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  • Profile photo of standard and poorstandard and poor
    Member
    @standard-and-poor
    Join Date: 2011
    Post Count: 5
    October 23, 2011 - 11:49 pm
    nguli wrote:
    My apologies S&P. I obviously jumped the gun on that one.

    All the best with your property hunting and look forward to seeing you around the forums

    Cheers,

    Nathan

    Thanks Nathan – it’s all good. I don’t take offense to internet posts. hahah

    I am currently looking to post a few questions that are confusing me at the moment. I will tomorrow.

    Profile photo of standard and poorstandard and poor
    Member
    @standard-and-poor
    Join Date: 2011
    Post Count: 5
    October 23, 2011 - 11:48 pm
    mcgrandles wrote:
    and your question WAS
     look at the replied or should say tried to reply post and their is your answer

    ???

    I can’t understand that sentence :-)

    Profile photo of standard and poorstandard and poor
    Member
    @standard-and-poor
    Join Date: 2011
    Post Count: 5
    October 21, 2011 - 6:14 am
    ErinS wrote:
    Hi standard and poor,

    I am glad to hear that you remain open to what our consultants discuss, as that is all we ask of our clients. It is also good to see you do your own research, as this is the problem most new investors fall into as they do not consider all the information available before making a purchase. ParkTrent performs all necessary research into each development we sell and always encourage our clients to complete their own research to support their piece of mind.

    I just wanted to clarify your point about the properties you were shown (in terms of the agents on the websites did not believe we were involved). The building in question is actually being developed as two separate sections; the bottom floors are being developed into a hotel, while the top levels are being sold as residential. ParkTrent was promoting the top level apartments, therefore the company which owns the hotel sections would have no knowledge of ParkTrent’s involvement.

    The development is called 27 Little Collins, however we have stopped promoting the apartments for sale as they are almost completely sold.

    I wish you luck in the future.

    Thanks, Erin S.

    PT were not the exclusive seller. Which was alluded to initially. I also called and visited all apartment buildings in south yarra that PT were supposedly involved in and the same comment was fed back to me each time. Infact one did mention that PT were involved 2 years ago but he didnt know why they moved on. So i could be wrong…

    This makes me think that PT are simply resellers that are not involved at the developement stage and would make sense as to why the % overheads(not including management/sourcing) are present.

    If you want me to name names and places then I definately can but see no reason to slander someone with here say when it is plainly obvious tht PT tke apartments and pump up the prices slightly to cover their internal staffing overheads and to make a slight profit. This is the same as all retailers be it ones selling pork pies or underwear.

    Its business and PT are in it for a buck.

    Its not for me and my wife though. Thanks for your reply and for the info as to the actual number of the Little Collins St apartments – even though I provided a direct link to it stating its number. The clarification was appreciated.

    Cheers,
    S&P

    Profile photo of standard and poorstandard and poor
    Member
    @standard-and-poor
    Join Date: 2011
    Post Count: 5
    October 21, 2011 - 5:23 am
    nguli wrote:

    First time poster praising the company on a thread filled with negative comments!? This must be a first.

    Not to mention the convenient links to the property which is apparently 'too good to be true' and 'almost completely sold'!

    Haha this company must be dodgy to have to go to lengths like this. 

    Maybe you are too cynical – but its ok – I am cynical also – we all should be on the interwebs.

    Anyway – we did go to the PT office and it was a pretty hard sell that they were pushing but nothing was really attractive enough to us and all the properties they showed us in NRAS seemed very questionable with regards to the cost and area they were being offered in. We did our due diligence and the result was that we can find better deals out in the wild blue yonder than what PT were offering to us.

    Regarding the hard sell – well it wasnt the actual sales person – he was very reasonable and very knowledgable and answered all our questions frankly. It was the whole manner of “we only have x left” and “whoops – that property is no longer available” which actually happened during our time there. I called the other resellers of one appartment (Colliers) and it was actually true(there was only a few left) but the other apartments details were all cloaked in uncertainty. Their were so many positives verbally but when we pushed harder we found that the answers started wearing thin. For instance when we asked about the rental guarantees we found out that the boss Ron Cross (not sure if the name is right – i did a google and he has a pretty bad rep hahah) had to sign off on them to be honoured which seemed very suspect that the person dealing with us couldnt honour the companies advertised guarantee. What if we didnt push? Would we be without a guarantee??

    I found that they are certainly not for us and would probably make sense for oversease investors who are happy with the guarantees, management overheads and guidance. These are all things that you pay for and PT seem worthwhile if you cant do all that yourself.

    So to make a long story short – not for us – and we will keep looking. Currently we are looking at a house in the burbs and a apartment in the city. I might post on some initial thoughts after we check them out.

    Profile photo of standard and poorstandard and poor
    Member
    @standard-and-poor
    Join Date: 2011
    Post Count: 5
    October 13, 2011 - 3:43 am

    Hi all,

    My wife and I recently attended a Park Trent seminar in Melbourne. It sounded good initially and like many other (mostly newbie) investors or people who are yet to invest we signed up for a home consultation. A nice gentleman came over to our house and by the end of the night we had signed up for 2 properties because they may be gone if we didn’t act fast. Yay. Ummm, no not really, although we did pay $110 (yes it has gone up..I blame the price of fish as sushi will be provided for lunch) for a tour of Melbourne’s hottest(my words not theirs) investment opportunities. So far the general knowledge of the both of us has increased thanks to Park Trent. For instance – I never knew of NRAS or that bank loans decrease as your Credit Card limits go up – even if you havent used any of the credit. So far so good. We already have investment properties which we accumulated slowly over time. We have researched quite alot yet are still in the early stages of deciding our next two investments. This was when we heard of PT. To be clear – we will not be making a decision on any property without going home and doing our own research. PT mentioned one apartment in Melb that looked too good to be true. Usually it always is :-) So I looked into one that was of interest.

    http://littlecollinshotel.com/ which is also http://buchan.com.au/projects/sheraton-hotel-melbourne/. I called the agents on both websites and neither had heard of PT being involved in these developments. Why? I also found the going rate which was the same as what PT offered. This may be a fluke although its a good start.

    I also went to my bank and was suprised when I met with a positive response to PT’s victorian business.

    So some things that I have found out about PT that others have stated the opposite on:::

    -PT has asked and analysed our financial situation to see if we are good candidates for any of their offerings
    -PT Answered my direct questions about how they make money via the scenario’s they were proposing. The answer was that they work with the developers(in the case of apartments off the plan) and take a 2.5% cut from the pie(they said from the developers pie in return for offloading quickly).
    -PT offered a analysis of their offerings – they said some were good with fast capital growth but no long term rental projections as the area gets flooded with apartments.
    -PT recommended we research ourselves. We did and still are.
    -PT sent a followup email stating they need the standard financial details to assess if we can invest or not without being strained
    -PT said they can offer us all broker services, accountants, conveyencers, real estate agents as part of their service package but that we are free to use whomever we wish on some(but not all – for instance the real estate agents)

    I am looking forward to meeting them soon and will remain sceptical yet open.

    Cheers,
    Standard and Poor

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)