Forum Replies Created
Bruce,
Thanks so much for your incisive contribution to the board, I’m sure many people found it extremely constructive and worthwhile.
As the offspring of a solid line of country folk, I am glad that you have opened my eyes with your generalisation of me and my clan, and many more like us, as the lowest of the low. I will try from now on to live up to your stereotype, by quitting my job and taking a few hits of smack. I’ll even call off my impending nuptials, but not until I get my fiance pregnant, so she too can fit neatly into your predetermined category.
I’ll post again soon with a progress report.
Regards,
Richmond.FWIW Joff, I agree with you… I think it’s going to be really hard for the majority of younger people (I’m 29) to get a foothold when they’re buying their PPOR. Obviously not everyone’s into property investing, so there’s going to be a lot of people doing it tough… or are already…
I know of a lot of people my age who have loaded right up on their mortgages for their PPOR… with median price in melbourne up over 340k, it’s pretty hard not to, if interest rates go up by only 2 or 3 points there’s going to be a lot of people very stretched… I’m just considering myself lucky to have bought when I did, just before the boom.
rHang on, we’re being told that Iraq having WMD’s has now been revealed as a pack of lies… and all of a sudden we’re supposed to believe Nth Korea has nuclear capabilities? I’ve heard interviews with international relations experts who have basically said Nth Korea doesn’t have the capability to launch nukes… and their longest range (nuke-free) missiles might reach Japan at a stretch. Of course, little Johnny will tell us otherwise when the time suits, and that we can expect missiles lobbing into Sydney Harbour any day now… perhaps they might hit some of those children who were allegedly thrown overboard… as long as it props up whatever his agenda happens to be at the time… hmmm, perhaps I’m just a little cynical about the whole thing… I work in the media and see how things get presented… it’s frightening how easy it is to influence the public’s perception with words and pictures… anyway, this type of stuff from me belongs on another forum… nighty night.
remail me at [email protected] and I’ll send you some details on some agents up there.
g’day emily…
I think if you go back and read the other posts on this thread it should be pretty obvious where the properties are.
r
g’day robert, i was told exactly the same thing by agents, and as i said, if you buy from drive by, you’re in for some trouble I reckon, hence the reason i stayed for a week and got the lie of the land. plenty of places i looked at looked good from outside, but it was pretty clear that they were very ordinary once i went in. you have to see past the facade, cos plenty don’t.
jars, 2 were in north rocky (105k and 84k), near shops schools etc, 2 (56k and 66k) were in south rocky, near the cbd, but well out of flood areas. in fact they’re all out of flood areas… as someone else said, it’s something to be wary of… because plenty of people aren’t… some of those houses that the “zip in, zip out” buyers are grabbing for inflated prices are well and truly in flood zones… just do your homework and it’s no worries… as i said, there’s still good buys up there, I’m confident with all my purchases.
Um, it ain’t a suburb… it’s a mining city in far western NSW. Cheap houses, but the mining industry there has struggled big time in recent years. If you do a google search on “broken hill” you’ll find a lot of info.
Cheers
rI am a 29 yr old sports journalist/producer for t.v. in Melbourne.
I watch sport and get paid for it.
It’s hard to think of it as work… um, that’s about it.
R
Hi…
In terms of viewing IPs as a market, I recently went on a shopping trip and bought a few… I think I did okay, because they were houses weren’t too expensive, for either me to buy or the tenant to rent, they were in good nick, and won’t require too much maintenance. To me the investment decision is quite low risk, and they will be cashflow positive… with locked in interest rates for 4 or so years they are not going to be too much of a financial burden just at the minute…
What worries me is the people who take the big, thoughtless risk… like buying some of those overpriced apartments at Docklands in Melbourne, many of which are sitting empty, because a lot of people thought it was going to be a great idea… it’s basic oversupply of the market and was always going to be the case! There’s only so much demand to cater at certain prices isn’t there?
I have always lived within my means, and even though I now have a slowly growing property portfolio, I will always think things through before spending a buck. (There’s a difference between being careful with money, and being a tight a*se! At least, that’s what I reckon!)
Unfortunately, a lot of my friends who have earned, and are still earning very good money, have very little to show for their efforts, and are going to struggle to get into the game, even if a correction in the market takes place. In Melbourne’s case, I think prices will level off… not fall drastically…
r
what about the travel expenses to research and buy in Rockhampton? My trip (last week) was not just to suss things out, I bought 4 houses there, so what would the tax man say about that? My fiance and I already have an investment property in Vic, so does my Qld trip mean I’m just adding to my income? Or does that point come at settlement when the tenants $$ start going into my account?
Cheers
Rg’day essykay, no, I wouldn’t say it’s secrets, but as you know it’s a lot of work to find areas to buy in, researching, phone calls etc, and I reckon I did twice the amount of work without being told where to look than what I might have done if I had… does that make sense? I reckon it’s more worthwhile and a better learning experience for people to seek out their own opportunities without being spoonfed…
take it easy…
r
There’s no doubt that SOME of the people I came across were provincial and conservative, but I think that taking an attitude smudged by broad generalisations and preconceived ideas is only going to hinder investors when they’re trying to deal with people, not just up there, but anywhere.
