Blackminster JV: 4 apartments in Mindarie WA

Geez, you don't take a rest for a single minute do you

Will follow this with interest as well, can't wait to get into developing myself!

I'll get you there :)

Good work!

If only I could find deals like this :confused:

I know this sounds cocky. But it's not that hard but it is riskier when you want to do something a bit outside the square. We've known about this site for months.

you are amazing WM, how many have you got on the go at the moment? I am struggling dealing with my own place....

Too many to put in a sig! lol! I'm only allowed 2 x URLs. This takes the total to 5. It was 3 2 weeks ago then I gave up my job and added 2 more in - to take up all that 'spare' time.

This ain't no passive income :eek:
 
Hey WM project sounds great, an idea for your Sig project's issue. Why don't you create a master post linking all your projects to the one url on your Sig?
 
As a bit of a way of background I was looking for another dev sight for myself. Westminster pointed me towards a sight in Coogee. Very close to the beach. Without viewing the property it looked like it might have worked ok.

At the time I was still a long way from being ready, and week after week, I sat watching the site - trying to get my ducks in a row.

My row of ducks was taking a long time, and Westminster was also semi-keen on the site. She made a passing comment "we should do a JV" and so BlackMinster was born.

We went and looked at the Coogee site together, and decided it wouldn't work. The elevation of the site, and the development around it, made for a high risk.

Westminster in the meantime had seen this site and we thought it had potential. We went and had a look at it, and then had the arduous task of getting more ducks lined up - this involved agreeing T&C's and setting up entities.
Luckily the site has a few 'off putting' features - which makes it undesirable for the masses. It took us about 5 weeks from when we viewed the property - to when we were in a position to place an offer.
It has been on the market for over 600days when we got to it, and we managed to drop the price by $85K from the asking figure (15%) - though we did have to renege in a few other 'wants' (90day settlement).

We are still a bit 'rushed' at this point, given our deadlines (finance, DD etc) are a bit tighter than we had originally hoped for. We have had a few "oh crap" moments trying to get money into the right accounts in time to pay deposits. But this always happens with new entities.

Blacky
 
This ain't no passive income :eek:

Im not sure if it is easier or harder doing it in JV. In some ways there are more people to share the work load, but somehow there seems to be more work...

More signing, more documents, having to liaise with other people before doing anything etc.

oh - and so far I haven't had to do too much... :p
I guess my fun comes a GST time :confused:

Blacky
 
Well done. I'm really interested in your negotiations. What was the first offer and why was it so low? Waa this because it was on the market for 600 days without a drop in price?

As a bit of a way of background I was looking for another dev sight for myself. Westminster pointed me towards a sight in Coogee. Very close to the beach. Without viewing the property it looked like it might have worked ok.

At the time I was still a long way from being ready, and week after week, I sat watching the site - trying to get my ducks in a row.

My row of ducks was taking a long time, and Westminster was also semi-keen on the site. She made a passing comment "we should do a JV" and so BlackMinster was born.

We went and looked at the Coogee site together, and decided it wouldn't work. The elevation of the site, and the development around it, made for a high risk.

Westminster in the meantime had seen this site and we thought it had potential. We went and had a look at it, and then had the arduous task of getting more ducks lined up - this involved agreeing T&C's and setting up entities.
Luckily the site has a few 'off putting' features - which makes it undesirable for the masses. It took us about 5 weeks from when we viewed the property - to when we were in a position to place an offer.
It has been on the market for over 600days when we got to it, and we managed to drop the price by $85K from the asking figure (15%) - though we did have to renege in a few other 'wants' (90day settlement).

We are still a bit 'rushed' at this point, given our deadlines (finance, DD etc) are a bit tighter than we had originally hoped for. We have had a few "oh crap" moments trying to get money into the right accounts in time to pay deposits. But this always happens with new entities.

Blacky
 
Well done. I'm really interested in your negotiations. What was the first offer and why was it so low? Waa this because it was on the market for 600 days without a drop in price?

