[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

October 27, 2004 - 2:22 am

It’s just a case of coming to an agreement with the owner. We have done this with a couple of properties. We’ve put new kitchens, floorboards etc. in them before settlement with the agreeance of the current owner, and had them rented out by the settlement date.

It’s definately worthwhile if you can negotiate it.

Cheers,
Karen[biggrin]

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

October 21, 2004 - 11:27 pm

Hi there,

Can’t help you too much, but no, Fantastic Furniture is certainly not crap for a holiday house. When I first moved out on my own, my house was fully furnished with Fantastic Furniture. This was many years ago, and we have only just replaced the last of it (entertainment unit and coffee table).

I’d certainly consider purchasing from there if I had a holiday house or rental to furnish.

Cheers,
Karen[biggrin]

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

October 18, 2004 - 4:34 am

Hi Julie,

My opinion, for what it’s worth is if it was for me to live in, I’d go Paddington, only cause I like Paddington. I know it’s more expensive and obviously not as cost effective, but there you go.

Also, I have absolutely no facts or statistics to back this up at all, but I reckon Darlinghurst may just be a good bet. I’ve spent a lot of time around the Darlo, Liz Bay and Potts Pt areas, and I just have a good feeling about Darlinghurst. As I said, no facts whatsoever, just a gut feeling – however I am pleased to say, my gut has worked well in the past!!!

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Cheers,
Karen

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

October 17, 2004 - 11:24 pm

25 is a bit late for me. I’d need to go back to 20. If I was 20 again, I wouldn’t have got married!!! I would have spent the money I had on an investment property instead of buying a house with my husband (which we subsequently sold anyway). 25 was when I actually woke up, and started investing in property. Now I’m pretty damn happy, just wish I’d started a bit earlier. But, I’ve definately learnt from my mistakes.

Cheers,
Karen

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October 16, 2004 - 11:01 pm

Hi Ali G,

As you can see from the previous responses, many people have gone through the same thing. We generally don’t talk about our investing to many people at all, just our parents really. Even though they would never consider doing anything like we are, they are very supportive and want us to do well.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t extend to some other family members and friends.

My only Uncle does not speak to us, literally because we’ve only ever have good news. He lost a lot of money years ago, and can’t bear the thought of anyone else being successful. It is a shame. We haven’t had any contact with him since the middle of last year, so he’s never met my baby and obviously doesn’t want to.

Money can and will drive some people apart, so we just get on with things and go about our business.

Cheers,
Karen[biggrin]

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

October 5, 2004 - 11:46 pm

Hey Ali G,

Well, we didn’t read any books or anything. I figured by the time I’d finished reading a book we could have finished the house/unit anyway.

We just got in there and did it. My husband is not a tradesman, but he’ll give anything a go. The only thing he realises he’s not so good at is tiling floors, so he does try to avoid that (walls he quite likes). We’ve got a friend who dropped out of a carpentry tafe course, so he helps us fit the kitchens. He also helps fit floating floors when we use them. If we’re fitting carpet, we leave that to the carpet layers.

I choose all the designs and colours, and look after the painting and any other bits and pieces which need doing. My Dad also comes along to help. He’ll give anything a go.

We didn’t have any experience with any sort of renovating before we started doing this. We’ve made a few mistakes along the way, but nothing which couldn’t be fixed and we learnt our lesson for next time.

Cheers,
Karen[biggrin]

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

October 5, 2004 - 11:34 pm

We use both St George and Bendigo Bank. We have found both to be excellent on the borrowing money side of things. I think one of the main reasons we haven’t had any problems with St George is because we have an excellent bank manager who understands what we’re trying to do and will go that extra mile to try and get what we need. If you can find someone like that, no matter what bank, I reckon it’s priceless.

Cheers,
Karen[biggrin]

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

October 5, 2004 - 12:15 am

We actually enjoy renovating. We have done it with nearly all of our properties. If you choose the property well, then a reno shouldn’t be anything more than cosmetic. We do all of the work ourselves, (apart from electrical) and love doing it. It takes us between 1-3 weeks to complete (after work and on weekends), and each time has enabled us to use the new found equity to buy our next one.

The trick is to concentrate on the WOW factor without the cost. We use wholesale kitchens, which look just as good, but cost about 1/2 the price. We use relatively cheap tiles, light fittings etc, but if chosen well, look just as “classy” as much more expensive ones, and work just the same. One thing we learnt not to scrimp on though, was paint. We used fairly cheap paint in our first reno, and had to re-paint after a very short period. We only use the good stuff now.

It is a great learning experience. We used our knowledge to renovate our PPOR. We spent $25,000 over 3 months, and after valuation we found we had added $140,000.

Yep, it can be hard work doing it yourself, but if you’re a handy person and enjoy doing it, the satisfaction you can get from seeing your completed work is immense.

