I think you have answered your own question there;
I was going to say –
Look at existing properties with similar design, building size and block size that have recently sold in the immediate area. This is pretty much what a valuer would do. It may be worthwhile paying a few hundred bucks to hire a valuer to help you anyway.
If you work on an…[Read more]

As a very simple calc for the closing costs and interest paid, I work on:
– 6% of the purchase price for closing costs (this is usually an over-estimation).
– yearly interest, using 1% higher than what I am paying right now (again, an over-estimation for the most part). This is worked out AFTER adding the closing costs to the purchase price.

I…[Read more]

One of the schools of thought with investment debt is you shouldn’t or don’t need to pay it down as it is a tax deductable expense. You should instead pay down any PERSONAL debt first such as car loans, credit cards etc as this debt is not tax deductable.

If you sell the other investments you have and put them into the I.P loan, you will pay cgt…[Read more]

Good post Rent New Tampa.

On that note;
As a guide for the newbies who are maybe not sure how to crunch numbers on a propsective property, a basic rule of thumb I use with expenses on an I.P is to allow 20% out of the rent per year to cover all expenses. If the rent is such that I can lose 20% of it to costs, and still cover the mortgage, then I…[Read more]

If you’ve ever read any of my posts on this issue you will know my view – never sell unless you have to when you can use the equity to buy more.

It may be a good idea to sell one or two to decrease some debt and increase some cashflow on the ones you keep, but to simply sell all and turn around and buy again is going to eat up a lot of profit in…[Read more]

Originally posted by wapi001:
I too have been thinking of Adelaide for the next investment. Does anyone have first hand experience with Destiny Financial Services run by Margaret Lomas?

I have been a big fan of Margaret for many years. Her books are excellent.
I joined the Melb branch of Destiny Financial Solutions as a client 3 years ago as…[Read more]

My first property purchase was a PPoR when I was 25 and sold 3 years later for a modest profit.
No real story there, but go to the Discussion Forums, then look up “heads up” and then look under the “Lemons” topic for a good laugh about my first I.P purchase.

Cheers,
Marc.
erardent@hotmail.com

“we get sent lemons; it’s up to us to make lemonade”

We can argue until the cows come home about which gives better returns – it depends who you talk to, but here’s a question for some discussion:

You own, debt free; one property – your PPoR and it is worth $500k. You have no other assets such as I.P’s (cars, boats, house contents, superannuation and personable valuables such as jewellery, don’t…[Read more]

Hi Ems,
good to see Warnie and the boys give your sorry arsed lot a good hiding!! Now that he and Glen McGrath are retiring you may have half a hope!

Down to business; we are living in L.A and have been here for 16 months so far – 14 to go!
We have I.P’s in various states of Aus, all are managed. We are renting our PPoR as well and it is also…[Read more]

Originally posted by condog:
Then with due respect you havent analysed the right companies.
ANZ, CBA, WBC SGB have all averaged a first year franked yeild of well over 7% and 15% growth in share price and earnings for 8 of the last 10 years.
In roughly a 5 year period
MND has averaged over 40%, BHP and RIO have averaged over 30%, WPL has averaged…[Read more]

Originally posted by PosEnterprises:
Hi i am wanting to be independent from my govt job i don’t like answering to bosses!

Should i buy reno and sell or buy reno and hold? What is the best way to have cashflow so that i may work for myself!

any ideas[blink]

If you have a govt job never, never, never leave! –
Until you have built up enough…[Read more]

Personally,
I love all the Newbie questions – it draws out the helper within; I love to help those who want help if I can.
Not only that, I get to talk to like-minded people – they are in short supply around here in L.A.
But it also makes me think a bit more and re-remember stuff I take for granted now.
Bring ’em on!

Cheers,
Marc.
erardent@hotmail.com

So am I.
It is good fun. I’ve been having a laugh or three with the Nigerian emails all last week as well.

Cheers,
Marc.
erardent@hotmail.com

Hey Dazzling;
Please let them come – I send them nasty private messages. It’s great fun!!
You can tell I need to get a life!

Cheers,
Marc.
erardent@hotmail.com

Sorry to inform you that while I have been here I haven’t done any active research – just a bit of look now and then on the MSN property site to keep myself occupied. The whole country has been through a boom similar to Aus, and now the ‘crash’ is in full-blown mode in a lot of areas. Of course there are plenty of areas that are still good; I just…[Read more]

Why would anyone sell a property returning 24%?

There must be some problems there somewhere.
It could be like Buffalo – good returns and cheap properties, but the town is dying, the unemployment and crime are on the rise and it is hard to find a tenant and a good tenant at that.

And finally, there is always property tax here in the U.S.…[Read more]

Buying a brand new anything off the plan rarely results in you buying the property cheaper than the market.

The reason is that almost all developers will add a premium to their product to cover things like agent commissions, advertising and rental guarantees if they are offering them and other holding costs.

The other danger with ‘off the plan’…[Read more]

No doubt just another developer masquerading as a wealth creating company.
They will sell you an overpriced property that they own.
This type of product is for the people who want to invest but don’t want to do the work behind making a good investment decision. They pay a premium for their laziness and/or their lack of knowledge unfortunately.
If…[Read more]

We converted a smaller bedroom into a bathroom in a house we owned a few years ago. We wanted a separate bathroom for each bedroom so we could run a B&B, so we needed to add an extra bathroom.

My brother-in-law is a plumber, so he did all the plumbing work with my help and I did all the rest. All the plumbing work was 1st class.

There were no…[Read more]

All the authors I mentioned in the earlier post are great. Between them there are about 20 books so that wiil keep you going for a while. I have read every one and they are great, as are the ones below;

Add to that list ;
Robert Kiyosaki, Peter Spann, “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill,
“Millionaire Next Door” by Stanley and Danko, “The…[Read more]