I would depend on your own homework. My parents bought their house for $200K more than the agent suggested vendors would accept. We just bought a house for $200K less than it was first listed at.

Much depends on how well you know and trust the agent, but it comes down to knowing your area and your prices.

Listen to the agent, but don’t forget they have a vested interest in the sale.

My thoughts, Wylie.

For what it is worth, here is my idea.

I would go with the shower in the laundry but only if you can make your laundry look a bit lika a bathroom, ie. our laundry has a front loader under a bench with a ceramic basin and lovely mixer tap which looks classy but is deep enough for handwashing clothes if needed. This cabinet is very nice and was made by the cabinetmaker who made our kitchen. Our laundry is adjacent to our kitchen area and I didn’t want a “daggy” laundry tub setup.

If you can make that room more “second bathroom with a laundry included” as opposed to a “laundry” with a shower included, it could be a much sought after second bathroom.

We had a choice when we renovated of having built-ins in our main bedroom or a separate shower in the adjoining family bathroom. The bathroom is quite a good size but we went with the built-in bedroom (which was a no-brainer in hindsight). However, if I had my time again, I would definitely install a separate shower cubicle if there was room.

Can you add storage anywhere else? Just as a tip, when we had our cabinetmaker fit out our bathroom built-in storage we had him put doors from about waist high up to the ceiling for towells, linen etc. From the waist down we have eight drawers (four each side). With three boys, instead of sorting out who’s socks and undies belong to whom, each drawer is dedicated to socks, undies, swimming gear, boxers for sleeping, toiletries, etc.

I throw all the undies etc in the approproate drawers and the boys grab their own pair after their shower. I absolutely LOVE this idea and would do it again if I moved. It also frees up drawers in their own rooms for storage of their own junk.

Hope this helps, Wylie.

We had a rat die in the wall cavity near our bedroom. Pretty bad for a few weeks, and for a few months afterwards when we got a really hot day (Brisbane) there was a bit of a smell. By May there should (as hb said) only be bones and no smell.

We also had a possum die in our roof and there was a smell when we turned on the ducted air, a slightly odd sweet smell. It was not nearly as bad as the rat.

Time heals all wounds, and most smells.

Wylie.

My understanding is that if they are on a lease, you cannot ask for vacant possession. However, if you go ahead and purchase and they fall behind in their rent, you can give them notice.

Going by what you have written, I’d go ahead and buy it. Keep taking the current rent until the leases end (make sure you give them the right amount of notice that you will not be renewing the leases) and then go ahead with your renos.

If they happen to apply to rent again (not likely as they would have found something else by then) you just don’t rent to them. Take an application but rent it to someone else.

My thoughts, Wylie.

I’ve found lately that if I go back to the home page, I don’t have a logout invitation. I have to click on a post and get into the page to have a logout opportunity.

Don’t know if I am alone in this.

Wylie.

Fear of the unknown is exactly what we have. I have spoken to a town planner about our options for this block and his advice was initially to have the blocks surveyed showing house position and services. I plan to get this ball rolling and then we will know what can and cannot be done.

Who should I be seeking advice from? I am happy to pay for advice and guidance, but just don’t know where to start. I have been reading all I can on this and another forum trying to glean information about small developments. I have a very steep learning curve ahead.

I am hoping that, say we put two houses into the back yards, we will have four rental incomes instead of two, and depending on the costs involved in building two houses, we may get away with holding all four. Failing that, we sell one and try to hold three.

The 30 houses I mentioned were not all owned by us (I wish). My parents bought their first IP when I was 15 and since then I have helped them paint/renovate their IPs, their own home, our PPORs and our own IPs. Some of these have been painted a couple of times and over the years, have needed new bathrooms or kitchens or decks. I just mentioned the number because to me, renovating is something we can do in our sleep, but building from scratch is a whole new ball game, and I don’t know any hints or shortcuts, or what to watch out for. And there are lots of stories of people going broke doing small developments. So I don’t think I am so smart that we cannot go broke, and it does make me very wary.

We have only sold two houses in over 20 years, both to clear debts as our life decisions necessitated changes. We have three children, two now in private schools. I am not in the paid workforce. I would have kept both houses if we could, but the choices we made were right at the time and enabled us to reduce our debt and renovate our PPOR to make a comfortable home. Our other options were for me to return to full time work, and of course this is an option for us now, but I don’t want to have our investing choices dictate my direction in life.

