Louiero .. the one word that has me shivering in my boots is .. inexperienced. I have an expression that i use … BITE AND CHEW. Because its something that people can understand. BITE – get an investment that isnt a mouthful for you. CHEW – take on board the intricasies of your existing investment before moving onto the next one. As experienced…[Read more]

YASH_K wrote:
HELLOi AM WANTING TO FIND OUT HOW TO SOURCE A LIST OF PROPERTIES WITH MIN 5 ACRES OF LAND, PREFERABLY IN SE QLD WHICH WOULD HAVE DA POTENTIAL.LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR REPLYREGARDSYASH

A dingy .. a snorkel .. and a rubber duckie. Or you can wait until the current floods recede.

All these clauses are there to give you time to legally go OOPS and withdraw from the contract legitimately. It however DOES mean that you need to READ them before you start hopping into a signing session. As you might guess .. the more 'subject to' clauses you have in an offer .. the more wary the vendor is at the possiblity of the whole sale not…[Read more]

Tripsy … i'll give you an excellent idea of why the saving up to afford property fails.In 1999 i was given 15k for investing. With my savings it amounted to 25k i could have investedin 2000 I could purchase a 2br flat in Dandenong, Vic for about 65k  the amount i had was a 30% interest (after stamp duty)in 2004 similar 2 bedroom flats were…[Read more]

Talking 1 on 1 with my tenants instead of going thru the property manager. There is a reason why you have an inbetween. Tenants who get annoyed turn up at your doorstep all of a sudden. Never again.

fWord .. the real answer is a lot deeper and complexfirstly .. simple is 100% right. They have rental controls enforced in the US in a lot of areas, New York, Michigan. I'd hesitate to name all the areas but rental controls are a no-no for long term investing. It means that they pay a FIXED rate by the govt for that type of property. So your gas…[Read more]

JacM wrote:
PS yes, if you are going with an apartment, positioning it near the train station and shops is a must.  This is because apartment dwellers are more likely to have lower incomes and thus no car.  I'm not convinced an apartment needs to be near a school, but a house does.  Think about what you'd want if you lived in a place.  You would…[Read more]

I've got a basic equation that works for me. Local shop (milk bar or seven eleven – NOT petrolsupermarket). Walk to a bus stop, short walk to a train. Shopping Centre within 5 mins drive. The area must have at least 5 major industries active within the local area. I know thats a lot but it prevents me getting stuck in a dying country town or…[Read more]

Hi Mr Jaydee !Nice to see someone pepped and ready to go into an investing / living cycle ! Fresh from university .. thats a big goal to be exercising !!!But you are looking from the DUNK MONEY approach to investing. First … any first home u purchase at this stage will be heading for the downturn and this may mean that either interest rates fly…[Read more]

Your current scheme of taking blocks of vacant land and building on them is great.Except its not.Reading between the lines, you have a good job, are building equity in your house (a big beautiful TICK – its always good), have a partner who is building equity in her house, and you really just want to get moving in the property world.Well,…[Read more]

I think the one most important part of training that you need to take on board is .. LIABILITY vs ASSET. If you are paying mucho dollars out of your back pocket in the hope of great capital gains or increased cashflow, thats a losers game. If you can find a property that with a short amount of input from yourself can be held and work for you…[Read more]

Just to clarify on my previous post .. 80/20 is  80% from the BANK and 20% of your own money. Its conservative as a starter block but the banks dont need LMI (Loan Mortgage Insurance) on that. And the market needs to go down by at least 20% before they call their loan in or ask for extra money. Its a reasonable safety net.

Clappy, congrats on thinking ahead before heading to university. I'd suggest plugging yourself into some literature on your home state. Learning from a mate how to paint, plumb and what good and bad electricals and houses look like. The first step is learning the good AND the bad. And that only comes thru experience. I'm sure there are deals to be…[Read more]

Having been in the real estate industry, I can tell you that whatever the reporting data services offer it is very haphazard at best.For one thing .. most real estate agents DONT report their sales to these organisations unless its for their benefit, a substantial price over the estimate or .. a property of substance. The rest of the time they…[Read more]

The papers have been doing doom and gloom since 2001. Its not a good guide. What i can say is a good guide is the ability for a tenant of a property to be able to pay the rent .. and the ability for a landlord to pay the existing loan. When either of these two situations change then the market will too. The leverage for property from banks has…[Read more]

Hi JoyceI'm a stickler for having a good property manager on any of my properties. When my last property needed to be re-let i went down to the local agents and went through what they offered one by one. Yes .. it was about 2 hours worth of sitting and listening to each agent talk about how good his business was. I also picked up their rental…[Read more]

propertyjockey wrote:
Hi all,As we all know, one of the golden rules is to buy in an area that has demonstrated consistent capital growth over a period of years.I am guessing there was a time these areas where not good performers.What made them good performers?PJ

You'd be surprised what areas should have been good performers that werent. And…[Read more]

An explanation is due for presenting evidence so shallow, jontappPresenting evidence for the market changing .. showing off a failiure for selling STUDIO apartments in Cairns … thats not even a guide to market conditions.Lets start with the obvious on the property concerned. First its a 40sqm Hotel room (sold as studio, managed by hotel). As…[Read more]

I hope Wicki my info was helpful.   My basic premise is that an investment property should be a means of future sustenance for your wellbeing. I think thats what most people gear it for in the long run anyway. So think of it this way, any money you make from your investment property (over and above interest payments) is money you will never have t…[Read more]

To be honest with you .. neither of your suggestions are for a creative investment environment. Let me explain.Option 1Your investment would be conservative to start with (lets be realistic if you are on 150k gross a 300k investment is very conservative. And on the other side it would only be returning a barest of 5%. Now since borrowings start at…[Read more]