If a vendor has two contracts on offer and one is cash he has the option of signing the cash contract. Until the cooling off period was implemented, this meant the contract was unconditional immediately on being signed by both parties. Now with the cooling off period there is still a wait until the contract goes unconditional, but the vendor knows…[Read more]

I think 20% reduction for a cash offer is quite insulting. Unless the vendor is desperate or the property way overpriced, a cash offer is (like mentioned earlier) just a bit more interesting for the vendor because they only have to wait (in Qld) for the cooling off period, and not wait for finance and pest clauses to expire before the contract…[Read more]

I don’t know whether the rules are different in Queensland, but by the sounds of your house, it is uninhabitable. If you have raw electric wires and/or sewage coming out from pipes, you need to get the tenants out NOW.

Call your residential tenancy authority and get the forms to have the house declared uninhabitable as of NOW. If that means…[Read more]

Hey Foundation. Sorry if I accused you of sarcasm when it was not intended as such.

I totally agree with many of your ideas and practice most of them as well. As long as they don’t have to go into the shop my boys will wear the $70 boardies I get for $8 at our local Lifeline.

Not many poor looking people shopping at my local Lifeline. I have a…[Read more]

I think Foundation has some good ideas, but I think his delivery could be a whole lot less sarcastic. Do you really think andymitchell will be going to restaurants three times a week? Not everyone suffers affluenza you know.

Andymitchell – you and your wife are probably doing most of these things anyway. In fact, in view of your predicament, I…[Read more]

Could I also add to this that some comments have been made about the low offer. Many posts on this forum involve comments like “can’t wait until the prices go lower to snap up bargains” etc etc. I don’t think putting in a lowish offer is an insult. Vendors either say no or yes, or make a counter offer.

In this post, mention was made of an offer…[Read more]

Just don’t forget that if you lock into a fixed rate and decide to sell during that fixed period, you will be up for penalty fees.

Wylie

I would think that the vendor should get fairly annoyed that their agent is sabotaging their sale. I am not a lawyer, but I thought all offers on paper had to be presented. If I was the vendor, I’d sack the agent and get another. Unfortunately, because you were introduced to the property by the agent, even buying it through another agent would…[Read more]

Your situation sounds very like how we have lived for 20 years since we married.

You say they are “slightly” negative. Depending on how negative these properties are, if you can renovate cheaply (paint, add dishwasher, a/c – whatever suits the house and is fairly cheap) to increase rent I’d do it. I know that Brisbane rents are increasing (at…[Read more]

Am I the only one who hasn’t a clue who this is about?

Wylie

I agree with yack.

My parents have invested in blue chip shares that have turned into dogs. Their houses may have dropped a wee bit but that drop is just a tiny slice of the HUGE increase that went before it.

Like shares, they only lose if they sell. They lost $26K in on day on shares. After several years they got back $8K (from memory) after…[Read more]

What to offer is a really hard question. If you have done your homework and think the house is worth $355K then perhaps offer $340K or $345K. If I was the vendor, I would not accept a low offer, but I would wait to see what the auction brings because of the advertising I had spent getting to auction.

Having said that, someone close used to sell…[Read more]

My thoughts is that if the auction is 1.5 weeks away, your offer would need to be “clean”, ie a cash offer. At the very least, any conditions would need to be satisfied prior to auction day, in which case a good agent would still market the property in case you decide not to go ahead.

If you put clauses on the contract that mean that the contract…[Read more]

I assumed on reading your post that you may be financially committed to the trip. I agree that if you can postpone it you should, otherwise I’d try to keep the house by some other means, even borrowing just for two months’ repayments.

As has been said, you may find it is not finished before you go, in which case your can neither rent it nor sell…[Read more]

I assume your plans were to rent the property if it had been finished prior to your overseas trip. If so, why not leave it to an agent to rent it while you are away, assuming it is ready.

Is your finance through a broker, and if so, can he organise anything, a repayment holiday, or maybe extra funds to cover the repayments for two months until…[Read more]

I would depend on your own homework. My parents bought their house for $200K more than the agent suggested vendors would accept. We just bought a house for $200K less than it was first listed at.

Much depends on how well you know and trust the agent, but it comes down to knowing your area and your prices.

Listen to the agent, but don’t forget…[Read more]

Thanks tgavin71. Our laundry is small and we have put in a sliding door to save space. The benchtop is New Guinea Rosewood with an estapol finish. The white ceramic deep sink is cut into this worktop and that part has two doors, just like a kitchen sink cabinet. The other half of the benchtop sits over the top of our front loader so it doesn’t…[Read more]

For what it is worth, here is my idea.

I would go with the shower in the laundry but only if you can make your laundry look a bit lika a bathroom, ie. our laundry has a front loader under a bench with a ceramic basin and lovely mixer tap which looks classy but is deep enough for handwashing clothes if needed. This cabinet is very nice and was…[Read more]

We have managed one or more IPs for 25 years and have never done an “official” inspection. I believe if we chose our tenants carefully and have a good gut feeling, things will be fine, and they generally are.

We have had one lot of bad tenants recently who caused the neighbours grief due to fights and loud arguments through the night. They…[Read more]

We had a rat die in the wall cavity near our bedroom. Pretty bad for a few weeks, and for a few months afterwards when we got a really hot day (Brisbane) there was a bit of a smell. By May there should (as hb said) only be bones and no smell.

We also had a possum die in our roof and there was a smell when we turned on the ducted air, a slightly…[Read more]