G’day all, as mentioned last post a while back thanks for all the inspiring reads and knowledge, since then I have continued to absorb as much info as possible. From the bit of a sook I had about life throwing a couple of wobbly ones at me mid last year and making me an inadvertent land lord (http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66550) I have been powering on and now have some new questions I would love some constructive feedback on.
While I am grateful for the excellent input I received from Lizzie, Rolf, Marg, & Bradsdad, and I did try to pause and consolidate things a little, I think I must be part shark or something since if I am not on the move forward with some kind of mission it feels like I might die or something! So bub was born (And she is totally awesome!), I canned my job in Sydney at Xmas, took a new higher paying, more regular hours gig in Wollongong, and we have started moving into a spare South Coast IP the parents had which had just come up empty. Our lease in Sydney ends late Feb, my own apartment is still leased until August for $400/wk almost paying its way (I&P), and we are paying practically no rent down the coast and saving like mad. Proof all good things come to those who hustle, and there is nothing like becoming a dad to give you a turbo charged boot up the bum either! It has been a hectic couple of months, and the field of play has changed quite a bit. Our goal is still to get nice PPOR in Illawarra, keep Sydney apartment if possible, but we will cash it in if it gets us the family home.
Have been researching these following topics here and I would now like to also get people’s feedback on:
- My trawling the net/picking people’s brains give a variety of views on what will happen in Sydney market this year, I believe there is a levelling off of prices, and evidently there is a lot more sales stock available now, what do people think will be the likely extent of cooling/dropping prices in specifically in Alexandria Sydney? As an area of Sydney which I believe has a fair bit going for it, any thoughts on why it would hold up better/worse than other areas?
- If I decide I have to sell to access the equity in my apartment, is it better to wait until close to the end of current tenants lease so I can offer vacant possession, or have a tenant in place so an investor can smoothly transition the ownership with minimal loss of income? Do people see it being an owner-occupier or investor led market by mid-year? To complicate things there is some strata maintenance works which are being tendered to get sorted early this year, so until that is completed I don’t reckon the place would be sold in best condition possible, so immediate sale is not an option.
- If I currently have a PM I like, who works for one agency, but whose sales team doesn’t do much for me, is it the done thing to make him and a REA from another agency liaise together to show it etc? Do they get funny like that? I.e. PM might not make it easy for REA from another agency to arrange to show buyers through etc? I can terminate the PM agreement any time, what would people recommend? Is it best just to use the sales team from the same agency as your PM? Anyone been in this situation?
- OK, and one for the Doomers (Or optimists?)- if the bottom does fall out of the Sydney market, and my yuppie DINK box in Alexandria along with every other property in Sydney drops by 30% or something, do people see a ripple of price corrections spreading outwards? I.e eventually South Coast NSW starts to drop in line with Sydney? Should we try and sit it out this year milking the cheap rent etc and saving hard so we could take advantage of this? On the flip side, I have read recently that pockets of the Illawarra will perform well this year, so could it just be one of those market-in-a-market type things and not worth worrying about and best do our sums with prices like they are now with reasonable growth factored in? If we are hell bent on a family home in a place we love should we just suck it up and go for broke and stuff what the market is doing, since we intend to hold for many years and would have to live somewhere anyways?
- Finally, any recommendations for a good mortgage broker on NSW South Coast so I can work out my lending options?
OK I will leave it there, again, thank you for any constructive thoughts anyone may have on these points (actually, if you got this far, thank you for just reading it- what a rant!), net access is a bit patchy down here, so any replies/clarifications may be a little lagged, all input much appreciated.
Cheers,
Stu
While I am grateful for the excellent input I received from Lizzie, Rolf, Marg, & Bradsdad, and I did try to pause and consolidate things a little, I think I must be part shark or something since if I am not on the move forward with some kind of mission it feels like I might die or something! So bub was born (And she is totally awesome!), I canned my job in Sydney at Xmas, took a new higher paying, more regular hours gig in Wollongong, and we have started moving into a spare South Coast IP the parents had which had just come up empty. Our lease in Sydney ends late Feb, my own apartment is still leased until August for $400/wk almost paying its way (I&P), and we are paying practically no rent down the coast and saving like mad. Proof all good things come to those who hustle, and there is nothing like becoming a dad to give you a turbo charged boot up the bum either! It has been a hectic couple of months, and the field of play has changed quite a bit. Our goal is still to get nice PPOR in Illawarra, keep Sydney apartment if possible, but we will cash it in if it gets us the family home.
Have been researching these following topics here and I would now like to also get people’s feedback on:
- My trawling the net/picking people’s brains give a variety of views on what will happen in Sydney market this year, I believe there is a levelling off of prices, and evidently there is a lot more sales stock available now, what do people think will be the likely extent of cooling/dropping prices in specifically in Alexandria Sydney? As an area of Sydney which I believe has a fair bit going for it, any thoughts on why it would hold up better/worse than other areas?
- If I decide I have to sell to access the equity in my apartment, is it better to wait until close to the end of current tenants lease so I can offer vacant possession, or have a tenant in place so an investor can smoothly transition the ownership with minimal loss of income? Do people see it being an owner-occupier or investor led market by mid-year? To complicate things there is some strata maintenance works which are being tendered to get sorted early this year, so until that is completed I don’t reckon the place would be sold in best condition possible, so immediate sale is not an option.
- If I currently have a PM I like, who works for one agency, but whose sales team doesn’t do much for me, is it the done thing to make him and a REA from another agency liaise together to show it etc? Do they get funny like that? I.e. PM might not make it easy for REA from another agency to arrange to show buyers through etc? I can terminate the PM agreement any time, what would people recommend? Is it best just to use the sales team from the same agency as your PM? Anyone been in this situation?
- OK, and one for the Doomers (Or optimists?)- if the bottom does fall out of the Sydney market, and my yuppie DINK box in Alexandria along with every other property in Sydney drops by 30% or something, do people see a ripple of price corrections spreading outwards? I.e eventually South Coast NSW starts to drop in line with Sydney? Should we try and sit it out this year milking the cheap rent etc and saving hard so we could take advantage of this? On the flip side, I have read recently that pockets of the Illawarra will perform well this year, so could it just be one of those market-in-a-market type things and not worth worrying about and best do our sums with prices like they are now with reasonable growth factored in? If we are hell bent on a family home in a place we love should we just suck it up and go for broke and stuff what the market is doing, since we intend to hold for many years and would have to live somewhere anyways?
- Finally, any recommendations for a good mortgage broker on NSW South Coast so I can work out my lending options?
OK I will leave it there, again, thank you for any constructive thoughts anyone may have on these points (actually, if you got this far, thank you for just reading it- what a rant!), net access is a bit patchy down here, so any replies/clarifications may be a little lagged, all input much appreciated.
Cheers,
Stu