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An old saying from business school.
The large goal confuses, the small goal excites.
In other words .. the large goal seems so huge that you hesitate at its ability to happen .. stumping yourself in the process.
The small goal .. tiddlywinks ! Can be done easily .. so it gets done. And you feel good for having achieved something.
So instead of dreaming a million dollars in 3 years and not doing anything towards it effectively .. break that down into bite size chunks and close-to-achievable parameters. Stuff you can deal with easily. And because you reach your little goals, your big goals become that much easier to accelerate towards.
My first investment .. i actually wrote down my acceptable parameters FIRST. And then i went around to find a property that was close to or matched the criteria. I was lucky .. i found 4 possible options .. and then took one of them. But I created the goal first .. before the outcome.
A latter goal was to find six reasonably placed development sites or crap houses. Again .. the goal first .. property second. And yet again .. i got more options than I actually needed. I went halvies with a developer mate to get another 3 sites I really couldnt afford. And because of the timing .. the land doubled and we actually managed to just sell instead of doing anything.
The outcome is unpredictable. The reasoning for the purchase must be secure .. and the foundations for the investment must be there. Anything else .. is based on your ability and knowledge base to achieve that best possible outcome. And you work with the easiest outcome that provides the best return.
Incentivise !
Make the guys actually work for you and incorporate that into the commission structure !
You want it sold quicker and for that you are able to be more flexible on your allocation towards the agent.
So make him work for it .. extra incentives and commission bonuses if sold within a certain period !!!
It will get the agent to work harder to get that extra commission and get you a better deal across your way.
THINK SMARTER NOT HARDER !
In outer suburbs the stick tends more towards the 2.5 % to a 3.3% (3%+GST). Costs for advertising can either be inclusive in which case the agent will try to rush a sale thru on you, or they can be additional .. usually paid upfront.
In inner burbs they can go as low as 1% .. since the value of the property is usually significantly higher. Advertising on these sort of packages is usually additional (and even expensive!)
And yes .. a good agent makes a difference with selling your property. Make your better judgement on that.
I agree with Nigel.
You alone know what your strengths and weaknesses are, and a mentor is only worth even approaching once you've decided what your first set of achievable goals are.
Its like a fitness class, some people want bigger biceps .. some want a six pack .. and others just want to look at fit women in the gymnasium while they exercise. But they all will tell you they want to get fit.
Your property 'fitness' will depend on how much you want or need to know, the timeframe you will give yourself to achieve your goals, and from that .. the risk level you are prepared to take on to achieve those goals.
Dont be afraid to challenge yourself, just make sure you do that with the appropriate knowhow at hand.
And again .. quoting Nigel .. the solution that works for you .. is the one you want.
Freckle wrote:Silver in US$ terms is up nearly 400% in the last 4 years.Silver is up over the last 4 years for a good reason. People are nervous about investing in anything else .. especially with a president who successfully CONFISCATED Chrysler and flogged it to the Unions. That still doesnt make it a sound commodity.
Freckle wrote:In AU$ terms a little over 200% (indicates rising AUD vs USD)The Australian dollar has become a safe haven due to its reasonable stability in times of crisis. It remains at an abnormal high (the TWI thanks to mining and raw animal sales has very much been export oriented)
Freckle wrote:Silver is traded and priced in US$.
Again … its just a commodity. The price of live sheep .. canola oil .. and sugar are all rated in $US currency .. so?
Freckle wrote:If the AU$ falls the price of silver in AU$ rises accordingly. Its a hedge against a falling AUD.Silver remains neither a hedge against the oncoming inflation .. nor a indexing towards holding US dollar value. The hype and merit towards silver as portrayed in the 'alternative' media .. makes it into a commodity its not. There is a time where its fairly valued. That was 1994. There is a time when its undervalued. That was 2006. And there is a time when it was overvalued.
That was Nov 2011- May 2012.
The price of rubber nose dongles is up.
Seriously .. with the price of rubber being pushed up by a lack of supply .. the price of rubber nose dongles .. has gone through the roof !
INVEST IN RUBBER NOSE DONGLES .. THE NEW TRADABLE CURRENCY OF THE 21st CENTURY !
sounds kinda ridiculous huh?
now substitute silver for the words RUBBER NOSE DONGLES.
Why assume that silver is any better than any other traded commodity?
Its more affordable than gold, but it also lacks the one thing that gold does have .. a very small supply base. Silver also decomposes over time .. it rusts into an oxide over time.
