Forum Replies Created
Hi John
I was in the original Results 1 program back in 2005 and am still in the graduate program because I get so much out of it. From knowing nothing in the early stages we now have investment properties in Australia, New Zealand and the US and I can't begin to tell you how my confidence has grown. The coaches are great sounding boards with a wealth of experience themselves, and as Tracey said above, they don't say there's any one way that's better than another to invest. Part of the journey is your own personal growth in being able to research and make decisions with the backup of the whole Results community behind you.
I don't know where you're based, but myself and another RP1 graduate run a monthly meeting in Parramatta (Sydney) which is open to anyone who's interested in property, although most of the people who come belong to one of the Results programs. We have a monthly guest speaker, and mostly it is about the opportunity to network and surround yourself with like minded people. Feel free to send me a PM if you want more details about that, or just about Results generally. More than happy to share my experiences.
Cheers
JaneJeremy works in the office of propertyinvesting.com. They would not sell your email address to anyone.
Cheers
JaneAnd just to add my two cents’ worth – thanks Agave for helping me realise I’m not the only one who has not divulged a single detail about our properties in NZ and US to my mother – Depression era person, believes in living off the pension and leaving her PPOR and all her money in her will to me and my brother. Thinks our regular trips to NZ are just because we love the place. BUT, what we have done is discussed every aspect of our investments with our two children (just turned 18 and 21). We want them to be unafraid of property investing, and to understand what it entails. If we have raised 2 kids to think a bit outside the square, to explore all the opportunities out there, to stay optimistic when those around you aren’t, then I will consider we have done an OK job. And yes, it’s a bit sad they understand we just don’t tell Nanna certain things but it saves endless phone calls predicting our doom.
Involving relos in the journey is great if it works but when you know their mindset will not change, keep the conversations off property and keep your sanity by chatting on this forum about your PI journey. My greatest inspiration has come from the people on this forum.
All the best
Jane [smiling]Wow Kiwi, I’d be worried the agent would twig to what I was doing, maybe I’d get a friend to be the “tenant” and then I’d ring looking for a PM. Not a bad idea. And if the agent is the problem, what do you do when all the local agents are the same?? There are only 3 in the town we are in in NZ and they haven’t actually been promoted from reception, they still ARE the receptionist, just had PM hat added to their name. Like I said, you can’t fault the friendliness but I find myself giving them the list of questions to ask tenants (her response was “that’s a good idea, I hadn’t thought of doing that”) And for this I pay a 10% fee! But I can’t manage the properties myself from here so don’t have a lot of choice at the moment. There has to be an opening for someone really good at this over there.
Anyway Grant and Nic, hope things work out for you soon. Are you close enough to do any marketing yourselves?
Jane
Hi Grant and and Nic
I can’t help with the Kalgoorlie/Boulder area as it’s not where I’m investing, but I have the same problem with a property sitting vacant for a much longer period of time than I had anticipated. We own three properties in the south island of NZ, two were bought with sitting tenants, medium to long term and with an excellent rental history of looking after the places, paying on time etc. the third house we bought was vacant but run down with heaps of potential. We have spent what we expected on repainting inside, completely recarpeting, converting a storage area into a 4th bedroom and a tidy up of the garden. Agent assured us it would now rent. It didn’t. We are into our 4th month with no tenant. Then the agent rings and says the guy who had done the lawns and gardening was interested in renting it (because of its good outdoor storage) and would we accept $125 a week (we had been asking $140 but were prepared to drop to $130 which still would have made it+ve). We negotiated what we thought was a win-win, ie we would accept $125 if he would maintain the lawns and gardens at a particular standard. Yep said the agent no worries, he’ll sign the papers this week. A week ticked by, nothing. Kept making phone calls and sending emails, getting the run around. Agent finally said don’t think he’s going to pay $125, would we take less. Thinking I was probably committing commercial suicide, I said no. I don’t like being messed around. Meanwhile, went back to my trusty handyman/builder/painter and got a quote for repainting entire outside of house. Organised for that to start this week, painter rings me and says one of his subcontractors loves the property, could they move in next week, happy to pay $140, they’re going to install a skylight to bring some more light into the house and the painter has also lopped a large tree which was making parts of the house quite dark. (no charge to us, he appreciates the fact that I put a lot of work his way and ALWAYS pay his bills immediately)
So finally we have a signed up tenant with great references who is already doing maintenance work on the place. I guess the point to this long winded story is that it pays to nurture great relationships with tradespeople, you never know how the relationship will benefit you. And keep plugging away at property managers (I have found them a difficult lot in NZ, always pleasant but not very proactive. Because I found my own tenant I will not pay their normal fee to place a person in the property.