While we have a fairly comfortable life, we certainly don’t spend up big but I don’t want my kids to remember having to scrimp and scrape (as we have done many times over many years) just to have some assets at the end. We want to enjoy the journey.

I suppose life is a balancing act and we have to find what is right for us. We have to make some choices this year about which direction we will take.

Cheers, Wylie.

Hi Derek,

Far from being an expert, we are faced with a bit of a quandry. We have just bought and renovated a house backing onto another IP. This gives us 72 perches with two street access and two houses which cannot be moved (character).

We have stretched ourselves and this is heavily negatively geared. We have borrowed extra to allow us time to work out what to do. Our options include –

1. Selling another half share house we have in order to reduce our loan enough to just hold these two back to back houses until we decide what to do with them.

2. Go straight in and get a DA aproval for one house, two houses or perhaps three townhouses.

I would like to keep the half share house, but we need to speak to someone who knows the ballpark figures on our different scenarios because to develop the block would mean borrowing much more than we have already, and the associated risks involved.

Perhaps someone needs to tell us to get the DA and onsell the block to avoid the hassles involved in actually building anything. I want to develop the block, but I don’t want to end up in the loony bin doing it, and it seems that going crazy or going broke are two definite possibilities.

I suppose I am stepping outside my comfort zone.

Since I was 15 I have helped paint, spruce up or renovate over 30 houses with my parents, then my husband. Renovating doesn’t phase me, it is just hot hard work. However, we have never built from scratch and I’m a bit nervous about where to start.

I thought a financial planner who knows property development and the risks could give us some direction.

I read many posts and think we are real tortoises. We are in our mid 40’s and, considering I bought my first house about 25 years ago, I feel sometimes that our net worth just doesn’t reflect the amount of hard work and sweat we have put in over the years.

I’m not complaining, but each time we buy a house I think “this time I will pay someone to paint the house” and each time we don’t have enough money to do it, so we do it ourselves.

I do go through periods of thinking it would be easiest to sell the half share, reduce the IP debt and just cruise for a while.

Sorry to ramble, and I hope I don’t come across as though I know everything, far from it.

Cheers, Wylie

hb,

I don’t think I was off topic. I don’t know how you work out our $50K would be worth $270K. How do you know we would have chosen “good” shares. I know the news reports say that if you invested $xxx it would be worth $xxx now, but what if you happen to pick a poor performing company, or one that goes bust, or get bad advice.

My risk profile does not include shares. My parents have made their money from houses and shares. They have NEVER lost money from a house but lost $26K in one day after an adviser told them a company they had shares in was okay. They had heard rumours this one was having problems and should have followed their gut instinct and got out then. Instead, they asked their adviser, who told them all was well. Couple of days/weeks later, $26K down the drain.

The only time we bought shares we lost the lot. Luckily we could only scrape $1000 together (20 years ago) or we would have lost more.

I have no problems with others buying shares, but they are not my cup of tea. I cannot paint a share or add a deck. I am too lazy to follow the sharemarket, but I am not too lazy to get out a paintbrush. It comes down to what you are comfortable with.

By the way, hb, the house we bought for $155K (instead of taking the adviser’s advice) was last valued at $530K six years later. It is 5km from the city on 36 perches with development potential. It can only increase in value as more people try to cram into SE Queensland. I’m very glad we didn’t listen to the adviser.

I am sure that if we had put our $50 into shares, they would be worth much more today, but some of the best “blue chip” companies have gone belly up, so how do you pick a company to trust and sleep at night?

I’ll stick to houses.

Cheers, Wylie.

I’d mention things when you find out about them. For an example, if we had told the tenant they were up for the cost of a replacement clothes line, they may have decided to buy one themselves. As it happened, rather than another hills hoist in the middle of the yard, we chose a fold up type and attached it to the side of the house, which is a much better look for this house (and most houses, I’d suggest).

Use your gut instincts here as well though. If we had said the wall had to be patched, the tenant may well have tried to patch and paint, using the same (lack of) expertise he used in putting up the shelving in the first place. AARGHH!!!!

I’m fairly laid back, try not to ruffle anyone’s feathers, so I would wait and see what life (and your tenant) throws at you and take each problem as it comes.

Best of luck, Wylie.

Troy and Bec asked the forum because they don’t know the answers. They are not asking for anyone’s permission to do what they intend to do but simply wanting to research, research, research. Asking a forum like this for answers is part of that research.

It makes me a bit nervous to ask something in case I get a sarcastic answer, but I know that most people on this forum are genuinely trying to help.

Helpful answers surely don’t include belittling other forum members.

Wylie.