Forum Replies Created
Just my $0.02…..a friend of a friend of a friend happened to work on several of the towers that were built in Southbank and Docklands.
They recently told me, that if anyone was considering buying an apartment down there, to try to make sure they do an inspection on a really windy day. Seems some of the towers move (they are not office buildings and aren’t built like them) and the lifts don’t work when the building’s swaying so much….fancy lugging your groceries up 13 flights of stairs.
Quality of construction AND fitout would perhaps be best placed near the top of the due diligence checklist?
However, as I said, it’s hearsay (from a qualified person).
skippygirl :0)
I’m up for another, and the venue last time was great, although a bit far for some.
It’s my turn to buy JB a drinkie with an umbrella in it.
skippygirl
Helena,
Go girl, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve. May I suggest, as part of the learning process as others have already advocated, that you start with a plan. Boring but vital.
You must decide on your vision, goals, the person you want to be, all of that, and then head off on the path of taking action to create and achieve what you want.
With that will come ups and downs and a wonderful sense of satisfaction, power and purpose.
Among the research you do, do read Money Secrets of The Rich by John Burley (reserve it at your local library for free) because he outlines a good, basic, foolproof plan for anybody to apply to their situation and slowly but surely move toward a better financial future.
It is also good because he advocates acquiring and reinforcing certain money habits before moving on to basic investments and then more advanced investments. Give it a go. You’ve got nothing to lose. Good luck.
skippygirl
Thanks Scott, will do.
Skippygirl
Sebastian,
One thing the Vic Govt requires re substituting the nominee (ie your Trust) is that you must have INITIATED establishment of the trust BEFORE you signed the contract, or else they will charge double stamp duty I’m told.
If the turs is established after contract sign date you might (in Vic) need to supply a letter from your accountant/solicitor confirming you had initiated setting up the trust before you signed the contract to buy.
Cheers
SkippygirlYou could evaluate the possibility of lease-optionin git or selling it on a terms contract to give you positive cash flow and some capital gains. A negative gearing rescue, I think it’s called.
There are quite a few people on this site who are very experienced at it, why don’t you do a search, find their posts and ask them for some time and buy them lunch.skippygirl
We went to an Investors Forum seminar in Melbourne some months ago. Ended up taking 5 hours by the time McEwan did his presentation and then fielded questions. The run sheet he uses was described in the other threads.
He got me offside at the start when he bagged all other authors/speakers from Somers to Burley to Kiyosaki to everyone. He didn’t seem to realise he was not in their league as in he was flogging his own developments etc whereas they flog information.
Then he ran thru his offerings, which are either developments he seemed to be involved in or sales he would benefit from. There didn’t seem to be independence from the deals.
He ran thru the figures and I was not satisfied with several points – the LVR’s, being off the plan, Aust-NZ structuring, a $50KNZ “free” furniture package which seemed to boost the depreciation to make it somehow positive after tax. Too many speculative and uncorroborated elements.
And he quickly became annoyed and prickly when I began raising my hand to ask questions and seek evidence etc. In fact, he would ignore me and either keep speaking or answer other questions first. In fact my partner and I began to laugh about how he was ignoring me and those around us joined in.
When we heard there was a $2500 fee to join “the Club” I said forget it.
Just my $0.02. Do your own due diligence.
skippygirl [suave3]
Just my $0.02 is that, I tend to go with Robert Kiyosaki’s main point which is that one must continually educate oneself financially, for life. Not only by reading books and going to courses but networking with people who are doing what you are doing and have achieved what you want to achieve. Then the Napoleon Hill “conceive, believe, achieve” mechanism kicks in.
I would be very happy if I was so financially free that I could go to any course I wanted in any country, because I would learn at least 1 thing from each of them, and could put it into practice and improve on my investing year after year.I would also meet and network with lots of other like-minded people, and sure 97% of them will never take any action and never do anything but I will, and that’s the important thing. I have already met, and communicate daily with, lots of like-minded people and my learning has increased exponentially, far more than if I read 100 books (although I read constantly also).
And yes, paying out the $$ for a course last year motivated me to take action, find out more, and go out and acquire IP’s and one of the main driving forces was I promised my partner I would earn the dollars back inside a year and also earn enough to pay for any further books and courses – so the money from our investments pays for them anyway.
I will say there is a plethora of speakers though, and the market seems to have gone crazy with them. They also sometimes seem very similar and you have to spend your dollar wisely.
Cheers
skippygirl [specs]
Felciity,
So do you mean you don’t connect the power when you buy the house rather you let the new buyer connect it? What if you want to show the property in winter or at night with no power?
skippygirl [hair2]
Hi lozza,
I’ll take a stab…..the buyer should arrange the electricity and gas connections or alternatively you connect it and then they switch it to their name once they have possession.
Same with the phone – I would think the buyer should simply arrange a connection – it’s their house.Cheers
Skippygirl [hair2]Hi lozza,
I’ve heard of quite a few people vouching for ezi-debit. From the talk they gave at a VFA meeting I think it is $1.10 per transaction which your buyer pays and it is set up with a simple form the buyer signs and you submit to ezidebit and you match it to their payday.
From memory they will alert you to any failed transactions within 24 hrs (ie they tried to deduct the money from the buyer’s account and there wasn’t enough funds) so you can chase them.Cheers
skippygirl [strum]Thanks everyone, appreciate your info.
Ezy I will email you direct, thanks.