Keep on top of the maintenance, be prepared to drop your rent slightly, at least in the short term. I work on the theory any rent is better than no rent. Good luck and let us know how you go.
Cheers
JaneWe have financed our three houses in NZ with the National Bank of New Zealand. We have established a good relationship with the manager at our local branch and get a good deal, no fees, good interest rate, and one year’s free insurance on our properties. We simply went into each of the major banks when we were over there this time last year, also visited a mortgage broker but for reasons I can’t explain things just didn’t feel right with them. Maybe we just got lucky with the manager we ended up with but we have had no dramas at all, getting the finance each time was a matter of an email. Of course we had to provide initial income and expenditure details but we found the whole process far more easy going than in Aus.
I’m sure there are heaps of mortgage brokers who will give a great service, but direct dealing with a bank manager has worked for us.
Good luck
JaneHi Claire
Welcome to the forum and to the world of property. I also started out after reading Steve’s first book 0-130 properties, I assume this is the one you have also read. If so, yes the market has changed since then. To answer his critics who said his theories no longer worked, Steve wrote a follow up book $1,000,000 in Property in One Year and that was the next book I read. Since then, I have purchased, over time, just about all of his resources, attended one of his Masterclasses and am currently a member of his RESULTS mentoring program. I’ve also purchased 3 properties and am in the middle of buying another one in the States. This is something I would never have dreamed of doing a couple of years ago.
The strategies you use in PI will always be changing as the market does. This forum is a great place to keep up to date with what’s happening, what people are doing etc. If you get a chance to attend a Masterclass, they are incredibly empowering, always right up to date and fantastic value. For me it hasn’t just been learning about property, it’s also been about taking charge of my future, goal setting and taking action. I still spend most days on the net but realise now the best deals are the ones you find driving around, talking to agents etc.
As long as you’re willing to keep reading and learning you will succeed. There’s masses of help available so don’t be afraid to ask for it. Good luck!
JaneThis may have been asked before, but why isn’t there a forum for US queries? Whilst I am active in both NZ and the US (not upstate NY, we are in Texas), when I log on to the NZ site I kinda expect to see questions relating to NZ only. As I’m pretty novice about forums and it often takes all my courage to even post a reply to something, I don’t know who to address this question to – the moderators? Steve?
CheersI saw his two page ad in API magazine and like you keep looking for the catch. With all my sceptical antennae raised I am contacting him early next week to speak direct and hopefully glean a bit more info. Will post anything useful I get.
Cheers
JaneSparky’s nailed it! Tell them PI means they can quit the daily grind and watch the level of enthusiasm go into orbit. Are women more savvy? Not going into that area, just find each other’s strengths and go with that. I’m an accountant turned TAFE teacher so I was always going to be good at dull grey boring details, hubby’s an entrepreneurial engineer and is heaps better than me at big picture stuff. We’ve spent years learning to communicate and trust each other and like Sparky, he now signs any document I shove under his nose, also happily gave me a power of attorney because he’s away so much. At that stage you just become a great team and I’m sure you’ll get there.[exhappy]
Hi Mabbott and others
Great thread. I got fired up a couple of years ago after reading Kiyosaki, then Steve’s books, then finally attending a Masterclass earlier this year. My husband was supportive enough but not to the point of reading the books or attending the seminars (“I’m too busy”). We decided to look in NZ, not because lots of others were doing it but because we have been visiting the country on and off for the last 20 years and are thinking of moving there in a couple of years when kids are through school/uni. Partner loved the holiday and became quite enthused when actually viewing properties, so I quickly realised for him it was the ‘doing’ and not the research/money etc side of things that would keep him involved.
