[Matthew_WMember@matthew_wJoin Date: 2009Post Count: 19]

July 10, 2012 - 12:30 am

The above posters seem to be talking about capital growth returns. In terms of good rental returns, I found that up North is where good rents are, and houses are dirt cheap – near Elizabeth and Salisbury way.
It's easy to find a property in the $130-$160k range that are getting rents of $220-$260/week. At least one or two come on the market every week.

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June 27, 2012 - 7:36 am

Usually investors will want to buy both duplexes for a cheaper price, than just buying one. It's probably best for you to do this too return wise, instead of doubling up on selling/marketing costs, agents fees etc. selling individual units.

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June 27, 2012 - 3:56 am

Make sure you have a certain amount of knowledge and certainty before taking the jump. There's nothing worse than making a purchase, then realising a couple of months down the track, you make a mistake as you were too naive; before you know it you've made a dud purchase, with the property not making you any money at all….

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June 20, 2012 - 7:51 am

NHG wrote:

I can't recall who told me this, yet I felt it was a valid point…

If it's a good buy already, and it meets all your criteria, why loose it over 5-10k. I haven't had the most experience, tho I feel I would I would only negotiate further if there were multiple offers on the table which met my criteria.

I saw a place and put an offer in 20 mins later, about 8% lower asking price, as I felt that even at asking price it was a great buy, and I had a nagging feeling the vendor had a reason to sell cheap (I was right). A month later a friend placed an offer on a house a street away and lowballed by 10k, he missed out on what would have been a great purchase already.

Spend a good deal of time getting to know an area, and you will quickly assess what property stock is worth.

Albeit true. However, whilst there's that chance you can lose it, there's also a chance the offer could be accepted too.

Like Kristin said above, the agent should get back to you to make a counter-offer if a higher offer is received. So there's really no harm I guess. *shrugs*

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June 20, 2012 - 5:29 am

Kristin Simondson PBRE wrote:

Matthew_W wrote:

*snip*

*trimmed*

Thanks Kristin. That's what I thought. I guess it depends on the agent….

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June 19, 2012 - 5:20 am

Wow! 14?

Consider yourself lucky Ethan that you know what you want to do with your life and start now.

I don't think you're ever to young to start – anything! You can probably read, read, and read for now. And like Shiny_Suit_Man said above me, if you're not sure on anything, ask your parents (or here  ).

You should start building up a wealth of knowledge through this reading, and then in a couple of years when you get to do work experience at your school, you can get a bit of experience in the field at a real estate firm.

Then go from there

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June 13, 2012 - 7:49 am

NHG wrote:

First property, I felt I was being rude offering such a 'low' price. My dad who always has an opinion told me off for not negotionating hard enough.

Fast forward 6 months, purchased property number 2. This time dad was uncomfortable as I was putting in 'low ball' offers. I stuck to what I felt was the right price for me in order for said property to meet my cash-flow criteria, amusingly all offers have come back with a yes (some 2-3 months later). I took the one that I felt was a great buy.

Lesson learnt, now working on improving research and negotiating skills.

I don't really want to go OT, but just a quick question in regards to offers/negotiating:

Say the agent is asking $140k-$150k for the property – you know it's a bargain already. However, you offer $110k-$120k to try and get it that extra bit cheaper for your returns, yet someone else offers $135k. Even though you expressed interest, but your offer is lower, would they come back to you, or take the $135k offer?

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June 12, 2012 - 7:54 am

arope99 wrote:

I guess I should have asked in a more specific way. If we are going to buy a property, we would buy in the eastern or north eastern suburbs close to Adelaide city (Norwood, Maylands, Payneham, etc). Reasons are – easy for me to travel to/from work – close to city and shops – rental vacancies in those areas seems to be low Is it a good time to buy unit or small townhouse in those areas at this time? Hope people living and investing in Adelaide could help. I'm just trying to make sure that my final decision would be the best, with probably some backup plans down the years. Thanks everyone.

Hey mate.

I just came across this and (although a tad late in terms of response) thought I'd give my two cents.

Mid last year I purchased a one bedroom unit at Rostrevor for $220,000. It fetches $250/week rent. I got caught up in the excitement of it being a buyers market at the time (and it still is), and now I've ended up with a negatively geared property. Big mistake! In Norwood, Payneham, Unley etc., you're looking at units in the $220-$280k range with rent ranging from $220-$285/week depending on the amount of bedrooms.

After doing some more research, I found that the northern suburbs are probably your best investment. I'm talking Salisbury and Elizabeth in particular. I've seen houses and units coming on the market in $120,000-$160,000 range, with rent in the $220-$260/week range. Not only that, house prices have doubled (and some even tripled) in those areas in the past 10 years, as a lot of them are old housing trust houses that were sold off back in the day. They're on large allotments too – perfect for development in the coming years.

This is from experience after a year of sussing out the market, so take it for what it's worth. But in terms of return – even capital gains – it's pretty low in the eastern suburbs. The north east is promising, but the further north you go, the better I reckon.

Eastern suburbs = great place to live, poor place to invest.
Northern suburbs = poor place to live, great place to invest.