Its no longer used in photography .. (the use of silver nitrate in film development is now nearly non-existant), it is no longer used as a form of metal for currency .. (and hasnt been used as such for over 50 years), and thanks to the ease of mining procedures in the actual capture and extraction of the metal .. its no longer really either as rare as it used to be or as sought after as it used to be.
Like any commodity .. if you buy low and sell high you will make money on it. Like any commodity .. its only as valuable as what other people will place on it .. on a regular basis.
Diversify into silver when its low .. and again .. sell when its high. But dont treat it as being stuff for under the mattress .. or a higher value commodity than what it actually is. It remains a readily saleable commodity at most times. That doesnt mean that buying high and expecting it to go higher has ever been a solid investment strategy.
I have bought and sold in several collectible and commodity markets. I have purchased stamps .. coins .. banknotes .. comics .. baseball cards .. football cards .. silver coins .. silver bars .. gold coins .. gold bars .. gold and silver jewellery .. semiprecious stones .. and diamonds.
In each market there has been a time when a particular item or set of items is significantly undervalued. And that is either based on rarity .. percieved rarity .. consumer demand .. or hype. At that time .. its always been worth buying in. And on the other side .. the hype .. percieved rarity .. continues until the item is OVERVALUED. And at that point .. i make my judgement call and sellout.
I relate this .. because this is the same thing you need to be aware of when selling a property into the market. There will be a price you will be prepared to accept .. based on what you paid .. and there will be overpaying .. and realising a loss. And each of these is based on recognising your market correctly.
Treat silver as the commodity it is .. rather than allocating it as a safety net for troubled times. Diversify your safety net .. so that there is less chance of you losing out on a single commodity.
People are still living with the idea that a trust is the mechanism it was pre 1990.
It really hasnt been a good mechanism for tax concession for about 25 years.
Thats not to rule out its overall purpose and OTHER reasons for having a trust over and above property in your name .. or a company name. But most of the real benefits have gradually been siphoned off through taxation amendments and changes in the dealings and protections that a trust offered.
If you need to allocate a property to a trust .. do it from day one. The mucking about and the accountancy and legals necessary to maneuver a property from an existing position are exhorbitent and unnecessarily expensive. And as Terryw stated .. the position with the loan has to be totally renegotiated.
The answer is the same for any business you would go into.
Surround yourself with people who are knowledgable in their field, who are competant at what they do, who are willing to be challenged by circumstances and outcomes .. and who will work with you consistantly.
Property ownership, maintenance and renovations from your side of the equation should act like a well lubricated cog in a clock, the actions should take place soon after commiting them as a task, the results should be as good as you asked for OR BETTER, and you should be able to continue with repeat business.
Build steady and ongoing relationships with finance institutions to make things happen easier. Either through a broker or a bank itself. Make sure that for all the people you work with .. working with you is easy and there are no arguments. I believe that every time you get angry about anything in front of someone (even justified !) you will LOSE long term. Think about that.
Always hold your position UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE. If someone says he can do better on a project .. will that be at the same quoted price? Or will that be extra? Sometimes the specialist may know better .. other times you may be just getting the runaround. Never be afraid to query a quote .. or a timing on a job. The minute you stop being in control of the operation of your property .. you delegate to someone else. And that in itself .. can be disasterous.
Jimsbomber,
The correct way to renovate is moving the category of the property you choose from, from its existing category .. to a category of greater value. And doing the most you can … and limiting your cost component.
I have turned away deals because the paper component meant too much to get a nice end result.
You are assuming here that by spending 50k (allocated budget) you are going to increase the value of the property by at least that amount.
And to change it by that much .. is usually a major effort and sometimes not worth the expense.
From my perspective as to your plans … you are allocating a chunk of cash to solving a problem .. and thats how you will solve the problem.
The turnaround time at this current point in the property clock is critical. Ask yourself the obvious question, when you come out of the renovations .. what sort of market are you expecting to sell into? I do this again and again .. and sometimes its my deciding factor in finalising a property. I often allocate the time to do the work (like i have now) when the market is slow .. to release into a better market.
Can you visualise in your 4 month turnaround .. a better market at the end of it? BE REALISTIC .. REALITY PAYS THE BILLS.
The other thing is .. dont be afraid to take on smaller more affordable projects to start with. I'm quite sure you approach this as a competent carpenter. And doing your own renovations .. you should be able to judge your own risk levels with some degree of knowhow. My concern would be the degree of flexibility a first project offers you. From having done this before .. the first couple of projects are tight on budget and dont allow much room for maneuver .. after that .. its a LOT easier.
