Hi Dreamscape

I’ve sent you a personal email with my thoughts and ideas as well as a link.

This is something we’ve often considered but always ruled out, due to the concern that family relations could be affected in a bad way. I think that with property investment there is a real likelihood of differing opinions and this could cause some tension between family members.

Just my opinion – saying that, I’m sure there are loads of people…[Read more]

Many thanks Elkam and Paul – I’ve taken your suggestions on board and we are going to propose doing 3 valuations by independent registered valuers (paid half by us and half by her). We will then ask her to choose a solicitor to do the paperwork.

Yes Elka I agree, the last thing we want to do is to take advatage of her – or have any of her relatives think that we are. And yes, I am concerned that her relatives could just come along and put it on the open market.

Thanks Paul – your suggestion makes absolute sense. I could prepare some of the docs myself, but it would make more sense to…[Read more]

Ha I am a solicitor [biggrin][biggrin]

Looks like I need to get in touch with one of my old mates!!!!

Hi all. As well as being into property, I’m also an Intellectual Property Lawyer – happy to assist without charge anyone who has any IP questions that are not too time consuming (maybe in return for answering my property-related questions!!) just email me on janie.thomas@ekmlegal.com

Sorry Misty I misread your email – thought you just wanted to do a title search, which will show the current owners and whether they have a mortgage or any other debts secured against the property.

When doing the search you can request all the other “no extra charge” documents available and in Victoria this can include the mortgage registration…[Read more]

Hi Misty

I’m a lawyer but not a property lawyer. I do all my searches including title searches on lawpoint.com.au However, to do them online you have to suscribe – not sure if its only legal firms who can suscribe. Even if you don’t suscribe though, they will do “one-off” searches for you and email them to you – give them a call.

An easier…[Read more]

Yeh I agree, you you have to be quite tough sometimes. I’m too soft, but my husband is just great at negotiating – we got great deals with our property managers because he quietly and politely keeps pushing during the conversation until the agent backs down – or comes to a compromise. He also recently bought a new car and sat quietly calmly…[Read more]

Yes I agree – Large, closely planted trees and a VERY tall fence (if council regs will allow it). Many some wire ontop if security an issue.

Also consider double glazing – very good for keeping out traffic noise so would surely be a big help.

If the bedroom is nearest the tracks, consider relocating it – better to have the bathroom there I…[Read more]

I’d recommend phoning around the local real estates and asking for names of registered valuers – they’ve always been only too pleased to help us with this issue.

Dominico, I think it depends on the property, the area and the type of tenant you’re looking to attract. We have one IP in a lovely, quiet, secluded area and none of the tenants have given a hoot about public transport as you have to have a car to live there.

On the other hand, the young houseshare tenants in our inner city property just LOVE the…[Read more]

Dominico, sometimes negative things can be great for an investor – you can get a really good deal on a property that other buyers dismiss outright. This happened with one of our IP’s that is next door to a car mechanics – can’t hear a thing through the walls, in fact can hear more from the neighbours the other side. We have friends who bought a…[Read more]

Snowflake, not sure if you’re talking about building one or making an existing property dual occupancy, but we just bought a dual occupancy property in Victoria – it’s 2 houses back to back, one is 40 yrs old and the other about 100, but no dual occupancy certificate so strictly speaking its not legal to have it as 2 properties. It depends a lot…[Read more]

Hi John

We looked around the Gippsland area but ended up buying in a place called Warburton in the Yarra Valley – its an incredibly beautiful tourist area and there have recently been two approvals for two big tourist resorts – word is that it will become another “Daylesford” in a couple of years, and also consider it’s less than 1 1/2 hrs from…[Read more]

What a great inspiring story, Dr X – a great acheivement. The conversation with the cleaner goes back to that subject of negative, narrow-minded people and how many of them there are around. I’ve just finished reading Richard Branson’s biography and it gave me a dose of much needed positivism – I’d highly recommend it.

Thanks for the advice everyone – Agave I agree with you that it’s sad they don’t understand or trust our abilities and judgements. As a result I’ve concluded that it’s best we don’t tell them about our latest acquisition. This is sad as it means we’ll have to hide a lot from them but I think their negativity would be more damaging in the long…[Read more]

Thanks for that Amanda and Dr X. I’m soo glad there are others out there facing a similar situation. What makes it worse for me though is that I’m seen as the baddie leading their son astray! I totally agree Dr X that they are of totally different mindsets and that we will never see eye-to-eye as in their view, such “huge risks” just aren’t…[Read more]