OK Dazz, I’ll take the bait…

Have you ever actually swapped roles?

My husband used to think he was the only one who had it bad, working 60hrs p/w often crazy times eg leave home at 4pm and home again at 2am. Most of the hours over the standard 40 were unpaid too – sounds stupid but if you wanted to be in management for a ColesMyer company it was just a requirement of the job, if you didn’t like it you were free to leave (hence the high staff turnover). He is now a part-time manager for a different company in ColesMyer and a lot of these issues are just now being addressed. Anyway, it was a cow of a job and that is an understatement.

The only hope for any relief or improvement (with the mindset hubby had at the time and after the damage the job had done to his self esteem) was the prospect of promotion within the company. This all took its toll on him, me, our daughter and family relations as a whole. However, as you pointed out, the money has got to keep rolling in. So that was how we lived.

Then I had to spend 6 weeks in hospital.

After one week he came in to visit and said “honey, I don’t know how you do it. I can’t wait until you get home so that I can give your job back and go back to work”. I can’t tell you how gratifying that was. I knew he worked hard but until that point in time he had no idea just what needed doing while he was at work or asleep.

Mind you it was a baptism of fire because he hardly knew our daughter due to his crazy work hours. Until then he had never actually changed a pooy (is that how you spell it?) nappy and our daughter was 13 months old! He had never been alone with her for more than a couple of hours and had never had to wake up and get out of bed when she cried.

The relentless demands of a child coupled with the relentless monotony of the never ending housework were actually less appealing to him than that cow of a job. He has never been quite the same since.

This experience was one of the things that helped him come around in his attitude. He used to think that him climbing the ladder at work while I went back to part-time work when the kids were old enough for school was the way we’d live our lives. After seeing just how hard it was for both of us he had to admit that if there was an alternative then that was definitly the way to go.

So Dazzling while many (dare I say most) women have been chained to a job, have you ever been the full time parent/house-keeper for a decent stretch of time while your partner was otherwise occupied?

Kind Regards,
Sonja

Hi Gross,

“bird dogs” go find property and bring it back.

There seem to be lots of variations on this theme (eg what services (if any) are included with finding the property, flat fee or % of purchase cost, etc) but basicaly if someone, for whatever reason (eg time poor, inexperience), can’t find property/s that suit their requirements then they can use the services of a bird dog to find the property they are after. The bird dog may have a list of properties available or find one suitable and report back with what is on offer that the buyer may be interested in. For this service they charge a fee.

Like anything else there are the good and the not so good in this profession so “buyer beware” but still a valuable service as long as you employ the right bird dog.

Kind Regards,
Sonja

This is a great story! After I finished laughing I realised that the scary part is that it isn’t too hard to picture any of it being true. Can you imagine the poor guy’s state of mind when he wrote the cheque for $0.00?

Kind Regards,
Sonja

If I had to give myself just one tip it would be to remember to see mistakes as opportunities. Easier said than done as not only do I beat myself over the head with my mistakes, I tend to let others do it as well!

Last year my husband and I signed up for a Reno Kings workshop. All fired up and convinced we’d come home as reno kings ourselves we exchangged contracts to buy a rather badly neglected little duplex just a week or so before we left for Qld. We told our families (and the property manager at the agency we bought it from – how embarassing) how we were going to fix it up over a couple of weeks and increase the yield and create instant equity blah, blah, blah…

Well needless to say that reno kings we are not.

At first we got a bit down about it, then we had a few fights over it and then we just let it sit there unfinished for a while while we streessed out about the lost rent. Finally we realised that the best solution would have been to pay someone to do most of the work and give up on being “reno kings” ourselves. Perhaps we need a bit more practice when time is not costing us money or perhaps we will just call the reno idea quits altogether.

My step-father-in-law and his brother are builders and they were going to help but… well that is another lesson/tip in its own right.

As if the whole experience wasn’t disheartening enough my father who has always had faith in me now says that the whole experience should have taught me not to keep on with this “frightening” idea of property investing.

So what was the opportunity here? We learned that it is best to cut your losses early and hire a proffesional or two if necessary. Although it may seem expensive at first, at the end of the financial year you will realise that it was the best choice if you are out of your depth. We also learned that we are not reno kings and that there is a better strategy out there for us than the DIY specials. Oh, well… looking forward to the next opportunity

Kind Regards,
Sonja

Hi Richard,

There are still plenty of people who can’t get finance for all sorts of reasons. For example we have a property with tenants in place who want to purchase their own home but can’t get finance despite using a good broker. We are currently looking into doing a vendor finance deal to help them buy our IP.

Just one example from my own experience.

Kind Regards,
Sonja

We have tried two different network marketing companies. Both resulted in failure…

The first was a product that I really believe in but just don’t use much (Nutrimetics – make-up and skin care). It is a great product and I’m still happy to buy it off someone else every other year or so. It was very hard to sell something I just wasn’t that interested in.

The second had an excellent business model but the research that they relied on to justify the “need” for people to use their products just would not stand up to university level scrutiny. There was nothing published in reputable journals and the studies they quoted were mostly “one-offs” done by people with no standing in the industry (outside of the network marketing company, that is). Some of the names used and studies quoted were enough (combined with that excellent business model) to get us excited and sign up. As time went on and I did more research I became more and more uncomfortable using the products and advising others to do the same. BTW (for the forum members who know what company I’m talking about) this only applies to the mega doses of vitamins – the shampoos and skin care products were great. Just before anyone gets defensive (as I know a few people here are involved with this company) I studied at the University of Wollongong for a degree in science with a nutrition major and what I’m stating here is only my opinion and if I’m wrong it won’t be the first or last time in my life Hence we dropped out of this one too.

I believe that to make network marketing work you have to love and use all of the products associated with the company you are signed up with. If you have a passion for the products then that will carry you a long way to success within the company… Just my conclusion after two failed attempts

Kind Regards,
Sonja

In my experience as a parent, carpets with a pattern tend to hide a lot of marks/dirt/stains/etc. The pattern doesn’t have to be too bold, I agree that can be a turn off and date badly. One with flecks of different shading through it will do the trick, just as long as it is not a solid colour.

As with almost everything else for IP I would pick something neutral (perhaps a shade of beige or grey) that is not too dark which will show all fluff or too light which will show stains easily.

Kind Regards,
Sonja

Depending on how much ‘wee’ there is it can become a huge expense. I remember talking to a carpet layer who has seen it soak through the floor coverings and into the floorboards so that even new carpet and underlay did not remove the stench.

Having said that I think that tenants have a right to keep pets and an obligation to pay for any damage they cause.

I like the idea of having dishwashers in rental properties. Living near Griffith I also think that a high gain antenna is a real bonus so that you can pick up channel 10 from Wagga… We really missed it when we first moved here and the owner (we are renting) was not willing to give us a decent antenna.

Kind Regards,
Sonja