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January 24, 2012 - 7:24 am

All things are possible to men who believe – Mark 9:23

A good little Bible verse that has gotten me through some times

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January 12, 2012 - 4:08 am

Still residential. I'm in Adelaide, so I'll definately suss out the market here still. Then research interstate, then US.

Baby steps lol….

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January 12, 2012 - 3:46 am

Hi Stoolie.

Please don't be scared when I tell you this, but: this may be difficult.

I'm not sure how old you are, but you say you have 12 years in the Telco industry? So I'm going to say around mid 30's?

Not all success in the property industry requires a Uni degree. A prime example is Steve McKnight himself. However, if you're looking to get into Development or Management, a Uni deree is advised. You don't just jump straight into the job, you need to know the bare minimum essentials on things like the market, research, costs, risks/return, leases, laws etc. On top of this, employers usually look for experience in your field of interest when applying for a job in said field. This can often be worth more than the degree itself.

However, if you want to get into sales. You can do a 6 week TAFE Diploma program. Once you have that, you're pretty much guaranteed a job in any residential real state firm. The tough part is building up your repore, spreading your name around, to get people to trust you to get the maximum price for the minimum comission when selling their house. This may seem easy, but not really in todays conditions as opposed to 10-15 years ago….

In property especially, it can be more of a case of 'not what you know, but who you know' sometimes.

That's my 2 cents anyway. Good luck!

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January 2, 2012 - 10:32 pm

Well obvious things that firstly come to mind is the council. Ring them up and ask if there are any significant trees on the piece of land that can or can not be removed. This could affect how you build your property and (somewhat) it’s worth.
You would also need to test the soil. Depending on the type of soil, it could affect your foundations for the house.
These are just a couple of things to look at prior to purchasing the land. I’m sure others will add more

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December 17, 2011 - 11:03 pm

Catalyst wrote:

I just buy whatever makes money.

Lol, yep!

As a personal opinion though, a house. I’m not a big fan of any sort of apartment/townhouse as far as a living environment is concerned. It would annoy me to no end having neighbors so close to me (next/above/below), that I’d have to worry about noise levels, what time I get home etc.

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December 16, 2011 - 10:51 am

Hi Jon!

Just thought I'd add my two cents on top of Richards. Doesn't hurt getting a second opinion I guess

I just want to suggest that if you're living in a 2 bedroom unit – presumably by yourself (or with a partner), you'd only use one bedroom. Try and get a flatmate in to rent the other room to give you some more income; because, unless you have a well paying job, home loan repayments for $280-$300k would be around the $2,000/month mark; obviously not including other (living) expenses.

Obviously the more deposit you have the better. $7k on top of your 5% deposit won't really get you very far, especially paying the minimum $2,000/month mentioned in the above paragraph. You must live in the property for a minimum of 6 months (or is it 12 – it escapes me now lol) to get the FHOG.

IMHO, unless you have a well payed job, or you put the house in your parents name (and they put their house up as collateral; which, depending on the lender, would give you a better interest rate), I'd save for the next 6-12 months. OR purchase a property now, and get someone in to rent for the next 12 months, until you're ready to move in. Then you can somewhat have your cake and eat it too

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December 16, 2011 - 10:25 am

Wow. Great blog Emma!

Keep us updated.

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December 16, 2011 - 9:44 am

Someone may want to back me up here, but hasn't the US market been considerably cheap {depending where you want to buy of course} for a couple of years now? Even today.

I remember going to a Steve McKnight seminar in late 2009 where he was talking about $400k properties being bought a few years earlier, and selling for $150k in late2009. My memory is a bit hazy, but that was the gist.

AdisKay, the market is of course unpredictable; but who knows? Maybe you will get some deals there in 1-2 years time similiar to deals now. You might be able to get better deals. Or if worse comes to worse, like others have said, Australia has plenty of deals out there

Perhaps purchase 1 or 2 here first, live and learn from your mistakes, and then try overseas investing when you have more knowledge and a bit of experience. Being a bit older than yourself (just turned 23), investing overseas sounds very risky at suc a young age with limited knowledge.

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November 27, 2011 - 1:47 pm

fWord wrote:

Matthew…once your thesis is complete, and you have a PDF copy, I'd be very interested to see it.

Consider it done

I plan to do it part time over two years; a lot obviously can change in that time, but will keep it in mind mate

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November 26, 2011 - 1:10 am

Sorry for the late reply guys.

SHales – I actually considered about the mining industry (growing popular every day); and also how the environment is more prominent in real estate now (eg: when developing – how this affects the flora and fauna, community, and 5 and 6 star green buildings). Im not really a fan of that; im more interested in how ‘x’ affects the return of ‘y’. Your second paragraph is interesting however, and worth considering. I’m wanting to do something with a bit of finance (risk/return, yields etc.), so that could easily work into affordability.

XDrew – Lol! It’s an 18,000 word limit thesis; but all those ideas in your second paragraph I never would’ve thought of in terms of writing about what works and what doesn’t.

I kinda wanted to write about something that I could learn about, and implement in the future. I’m 99% sure I am going with my option of: Residential Property Investment: Rental Return or Capital Growth?; however, you two have stirred the pot (in a good way ) and got me thinking more. So many possibilities! Cheers again.