Forum Replies Created
Pathetic to get 1 out of 8 who want your business enough to reply. The other 7 should be run out of business.
I was looking for the carpet for our PPOR (the carpet which was subsequently replaced) and the WOMAN (mid to late 50s) who served me (actually totally ignored me for over 10 minutes until I decided to let my younger two boys start climbing on the carpet display stands – then she noticed me!!) would not arrange for someone to come to our house to measure and quote on a carpet I had chosen unless my HUSBAND was at home as well. I was absolutely GOBSMACKED!!
Actually, when she did deign to serve me, I pointed out a carpet I liked the look of and she replied (and I quote) “Oh. I don’t think you could afford that one.” I was reasonably well dressed, and even if I wasn’t, what a pathetic way to try to make a sale – NOT!!
Needless to say, her company will never get my business (large well known chain).
Some people should just be taken out the back and given a good smacking!!
Regards, Wylie
Without being any sort of expert, my thoughts are that it would devalue your property. Having said that, even if it does not alter the value of your property, I believe it would narrow the field of people prepared to buy your house once the shopping centre is built. I would not buy that close to a large shopping centre, and I am sure I am not alone.
Regards, Wylie
Hi again, forgot to mention with our housing loan with redraw that our every day account (Westpac) is our offset account. All funds in that account are fully offset, so we actually make good use of this as well.
Regards, Wylie
I’m pretty much like Lisa. I have three boys. Our front door also is a revolving door. Oldest is only 16 and tends to be a bit lazy. However, when we need help, or my parents need a house renovated, he (and the younger ones) rally forth and I realise what good kids they really are.
We plan to let them stay as long as they want, as long as they pull their weight, study or work and live by our rules. I couldn’t wait to leave home and bought my first house to live in in my early 20’s. I had bought an investment house and unit (shared with dad) prior to that. I wonder if the 20 somethings feel stifled like I did at home. I just wanted to live in my own space. Not that I had problems with my parents, but there just comes a time when you want to be your own boss.
Even though our kids have never had to wash up regularly or do the things we had to, they do iron their school uniforms and jeans and do jobs around the house. We don’t want them to marry someone one day and have her complain that they are not domesticated.
While we are happy to have them stay, they certainly will not be here at 34, even if they are still studying. All things within reason.
We make sure we have “us” time. We send the boys to their grandparents and we have a night to ourselves. I sometimes crave a quiet house, but sometimes when I get the quiet house, I miss the boys.
Anyway, we will probably change our minds as each boy grows up and we aim to be flexible. I believe you can have them living at home without molly coddling them.
Having a brother who was a big problem from age 13 (and an even bigger problem at age 48) I realise that what we plan for our lives and our children can be thrown out the window in a nanosecond.
Regards, Wylie
My experience with odd phone calls was when we were about to sell an IP. The day before the first open house, we had a huge storm. Bay window was ripped out and broken by the wind. Garage doors swing off their hinges and gates as well. Insurance company quickly told us to have the house secured and the garage doors and gates fixed.
Trusted builder fixed window that same night and came back next day to fix the other two items.
He called me on my mobile and asked if I wanted everything done that was on the list. I asked him “what list”. He said the list the tenant had handed him.
I popped over to see him and found the tenant (ex army bloke, probably used to giving orders) had handed him an A4 list with about 26 things he wanted attended to). HELLO!! Who does he think he is.
I confirmed the two things to be fixed. Open house next day, sold within a couple of weeks. Bye bye tenant. Good luck to the next poor landlord who had to deal with this bloke.
He used to ring me on mobile to ask me to say the tap was dripping and could I organise to have the washer changed!!! He was about to get married to a lovely girl. Wonder if she is changing his washers, or maybe has left him by now.
It takes all kinds.
Wylie
Whatever colour you choose, I’d maybe pick a mid to darker colour. I’d pick something which enhances your house. Tenants should be cleaning the carpets prior to vacating. If not, take it out of their bond.
My advice though would be to avoid wool. We are about to replace a beautiful wool 3 x 2 metre rug because it has a 6″ square area (under a table leg) totally eaten by wool moth. About a year after having wool laid in three bedrooms and a large rumpus at home, we discovered this wool moth. We have had it treated several times (Brisbane) and the carpet company even replaced the downstairs rumpus carpet for us. The treatment the wool is supposedly sprayed with before it leaves the factory obviously was not working. We got a new downstairs carpet, but the wool moth is just munching away upstairs, even after being treated by a trusted pestman.
Much as I love wool, the moths do too. They are not too keen on the synthetic carpets, which I must admit, can be very nice as well.
I know my mother has the same problem with her carpets and I am sure if people moved their furniture, many would find the carpet eaten out from underneath things that are never moved. The moth just flies in on the breeze and lands on the carpet and starts eating. It is a really tiny moth and the larvae is about the size of a grain of rice. That grain of rice has a voracious appetite.
The carpet company rep originally tried to fob me off (for over 12 months) with the story that I should be moving all my furniture every month to clean under it. Yeah right!!!
Just my thoughts, Wylie.
