Forum Replies Created
- Originally posted by Eisbaer:
I am an agent in Brisbane, and standard practice in our office is that when there are two offers on a property, we have to get both buyers to sign a declaration saying they have put forward their best offer, and may not get another chance to do so.
So in your case, if you made an offer on a property, and then we received another offer, we would come back to you first and let you know that there is another offer, and you would have the opportunity to put forward your best offer.
http://www.lukechapman.com.auHave been in this situation and the agent did exactly that, which I believe is the correct way to act. I understand NAT12 being frustrated, but if I were the vendor and found out they did this they would have a very hard time getting their commision from me. NAT12 just avoid this agent in the future and spend your time with the ones that wont waste it.
Regards,
myoung
Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure as hell can mitigate a lot of things that make you miserable.
A friend of mine got one of these jobs, they are real but you have to jump through hoops. The reason it may sound like telemarking is you earn your stripes, ie start out cold calling for listing appointments and progress to listing and sales within six months. He had to study the Jenman system and pass an exam before getting the job. Actually tried at one agents and missed the exam mark by 1 or 2 points(pass mark was 95% or something) and got through at the second agent he did it with. Carved out a good career and earnt good money compared with what he was doing prior. Has now left to start his own business in a different industry as he got jack of spending weekends at work as he had a young family.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
myoung
Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure as hell can mitigate a lot of things that make you miserable.
BA XR8, fun and 80% business use on a $15K car allowance
96 Jeep for the wife on Gas, family trucksterRegards,
myoung
Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure as hell can mitigate a lot of things that make you miserable.
Have done it recently with just a clause agreed to by both parties solicitors. No Licencing agreement required. For minor alterations.
Don’t forget to take out insurance before you occupy, especially if your using sub contractors AT ALL.ie Public Liability etc.
Regards,
myoung
Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure as hell can mitigate a lot of things that make you miserable.
Appologies if they have already been covered:
-Don’t forget to spend time with your family, it’ easy to get carried away.
-Research, research and research.
– The more you learn, the more you will realise how much MORE there is to learn.
-Ugly ducklings are goldmines – less competition and easier to get bargains. Focus on ones that are structuraly sound and cosmetically challenged.
-Listen to friends and relatives but filter out the fear – you may still pick up something you haven’t considered but don’t let THEIR fear stop you acting on a well researched idea.
-Land appreciates, houses do not (generally, unless a major cost of construction rise is underway, ie inflation).
-Don’t be afraid to make low offers.
– set monetary limits and STICK to them – don’t get emotionally involved unless it is your PPOR and even then set limits.
– If your time constrained, and are going to look in person in an area, line up lots of houses to look at and hopefully find several to buy and go after them in order of preference. Can save heaps of time going back to find others if you can’t get the first deal your after.
-Do your calculations – personally made a mistake that cost me 000’s in tax because I was buying for gains and not considering rental yield several years ago.
– Remember, even though you can build relationships, agents work for the VENDOR.Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure as hell mitigates the a lot of things that make you miserable.
Stay were you are or rent with friends to keep your expenses down and save like mad for your first investment. Stick what you have already saved in a managed fund or at worst high interest savings account(ie BankWest or IMG) and work towards you first property investment. While your doing this educate yourself as much as possible. Read books, start researching areas, prepare yourself to act, and when you’ve got enough cash built up you’ll be ready to go. Good luck.The earlier you start the better.
Hi Jenny1,
I bought a property in 98′ in Vermont Vic. It was an ugly duckling. It was on the market due to a marriage breakup and had been unoccupied for a few months – the grass in the back yard was 5 feet long(I’m not exagerating). It was 860m2 in a court with a 11sq weatherboard that had some interesting renos but wasn’t finished. The base boards and half the weatherboards were stuffed(husband had removed aircon from bedoroom and nailed a crate base over the hole!), but it had nice polished floors thoughout and gas hydronic central heating. We offered $117 for it(wanted $139) and the bank was a week of foreclosing. Got it and spent about 12K on it including stamp duty, fix all the weatherboards/baseboards/repointed the roof/painted inside and out. Rented it for $195 per week for 2 yrs to the tenants from heaven(garden was in better nick than when they moved in). Sold it in 2001 for $240K, even gave the tenants the last two weeks rent free they were so helpful in allowing potential buyers through and keeping it clean.
Lessons learnt:
Look at return from rent before deciding who owns it(cost me a bit in CGT as I just put it in my name rather than my wifes thinking it would be negative geared). Hey I was a novice back then, but at least it helped fund my 2nd PPOR which we built.
Don’t go to auction unless their are several seriously intersted prospective buyers, cost me 2K in adveertising on to pass in on vendor bids and sell 3 weeks later.
Agree with Dazzling, don’t buy the tarted up ones, much better gains to be had with the ugly duckling, much less competition too.Take photos of the cars where you can’t be seen doing it and send anonymously to the cops
Originally posted by Ricksta:hmmm I know your right Foundation but renting in my opinion is such a waste of money. Maybe I’ll have to change my direction and look for a cheaper alternative. eg: townhouse or unit not a freestanding house [glum]
Not if you rent something that is in a low yield area and buy an another investment in a high yield one.[buz2]You’ll actually be in a better lifestyle at a lower cost.
