Forum Replies Created
Hissho,
If you go low doc, 3 brokers have assured me in the last 6 months that all you need is a 20% deposit. They don’t want specifics on whether you have the income to service the debt (such as P&L statement, tax returns). They consider the property and your 20% will cover potential losses.
THe documentation and criteria I was asked for are:
– a clear or unblemished credit history.
– proof that I have the 20% deposit.
– copies of the last three bank statements and credit card statements.
– list of assets.Upon this info, I was gauranteed an 80%LVR loan.
The 2 lenders that came out best were Adelaide Bank and Rams.
These two loans revert back to the std variable rate after 2 years. i.e. when you have shown you can service the debt.
If you feel there is a good opportunity for growth now, it is worth getting a low doc loan, rather than waiting until you have been self employed for more than 2 years. The interest rate differential between standard and low doc was about 0.4% in my case.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, QldPisces, you say
“Bruce, it is obvious to everyone, bar you so it seems, that the problem is your behaviour in disclosing addresses when Bear was trying to earn a smallish kind of fee”I am not a fool Pisces. And I would encourage you to live by facts rather than foolish emotional partialities, before perpetuating a witch hunt.
If you go back and read, free of emotion, the flow of posts, you will discover, to your own amazement, that I posted two addresses never given to me by Bear. I did this after he adamantly and derisively announced on the forum that I didn’t know what properties he was talking about. The fact that he stated I didn’t know what properties he was talking about should be proof enough he was confident he hadn’t disclosed the properties. That he chose to state this proves two things:
– that he never disclosed or even hinted details of what they were.
– that he was wilfully deriding my reputation on the forum.Only after I posted the two addresses was there a chorus of “bruce is a lamer”. “bruce unfairly used information provided by Bear what they were”.
The logic used by my crucifiers is one giant non sequitir… Maybe Pisces you would benefit from looking up the meaning of “post hoc ergo propter hoc”.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, QldBear, it’s a new year. There’s no need to be puerile, vindictive, and spiteful. I won’t be responding to such in the new year, after this. It was one of my new year’s resolutions not to get caught up in schoolboy ego games or otherwise waste precious time.
You seem to think because I said I was an IP virgin at the beginning of December, that I still am. I have already posted what has happened since to dispel that. I was looking for a long time before I had the opportunity to buy; and had helped friends for years, as well as been involved with my parents’ acquisitions and managment.
If you think there is one post I have made giving my interpretation of all things property related, that lacks rationality or the voice of experience, then please do all here a favour and expose it.
I also stated I was an IP virgin out of humbleness for the superior wisdom and experience I might find on these two forums.
If you want to ignore all that, and carry around a head full of cynicism all year, then you have created an expensive opportunity cost in missing the chance to think more creatively and intelligently about how you can create win/wins in your new found role as a spotter/buyer’s agent, or whatever you want to be this week.
Evolve beyond the predictable and mundane Bear. Respond, don’t react.
Now, enough of this, I am going down to the beach for a New Year’s surf.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, QldYou might consider growing trees in strategic locations to cut down on house heat. You might also consider insulation. Believe me, it makes a hude difference.
A valuer friend in Brisbane tells me street appeal has considerable bearing on property valuation. If you want to up your property value as efficienctly as possible, try some cosmetic uplift to the front side of the property. Landscaping, trendy, coordinated colours, all help.
Bank valuers can be pretty slack, so cosmetics like this can make a big difference.
On the other hand, I have heard there is a trend many banks are refusing to revalue within 6 or 12 months.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, QldThe only ‘new’ road I know out to the Gap is a little repair job on a bridge on Waterworks Road that was being worked on from September to December. The traffic is still atrocious during peak hour.