We are now investing in the States which ties in well with his work which involves substantial travelling, mostly to the States. So now he can go look at the properties over there, take photos, talk to the agents, then we discuss when he comes home and go ahead or not – and I do all the organisational stuff.
Let your fiancee research cakes and whatever for your big day, enjoy your early days together, then slowly find out which bit of PI appeals to her. Jenny was right – with good communication you can make anything work. Best of luck to you both.
JaneHi romo and cisco
I just did last Sunday’s Masterclass in Sydney. We are still looking for good deals in Sydney but are actively buying in NZ at the moment. It would be great to meet some fellow investors. We live in the Hawkesbury region -anywhere near you?
jelMiniMogul
That was such a great reply. People are so generous sharing their experiences on this site. I’m sure wolly found it useful and I know I did so many thanks again. And yes wolly, novice though I am I will still most happily keep you updated with our progress.
jelHi Wolly
I’m probably just as much a beginner as you but we have just had our first offer accepted on a property in NZ. We made the offer 15 April (Friday) and it was accepted on the Monday (18th). We made it subject to a satisfactory building report which we organised that same day. Normally we would also have included ‘subject to finance’ but as we already had that in place we didn’t bother making it a condition. We have also requested a LIM.We have been told our offer should become unconditional within two weeks and at that point we pay our deposit. After that it should take about 4-5 weeks for everything to be finalised. Don’t know if this is normal but it’s what we’ve been told.
I’d be happy to keep you informed of our progress and let you know how long things actually take.
Cheers
jelHi terrabyte
The Buyer Beware package is actually a book and 2 CDs which I have just bought. We are purchasing our first property in NZ and would not be without Buyer Beware for anything – the templates alone are worth their weight in gold.
Good luck
jelHi All
Glad to hear a few others (Chally etc) were thinking along the same lines. And thanks Terryw for the additional info from December. It is a different way of looking at things but then again that was one of the points Steve was making – markets change and our thinking has to change with it.
cheers
jel
ps Chally, I’m a she!Hi Liz
I was at the Masterclass and the bit you mention is where most of the people at my table started to come a bit unstuck. We all would have liked to spend more time going through this part. Our understanding is that the capital appreciation on the property leads to the lower rent yield, so for example if you pay $130,000 for a property, rent for $300 a week, that is 12% return. If you sell the property for $156,000, everything else being equal, ie rent is still $300 a week, the yield is now 10%. We may have looked at this a bit simplistically but that was the consensus at my table. Hope it helps a bit.Would like to hear from anyone else who was there as to whether they had a different understanding of this concept. A fabulous day.
jel
Hi All
This is my first ever post. In January this year we travelled around the South Island looking for potential investment areas after doing as much research as possible from home (NSW). Dunedin was one of the areas we looked at. We made good contacts with a couple of agents who have kept us updated with student rental properties for sale, but have not yet managed to find anything offering a reasonable return. We have since looked further south to smaller towns and are looking at 3-4 bedroom family homes. We are now in the process of buying our first property – a 3 bedroom house with sitting long term good tenant and a return of 12%. A small step to be sure, but at least we’ve taken it. We are still keeping an eye on Dunedin in case a bargain pops up and yes, there were quite a few Aussies looking in Dunedin at the same time as us. All the agents we met commented on it. I hated the feeling that they might be rubbing their hands together when they saw us coming, one of the reasons we looked further afield. Having said that, all the agents we spoke to, plus the very helpful bank manager we established a relationship with, believe the student market is there for the long term but said they are looking for better quality accommodation than has been the norm.
Don’t know if any of this helps anyone but it’s a good feeling to finally be contributing after being struck by ‘forum fear’ and not responding to anyone for fear of looking dumb.
Cheers
jel