Cheers,
Karen[biggrin]

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

May 13, 2004 - 11:29 pm

I personally will be keeping a close eye on Tassie, in particular around Hobart. I know the “boom” is pretty much over, but Tassie and Hobart in particular has just been thrown into the spotlight with the Danish royal wedding coming up. I reckon tourism in Tassie is going to flourish (more), and this in turn may just create some more investment opportunities.

It will be interesting to see if it does make any difference.

Cheers,
Karen[biggrin]

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

May 10, 2004 - 2:46 am

My first property was a PPOR bought when I was 21 and just about to be married.

We only bought a house because we had been brought up to think that renting was bad, and you should buy your own home ASAP.

We bought in an area we didn’t really want to live in, but was all that we could afford. Could have bought a unit where we wanted to, but thought units were bad as well. How sad, thinking back.

House was definately bought on emotion. No due diligence whatsoever. It was a nice house, though. Typical Masterton project, but really neat and tidy.

House was also sold on emotion 3 years later when we split up![angry2]

Cheers,
Karen[biggrin]

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

April 12, 2004 - 12:04 pm

Our first investment property is a 3br house in Castle Hill, Sydney. Bought in 1997 for $202,000 and rented out for $285 a week.

We still have it. Last valuation was $460,000 some months ago and it rents for $380 a week, but the rent is about to go up $10 a week.

Cheers,
Karen

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

March 23, 2004 - 1:51 pm

Kay,

Thanks very much for those sites. Fantastic information.[thumbsup2]

Cheers,
Karen

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

March 5, 2004 - 6:41 am

We have bought 1 property sight unseen and had no problems whatsoever. Same advice as most of the other posters here, however I probably would not recommend doing it for the 1st couple of IP’s. But that’s just me. It was good to have a bit of experience first.

Cheers,
Karen[]

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

March 3, 2004 - 5:25 am

Alexander2 – If we only did small improvements, it probably wouldn’t be worth getting re-valued so quickly as we are looking for enough to get a deposit on another one. Having said that, a paint job and general tidy up to a place in pretty poor condition can really up the value if it’s in the right area.

Georgisj – That is exactly what we do. Get a valuation before reno and after reno.

Cheers

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

March 3, 2004 - 5:02 am

We buy and then renovate our properties. The property is valued by the lender when the loan is approved, we renovate and have it revalued within about 4 weeks and use the equity gained to buy another one. The lenders we use have no problems in revaluing so soon.

We tend to do fairly comprehensive renos. We spend about $10,000 and do the whole place. Kitchen, bathrooms, floor coverings, paint etc.

For example we bought a unit for $237,000, spent $10,500 on it and had it revalued 3 weeks later for $290,000. The rent when we bought it was $260. After renovation it rented for $325.

Cheers,
Karen[]

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

March 3, 2004 - 4:55 am

Sometimes I wonder about people who pay heaps in rent. Why not just buy a place. Well, that’s what friends of mine eventually did.

They paid (for 5 years) $530 per week. Not even a particularly nice house. Finally they decided they should buy a house to live in. They had to sell a block of land they owned to do it. Their repayments are slightly less than their rent was (the house is excellent), and they’re wondering what they could have done with all that rent money for the past five years.

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

March 2, 2004 - 7:47 am

Rugbyfan,

They’re in Forwood Avenue. All big blocks. Smallest is still over 900sqm. None of them are real flat, and a couple are pretty odd shapes (a creek runs straight through one of them).

I can tell you, if I was the owner I wouldn’t be all that impressed with the work done by the agent. Pretty poor auction all round really.

Cheers,
Karen[]

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

March 1, 2004 - 8:37 pm

Rugbyfan,

Yep, they’re the ones. That’s our street. Damn shame too. Used to be lovely bush there, but, can’t stand in the way of development, I suppose.

Cheers,
Karen[]

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

March 1, 2004 - 7:43 am

There were 7 blocks of land at the end of our street that went up for auction on the weekend. We are in Sydney, and our suburb doesn’t often have any land for sale, so this was quite unique. The land has been getting cleared, roads built etc. for the past year. This time last year the RE’s were telling people that they would probably go for around $800,000 each, and there seemed to be quite a bit of interest, however a couple of months ago, when everything was finally finished, they were having trouble finding people interested.

One block sold prior to auction for $650,000. There were only 2 bids at the auction, both for $650,000, so all 6 remaining were passed in.

Me thinks things have slowed a bit in our area.

Cheers,
Karen[]

[ScullyMember@scullyJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 48]

March 1, 2004 - 7:37 am

Up until recently, all of our IP’s were in Sydney, where we live. However, since I have given up work we decided we would make our next few cash flow positive, therefore our latest one is in Queensland, and we will probably continue to buy in regional areas for a couple of years.

Cheers,
Karen[]