[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

November 2, 2009 - 2:08 am

A while back we were looking at an apartment at Elizabeth Bay (Sydney) and the strata for a 1 bedder is about $1500/pq if I remember correctly. The apartment is meticulously decorated high on the 12 or 13th floor with reasonable view across Kings Cross. Upon investigation we realise the carpark with a "car rotator/conveyer belt thingie" (due to limited space for car to do a 3 point turn) requires a lot of expensive maintenance.

Upon further investigation we realised the apartment has been on the market once every 18-24 months.

Troubles we all don't need.

Then again there are so called 3 bedroom panthouses in the city with a $5000/quarter strata. I guess the only way I'll live in one of these is when a company pay for this sort of things…

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

November 2, 2009 - 1:57 am

Sorry subject should say "Excess Supply". Is there a way to edit?

That brings me to a perpetual question I've got for this forum: Do  you find this forum difficult to use? I certainly think so as I often can't find my posts/reply if I don't eyeball thru a long list of entries… but this is a discussion for another forum I guess. Do point me to some posts regarding this if any. Thanks. 

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

October 31, 2009 - 12:07 pm

Unilodge Sydney certainly depreciated! Plus at any one time there are 20+ of them on sale.

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

October 31, 2009 - 11:56 am

If you have an SMSF you seem to know what you're doing and I'm surprise you hold so much money in cash and no investment (or perhaps you have plenty of shares/gold etc but didn't mention).

If that's the case I suggest you consult an independent professional planner. I'm sure you already know that, there's a lot at stake here and at this age there's not a lot of room for error.

Nonetheless with $500k you can buy 3 positive cash flow properties in Melb/Syd and I guess that'll have some but manageable impact on your current cash flow – you lose the 20k interest but you'll gain some excess rents after paying off the mortgage. Again if I were you, and if I haven't been paying attention to tax planning / property investment, I'll gladly budget 5-10k to consult an independent planner and property adviser (who doesn't broker your loan).

I'm interested to know tho, whether an SMSF structure for $150k  of super has been worth your while? It seems like a small amount to be worth the effort of self managing. Plus if you're holding cash in your super, why indeed bother with SMSF?

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

October 18, 2009 - 11:31 am

I'm happily generalising but I've stopped wasting time with rental guarantees.

Rental for the property needs to be guaranteed as obviously without it noone will buy it.

If you guarantee it for 20 years, perhpas I'll look at it. However 2 years goes by in a flash, after that the hotel has access to my property without having to front the cost of keeping it, and they just transfer the risk from themselves to you. That's basically what it boils down to. They do it because hotel is highly volatile industry.

Better / safer investment else where.

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

October 13, 2009 - 1:33 pm

very strange… don't really understand. why would the builder care if you sell before/after 20 years?

am I stupid?

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

October 2, 2009 - 2:27 am

Terryw,

Isn't that amazing… with 70m+ people mostly living in shoeboxes, properties are traded like second hand clothings.

The ski resorts having been invaded by Aussies are a different story. Last time I was there when AUD1=JPY55 some holiday units were on the market for the equivalent of aud$300k., yet last week a friend of ours was looking to buy a 3 bedroom unit in downtown Sapporo for AUD90,000 (granted rate has improved marketly but still).

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

September 30, 2009 - 8:27 am

5.3% is about average for an apartments in Sydney no?

Consider Japanese rental market – I was told it's virtually non-existent as nobody rent in Japan!

Regardless I think Chatswood and Artarmomn are good growth areas. Too many asians wanna live in Chatswood and it is a sub-economy in it's own. (same goes to Hurstville)

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

September 29, 2009 - 5:16 pm

That's normal. You don't go thru every drawers/windows/locks/power point before you move in. Even if you bring it up before signing it's unlikely the owner will care to fix them for you unless they are really desperate to sell and you want to stipulate into the contract. But in that case it's easier to just bargain another $1-2k or so… but really it's getting small minded.

Cut people some slack – you already bought it at bargain price…

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

September 29, 2009 - 9:47 am

You cannot attain great wealth and be a free man if you refuse to take risk.

Unless of course you win lotto.

Good luck.

p.s. ~7% is more like the NORMAL rate. Current ~5% is an emergency rate.

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

September 29, 2009 - 3:02 am

I'd say it's just yourself…. or the area you live in….