Cheers
skippygirl
You could try Garth Melville at Company Solutions in NZ – supposed to be a whiz accountant re Aust-NZ IP’s.
skippygirl [biggrin]
Bid,
I’ve read “Trust Magic” and it says yes any UNEARNED income your children might receive from the Trust will be taxed at the exorbitant rate if it’s over a cetain amount. But any EARNED income is not taxed until it meets the first tax bracket threshold etc.
Hence, I have made accounting records to pay my child for delivering flyers for the IP on her scooter, printing and folding flyers, doing things on the PC, tidying up the garden at the IP etc. Just make it reasonable.Have a read of the book, I am no expert.
skippygirl [biggrin]
Hi Camel,
What about using a lease-option or rent-to-buy? From what I can tell there is technically NO finance provided.
You have a long term lease together with a call option to buy the house at a fixed price. You pay for the option upfront, and this can be as low as 4% of the option exercise/strike price.
It just so happens that the lease payments equate to a 30 year mortgage at x%. A part of each lease payment and the upfront monies are deducted from the price of the house. After 30 years (or earlier if you pay more pw) there is nothing left to pay and voila you transfer title.
The FHOG you can’t get until you exercise your option to buy, (say you want to move after you finish uni and want to sell it) or take title.
Cheers
skippygirlHi saskatoon,
Yes I’m going to work those magic trust tricks of Dale’s to death. I have already employed my daughter to help me print off letterbox flyers folding and deliver them, which she did on her scooter. Also, my travel costs etc in buying and re-marketing or managing the IP’s.
However, the learning I’ve gone thru about matters like the adverse effect on borrowing, and the solicitor’s cost to draw up a loan agreement – well, I wish someone had flagged those in a post beforehand! And Terryw’s recent post about the limit on Director guarantees for borrowing when you have two trustees well there’s another lesson. We should have used one director to max out our borrowing.
I think we should have a forum of lessons, tips and tricks from those who have lived them or come across them, what a great resource that would be and would reduce the need for people (like me) to post some indiv newbie questions.
Cheers
skippygirl[cap]Hi Kathryn,
Houses don’t sell for two reasons only:
1. Not enough people know it is for sale and/or
2. The price is too high.Have to review both.
Skippygirl[biggrin]Hi Steve,
Good newsletter, thanks.
I like to bear in mind some of good ‘ol Earl Nightingale’s words of wisdom (“Lead the Field”).“Success is the progessive realisation of a worthy goal.” So decide what your goal is and work towards it. He also advocates being successful every day of your life ie work toward your goal one day at a time, as the journey is really just a lot of days strung together.
Then he says break down each day into a series of tasks, and do everything you have to do today in order of priority and to the best of your ability, that way you can go to sleep at night knowing you did everything you could that day to achieve your goal.
There’s a lot more to Earl, I recommend his writings to all.
skippygirl[biggrin]
Alison,
I have recently set up a family trust with company trustee to hold our IP’s for asset protection purposes as others have described. Sought advice from the accountant, read Trust Magic and borrowed several books from the library.
I can’t see many taxation benefits because all the income from the trust has to be distributed to the beneficiaries so we’ll still pay 48.5% tax on that income anyway, although I’ll discuss strategies with the accountant further.
Lessons I have learnt so far:
If you use a LOC on your own house to fund the IP purchases you have to have a formal loan agreement b/w you and the trust, drawn up by a solicitor. Cost 1. The interest paid by the trust to you on the loan is income for you and an expense for the trust apparently.
You have to initiate the setting up of the trust BEFORE you sign a contract (in Vic check other states) to buy the IP in order to nominate the trust as the buyer for settlement otherwise the SRO might try to slug you double stamp duty.
If you as directors of the trustee company borrow funds to buy IP’s for the trust the bank will make you consult a solicitor about the director’s guarantee provisions of the mortgage. Cost 2
That’s if the bank is happy to lend to the trust at all, some don’t like company trustees so check first if you have a preferred lender. Our current bank is OK with company trustee but when I used a broker to compare what other lenders will offer us for 80% loans some said no to the company trustee.
The trust is seen as a completely different entity to us as individuals so the bank’s professionals discount package we were on as individuals wasn’t going to apply to the trust until I insisted and they relented, but the level of borrowings (which determine the level of discount) had to start at zero for the trust, not ALL our borrowings. So far the broker has found other lenders wouldn’t apply a prof discount package to the trust at all, so looks like we are sticking with our bank.
In NSW you pay land tax for any properties you buy for the trust.
I’m sure I’ll learn many more lessons….maybe others can post their own lessons and experience with trusts too,
skippygirl [biggrin]
Breakingout,
As others have described, it can take lots of effort to effectively research the market (that’s what you are doing by looking for deals and learning as you go). I spend hours most evenings working on RE. Sooner or later “lag” kicks in, a bit like “reap what you sow”, and there’s a deal.
To use an analogy I’ve posted before, it’s like staring at the Magic Eye picture until eventually the image jumps out. It was always there, I just had to let my mind look for something different.
For example, I spent many hours over the last few weeks looking in a new market, interstate. Made connections with people and firms who live there, and doggedly tracked a deal I had just missed, in case it fell over and guess what it did. I had my person on the spot in the agent’s office and dived on it. The yield will be 17-19%, 4 bedroom fully renovated home, town of 25000 people. Building and pest reports all AOK.
Keep going, everything you do will pay dividends.skippygirl[biggrin]