Nevertheless, the suburb is a leafy one close to the city with some nice homes, and maybe some agents feel it is undervalued relative to its aesthetics.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, QldI have been looking at doing the same with a couple of houses. Things I have had to take into consideration are:
– council regs- setbacks from fences, maximum size of granny flat as a percentage of main dwelling, car park spaces.– I have looked at putting mobile homes down in the backyard as a way to overcome permanent dwelling regulations. Have also looked at small kit homes and bungalows. These all seem to be pretty exy.
– a draughtsman and architect have advised that a standard brick construction on a concrete slab is the cheapest way to go in Brisbane. Costs run at ~$750 a square metre. Every window or sliding door or wood or glass feature you put in adds to costs. However, I am sure if you collected used different bits and pieces, and did a lot of the labour yourself, and had contractors do the finishing, you’d save a stack. This is what I am lookig at doing.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, QldSIS, I didn’t post to brag, but to let you guys know that yes I was a virgin at the beginning of December, but was serious about investing in IPs. I mentioned the properties I bought to clarify I approach things hopefully intelligently and only after a lot of research.
The point I was making about what others have bought in the last month was to discern who is still bullish on property. Most investors I know are getting out, as they think there is little gain to be made within the next 12 months. Few investors I know have bought in the last 4 weeks. Hence, my decision to come to this newsgroup to get a feel for what is happening outside the people I know.
I was looking aggressively just before Christmas hoping to get heavily discounted properties by people keen to sell over this traditional time of changing homes. A lot of PPOR upgraders don’t want to deal with bridging finance, and investors are thinking the market has peaked, and don’t want to wait for a sale until February. Hence the two houses I got were let go at July 2003 prices.
Many people I know have considered my timing really poor, but I see another 15-20% growth next year, and I have had healthy seed capital investments this year that I need to negatively gear. These are my reasons for buying IP in the last month.
No one I know predicted the 100%+ gain in the last 18 months.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, QldTo the Bear-o-philes who think Queenstown is ripe for significant capital gain, despite Sterlite Industries outlook, since my original post I have bought the following:
– a brick 4 pack for $280,000. gross wkly rent $520. privately valued at $440,000 2 weeks after purchase.
– two houses in an up and coming Brisbane suburb. gross rental yield 5.1%.
– In the three weeks before Christmas I signed 11 contracts to get the two latter properties.
I also managed my parent’s 20 odd rental properties when I was growing up.
I’d be interested to hear about the buys anyone else has made here in the last 4 weeks, in real estate or any other field, apart from the share market, in accordance with the moderators’ wishes.
I’d also be interested to hear who SIS gets his insurance through and whether he has made a claim for damages by a tenant.
SIS also says
‘do you think the vendor before hand would be stupid enough to get a bad tenant for their investment property.”
Well if you read above SIS, Steve McKnight obviously does.Bruce
Mooloolaba, Qldwhen I sign a contract as an offer to buy a tenanted house, I always include the option to take vacant possession. That way, if the tenant is a problem, you don’t settle until the current owner gets rid of him. Otherwise, you can be obligated to settle with a squatting tenant occupying the house.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, QldHere’s a more scientific hangover preventative.
http://optimalhealth.cia.com.au/thiamine.html
Thiamine, along with lots of water before and during drinking, and lots of citrus juices after, helps heaps.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, Qldthanks for the excellent info Tools. much appreciated.
Hope your Chrissy break is rolling along nicely. We are having a heat wave up here. Tis unbearable outside.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, QldMerry Christmas everyone,
GG, I had a look at 30 odd homes removed to a site at Burpengary Qld, Eddie Wright House Movers.
I spoke at length with the guys there and some other people who are familiar with moving. My brother also moved a big colonial, and was really caught out by the post moving reno costs.
Many of the houses I saw at Eddie Wrights had cracked floor and bathroom tiles, split gyprock or fibro panels. Plus you are buying an old house that often needs a new roof, white ant issues, redesigning the floor plan etc. Plus after living in a lot of different houses, I have absolutely no sentimentality for colonials. They are cold in winter, hot in summer, expensive to upkeep, rooms and floor plans are inefficient, the wooden ones offer no sound buffering, termite and white ant prone, etc etc….
