If you make 5% on $1.1m you are in effect making a return of $55,000 on your $500,000 equity. Thats over 10% in a flat market.

Thats good in my books.

I think i am too conservative. Does not matter, i dont want to loose everything in 5-10 yrs time by over committing.

If you search the forums – i am sure you will find your answer. This has been asked so many times.

Oh – and the book was so 1997-2000. Its not 2006.

No BS and practical knowledge in ANY market.

The other book is – “How you could build a $10m property portfolio in just 10 years”

I also like the Jan Somers books. They are practical and realistically describe how to build a property portfolio.

[exhappy]

But i am positive on Frankston. I like Sth Frankston, near beach, near new marina, not far from central frankston.

Frankston high has a good reputation.

If you got $700k go for East Brighton. But if you got that much you may as well go for Brighton proper. Me I would prefer to buy two properties around Sth frankston than…[Read more]

I remember when i first started i always felt intimidated talking to these estate agents in their neat suits and flash cars.

Now i know all they want is to make a sale. So i just flash a carrot to keep them interested in talking to me.

About 5-7 yrs ago BT Funds used to have a resources managed fund. They closed it down and started a TIME fund ie.technology fund.

The resources fund was closed – no interest in the resources sector and obiviously the gurus at BT did not predict much of a…[Read more]

I have lost interest in the forum. Where has general property gone.

Our PPOR has been renovated and I would love to buy another property. But I still reckon things are overvalued.

So I am trying to contain myself, consolidate and look for opportunities in the next 2-3 years. Rents have gone up, so thats good.

<<<<If you make them a low ball, but undervalued, offer, they will NOT come back and negotiate, that’s your final offer, it is easy to buy cheap properties from Jenman agents. >>>>

I dont agree. Jenman agents want to extract your best price. If you dont offer more they wait for the next person and get as close as possible to asking…[Read more]

[biggrin]

I suppose I am at the point where I got to do more (buy – but things are still overvalued) than update messages.

I still come often for a…[Read more]

My father was Italian and my mother was dutch. They met in Melbourne in the early 60’s.

My wife is french-canadian. I met her as a backpacker on the train between toronto and montreal. I made the mistake…[Read more]

Now renovating my PPOR. Boy has that been a money pit.

Now he reckons he has nearly paid of his home and now he wans to invest in property in a few yrs time.

Now I am worried. That makes me nervous. Everyone wants in. Gotta crash before it gets better again.

But go buy your own property, in a similiar area on realestate.com.au and it will be cheaper.

How soon you buy IP4-7 depends on your risk profile. I am conservative…[Read more]

Before you know it she will be 5 yrs old. The first 6 months are the toughest. Well thats what we found.

Have fun.

Our family car – wife drives is a 97 Ford Falcon station wagon.

I drive a salary packaged 2002 Holden Astra. Lease expires next month with a $10k residual. I will payout the residual and that will give me an extra $500-700 per month cash to invest instead of use on the car.

I dont fancy getting public transport to work…[Read more]

This is what worries me a little.

How can a young couple getting married afford to buy an average house for $350k. Well thats what you need in surburban Melbourne.

Not only do they need to afford the interest payments but they also need to save the deposit. I cannot imagine having a mortgage of $250 to $300k.

That to me is…[Read more]

CF+ – i dont call that investing. Too risky for me. An inner city apartment. Small body corp fees – what does that mean?

Sure prices have gone down and there are opportunties, but i reckon the opportunities will be better in a few yrs.

I am not the only one sitting and waiting…[Read more]

In my view buying in the US is too risky for me and they too are in a smimilar position in the property cycle.

The returns may be good in some areas but they come at a price – risk.

If returns were that good then why dont more people in the US invest in property rather than shares and their 401k.

My uncle in law – who lives in Canada…[Read more]

I lived in the US (San Francisco) for a year back in 1999. And I was in Canada/US about 8 months ago. I looked at properties in Canada – Montreal and Ottawa. I also looked at some properties in the US on the Canadian border.

The places…[Read more]

Do you reckon you can still get this rent when the lease is up? I have properties I have bought about 5-6 yrs ago for half this price and cannot get $250 rent.

Where is the property?

Good luck with it.

I reckon there is no hurry to buy. So wait a little. Wait for them to chase you. You got the cash, so your the king.

Anyone heard of this Book – its worth looking at. I would love to hear any other comments regarding this.

My wife has started to respect property investing after reading the Book “The Good Earth” by Pearl S Buck. It was written in 1931 and we got our copy from the Library.

It was listed on Oprahs Book list or something. My wife read it and suggested I read it as well.…[Read more]

There you go again – telling me to grow up!!!!! Hardly objective just because my opionion differs from yours. There are no right or wrong answers here – just a discussion. Let me get my 4 yr old son – maybe you can tell him…[Read more]

I will move on – when I am happy to move on.

How about stopping your subjectivity?

Here are some of your annoying subjective posts –

“And besides, it doesn’t hurt anyone??? So get over it Yack”

“whether you or I like it or not, that’s just the way it is….MOVE ON!!!”

“Splitting hairs again Yack??”

Pretty simple.

I dont really see how any real estate agents sign adds to the amenity of an area. In my view they are an eye sore and the sooner they are removed the better.

Its only left there with a sold sign on it so the agents can get a bit of free advertising.

Why is he obligated? I know its common practice to display a sign and put a sold sticker on there. But what is the obligation – is there a law or something?

I will wait for opportunities and as Jan Somers says – buy when you can afford it.

I can afford it now but would rather wait for prices to fall a little like they will when interest rates rise again.

Those that have a PPOR mortgage…[Read more]

So once they saved sufficient for a deposit the super fund would lend them the money to buy the house. So they in effect have a loan to the bank and…[Read more]

We live in Aspenndale about 400-500m to the beach. I have oftenn considered buying one as we are walking distance to the beach. Now they are around $60k.

No need for us to buy a beach house holiday home. My wife goes we should buy something up bush – we live near the beach why buy a…[Read more]

My wife is Canadian. You need a 35% deposit.

However a friend of my wifes family reckon now is the time to be selling not buying so he was no help for me. He also reckons the longer away you are the more they take advantage of you.

They dont have property managers like we do attached to estate agents so…[Read more]

Thats why i love property. Inflation is your friend. In your example you have doubled your original investment and you now own a greater proportion of the property.

eg. $10k deposit on $100k property – you own 10%of property.
NOW –
$110k property and now $20k equity – you now own 18% of property.

Smethem and others have summed it up well.

Population growth in an area with limited supply will always appreciate higher than inflation.

Your statements have been very general in nature. I would never compare St Kilda to Cranbourne.

If you buy something today I would expect a little longer than 10 years to double now.

To those…[Read more]