Consult your local real estate agent for what best adds value to a property in the area. Its the type of invaluable real estate experience that sometimes takes months to find out by yourself. Dont just assume a new kitchen new bathroom and a paintjob will boost your credible property value. Get the facts .. do your research .. and get it more right .. first time.
Validate for yourself that the proposed changes to the property will increase its price and overall desirability.
And enjoy it !
Hello Kristina1980,
The answer is ANYONE can find properties that arent advertised.
Often when I have purchased into a project where the site value overrides the existing construction value, I will use a position of entry into the property and the body corp (in other words .. ownership of one or more of the properties onsite) to get an idea of the membership of the bodycorp itself.
And from that .. I will make private offers to each individual as to a reasonable price.
You are looking for value in your area. And you are also looking at not compromising on lifestyle.
However, as you might guess .. the more in demand your area is .. the deeper your pockets have to be.
And you arent the only one. When Brunswick and Fitzroy boomed in the late 90s, I followed the map up .. and started investing in Northcote. It was the logical progression .. and as it turns out .. right on the money.
Anyone can approach a person with an intent to purchase. It doesnt take a Buyer's Advocate to do that.
In answer to your Yarraville as a better lifestyle purchase .. the areas of Newport .. Williamstown and Yarraville all had their chance to boom from 2005 onwards.
Its just .. they didnt.
They still remain good value areas proportionately for purchasing in. But the issue is .. the company you keep, and the lifestyle you have.
The main road into town still is crowding over the Westgate .. and until that clogging gets fixed .. it has been a major issue for people purchasing to live and work from the area. Try MELBOURNE RD into the city at peak hour .. and you will understand why. Or Williamstown Rd from Yarraville onto the Westgate.
Short summary .. it might be best to go a short journey further out .. to get the accomodation you wish for with the lifestyle you choose.
Or .. you can think creatively .. and work out ways in which you can get to what you want.
Both are valid options. And the answer is yours to decide.
Maybe a car to drive to where you want to be?
Aussie properties is way too broad an area to be that specific.
There are separate markets in every suburb. Some will progress quite nicely and others will remain stagnant. I have invested well at a 60% return in a single year where the margin of growth on the suburb was listed by the newspaper at close enough to 4% for the year. So it still comes down to purchasing the right sort of property .. and doing the right things with it.
Rob .. from someone who fell on his sword once (i.e. went bust) .. i'll say what needs to be said.
Take the sword out of your body .. wipe off the blood .. and get on with it. No excuses.
Grab your car .. and drive around .. get a feed .. a smell for where the action is. For example .. I know that Richmond here is suffering badly .. and Bridge St Richmond has more FOR LEASE signs than working shops. But Knox is up and lively, and Box Hill is going gangbusters. Dont assume that because one area dies off that all areas are bad.
The point I will make is recognise the opportunity and make the most of it. There will be areas of Melbourne where oversaturation will take place. There are also areas that desperately NEED cheaper housing, at whatever price it will be.
Your aim is to know your market and from that market knowledge and knowing the existing framework, be able to profit from that knowhow. Unless you are a bookworm and are prepared to sit down and understand US markets completely .. these are the skills that are lacking in testing overseas markets. I've done that now on five or six occasions so as to make my investing work. And if you feel you are up to that kind of task .. go ahead and do it.
The one thing I would recommend with doing any overseas investing is create trusted local partnerships. Both for property management and for ongoing property reporting (a local mailing address). There are areas in any country where corruption based in and around property are rife. You either listen to a local or learn from experience. And experience says to employ a local as part of your team.
Catalyst wrote:Do you see any CG prospects there or are you happy with just the cash flow?
Albury remains a country town exposed to the rural elements .. however .. it has managed to substitute in a large sector from the Australian Tax Office .. which now headquarters there and is just expanding its premises at the moment.
It has a reasonable industrial backyard and has most of its older housing commission areas now being sold off as owner occupiers.
In other words .. Albury is going through a refurbishment as we speak. The two main shopping centres are getting to be quite large and there is a reasonable amount of activity taking place within the town.
It also has a possibility of a fast train going through within a year or two.
My reason for investing in Albury is that the town remains central to VIC/NSW relations and as such .. a reasonable place to invest for the next 10 years.
And that for me .. means Capital gains too.
Hello Waz,
Here is where your assessment of the market comes into play !
Take a look at the whole realestate.com.au (or similar) list of properties out on display in Griffith.
Notice anything?
No? Missed it?
Griffith is a regional RURAL based economy. (well .. sounds obvious .. ya?)
