I'd caution you against managing it yourself.  Treat it as a business.  Don't get personal with your tenants.  It makes it easier for you to feel sorry for them and allow late rent payments and so forth.  But more importantly, if you do not have a property manager, you will not qualify for landlord insurance (which is ESSENTIAL).Yep, Mount Dru…[Read more]

The shrubbery is on the common parts and as such ought to be handled in some manner by the strata manager.  You are right – if the current agreement with the garden contractor doesn't cover it, then to include it will probably cost more.  But surely they do  not need to trim the shrubs every week.  Once a quarter perhaps…

I would expect a strata manager to not only manage in a reactive manner (eg only fix stuff that is broken), but also in a proactive manner (to maintain the gardens and so on, and do any preventive work to avoid expensive works).Like it or not, the appearance of your property from the street affects its value.  If you wanted to leverage your unit t…[Read more]

I'd be contacting them anyway.  Sounds like you've been paying strata management fees, and they have done no maintenance work in return.

Hehehe it did say selling. I am blind!

Of course it is possible.  I am sure that the other owners would be annoyed by a 50% increase anyway, and that's even not considering the fact that the grounds are not being well maintained.Letters take so long.  Start knocking on doors to speed up the process and figure it out from there.  Remember it might be the case that some of the units ha…[Read more]

I agree with the above post.  Not sure what your budget is, but a couple of places to start looking are:BlacktownSeven HillsNowra (https://www.propertyinvesting.com/forums/property-investing/help-needed/4333820)All three you could get a place on a big block, and either subdivide the backyard and sell it, or hold it and build another dwelling on…[Read more]

How many apartments in the complex? Would it be hard to get all the owners together and agree to fire the building managers?

anyone?

I second that.  That new freeway…. they have only 2km-ish of sealing to go on that road.  One of the BIG rules of real estate is FOLLOW THE INFRASTRUCTURE.   A really long road connecting Nowra to Canberra is indeed some seriously expensive infrastructure.  Perhaps Nowra is not thecrest's favourite town.  So what.  Smart bunnies saw major capita…[Read more]

Any reason why these are the only two choices of location?

Lots of big blocks in Nowra.  Get a house on one of them and build another in the backyard

Hi Lena,I agree, hold on tight.  If you sell, you've kind of wasted the stamp duty and legal fees money you spent acquiring the property.  Hey have you had a depreciation schedule done on the place?  If not, quantity surveyors do them, they cost about $500.  Basically they work out how much the building, carpets etc are "depreciating in value due…[Read more]

Good point.  Thanks Terry!

I would think that between all the members of this forum, we'd have enough property books to start a library!

Wasn't the original question about fees for property managers, as opposed to selling agents?

On this topic, are there any real estate agents that accept credit card for property purchase deposits?  I really fancy the idea of earning half a holiday worth of frequent flyer points for my troubles of purchasing a property.If anyone knows of any agencies that accept credit cards for this purpose, I would love it if you could list them here!

Remember to speak to council about other requirements before you start planning too far ahead.  For instance, you might not be allowed to build within a certain distance of a fenceline.  There might be sewer mains under the ground that you are not allowed to build over. There might be height restrictions. There might be minimum "back yard" d…[Read more]

Hi again – yes wasn't sure if you were planning to sell the house.However with the apartment, what is the purpose of having a bunch of money sitting on that, while you pay non-deductible interest on the house?  I was suggesting looking into whether you can refinance the apartment to rectify this.

I would have thought that payments on a credit card into a mortgage would be classed as a cash advance – regardless of whether you had already loaded your credit card up with the funds.  You don't get points for cash advances.  Give them a call and ask…