I haven't found it too hard because my background is half filipino so i have old relatives from over there who can speak the dialect and check things out for me !

I can keep you up to date when i get some good real estate contacts over there if you like, i am travelling there in january to scope it all out

Why are they selling for under valuation?     What area in NZ are they? It's a funny market NZ right now! With the NZ dollar the strongest it has ever been (i think) and property prices having had really good growth the last few years it's questionable whether we see it continuing to go so well!  Tell me your thoughts

The reason why people don't like selling is that your profit is usually chewed in half by taxes. Buying and holding should see you have a generous positive cashflow income at anywhere between 3 – 10 years (in theory and depending on interest rates etc.) and alot of people build their wealth based on that. Re-Financing lets you free up any equity, BUT you then have to contend with higher interest payments because you have effectively borrowed that equity from the bank. By doing this though you can re-invest that equity into other investments which will increase your potential to gain capital growth A common investment strategy is to buy properties with large blocks of land, and when you gain enough equity, you can borrow the money to develop / subdivide the property. Sell half of it off and pay off your loans and then you have one property you own outright!! 

Actually you do have to be careful when you buy propertey! It all works in cycles and as alot of people will remember being burnt at the last boom (buying at the height of the boom / only to have the values correct themselves the next year and have no growth for the next 3) you need to be wary of how the markets are!! NOW if you have enough finance to buy and hold comfortably for 10 years then you will not need to worry about small fluctuations! but its still better to be smart about your investing and do some research and try and read where different areas are at!! GOOD LUCK

Just be careful which buyers agent you use!! It should not take you 6 months to find a property at all! Also when using a BA don't use ones that charge a percentage of the purchase price!! It does not make sense that his pay is dictated by the purchase price, when he is trying to get as low a figure as possible for you.

Make sure your BA is associated with your state real estate instituite and can give you testimonies from other clients. I know its probably too late for this, in your case, but don't be afraid to kick him to the kerb and find another good BA, whom should make your experience of buying a property an enjoyable one, not a headache.

I can recommend a good BA to you if you change your mind just PM me

stuart

Also it is important to note  that the term positive geared is different to positive cashflow. Generally speaking positive geared means the rent will cover the mortgage costs.  These days it is common that people talk about positive cashflow which isn't necessarily a positive geared property, but through depreciation and tax breaks it becomes + cashflow.

Actually I didn't say the ONLY positive geared properties are in mining towns, i said that the only ones that are easy to find, i.e advertised as 10% yield on realestate.com.au are ones in risky mining towns.  Yes there are good deals out there, but you have to work hard for them, including canvassing specific areas you have researched, speaking to an agents and really getting into the active role of finding properties, not passively on the internet.

P.s YES a buyers agent can find you a positive cashflow property! BUT don't forget to factor in the few thousand you will have to pay for the finders fee. If you are after +ve cashflow properties, look real hard at the growth you will get. Rural towns will provide sufficient yields to find +ve cashflow, but these old fibro houses in many cases will cripple your clashflow with maintenance costs.       

P.P.S dont be disrgruntled as there are still oppurtunities out there to get good yields you just have to be a bit more creative in your approach to investing.

You can use the equity however you like! Banks will throw the money at you, regardless of what you use it for (Do not use the money for anything else but re-investing!!!!)! Just keep in mind that if you are re-financing your loans to re-invest you will be paying interest on 100% of the purchase price, as you are borrowing against the equity of your properties.