I would suggest (very respectfully) to ditch the line of credit. We changed our LOC to a normal housing loan with redraw over a year ago and our housing loan is decreasing nicely.
We still can redraw if needed, but it is much easier to be disciplined when we have a monthly repayment and we only redraw when we absolutely have to (rarely). It has made such a difference. LOC was too easy to abuse for us.
Having said that we are extremely disciplined with our (much larger) investment loan and we pay the credit card off in full each month.
It was just the LOC, which was not very big but we just kept drawing it up.
If you can buy a positive cashflow, I’d look for a great deal and do it.
Regards, Wylie
Hi, depends on where the old property is. We bought one at auction (went to have a sticky beak at a local auction with my mum and 6 kids and a dog and came home with a house). Had to work up the courage to tell my hubby – no worries.
Everyone else (mostly neighbours) at the auction (except the other bidder) thought we were bonkers. Red shag pile carpet, brown shag pile carpet, yellowing cigarette stained ceilings and walls, original kitchen and bathroom, white ants eaten through the separate car port (basically pushed it over to clear it up).
Reserve was $140K. Because of the other bidder, we paid $171K, spent about $30K and a lot of elbow grease on it. It is now spic. Three or so years (and one housing boom) later it is worth at least $500K.
Old houses don’t mean you don’t get depreciation. Get the advice of a quantity surveyor and you will find there is still scope to depreciate things. Don’t forget, what you “lose” on depreciation you may well pick up on capital gain.
I think also that even if you don’t have much to depreciate, what you spend on new kitchens, bathrooms, etc increases your cost base and the capital gain at the end is less because of it.
I love old houses. For me, they have so much potential to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse and make money.
I am only speaking what I have experience of. I have never bought a new house and I am sure the depreciation is a big drawcard. Go with what you feel suits you.
Regards, Wylie.
We have added a dishwasher and put air-conditioning in the living rooms (which flows into the bedrooms). Both are pluses if someone is deciding on your house or another without them.
A few years ago we were finding that without a deck, we were losing potential renters. We added a huge covered deck, which cost us but in the long run adds more than its value to the house and is a huge attraction to potential tenants.
We also always allow pets. With polished floors, not much damage can be done and it is surprising how many people will not allow pets, so it is a big plus.
Regards, Wylie
I agree with Dazzling except that I’d be getting both names on the lease (assuming the daughter is of an age to sign a lease). Hold them both responsible for everything or you may find you end up with a halfway house type situation.
We had a situation recently where three people signed the lease. One moved out after about a week, the remaining couple had a barney and one moved out. Other people moved in. We were left with a looney (on the lease) and two other unknowns (not on the lease) and it took us a bit to move them on. In the meantime, the insurance company are chasing all three on the lease for the damage the looney caused, and which was fixed by insurance.
I don’t know why Dazzling suggests only the mother on the lease, but I’d prefer all parties living in my house to be signing the dotted line and committing themselves to the lease. Someone moving in and not on the lease makes it harder to move them on, in my opinion and experience. How can you say they have breached the lease when they are not on it?
Just my thoughts, Wylie.
I knew someone who had a toddler and a baby (years ago). Her husband promised her a kitchen for a couple of years. They were slowly renovating and she was using tubs and tables for a kitchen.
She and a friend took the kids and flew to Hong Kong and she rang her husband and told him she’d be home when the kitchen was in. She was home within the fortnight.
True story, straight from the horses mouth.
Regards, Wylie
“I work in the security industry, if your security company told you that I would ask them to put it in writing. What a joke, telling you that something they sell isnt going to work as its designed to!!!”
Devilcv8 – I didn’t say that. I said in Queensland, apparently the fire brigade has the option of charging for false alarms, if they wish. More false alarms from business I hear, rather than private residences. My parents have had false alarms on their monitored system and not been charged, but I think it will happen when more and more people have alarms monitored.
My alarm company are lightening quick, but a fire is much quicker. A timber home will possibly be gone within five to ten minutes. As long as my family is safe, I couldn’t give a rats about my house.
I do like the wired system because I don’t have to bother with batteries as my main power source, only as a back up.
Regards, Wylie
We have had IPs for more than 25 years and never paid a PM. My parents bought their first IP when I was 15 so I knew a bit about how to go about things by the time I bought my first IP.
Over the years I have (many times) offered the first week’s rent to local PM to find a tenant. I have only ever had that happen one time. I believe (and I also understand why) that they prefer to put people in the houses they will be managing on an ongoing basis. I don’t bother doing that anymore.
We put the ad in the major city newspaper and meet the prospective tenants ourselves. We have an application form which we have made up ourselves. It gives you the chance to say “Ill take your information and let you know when we have met all applicants.” It gives you an easy way out, if you will, if you don’t like the look of the applicant. Of course, if we do like the look of them, we just grab them with both hands.
We usually trust gut instinct, because we don’t have access to the databases the PMs use. We have only got it wrong a couple of times, nothing drastic.
Because you are only less than 2 hours away, you could do it easily. Why not give it a try. If you don’t like it, or your tenants hassle you, hand it over to a PM.