You might only be joking around AlisonW, but quite a few people told me that they were greatly offended by investors coming in and treating the locals (agents/property managers and tenants alike) as though they were hicks from some backwater town with no idea… At the end of the day we’re all people aren’t we? So why is it so hard for some to be respectful to others? It’s amazing what you get back when you give a bit…
Cheers
RHi Justin…
I was looking at houses on the web in Geraldton… what was it about it that made it an eye-opener? I must admit I was surprised when speaking to some of the real estate agents there who told me that property owners are only leasing the land of the local government… it’s a little bit more complicated than that I know, but I’d love to hear what you got out of the trip.
R
Howdy Peter,
Basically, the week before I left I rang as many real estate agents as I could and booked appointments between 8.30am and 7.00pm, so that large chunks of my first 3 days were spent being driven around by agents looking through houses. I would also get other addresses, so that in my down time I could drive around on my own and judge some from the street… I reckon if I looked through 50+ houses, I would have checked out a heap more from just driving past and having a squizz. If you add the ones I looked at on the web, well, it would add up to heaps… Really, when you think about it, 8.30am-7pm equals 10 and a half hours… in a regional city, it doesn’t take much to drive around… averaging 2 houses per hour to look through isn’t doing things in a mad rush, if you know what you’re after before you go in.
At night after I’d had a feed and a frothie (just one!), I’d go driving again, looking in agency windows, seeing what schools and shops etc were where… just adding to my knowledge of the place…
Of the places I bought only one was advertised on the web, and an agent who specialises in some of the cheaper properties in the place I went to is not on the web at all… in fact, he doesn’t even use email… so he gets barely any contact with the dastardly “southerners” which is great as far as I’m concerned… Most of the agencies in the town were struggling to get their listings on the web because they’re getting snapped up so quickly…
Cheers
R
(as I write this AD, the tigers are getting beaten by Brisbane… another disappointing year looms for the yellow and black hordes)
actually, one of the agents told me about some blokes from melbourne who have bought a stack of houses (15 or 20) up there for wrapping… hmmmm…
Hi Scott,
Reading another post of yours on another thread, I’m pretty sure we have bought in the same place. I am not too worried about the collapse of that plant… I think there is still a lot going for the area in terms of rental demand, while the city has a lot of catching up to do with other regional Qld centres… I just wish I had been there a month or so earlier… Also, with the collapse of the plant, perhaps a few of the “southerners” will offload their properties in a panic and there might be a few good deals around…
Cheers
RTrue, there are good and bad police officers, just as there are good and bad in any walk of life, but never make sweeping statements that “all” are this or that…
My sister is a police officer, and is one of the most compassionate and understanding people I know. Some of her colleagues are power-crazed idiots, while others are at the opposite end of the spectrum.
Also, as a journalist learning the ropes I was often reporting on police matters. Some of the things I have seen at the accident scenes that I had to go to defy description. When you see emergency services personnel picking up body parts of children because some fool wanted to get somewhere a bit quicker, it puts it into perspective. One night I had to go to a scene, arrived just after the police, and found a person I knew with a fencepost through his throat, well and truly dead. Sorry to be graphic, but these are the consequences of foolish behaviour on the roads.
Don’t speed or break any other laws and you have nothing to worry about. If you do break them and get caught, don’t squeal, take it on the chin and learn a lesson.
By the way, what DOES this have to do with property investing?
R
Thanks so much for all those replies… I’m going to have a long chat with my broker today to see what the go is… in our initial meeting he mentioned lines of credit etc, but for some reason it went by the wayside… I’ll find out why
My only advice as a new kid on the block is to hit the internet, research real estate sites and statistical sites that will give an idea on economic development etc and get on the phone to local real estate agents… after you’ve done all that you can make your own judgement on whether it’s worth investing in or not, or perhaps taking a trip there for a look. It takes hours and hours to do, but you’ll have gained a lot of knowledge.
G’day
I wasn’t at the seminar, but I find myself constantly checking this site through the day for different scraps of information… and have learned a helluva lot in the last few weeks…
My name is Jamie, I’m 29, and live on 60 acres an hour’s drive north of Melbourne near Kilmore with my fiancee Virginia (who I’ve known since I was 15, been together 4 years), our two kelpies and two cats. I don’t know if we’ll stay here, but I expect the capital growth of our property (which backs onto state forest) to be enormous over the next decade or so as road improvements drastically cut travel times to Melbourne.
I am a sports journalist/tv producer, while Virginia is a paramedic. We are getting married in December under a big marquee in the front paddock.
We are buying our PPOR, and have put our holiday house on the Mornington Peninsula at Blairgowrie up for rent, will be pretty much cashflow neutral. Bought there in 2001, cap gains have been huge (more than 100% growth in 2 yrs)
The goal is to not have to work by the time I’m 35 so I can enjoy our kids when they come along. I’m not sure whether that’s too ambitious, but it’s what I’m aiming for.
I’m going on a trip next week to get cracking on the positive cashflow side of things, and have square eyes from spending too much time on the internet, and a sore ear and neck from talking too much to real estate agents on the phone.
Cheerio
jamie