I am partial to zinc alum framed places with passive thermal design.
However, $2500 for a house is very cheap. But I would encourage you to go and have a look at it first. It might be a real gotcha…..
I know two people who have moved homes recently and they paid btween 20-25k just for the move.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, Qlddoes anyone know why Bill isn’t on the forum anymore?
Bruce
Mooloolaba, QldI believe the property was a going concern of 30 townhouses under dev’t in Brisbane that the vendor wanted to get out of a third of the way through due to delays and cash flow problems. A third of the townhouses had already been completed and sold off. It was the vendor’s shelf company that was sold to the buyer.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, QldHi Bill, I am interested in reading your spin doctor adverts. [email protected]
Is anyone buying property these days? All the agents I talk to say there’s no more than 10% growth in 2004.
TIA
BruceBruce
Mooloolaba, Qldhttp://members.dodo.net.au/~thefirstbruce/Landtax.xls
Bruce
Mooloolaba, QldGG, I put up a very basic spreadsheet that allows you to do the operation you ask at
http://members.dodo.com.au/~thefirstbruce/compoundinterest.xls
you just plug in the initial investment amount, and the interest rate in the green coloured cells. you need to know what the interest rate per period is. a period can be a month or a year, depending how the institution calculates it.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, QldHenry and Matt, thanks for your reasoned replies.
Sis and Bear, disgruntled REAs call due diligence tyre kicking. I am yet to meet anyone who puts an offer in on every property he inspects. If my son was to buy real estate based on advice from a stranger, then i would also encourage them to tyre kick. Obviously, a seller is happiest when he gets his money easiest- with the least questions asked, and the least amount of work to do.
Bear, I certainly asked you a lot of questions via email, but you provided minimal information. (I am happy to copy and paste our email conversations as proof.) You did this to avoid losing your spotter’s fee by giving away too much for free. As I said, you made an emphatic statement that I did not know which properties you were talking about. You were wrong. I wanted to let other’s know that the West Coast of Tasmania is a small place with a handful of properties for sale.
I hope my posts have educated others that with a little knowledge of realestate.com, domain.com, and google, they can do a lot of research themselves without a middle man. I hope my efforts to instruct for free are appreciated as much as your efforts to charge for information freely available on the internet.
I am sure Steve McNight’s Christian morals will swing to favour the free sharing of instruction to favour all. Not that I am against middle men, as long as they are truly adding value.
Let’s just let it rest there.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, QldBear, win/wins are only possible when you respect others. You made the comment
“Your facts are not correct for the properties i am talking about!!!!!!!!!!!”
without knowing what I was talking about. In future, give the benefit of the doubt that others may know what they are talking about.
I was motivated to have this conversation on the forum out of best interest for all those who visit it. To hide our opinions privately on email would have worked against the prinicples of why this newsgroup was established.
Let all considering a purchase in Queenstown do their due diligence, and consider capital gains versus house maintenance costs.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, QldBear and SIS, you chastise me for exposing ‘your’ properties. But let me remind you that Bear said, before he even knew what I was talking about, that my facts were not correct. i.e.
“Your facts are not correct for the properties i am talking about!!!!!!!!!!!”
That’s the only reason I put the street addresses up, without mentioning the town you might have noticed.
As for my facts, I spoke at length with the agent, part of due diligence, and was told one of the properties had not been able to be rented in a long time, and needed a lot of work before it would be.
This all raises the issue that everyone has to do their own due diligence. So why take the word of anyone here. My views were expressed to provide more information than Bear was prepared to volunteer. Bear has even been to this town, and seems to know less about these properties than Maurice told me in a 10 minute phone call. I also have friends in the mining industry and the Tasmanian public health department, and know about Sterlite Industries plans and the extent of the new hospital development. On this basis, I stand by everything I have said.
Let everyone do their own due diligence, before paying spotter’s fees.
Bruce
Mooloolaba, Qld