And there are a heck of a lot of farms up on the market at the moment. (oh ! So THATS what he's on about !)
Balancing that out into a summary .. you've got a lot of farmers who are selling up and getting out for one reason or another. And for the longer term history of Griffith .. that does not sit well.
There are some GREAT blocks of flats hitting the market in recent months. And having done my due diligence on the place .. its a nice town .. but .. trouble is on the horizon. And since i bank my money on longer term trends .. that's a bad sign.
Also a great looking block on Canal st .. and another one on Wakaden st, both returning 70k roughly apiece. High returns .. but with the current trendline in Griffith .. proportionate risk.
Dont be shy with not having seen this sort of thing. It just comes with time and experience. But more people would be impressed with the sound of a positive return than the actual facts as they are.
Rural sector picks up in that town? Jump in !
But until then .. make your judgement calls on the side of caution. If you do invest .. dont be dependant on it.
I can tell you where i've been purchasing in the last year and a half .. simply because I get the returns i want.
Albury and its surrounding suburbs.
The returns range from 6.5%-8.2% depending on the property and position.
But considering you can get property there (rental property) under 100k with a 7% return .. its been good buying for me.
With 200k you'll probably be looking for single units. But at 100k or just over they return between 120-150 per week gross. That seems to be twice the return you would be getting from term deposits at the moment … even allowing for the fact its gross.
If you are worried about a rental return being taxable .. the answer is .. purchase a property at 100% then borrow against it for another one. The borrowed amount's interest component can be offset against the income from the purchased property .. giving you two for the price of one and a low taxable income from the deal.
Talk to your accountant for working out the best deals for your income and borrowing level.
Ok quick calc on your current situation is .. 200k @ 5.25% you are getting about 10.5k gross on your current invested amount.
Be aware that this remains gross .. the income you receive from this is liable to bank account taxes .. government taxes and is finally treated once received by you .. as additional income.
So you may think you are getting 5.25 percent .. but unless that is your sole and reliant income source .. you are going to have the taxman loving your money too.
As a 20% deposit .. it would allow you to borrow up to a million. That of course remains dependant on your actual income. You havent stated if you are actually earning or not, so i've left that open in the equation.
There is however another way you can make the most of this .. again .. dependant on your actual income. You can purchase a property outright inc stamp duty. Leaving yourself with 100% ownership of the property .. and a residual income from the property. This solution boosts your assesable assets, your free income. This means that the next time you approach the bank .. you have a greater clout to borrow with. And of course you can claim deductions on various expenses from the property against your income. Banks have a greater chance of approving a loan linked to a property with a high LVR.
I mention this particular scenario because i've now done it several times for people i know who were poor borrowing risks with the bank due to low income levels. They've all been very appreciative for the efforts i put forth.
If you feel you can do better than 5 and a bit percent in the current market .. you are absolutely right. I have been investing at returns of 6% or higher gross for the last 2 years, and most of them are cash positive already.
Again .. dont pick just any property .. pick the good ones .. and for the right reasons. The rest of the scenario will complete itself.
One thing I should add .. and this is very important .. dont get emotional on a property. If a property is seen to be producing great cash returns .. and you find it .. take out the emotions from the deal. If that means coming back the next day and possibly missing out on a sweet deal .. so be it. Unless you have sound numbers .. a good idea of how the property will work and a proper unemotional assessment, you may jump in where fools fear to tread.
On that same note .. I refrain from mentioning specific areas, as i go on my assessment of the areas and .. i will have purchased different properties with different risk levels than you might. But I am aware of areas returning 8% to 10% .. and safer areas returning at least 6%.
All this also depends on your ability to negotiate on price as well.
In answering thecrest,
To be honest .. I dont know where this property is precisely. As a general rule .. its three times easier for the landlord to approach a half-difficult tenancy with kid gloves, than the whole process of eviction .. loss of rent and even the possibility of damage due to ingratiated non-paying tenancies.
I've got one thing on hand that you may not have .. hundreds of tenancies as experience. As such i've done the mistakes .. and learnt from them. I've dealt with the couch in the living room with MUSHROOMS growing out of it .. the beautiful old apple tree in the backyard that was used to throw apples at the house and break every single window when the tenancy expired. The tenants who were angry enough to call a house demolition party, which .. by no mean feat .. they accidentally invited me to. I was not impressed. The tenants who decide in their new place they cant have any pets .. so they leave the pets behind .. in the cupboard .. for five weeks. Not a pretty sight to come across. The nylon carpet that just keeps on accumulating ironing marks as the tenancy goes on. The two bedroom unit that on inspection has more cockroaches than indians .. and there are FOUR sleeping bags in each bedroom in a 2br unit ! Subletting anyone?
