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I’ve also put it on eBay [biggrin]
Anyone had success selling real estate on eBay?
I’m selling because I can get better returns elsewhere [biggrin]
Pretty much the same reason anyone does any investment activity.
I don’t think this is a selling forum so I’m actually just asking about web sites or papers that people have used and found effective etc…
I’ve put an ad in http://www.DIYSell.com.au http://www.diysell.com.au/pfs_profile.asp?PropID=P13400 (cost $100) but if there are free forums that take listings I’d be much apreciative.
Hi,
Yeah, buy a house to live in then look at property. On the plus side you will be saving rent (which comes from post tax money) and you wont be paying interest also from post tax money.You could then for example buy an investment and know you’ve got the money you normally would have been spending on rent to cover any costs it generates and you’ll pay those costs with pre-tax dollars. Much better.
Hi,
I’m not by any means promoting Devine as a superior craft-house[biggrin]But as an investment I think the large builders can produce reasonable value for money. For a house I would live in I would fork out the extra cash and get a custom job done.
Search google.
The biggest problem is that concrete is porous adn the oil will tend to soak down into it. If it is an old oil stain the only thing you can do is cover it up. After washing the top layer of oil off, the deeper soaked in stuff will stay until you remove the concrete.
Is there some sort of “poly filler” type stuff you can use to patch concrete? I guess you could chip away the old stuff and pour on new cement.
Or you could paint the concrete or distribute oil over the whole lot evenly then wash it off leaving a uniformly stained slab?
There are some really good DIY home improvement books around that cover pretty much everything you could want to do from painting to lino to carpet to knocking down and putting up walls. Get one even just so you sort of know what sort of things will be involved when you hire someone else on.
Hi,
The 11 second solution, as was said, a way to determine 10.4% gross yield which should make a property positive cashflow. However a lower yield may also be positive and worthwhile.Consider:
$50,000 property (probably a car park!)
$5,000 deposit
$45,000 loan at 6.64% (for arguments sake)Monthly loan repayments (P+I) = $288
So if you can get more than $288 / month in rent for that property you will be cashflow positive.
That equates to $75/week = $325 /month
Gross yield = 7.8% (much lower than the 1 second solution)Anyway, in general it is difficult to get cashflow positive property above the $100k price as at the point the required rent is way too high. (like you point out $110,000 prop needs $220 for 10.4% yield)
Rather than concerning yourself overly with the 11 second solution I think you should be concerned with making money. As long as you are making money (however you do it) it is an investment. [biggrin]
The article end with big bold blue lettering saying it is a work of fiction used to illustrate a possible outcome due to current policy and population trends.
Check out http://www.whyalla.com (connects to the city council web site) for more info about whyalla.
Hi,
I’m currently going ahead with Devine. They have a 16 week building guarentee based on a single storey home from site start to completion. If they run over the 16 weeks they will give you $300 / week until they do finish.I suppose the trick is the “site start” bit. But having said that a friend of mine had his house completed in 7 weeks from excavation to key hand over.
6 months to build a house sounds like bollocks to me. That’s a lot of holding costs involved. If we’re talking 6months because they can’t start for 3, well that’s not so bad. Keep looking until you find a building that will start sooner?
Also if you go with a big brand building remember to use competition to your advantage. Wave the 16 week gaurentee around (to builders other than Devine of course) and see what they’ll do.
Everyone I know who has use a small builder to do reno or build a house / whatever has been seriously bruised and ripped off by the experience. So if you go with a small operator read the contracts carefully, put in escape clauses and penalty clauses. Also, keep the trade practices act close at hand for when they try to push the prices up or when they start missing things you asked for (and still charge) or install things you didn’t ask for (and charge for removal).
I wouldn’t believe a small building co that said they could do it cheaper than a large one. There are economies of scale and experience. A company that builds 2000 houses a year using set designs is going to have so much more buying power and economy than a builder who builds maybe 10 – 20 houses a year.
Hi,
The best thing to do when trying to get into a field that is new to you is get some base understanding through a little research and reading.Buy a book about real estate investing so you get the terminology and process concepts. That way when you phrase your questions you can use terms and figures that are meaningful to other investors.
In answer to your questions:
You are asking if it is possible to buy a large bit of land and build multiple houses on it and then rent those houses (apartments?) out.Yes this is quite a common practice and if managed well and planned well can be very profitable. However it is important to know that land is sold subject to restrictions on what can and can’t be built on it. Those restrictions are generally set down by the local council, though there are government departments that also can apply restrictions (like heritage listing or environmental sensitivity).
So to buy a block of land and build multiple units (or houses or whatever) you would need to:
1. Find a place (city, town, suburb) that would be suitable.
2. Find some land for sale.
3. Contact the local council and perform some property searches and get the zoning information etc..
4. Once you’ve found a block of land that is suitable for multiple dwelling development: either engage a development manager (a number of companies do this) or project manage for yourself (need to be pretty up to speed on a lot of things)
5. get the units built.
6. rent them out.So a very simplified list, but the essesence is there. It’s not so much the qualifications you need as the qualifications of the people doing the building and the quality of the resulting building.
This is a very expensive type of project, as you could imagine. Building one house (I’m doing it now) costs hundereds of thousands of dollars let alone building multiple all at once!
So my best advice is go into a book store, go to the investment section and buy a book about real estate investment. That will give you a good run down of the words and terms and processes and concepts. Then hit the net and do some searches on stuff that you need more info about and ask directed questions here.
