Don't worry, TonyB, we haven't waited for ever and already have a few properties under our belt.  Our trouble at the moment is lots of equity, not enough income to service a negatively geared property loan.  So, we are loooking for something very strongly positively geared but in an area that i know well and feel good about.  We are looking at Townsville.  I think we were right not to buy there last year, even if we could have afforded it.  Why wait?  Because the deal is going to get better.  The numbers are getting better all the time.  Why else wait?  Because our personal and business circumstances may dictate a relocation across the state in the next year or so, so given the fact that we may want to access our equity then, it is only worth entering the market at the moment for a really truly good opportunity.  Unfortunately, at the moment, rental demand is falling across the board as high end renters trade down and other renters enter the market as FHO's.  The lower end of the market (where we always buy) is overheated, and the pain from mining company lay offs hasn't really been felt yet because people are still selling their boats etc to make ends meet and managing ok due to the low interest rates.  The few that have had to sell have managed ok pricing due to the FHO activity.  A few properties have gone dirt cheap but I haven't been well enough positioned to get in there.  Sadly, also, a major shopping centre development that would have seen a Myers in Townsville has been cancelled, so my keenness to buy in the relevant suburb has died and hasn't yet been replaced by anything else, really. (Other than ideas about either student or aged accom). We are not merely procrastinating, but I am definetely frustrated with all the signs pointing in the WAIT direction.

I reckon all those tenant horror stories that you see on the crappy current affair shows in the early evening are always self managed properties or properties managed by small, local, dodgy RE agent offices.  We deliberatley chose one of the largest RE agent firms to manage our property and, touch wood, it is all going well.

I could possibly buy something positively geared where I live, but I won't because there is no PM, and in a town of only 600 people, I don't want to be managing property and collecting rent and falling out with everyone around town.

I think I would always use a PM.  It is not the sort of work i enjoy, and they charge less than my time is worth.  If I were so positioned, I might undertake some maintenance myself, as you can get a bit ripped off at times, tradesman rates for layperson job.

so did you go and look at it and what was it like?
S

didn't they work out how to make fake diamonds that can't be distinguished from the real thing?  Thus, plummeting the value of diamonds.

It does sound like some sort of illegality.

Sure, diamonds are just scattered on the ground everywhere in Africa.  Like quartz here.  Just everywhere, always hurting your foot on the darned things.

In the news either yesterday or the day before, I think they said that 700 workers had been laid off at Gladstone.  Might create a buying opportunity. 

Just be careful with Ceduna, to find out where the fly in fly out will go to.  It may not go to the closest town.  If the mines have trouble sourcing labour, because of the small town and limited housing there, fly in fly out may travel to a larger town.

All sounds good, so long as you are well researched, well informed, and making a careful, knowledgeable decision.  I wouldn't rush in purchasing in the Mackay area at the moment.  I'd imagine it is much like Townsville, and only just starting to hurt from layoffs etc.  Personally, I think there is more pain to come in the Townsville market, and can only imagine the same might apply to Mackay.  Last time I looked at Mackay it was more overpriced than Townsville even!

good luck

The suggestion that landlords who take up this service are either stupid or lazy is offensive.  In my case, I am one and a half days drive from one of my IP's.  Why would I sacrifice time away from our own business, where we can be earning $200 an hour to go and deal with a smoke alarm?  I am happy to pay for the service, and know it is done.  It is not because I am stupid, and have fallen for some kind of trick.  It is not because I am lazy.  It is because I am busy earning money and raising my kids, and I am only too happy to pay someone else to handle something as simple, and minor as this.  It simply doesn't warrant my own time and attention.  Compared to the value I put on my own time, and the amount of my own time this service is saving, it would be worthwhile value for money at twice the price they are charging me. 

This is a little economic principle that some of you might like to learn about.  The principle of economic advantage.  The smoke alarm maintainers can handle this for me at a price less than it would cost me to handle it for myself.  I'm better off doing what I do and paying them to do what they do.  Being offended about the price they are charging is a little like being offended at the price the mechanic might charge you to service your car, or the price a window cleaner might charge to clean the windows in an office block, or the price a tree lopper might charge to cut down a tree and cart it away. Sure you might be able to do these things yourself, but is it worth it, personally, to you?  Don't suggest that because someone is willing to pay for a service they are either lazy or stupid.

Perhaps I am also stupid and lazy because I pay a lady $20 an hour cash to come and do my housework once a week for me.  Frees up my time for my kids and my business, and is worth every cent.  Any of you pay for ironing?  Pay to have your car washed?

We had a friend with the uncanny ability to acquire a car, and drive it for a few months or a year and then sell it for a few thousand extra dollars more than he bought it for.  He bought an old Suzuki 4WD short wheel base once and sold it six months later for nearly double what he paid for it after driving it fairly solidly, using it as a hunting vehicle and fitting some new shockies.  The nack though, was to buy a bargain.  He didn't sell overpriced cars, he just bought cheap ones.  I guess the same principle applies to property.  Can't imagine how much he could have made out of property if he used his clever buying in real estate!

My Mum and Dad bought a house with termite damage.  They had it professionally inspected, and had a builder quote on the repairs.  Trouble was, no one realised the extent of the damage.  Once they started pulling the gyprock off the walls, it became clear that the gyprock and the termite mud was pretty much all that was holding the second story up.  They had to replace alot of the major structure of the house, including several large load bearing beams that were difficult and expensive to replace.  And this was a house that was professionally inspected…..  You simply can't tell for sure what is going on inside the walls unless you pull off the gyprock.  I'd steer away from this house unless you can get it for land value less demotion costs.  Mum and Dad ended up spending 80K more on their reno than was originally budgeted for.  The vendor may choose to have a pest inspection done at their expense to show all prospective buyers.  Still, I wouldn't trust it after what Mum and Dad have been through.