was it a mutual agreement? Do you have kids? This would have changed your split ratio. Without kids your wage doesn’t come into it. You should have got out of your divorce exactly what she did (50 / 50 on the debt and 50 / 50 on the assets).
I would say that you’ll spend a lot of time –ve geared before you see those capital gains again. Although I know people who bought at the very peak of the last boom and today are way in front.
I personally would wait a bit longer (i.e what’s the rush to –ve gear?). Wait for vacancies to tighten up and possibly rents to trend upwards before I’d buy again in typically –ve geared territory.Hi Spoony,
Renovating / selling in a rising market tends to mask what value the reno’s add versus the capital appreciation the land added. I know of one chap (on another forum) who painted the front of a house, put up a picket fence and on sold a place for a $95k profit. He was delighted with his “profitâ€. His neighbour sold in roughly the same time for a profit in the same period of $100k. One could argue that his renovations added $95k value or, compared to his neighbour, his renovations lost him $5k!!!!!!
Renovating today in today’s market could possibly leave you out of pocket.Is it in your depreciation schedule? If it is it might be financially advantageous to write it off!
Hi Tools,
Hey mate hope I didn’t offend you. Basically I’m a nice bloke really. I don’t employ many tradies as I do a lot of the work myself. But I do see, via friends and family, the results of crappy tradespeople. Just last weekend a mate had a slab laid in his backyard for a double garage. The concrete truck cleaned his excess concrete etc onto his front nature strip and street and took off! My mate had to get out there and shovel the rubbish into an area where it could set and be disposed of! In the same week he got his wife’s car back from the panel beaters and the bonnet looks like some preschool kid went over it with the spray gun! One of the worst jobs I’ve seen in a long time.
Quality tradespeople are few and far between but they do exist. The biggest problem is trying to find them.
Also Tools seriously would you pack up and leave a job if the client said do a good job or I wont pay you?
I work in the telecommunications industry and the jobs we do as defined in the clients contract basically say the same thing except with liquidated damages clauses in place until you get it right!
I’m sorry I don’t agree with your statement about most tradies take pride in their work. Some do most don’t. For most it’s a race against the clock and the result is the bare minimum that a client will accept and pay on.I’ ve got a friend who’s an electrician and he leaves a mess when he does a job. When the customer asks him about cleaning it up he usually replies with “I’ll clean it up at my hourly rate if you want!”. They usually scurry off grab the broom and clean it up themselves.
I totally don’t support his attitude here but this is the way he does business. Does he get a lot of business? ………..yep.
He hits hard with his bill and doesn’t care about lack of recommendations from disgruntled customers etc. If the customer is kind and helpful this just puts up a sign to him that they’re ready to be ripped off.
Funnily enough he will do a good job for the hard ar*e customer that says something like “You better do a good job and clean up after yourself or I wont pay you.â€My advice with tradies is to be on site whilst they work. Get a quote for the complete job including clean up. Spot check them every now and then but don’t just hang there all the time. Don’t get too friendly but inform them that if the job is low quality you wont pay them.
