khorasak, I used to service the SE suburbs of Melbourne as a real estate sales agent. One of the key things that was visible in the Springvale area where there were a lot of Vietnam and Cambodian residents is that a lot of them started VERY low on the invest scale. But from the titles that kept coming up on resale it was obvious that they pooled…[Read more]

Hi Bonnie,The smartest investments are the ones you'll make based on your own good judgement and assesment of your situation. What you are currently doing is asking a marketeer who has nothing but his own interests at heart to do all that for you. And you can probably guess how thats going to end. Marketer and developer live happily ever after…[Read more]

ummester wrote:
Rents aren't going up – they are stagnant and going down in some places.The dollar likely will drop back to 0.75 over the next few years. I missed my chance to short it (only hit 1.10 for a single night of trading).Likely outcome will be fiat inflation, verging on hyperinflation, like America.

I assume someone pays you for this…[Read more]

I love making comparisons to the fruit and vegetable market .. or the fish market (they are both good examples of markets at work)So … in the off season .. its harder to find a perfectly shiny apple … with no marks or bruises … for a low price. Well .. it still is possible to find one .. its just now a lot harder than the times when you…[Read more]

Its interesting that this topic comes up now. I've just dealt with exactly this scenario. The initial tenants left the property about 6 months ago and let a friend take over paying the rent. Who then left and went out of his way to give the tenancy to another friend. Summing it up nicely the property has been now sublet twice and has no actual…[Read more]

With a nice clean debt free slate to work from, all I can suggest is you just start building assets.Its all a matter of timing though, and for now I think you are marginally safer on the lower rung of properties than the upper range. I've been of the mind that we are overdue for a rate raising climate .. and in that scenario the more pricey…[Read more]

I wouldnt let a probably necessary increase in the strate fees dissuade you from purchasing the property. The mix is always making sure that the strata fees and the water bills and the maintainence of the unit is less than what you are coughing up in rent. Thats how you make money on an investment.HOWEVER there are lots of owner schemas (body…[Read more]

Wodonga is suffering a bit with attrition on both tenencies and pricing, simply because there is a lot of property out there in the area at the moment and really … not a lot of either working or quality tenants to fill the demand. At $195 for what you are offering you are probably well within pricing range for the type of property you…[Read more]

I'm still purchasing the good ones in Albury, the good ones in Bathurst and the good ones in Orange. I'm getting good tenants in, having fantastic returns. And on avg with my 20% factored in .. i'm getting about 9.3% to 9.7% gross on my borrowed money. And yes that means for most of my deals, its near neutral or cash positive.I have two small…[Read more]

Its been one of the reasons that I wont ever manage my properties directly in the US. There are all these people who apply whats possible in Australia and think you can just slap it down as the same recipie in the US and it will work.News for you. The tenants have totally different expectations in the US. They will play the rules as far as they…[Read more]

Ravi, as a 17 yr old 'developer' (i think at 17 you are still developing anyway ! ), I suggest you go out and start looking at what people are doing and how they are doing it. First, dont think you can just rush in and make a mint. I used to deal with these sob stories of nutters who think the gold lies in just purchasing a property. No, it lies…[Read more]

larrytheinvestor wrote:
Also wanted to check whether this is correct: (i found it on this forum) For IP always use IO never P/I. Is this good advice?

The whole idea of making the most of a deal is making as much of a profit as quickly as possible. And the most obvious way to do that is to maximise your leverage. So you are borrowing at a…[Read more]

For once I'm not going to write a big script for recommendations. I'm going to make a simple one instead.Get as much VALUE property as you can for your buck. Borrow as much as you are allowed to .. on a fixed term interest rate.Ok .. sounds easy? It may take you several years to learn what VALUE in property really represents.I prefer getting…[Read more]

Treat the whole thing as a market. You know what price you'll go out and buy fish and chips at, and what price a 2 litre bottle of milk should be. Its no more complex than that. There is a price, a product .. and a demand. The real estate agent will know the price .. and SHOULD know the products in demand. The property manager will know the…[Read more]

Fully wrote:
Actually,http://www.collegesquare.ymca.org.au/about/Pages/default.aspxObviously is student accommodation….

Still student accomodation, and run under management. The conditions of occupation is whats changed. Under a student covenant the management are only allowed to have the place used by current active students and no-one else.…[Read more]

570 Lygon St is an exception to the usual student accomodation in Carlton. It was built as student accomodation originally but unfortunately or fortunately for the owners .. the required specification for students only was not mentioned in the contracts. So a group of the owners went to the body management and finally the council and overturned…[Read more]

In the 20th century the property was all about position and proximity to the CBD. Now .. as you might be aware .. the need to be going to the CBD is now minimal. I'd be lucky if I go to the CBD 4 times in a year. So things are organised for the 21st century in terms of ease of access to public transport, proximity to good facilities and shopping…[Read more]

I never get too caught up with body corp payments. You either accept it as part of the transaction and value it as part of the ongoing and further expenses, or .. you dont buy. Its all a matter of what you are intending to get for that deal. I have seen body corps that are as low as 800 p/a with basically common area and insurance to maintain ..…[Read more]

Bill .. if you are looking for exclusively cash flow postive properties in the current market you are looking for a very generous upside. Most places at the moment are trending towards the mid 4% or less .. requiring a 4% improvement margin just to create a positive cashflow. Thats if you are working with capital cities. If you head to country…[Read more]

Its interesting that you are quoting this amount dougie. I just pieced together a plan for my younger cousin (is 40 young these days?) to get something together. She's never had a great income .. but now she has a gross rental of 15k. Net that works out to 11k .. but she can now use that as leverage when she goes back to the banks. She'll have two…[Read more]