[biggrin]
I just read over http://www.whyalla.com history section and it says whyalla got to 33k population in 1970. There was a ship building slump and the town lost population down to about 25k today.
Whyalla was built on BHP works, primarily ship building. Initially for naval vessels and then commercial.
Looks like whyalla is in desperate need of some marketing to attract industry or indeed it will likely go down the poop shute.
Still the future isn’t written.
Can’t afford a 1/4 acre block with 4 bedroom house in the middle of Melbourne? Do you have a 1/4 acre block with a 4 bedroom house in the middle of Melbourne but can’t find tenants at the price you thinks it’s worth?
As has happened: subdivide to buggery and build a zillion units on the lot and rent/sell each of the smaller and more affordable homes at or above the price you think it’s worth. [exhappy]
I think that’s the way it works. If you want a big house and land you have to either pay through the nose (to compensate the owner for not subdividing to buggery) or enjoy a lifestyle associated with a more “rural” setting.
You can easily pick up a 20 hectare property for $100k then slap a great big house on it for $200k and thus have a palacial estate the envy of all your city friends… so long as you don’t mind them (your friends) having to travel for a couple of hours into the outback to get there!
Also as cities fill up and become too expensive people do move to satelite communities that are more affordable and so do businesses. Those places build up in size and become cities themselves and so on. Expectations change, but so do growth areas and population trends.
I think look for a satelite community with good access to a city and buy big blocks there. Given 10 or so years those big blocks will be worth their surface area in gold.
So from this article what I read is:
Wait for about 3 years to the end of the Bush administration and then buy up big in US property as it should be cheap as chip by then and being sold off left right and centre to international companies (like mine?).
Also, buy up Euros as they will become very valuable if/when oil is traded using them.
[biggrin]
BTW: “the sky is falling” has been uttered pretty much like mantra continuously since mankind has been able to talk.
A “free” investment seminar is generally an introduction to a paid for service aimed at people looking to begin investing.
They’ll collect your details to add to their marketing / mailing list either for sending you info or selling you as a qualified lead. This is in fact their payment for the “free” seminar which will probably provide some info, but will largely be an advertisement for some sort of product.
The way you can track these things is to provide alternate spellings of your name and see which letters come in with that spelling [biggrin]
Or, just don’t give out the info.
I’ve never mentioned the deposit on an offer. It’s the total price paid that matters, not the deposit.
When accepted I pay whatever seems appropriate or convenient at the time. I have paid a 10% deposit because I had the money just sitting around and it was only $8k so I didn’t mind.
On the other hand in WA I was asked (after offer was accepted) to put down 10% which would have been $18k. I just said I’ll put down $1k as I don’t have $18k floating about as free cash. The agent shrugged and said “ok, whatever” and took the cheque.
That’s, my experience.
Hi,
This link will help (assuming you are in Victoria):If you aren’t in Vic then do a search on the sort of stuff in the guide [biggrin]
In Vic a single dwelling on a single lot usually doesn’t need a planning permit and so usually doesn’t get advertised.
It still may not get advertised even if you do need a planning permit. Even if it is advertised the neighbours have to get off their butt and have a look and put some effort into objecting.
The main problems you may face are when you are developing in a heritage area or sensitive environment (like sand dunes).
Surrey.
I’ve noticed that the first thing a person new to cashflow positive investing looks at is a caravan (I did too). But see the above reasons. They are a poor investment as nothing about them goes up in value.
When you buy them you get no equity, so if you use the equity in your home to buy one you will need to get a high enough return that you can repay your equity plus have profit. No bank will loan against a caravan as security so…
No worries Torachan! [biggrin] You can pick up one of my houses in five years time when the massive burden of debt begins to tear my life apart and all I’ll have to console myself is my millions of dollars and loving wife and business partner. [cigar]
Times are always harder now than they were in the past. We are all living in our golden years and tomorrow will bring higher prices. This is an inevitability. What counts is that you understand this and plan for it.
House prices will generally keep abreast of inflation and hot spots will shift about like weather patterns where high pressure systems blow into low with storm fronts in between. As new cheaper land is opened up on the fringes, older established land once on the fringe will become more central and more desireable. Residential zoning will change and the now older properties will be seen as large ones, just waiting for subdivision or a block of apartments.
In the short term interest rates will rise before they fall again. Will this mean house prices rise? Well it’s a complex system; Higher house prices = fewer new buyers = more renters = fewer houses avaialable to rent = rent rise = houses are more valuable = new land and houses on the fringe are built + inner city apartments = stagnant or dropping rent and so on.
Regardless what macro economic changes occur in the next 5 years the key is and has always been to look at the detail. I don’t buy a house “in” Australia, I buy a house in a particular street in a particular suburb in a particular community and provide it for a particular market. I think it more valuable to look at that level when investing. Broad property booms (like has without a doubt occured) help no doubt, but none-the-less and investor makes money and that is why there are rich people and poor people in the world (and why poor people can become rich and vice versa).
Anyway I’m just rambling [cap]
On the otherhand…
I bought a strata title storage unit that came with a lease and management and all the rest. It returns about 6% net and runs with zero input from me. Each month $50 gets put in my account ($9,000 unit) and that’s that.
So I think it depends on what you are looking at. But in general I agree with Moolah, get as much control as possible over your property as you are the only one with your own best interest at heart