Something tells me if they are renting the place to grow, they may be just growing more than one!
Originally posted by lukis p:myoung, even if my propeties go sidewards for 3 years i have still made significant gains, i have locked in for 15 ytrs at 7.4 % I am in for the long haul.
Lukisp, that is the point i was trying to make(obviously didn’t do it very well). All I’m saying is that if you aquire more property THIS YEAR IMHO you will be waiting a while to make money if you go -ve geared for capital growth and I believe now more than ever is the time for +ve cashflow to ride out the possible lull or storm.
We are at a point where something has to give IMHO. Either rental yields will increase to drive further price growth, prices will contract somewhat or a combination of the two meeting in the middle.
Spent the week on hols(reason for delayed response), looked at some houses in the areas and they are going for sale prices that deliver 2% gross yields!!!!!!!
Nobleone, believe it if you like but I tend to dismiss articles that are so obviously politically motivated.
I personally believe the greenback will move upwards in the next couple of years, time will tell I suppose.
Lukasp, my point was that property is long term and I believe we wont see the gains sustained that we have seen in recent yrs, if your going to hold property over a tough period I would rather have it making you money(while it is not appreciating much) than funding a -ve geared place waiting several years to see any gains(ie next boom cycle).
ONobleone, seems a little like emotion from someone upset that Bush won the election rather than a basis in reality.
BTW – read Steve’s 2nd book – great read and a different twist on your existing reading.
Similiar to Jenwren’s theme, set goals. Work out what you want to achieve as the end goal and then determine what you need to do to achieve it. This should also help you decide what to read attend etc. PS Warning(and apologies to the genuine seminar people out there) a lot of the seminars out there are trying to sell you over priced property in areas you don’t know. Don’t buy anything without researching it VERY THOROUGHLY yourself first!
John, reason I say that is IMHO the market has hit a point in the cycle where we will not see a continuing rise like we have, anyone no matter how ignorant could have made money in property in the last 5 yrs, I think we will see a downturn before another price boom, yields are still too low to support another price boom, so unless your being creative to make your CG I would prefer to ride out the lull/downturn with a property that is paying for itself. If you in for the long term then you will get CG eventually on just about anything, except a ghost town. Just my opinion. Personally I have just recently consolidated and been through a gratification stage;-), planning to get back in and go both positive and negative(later) for more CG, but I feel this is further away – say 5 yrs.
Tip: never tell an agent your budget as they will only show you properties close to it and prevent you making rediculous offers on higher priced properties. Makes it harder to find or create bargins!
Another alternative would be to buy the property you want as a PPOR but rent it out and rent yourselves somewhere less expensive and hit the mortgage hard with any surplus funds and move in a few years later.
FWIW, we are not seeing potential interest rate rises in the near future(5 yr fixed at 6.95%), this is normally the killing blow that causes the price drop. If the US hikes it’s rates that can cause pressure on our rates though via currency valuations. IMHO the price correction we see will be mainly driven by oversupply pushing rental yields down further and this may leed to a correction in prices.
In a nutshell, -ve geared for CG at the moment is far more speculative than +ve geared that can be sat on during a price fall, as long as your not following the pack into towns were everything is for rent, IMHO if your waiting for CG you’ll be waiting a while unless your not relying on the market growing to fund it and your creativity is driving it.Firsty, good to see people starting young, I wish I had thought more about this at 22yrs old.
Rich Dad Poor Dad is worth a read, not as a how to but more a why? It is a fairly inspirational story that will most likely be different from what most Australian’s are taught growing up.
Steve’s book 0 – 130 properties is a great book(no sucking up intended). I’ve read probably a dozen or so property/rich dad type books( and have 3 licensed estate agents in my immediate family) and this book I thought was not only good at the basics but had a few interesting twists and turns not covered in the others, it also reflects well to Australian markets(being a local product). IMHO you can’t go past the Internet for information gathering(especially before you build a network of contacts) to research area’s, types of properties in the area, industries supporting the area, typical rental returns etc etc. Fastest way i know of to find your targets without spending your life driving or flying everywhere(do that if you want when you’ve narrowed your targets).
Finally a basic understanding of accounting and economic cycles are very useful and may help prevent you getting badly burnt.
If you go +ve cash flow you should be able to use surplus funds to help pay off your PPOR faster. As for interest rates rising in 6 -12mths, maybe maybe not, banks are offering 6.95% over 5 yrs fixed – doesn’t really indicate they are expecting a rise in the short term, and not many of the indicators point to it either. If our $ stays high and economic growth stagnates a little more we could see a cut. If your going for +ve cash flow, why wait?! If your going negative gearing and relying on capital gain to fund your shortfall, you may be waiting a while, given where I believe we are in the cycle.
