No, not every Development approval is the same just like every deal is not the same.
Say you got a DA for a duplex on a ordinary house. There just might not be value in demolishing and building back two new homes so the DA wouldn't account for anything as its just not viable.
But in saying that i have seen DA's that have added hundreds of…[Read more]

Blinds, Curtains, window treatments, light fittings, carpets. All these covered by contents insurance. Helpful to have at least $5,000.
imagine you get a Tennant that trashes your house. Those things will be damaged. for a extra $50-100 per year. Worth the money i say in case something happens.

Freckle is on the ball in this case and I do agree with him.

when you are faster than a tradie you know something is wrong.

get a job in construction – solution 

Are you talking about about services once you are inside your own boundary?
How many townhouses?
For electricity – Powerline companies can do scoping, where look at your property and number of dwellings being built and determine if you need upgrades to transformers etc or if its ok. Power inside the boundry seek quotes from electricians.
Water -…[Read more]

Simple way to work out if they are charging you alot of money
– tradies charge by the hour
– accountants charge per block of time
– lawyers charge you per minute. 

Who makes the most money lol. 

That's the problem with paying by the hour. No incentive to finish work promptly. I had a lawyer who kept me on the phone once talking about something…[Read more]

Your not getting royally shafted. Just most likely the very top of the scale and a bit of ignorance that has been taken advantage of.

Ill be honest.
If that took me one whole day to get all the materials and i mean one whole day 8 hours. And then the next day i started work.
I've finished more then that in 8 hours.
The guy was not working on your house for those jobs for a whole week.
This is something that everyone learns the hard way. Get a quote first, then agree. At least…[Read more]

Usually most residential contracts have a built in 14 day extension period. Where you can request a extension and they charge you default interest usually at 10 percent. This is if its the banks fault and them being slow and you haven't just applied 2 days before settlement. IF the bank do take a while to organize your loan, you can request them…[Read more]

Screen doors are relatively cheap and good for security i think if you can get them during construction where you can have standard sizes put it then its ok. (plus some people like to leave their doors open to get airflow through the house.
Blinds and curtains – If your reselling the homes i would say don't include them, the majority of people are…[Read more]

No not really. It's depends if your renting them say as serviced apartments. Or independent single bed units. 
I know a couple other guys who include them but they are building sets of 10-12 single bed for student accom.  
Its like a fridge. You would expect tenants to bring their own fridge. You just have to provide the plumbing and waste…[Read more]

Ring the LTO before you order one. Because it can take 3-4 weeks for the change in name on the title to occur. Don't want to end up with the old owners name on it still.

They only cost around 250-270 extra to add. I would 

I think when it comes down to bigger unit developments. If your building to hold them and your Servicablity can afford that, then what presales are you going to need? (None) provided you meet the LVR requirements. I'm about to start building 7 townhouses in a couple months. That's all residential lending at 80 %. At worse they would go to a 70 %…[Read more]

Oc1, did you consider Commbank, they do residential lending up to 4 units on site before switching to commercial.  

Im not a registered builder yet, Im currently doing my minimum technical requirements course which is a cert 4 in building and construction so i can go for my licence hopefully at the start of next year. Currently Ive got a building supervisor who works for a fixed fee per development.

With building contracts
The two most common are either
Fixed…[Read more]

There's a short course your can do over a weekend with some training organizations. Called building contracts. Over a weekend they run through the specifics about 
fixed price ccontracts 
cost plus with % fee
cost plus with fixed fee 
cost plus with fixed or % with capped maximum price

Be careful that you get things like stormwater drainage,…[Read more]

I like NRAS but not at the 1 home mum and dad investor level. I think NRAS for a builder or developer,  can be a great tool, (IF you can drag yourself to answer the 17 page application document, Its huge).  I mean imagine your building 4 homes on a single site and if  you were to keep them it would cost you 20k a year over the whole site..…[Read more]

Hi Oscar

What's the block dimensions looks like over 1400 sqm ?
How did you buy the site, on the market or off the market?
What were some of your negotiating strategies to get your long settlement?
Planning to sell 3 keep 1 ?

Thought i would continue on from your developing 101 post. Good information for people to read.
cheers wilko

Id be weary accepting the advice of your PM about building structures. He's a property manager not a builder, take his advice with a grain of salt and seek a professional builders opinion. I do know of several PM's that get kickbacks and favors from builders for passing them along work. Yes that does happen. I know one who got his whole outdoor…[Read more]

Mining or satellite town?