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

September 29, 2009 - 2:57 am

Hartfam,

These things come at a price. In the past they have been low performance (if perform at all) investments – You prepay some on-going costs (where the deduction comes from), he get a nice commission, and you expose yourself to often high-risk and elaborate financial scheme that designed only to benefit every one in the selling chain but the actual paying buyer. Sometimes they'll also advise you to take out a loan and prepay the interest (more deduction). It smells like this – borrow/invest $100,000, you get $50,000 deduction… bla bla…. mature in 5 years… bla… can't guarantee… bla… but it's a fantastic investment for someone like you who make so much money… bla bla…

In 2005/6 my accountant invite me to a "launch dinner" at Sheraton hotel in order to sell me one of these funds and a few other "agricultural schemes" including Timbercorp (which has since collapsed). I'm not saying funds are not good, nor am I saying they don't deserve commission, but if it feels like it's designed to lure novice investors, be very careful.

After the GFC I hope the landscape gets cleaned up a bit.

Lastly, count your blessing that you're paying bucket loads of tax. I wish I could be doing that. Within immediate term (this FY) obtaining tax deduction should be seen as a bonus in devising a long term investment strategy, and not as the primary aim (if so just donate the money to a charity – that always give some people satisfaction and is a good spiritual investment). That said, if chosen properly, negetive geared properties are often the most sensible way to achieve this. Anything else (such as shares/funds), you probably won't want to borrow too much and borrowing to obtain tax deduction is just downright risky.

Or take more holidays and try to forget about how much tax you pay… AUD is high and a trip overseas costs about 40% less than earlier this year.

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

September 29, 2009 - 2:24 am

If you want to get into property but don't know enough about it, consider using buyer's agents. A good one will know what property to buy for the specific reasons. This is a few thousand dollars well spent rather than shooting blindly in the dark (but luck in finding good planner/agent also at play of course).

Don't be afraid of dumping professional quickly if you don't feel comfortable with them.

If the financial planner you talk to tries to talk you out of property but into managed funds that he sell (usually with massive tax deduction), don't just walk away. run as fast as  you can!

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

September 28, 2009 - 5:20 pm

What does your husband do that make him that much?

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

September 28, 2009 - 5:11 am

Need to boycott Google so that they won't get too big.  But then again the law of diminishing return stipulates that once they gotten too big, sooner or later they're bound to create something stupid like Microsoft Vista – a pointless innovation driven by ego (citing a recent article in Newsweek re knives)

Need to support SMH so that as the only tabloid company they remain to be our great tradition (being nostalgic here). Good that Ron Walker has been ousted! The existing SMH board has too many idiots on it (citing common sentiment in the investment landscape).

Google is the ipod of the net – it does everything you want and often better than you could ever imagine.

I refuse to own an ipod and haven't had one ever. Have an iphone tho but I never use the ipod function… don't know how to use it and don't particularly care…

Just some monday rants…

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

September 22, 2009 - 5:01 am

Eventually they can catch up and data-match 100% of the population if they want to. It's only a database query.

May not happen this year, not next year not year after, but could happen on 4th or 5th year… By then you also need to repay the interest.

A lot more incentive to audit people receiving grants in 2008/2009 due to higher payouts. I think.

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

September 21, 2009 - 3:35 pm

Correct me if I'm wrong you can certainly ask for vacant possession when you enter into contract to buy any property, no?

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

September 21, 2009 - 3:31 pm

Guts feeling based on your post is, you'd better see a suitable accountant for this.

But in the absence of further information, I hazard a guess that these would roughly be what you need to do:

1. Get yourself a pty ltd and start running your business thru it. Doesn't matter if it's in both your names or just one of you. Pty Ltd also separates your business affairs from your personal life – it feels great to have one! (I know from experience)

2. For future purchases, either buy it personally or use a trust. (your accountant can advise you)

3. If you only have one or two existing properties, and your business seems low risk (if you've been partnershipping, I guess it would be?), I won't bother transferring them into the new trust (if you going to set up one).

But as I say, definitely see an accountant.

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

September 16, 2009 - 5:39 am

Joshua was talking about this post:

https://www.propertyinvesting.com/forums/community/heads-up/6845

Old but ok.

If you're not too financially read-up most ppl can also benefit from some non-real estate and mindset aligning books. Rich Dad Poor Dad or the richest man in babylon is a good start.

[j900Participant@j900Join Date: 2008Post Count: 56]

September 14, 2009 - 1:24 pm

Why do you need to refinance very year if you make your IP interest only? Don't you only need to do it once?

I think selling just cost too much. Assuming $500k properties, the transactions of selling 2 IPs and buy back is likely to cost you in excess of $50k. Is that a worthwhile option? Maybe… but to me it's just too stressful.