We knew it's listing history:

24/08/2012 From $565,000
04/05/2012 $585,000
21/02/2012* $625,000
28/09/2011* POA
09/11/2010* $695,000
07/07/2009* $850,000

Then we opened verbal discussions to see how firm they were on the 'from $565'. Turns out not firm at all and REA said they would probably accept $510. Small wahoo moment.

Then whilst we were faffing around setting up companies, trusts blah blah another block came on the market down the street, a bit smaller but 'from $499k'.

We didn't want the other block as it wasn't as wide and we needed the width for the garages. But we used it in negotiations, ie if you don't accept our offer we'll just go buy that one.

We were originally going to offer $480 and prepared to go up to $510k but after more verbal discussions we told them that we were offering $480 and they said they would accept.

Finally all our ducks were ready and we offered $480 and they accepted.

I'm pretty sure if they were prepared to accept that, they should have changed the price on the listing as it probably would have sold sooner but they didn't :)

Wow Westminster! I cant keep up... lol Congrats to you both.
Have you seen these http://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-wa-mindarie-115855471 ?
Is this the end product your going for?

Hey Chris! Yes that is our comparable product.
2 of them sold for $699k, one recently sold but price not available yet and the last is still on the market. The big price drop is most likely due to the Developer going into Liquidation in Feb. I'm assuming that they have been told to sell off their finished products.

In terms of location ours is much better as it's right on the marina.
 
:)

Hey westminster & blacky!

Envious of you two! i've been keeping my eye on the 2 units left which spanna has posted.. they have been on the market for quite a while now and i believe the price has dropped from 699K to 639k?

On the flipside, i was talking to a real estate agent and he told me the apartments down on the marina in that big complex all sold out straight away?

I live just down the road on the quinns/mindarie border and drive past them 2 left for sale all the time, I've actually contemplated asking the agent to go check them out but never got around to it. I wonder what the other 2 went for...

I will be following your build very closely!! Congrats on finding a good little devie site!
 
We knew it's listing history:

24/08/2012 From $565,000
04/05/2012 $585,000
21/02/2012* $625,000
28/09/2011* POA
09/11/2010* $695,000
07/07/2009* $850,000

Then we opened verbal discussions to see how firm they were on the 'from $565'. Turns out not firm at all and REA said they would probably accept $510. Small wahoo moment.

Then whilst we were faffing around setting up companies, trusts blah blah another block came on the market down the street, a bit smaller but 'from $499k'.

We didn't want the other block as it wasn't as wide and we needed the width for the garages. But we used it in negotiations, ie if you don't accept our offer we'll just go buy that one.

We were originally going to offer $480 and prepared to go up to $510k but after more verbal discussions we told them that we were offering $480 and they said they would accept.

Finally all our ducks were ready and we offered $480 and they accepted.

I'm pretty sure if they were prepared to accept that, they should have changed the price on the listing as it probably would have sold sooner but they didn't :)

Thanks for the insight.
 
Surprised that agent is still operating - didn't their sister building company go bust earlier this year?

Yes his brother's company who built the development went into Liquidation in Feb. I'm quite sure that is why the apartments have dropped $60k in price - I'm sure there is some pressure to get finished products sold and money into the accounts.

You can do better than that ;)

We agree :) I went through their apartments and they are nice but the elevation did nothing for me - in face it turned me off. Mindarie is full of lovely coastal colours with warm tones in buildings but this is grey and forbidding.

Nice one :cool:

Westminster you are very good at finding development sites. What method/approach do you normally use to find suitable sites?

3 of my finds have been long term listings that have gone very stale. 2 were bought before home opens could even happen so I swing from that spectrum.

All except 1 (my first) are now in middle to upper class suburbs because it's easier to get money out of people that have money and it only costs a small amount more to build to their specification. The base construction cost is the same for a villa in Boganville as it is in Snobsville. The difference is $20k or so of finishes. However the end results/profit is greater than that $20k. The downside to the approach is greater 'skin in the game' required but if you have good equity from your first project then use that.

Then it's a matter of know your zoning codes and knowing your basic construction to figure out what can go on the site.
 
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