I agree .. you dont deal with BS in any format with tenancies. But as explained in the initial outlay .. she's got a set of unwanteds in the mix .. not a difficult tenant. That situation can be remedied.
You must weigh up always the value of the existing tenancy versus the ability to get another one. In some tough market conditions such as where there are large amounts of vacancies in the area, you really cant afford to become another vacant rental .. in those conditions a tenancy is literally priceless. It not only works for you .. but even the surrounding properties. This doesnt mean just settle for ANY tenancy. It does however mean that if the existing tenancy is valid barring extenuating circumstances (in this case the ugly mugs) you try to keep it if possible.
The correct weight of a tenancy should be that a good tenancy is gold bars in your bank account. A bad tenancy will in one way or another eventually cost you, whether its money or respect or property longer term value.
This is where your art of negotiation comes into play. (remember me saying in previous posts it was important?)
First .. there is no reason for the owner to stick his head in at any time in the sequence. If you try to either throw your weight around .. talk tough or threaten .. well first of all thats bad negotiation .. second .. they have wonderful places called tenancy tribunals they can take you to sort you and your finances out.
The first thing to do is write a polite letter to all the tenancies from the property manager (i'm assuming in this case that there is more than one payee for the rent .. from your letter above). Stating quite simply that there has been some noted issues with the tenancies and complaints lodged with the property manager (no names no descriptions .. keep it bland). State that the problems of concern need to be dealt with or the tenants will be in breach of their rental agreement. Give them a reasonable timeframe in which to work this out .. six weeks. Issue a warning notice at the same time, if you issue a warning notice its a sign that you are serious and prepared to back it up. With an issued warning notice they have already been given notice and this usually scares the bejesus out of them and they smart up quickly.
Note : This is why you have a property manager as an inbetween and not yourself. The property manager knows all the legalese and deals with the right paperwork at the right time. Its not about just collecting the rents .. its about knowing what to do when the rental goes wrong.
And as a final note .. proper positive negotiation is all about a win-win deal. If it comes down to it .. a little moving money makes things easier. Last resort but it does work. Think creatively .. and think in such a way that everyone in the deal wins.
Thats negotiation for you. And thats why I keep saying its one of the skills you study to understand. It will save your ass.
Dumbest way to finance property.
No .. seriously .. its as dumb as they come.
One of the reasons that Germany has a low rate at the moment is because it is inherantly stable and cannot find lending partners due to the current EU crisis. One of the reasons we have a significantly higher rate at the moment is because we are not so badly affected by any of the EU stuff.
So at the moment we are at an abnormal high .. and they are at an abnormal low. Guaranteed .. circumstances will change to put that back into place. One way or the other.
You see .. its all happened before. In the latter part of the 80s people were convinced that getting a foreign loan from Japan was a great idea because of the significantly lower rates. Well .. the yen went from around the 110 yen to the 80 yen to the dollar .. pushing up repayments on these 'cheap' loans by about 40%. And a lot of 'smart' farmers and risk taking investors went to the wall. Crying all the way .. complaining how badly they'd been informed etc etc .. but they lost the lot.
Granted that our currency is abnormally high and places like the US and EU are abnormally low at the moment .. wouldnt it seem more logical to invest in that direction? I'm more positive that the crazy US markets and the el-cheapo EU markets (Spain in particular) will be the ones reversing.
Gear yourself appropriately for what you can visualise as the ongoing trend, rather than the abnormal.
Some of the best places I have ever renovated upwards in value were 2 bedroom houses in good suburbs with large long blocks of land to work with.
The answer is yes .. you need not only to just plop extra bedrooms on .. but for each 2 extra bedrooms you need to add one toilet and possibly another bathroom (sub in a walk thru ensuite).
However if you add extra space .. make sure you also qualify that with matching living conditions. A four bedroom house with only one single living area up the front still is .. kind of useless to just about everyone. Also a four bedroom house usually demands a larger kitchen space simply because of the catering traffic.
A smart renovator works with the existing floorplan and complements the existing floorplan .. not losing the original character of the pre-renovated state and matching it with extensions that build on top of that.
Remember however this important point. A baubled and gilt plated three bedroom house does not become a palace. It remains a three bedroom house. Estate agents just count bathrooms .. bedrooms and land area. They wont notice if your tiles are imported from Italy, or your gold plated taps came at great expense .. or that the renovations cost you twice what they should have. They will look at the barebones of the existing house .. and assess value based on that.
