Hi Adrian! I used to live in Auckland but have been in Melbourne for 12 years. While there I managed to build up a portfolio of 6 dwellings on 4 titles between 2002 and 2004, mostly in West Auckland. At one point I had a gross yield of 9.6% on a dual income property in Henderson that was positively geared, despite interest rates going over 10%…[Read more]

You can use an architectural designer to customise plans for your project. Depending on your target market, you can fit the budget to the architect. Some big fancy firms will charge a lot vs a small one man/woman shop, but there are pros and cons. The smaller ones can only work on so many projects at a time and you may not be at the top of…[Read more]

Just pulled out of a display home deal myself. Looked a good deal on the face of it but finance can be a real problem. Most lenders consider them non standard because of the leaseback and so your available sources of finance are immediately limited. This was a lesson to me though I fail to follow the logic.

The lenders valuer ended up saying…[Read more]