Regards Wylie
We have wired in detectors in IPs and also at home. In our two previous PPOR we had them linked to back to base alarm systems but this time we were advised not to (by the alarm company). Apparently there are so many false alarms that the fire brigade has the option of charging for the false alarms. Charge could be several hundred dollars per callout, if imposed.
We weren’t prepared to pay that, especially seeing that a timber house will probably be too far gone within several minutes to make a difference in the case of a real fire.
Our most pressing concern and reason for the detectors (both PPOR and IPs) is to alert sleeping inhabitants and save lives. You can rebuild a house, traumatic as that would be.
Regards, Wylie
In my opinion, you have answered the question yourself. If it is under market value, you have not increased in in 18 months, I’d be asking for the 15%, especially if you are not too concerned if she moves out.
I’d go for it. Better the money in your pocket, especially as she has been getting cheap rent for quite some time. If you manage your own property, I’d make sure you put in your letter that market rent is $….. and she has been paying considerably under market rent for 18 months, so that she knows the reason for the increase. It would also put you in a better light if she decided to oppose the increase through the RTA (or similar in your state).
Good luck, hope it works.
Wylie
I love television. In fact, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have one.
We have two televisions, one we all watch (mostly) and one the boys use mostly for gaming. We will not allow the boys to have a tv or computer in their rooms.
We pay $65 a month for Optus and while I’d like to save the $65, I don’t watch any free to air TV (except ABC and sometimes SBS). I detest commercials and if we do watch commercial or if the boys are watching commercial tv, we make them mute the ads. They, of course, think we are crazy.
We love Optus. Of course, with the Optus gold comes the Optus crap, but until they let me chose exactly what I watch, I am stuck with what is in the particular package.
This year for the first time, I restricted TV (and anything electronic) for my kids on school day afternoons. They hated it at first and tried to make me suffer, but they got used to it. Oldest boy is in grade 11, middle in grade 8, youngest in grade 4.
We had new neighbours and for the first time, my boys have boys their own age (oldest two anyway) to spend time with. These boys are allowed to watch half an hour at night and they study a lot more than my boys (apparently). One parent is a teacher.
Both sets of parents decided to let the boys play after school this year (but not electronics or tv). They had not had boys their age to play with until they moved here.
My observations of the six months is that instead of being couch potatoes from the time they got home, they did do other things, shoot hoops, bike riding. They did no more homework than normal. They just used the time not in front of the tv doing other things. I would have preferred more school work, but am happy with things as they are. My boys are above average students anyway and I’m not going to stand behind them with a whip.
I’ve told the two in highschool that we are very happy to pay for their education, but that if they do not do enough work to get into the university course they want (if indeed they choose to go to uni) and they have to do an external study course to increse by OP enough to get in, that will be their cost.
Having said that, we plan to fund any study they undertake after high school as long as they live by our rules, respect us and their brothers and work hard enough to pass the exams.
I’d like to think they will finish their studies without a huge HECS bill, but I also expect them to get a part time job.
This has gone off on a bit of a tangent, but it does follow on from the television debate. We have had some great fun evenings without the television, but we have also had some shockers.
Five big personalities all trying to play Monopoly or Donkey can be fun, but it can also be frustrating and bring out the worst in us all, depending on everyone’s mood.
Just my thoughts, Wylie.
I think you can have lack of stock but a slow market. Unless I had to sell right now, I’d be holding off, hence the lack of stock.
I went to an inner suburban auction Saturday, beautifully finished new townhouse. Bizarre auction … hardly anyone there. First two bids were vendor bids, then the auctioneer went for instructions and two sales people worked on the two interested parties (took about 30 minutes, while we stood around like stale bottles of beer – some people left but we wanted to see the outcome).
Was sold under the hammer. I can only assume that they wanted the sale under the hammer so it was unconditional. If they had passed it in and then negotiated, the buyers could have added clauses.
Anyway, one of the agents said things have been looking better for about two months (inner Southside). Don’t know if it is just spin.
However, I am watching closely two houses in the streets around one of our IPs(same suburb as the auction) because the asking prices are very high (which is good for us if they achieve them). If these houses go anywhere near what they are asking, I’ll be amazed.
Watching with interest, Wylie.
Hi WWSurvey,
Thanks for your advice. I also got a private message from another forum member which I will follow up on.
Thanks again, Wylie.
Just in case you are wondering if anyone appreciated your joke…
I laughed so loudly at the computer my boys (16, 13 and 9) just had to know what was so funny. They thought it was so funny (especially the 9 year old, they think jokes about “privates” are hillarious).
I’ve told quite a few people.
If you have any more, I’d like to read them.
I told two friends today in a crowded food court at a shopping centre, which was OK except one friend is 86 and can’t hear very well, so I had to speak up a bit. She loved it.
Thanks for brightening my day, Wylie.
I know that with our package, I am guarantor (but to a small limited amount) for the investment loan in my husband’s name. I don’t earn anything and I’m fairly sure it is because our family home is used as security for a loan in his name only. It certainly wasn’t anything to do with my income.
Regards, Wylie
