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Hi everyone I talked to my dad last night and he excitedly told me he discovered CFDs, went to a CMC seminar, got their software (or is it just a trading account?) and was going to have a play... I just about had a heart attack :eek::eek:. My dad has no experience with the stock market and...

Hi all I'd love some feedback and suggestions for my mediation session at the land court with the Queensland Dpt of Natural Resources and Water in a couple of weeks. Bit of background - got our annual land valuation for 08 (in QLD this is the unimproved land value, based on land sales in...

Hi all A fairly specific question about land tax in Queensland. We've fallen in love with one of our IPs and can see us moving there at some stage. The IP is in a HDT and as we've only had it for a shortish time I'm just calculating through if we should change the ownership structure now...

Hi I'd like to pick your brains about suitable plants to screen against the very massive side facade (about 6m high) of a neighbour's house at our IP. The place is on the sunshine coast, beach side but little salt spray. I've planted bamboos (clumping gracilis) in the front part of that...

Hi everyone I've finally got my act together and enquired about green power. Rang Origin (my electricity provider) and my choices are that I can either pay 19c per KW for wind or 21c per KW for solar (instead of 14c). This means all my energy use will be generated from renewable sources. I'm...

Sorry guys, I've tried to search for threads on the topic but the search function hasn't worked for me for the last 2 days... My RA just notified me that our existing tenants in one IP are not extending their lease and she followed on saying that they will just go on to a periodic lease until...

Hi all I'm reading David Allen's "How to get things done" at the moment and am all fired up to implement his organisational strategies at work and at home (and no this is not just my hormones! :D). Part of the initial cleaning effort will be to tidy my files at home and I'd like to know...

Hi Guys I’m involved in managing a research project which 20+ research groups world-wide and communication will be a huge issue once we start running properly next year. I love the way SS works, the interactive possibilities, searchable archives etc. Could someone give me some hints towards...

Hi guys Just asking for a bit of info on gutters for our IP reno. We have fibro-cement gutters (I think that's what they are - they definitely contain asbestos) which are in ok shape and we were just going to paint over them (using peel stop etc.). However we are now thinking of having the...

I’ve followed the sub-prime mortgage issue in the papers a bit and am wondering if something similar might happen with Low Docs / No docs in Australia? Now my understanding is that sub-prime mortgages in the US are given to people with bad credit rating with an artificially low introductory...

Hi renovators I had a look through the "reno brother"'s website and saw a paint stripping product they advertised (stripping paint from wood). It's called i-strip http://www.i-strip.com.au/ and works at less heat than a heat gun and appears to allow you to work a larger area faster with...

Thought I share this one: In SE Qld you can ring 1300 968 728 (http://www.homewaterwise.com/) and get a plumber to come into your house to fit a water saving shower, fix up to 3 leaking taps and add water saving devices on the taps (I think these are the little filters they put on). All the...

Hi everyone I'm trying to find a supplier for external metal venetian blinds as you can see below but haven't had much luck yet. The suppliers I asked have ones with much more bulky frames and thick blades, not thin blades like the ones in the picture (shouldn't obscure the view but keep the...

Hi everyone I’d appreciated some advice from experienced renovators. I‘m doing an IP reno and the bathroom tiles are hideous so I want them painted. Unfortunately the place has been tiled very high so we are talking about 20m2 of tiled area. I just got quotes to have them painted (including...

Hi everyone We just bought a small block of flats with 3 units. I’ll be doing internal and external renovations (cosmetic) in stages through this year as the leases come up and then hope to release at substantially higher rent (the flats are currently under rented anyway). Initially I...

Hi We are due to go unconditional on a small block of flats (3 x 2 bedroom flats) this Friday. Now if everything goes well and we do go unconditional we’ll need to insure the building straight away. Any advice on who’s good / bad /expensive / cheap with this kind of thing? We’d want to make...

Hi everyone Just got the building report back from a place we are looking at and they did find some termite activity in the sub-floor. I'm going to have this investigated further but one of the obvious problems is that the subfloor area has no ventilation so to prevent future termite activity...

Hi We just got a contract for a place in Caloundra and I'd love to get recommendations for good building & pest inspector. Also, anyone's got experience with development in the area? The place has development potential but also the potential for having some of its view build out so I'd love...

Hi all We are negotiating about a fantastic IP we found and I'm just dying from nerves... our offer is on the table with the firm statement that we won't go any further and the owner is thinking about it again. It's been on the market for a while but knowing my luck someone is going to plonk...

Hi everyone My UK-based father-in-law has just offered to throw in some money for us to help buy an IP in Australia. How fantastic is that :) ?! In order to optimise tax, legal etc. I’d love to hear some advice from forumites who might have done this or have suggestions. The framework...