Following the rules of investing in things you understand, the pro fishermen in my family have been investing in marina berths for years.    Mainly Port Lincoln and Glenelg, SA, and some place in QLD.      They only ever plunk down abalones, I mean, cash,  and the  capital growth has been quite extraordinary.     I can ask their opinions on…[Read more]

Average utility bills for average house in Houston over US$330. 

Regarding the Mississippi SRAP mess:    guess Mr Graveling, spruiker extraordinaire, came a cropper. First of all you can't apply for anything in that program if you don't have a USA Social Security number.Second, you have to have a credit score of 580  (USA).Third, the rents are capped by the HUD and MDA  Lotsa fraud going on around this pro…

Info about Moiety Titles (thanks for bringing it up Flyingsolo – I've never heard of it before).From the Law Handbook (South Australia) – revised January 2009:"Finance institutions sometimes do not offer loans for properties offering moiety titles as security. A moiety title, typically covering maisonettes or attached cottages, means that the…[Read more]

UglyJoe – It was the professors  who predicted that the USA housing market would fall, not the investors.  Not the analysts.  Not the journalists.  Not the real estate agents.      The investors got burned.   I was heavily invested in USA REITS (trusts which invest in real estate)  and read Robert Shiller's book Irrational Exuberance in  2006.…[Read more]

Here is the reason I think that prices are moving downwards: I set some parameters on realestate dot com dot au  and domain so that properties under a certain price in certain suburbs around Australia would lob into my email inbox automatically as soon as they were listed.      For about a year I'd get about 1 notification every couple of mon…[Read more]

A Robert Allen student?  This wouldn't be the crooked Robert G Allen from the USA would it?   Who went bankrupt in the 1990's sometime while living in Santa Fe?   Loves telling people how to get rich while ripping them off?   No, surely people wouldn't be so stupid as to fall for that…

Hi Tony,I think that for some of us the negativity in the media which  many people in RE think is imaginary is, in fact, a reality.    We sold property in California, bought and sold in Victoria and everything was going fine when whoosh!   there go the jobs.     Not only the jobs but a prospect of another mortgage, and dramatically depleted…[Read more]

I lived in the USA until recently for 25 years.  I do not believe the rent that Mr Vacuum  says he is getting.      In a nice neighbourhood  in Detroit with completely new appliances and  floors and air con they are getting $1000 a MONTH.  The article makes no sense and is just a plant.  Just think about it.   If you could afford to pay $4000 in…[Read more]

May I suggest a couple of things from the point of view of being a tenant?    We are ex-home owners and investors and on the sidelines doing the wait thing.  This forum is helping us tremendously so thank you everyone. 1. Taking advice from rental agents that you should only go with 6 month leases.    We are good tenants, but don't even bother…[Read more]