AdisKay,
From having read your comment #15 i think you are missing the point.
What you are asking is how to do things to get to a certain point of finance.
And here is what i'm saying. By the time you get to that point of finance (unless you do it EXTREMELY quickly) your point of reference will be irrelevant. The money you would have wanted .. WONT be the money that you need or want in that point of time. Money itself moves. My father's big dream was to RETIRE on 10,000 pounds (a HUGE amount in that time .. about 2000 could buy you a house). My first amount borrowed was 200k and i wondered how I would be able to pay it all back. But the money has moved on since then and I earn ten times that a month.
You will need to start small and with projects and solutions you can comprehend and take onboard. Read Steve's book, no matter how far along he's come .. he started with a couple of smaller projects and thought big.
You will need to build your castle brick by brick. Revalue your assets .. and continue. Thats how its done.
Hence my allusion to a Ferrari. You are starting your wealth strategy .. dont bet it all on black … thats a high risk .. high reward OR LOSS move.
My father used the sheep strategy for me to understand it. He said you buy a couple of good breeding sheep and soon you will have a flock of them. For me … the only place I want to see a lamb is in a pita bread covered in garlic sauce. I love my souvlakis.
You need your good working assets to build yourself up. Dont feel that anyone is offering you a negative solution or holding you back. They are working on experience. And that experience says .. if you are going to be working in the fishing business you need to know what sort of fish people will pay for. If you are working in the fruit business .. you'll need to know what fruit will sell out on a daily basis .. thats how you will make your money. Same with property. If you want to know how you are going to survive and manage well .. you can either listen to people who have already been there or make the mistakes yourself. In that .. i'm repeating myself .. but i'm building on what I said before.
The regional solution works .. but the RIGHT regional solution works even better. In a town where I have a single property .. and the town vacancy rate is closer to 6%, in seven years i have never had the flats vacant once. Thats a mix of experience and accomodating the right tenants.
Thats what you will need. Learn your area, understand WHERE your tenancies will be coming from and what they will be wanting. With that sort of experience .. there isnt a single town that you wont be able to conquer.
Make sure your first car is a Ferrari.
Thats one way to learn how to handle a car and find out how expensive it is to crash.
Seriously .. if you think you are going to rip straight into a set of properties returning x% and make your first ludicrous amount of lucre (money) you are …. tasking yourself to the extreme.
Put yourself in the novice drivers seat and learn your market .. if you want to go faster and sooner .. then learn more about what people who HAVE gone faster and sooner have done.
Bite and Chew. Its a simple strategy.
Bite – Learn how much financial pressure you are prepared to take onboard and how much risk and ability to absorb risk you are prepared to involve yourself with.
Chew – Having accepted the amount you have 'bitten' you give yourself time to become familiar with the figures and expenses and tenancy pattern involved. Once satisfied with what you've 'chewed' off, you can go back for another 'bite'
you either dip your feet in the water and learn if you can handle the temperature and flow .. or you become the next person to rush in .. make a series of well intentioned heady mistakes and spend the next twenty years telling anyone who will listen how property is such a scam.
Thats the reason i'm on here. I'm like Steve .. i've made my money (twice) and really had no need to write a book about it. However .. to present a picture for starters who are on their way .. i'm here for them.
And if you are really smart .. even now .. there are still ways and means to make a fortune .. even quickly. But it requires smarts .. it requires negotiation skills (do i keep repeating this to sound wiser or does it really work) and it requires the time you might usually spend watching some inane TV show that keeps you entertained.
They wont be the same ways that any other investor took. Often that road has been taken and the path to that particular achievement is long gone. But they will be YOUR path .. and the successes you have will be based either on taking onboard other people's experience .. or making the mistakes yourself.
Think about that last statement .. and take it onboard.
My feeling for you Adiskay is this.
If you are going to take a 'fast' strategy .. you'll need to accept more positively geared (or neutral) property with ongoing potential. With a faster strategy you'll need more positive and highly positive (1%+ over loan and expenses) to get you to the point and potential you wish to achieve. You will need to take on slightly riskier propositions and be prepared to do some of the work on upgrades yourself. Allow plumbers to do plumbing .. and electricians to do electrical work. But painting .. tiling .. cabinetry, and any place where you feel you can save money .. thats where you will benefit.
Skill yourself up .. and prepare yourself so you can achieve results quickly when required.
Good Luck.
