Now is the time to buy

[abbyfresh]

This all very interesting. Are you literally going to be living in a caravan for 6 months, fully self contained with no other place of residence? Very few would drop to this level for this time with a whole family. But you do what you have to do. What ever it takes as they say. No one can be or should be jealous of your achievements.

Once you bring the granny flat idea into the equation, suddenly you can reach higher, or service more, just by thinking outside the square.

Does Brisbane have same granny flat laws as NSW? otherwise it would be considered as a boarder I guess, and no big deal if you are living there and managing the deal.

Who would build a new design to live in without such a self contained flexible component in the included? You'd be crazy not to...

Hi Tcocaro,

All good. Just demonstrating even more "delayed gratification" by committing to living in a van for 6 months to achieve my goals. It was my wife's idea, not mine...


Cheers,
Michael

 

[MichaelW]

What I commend most of all is your commitment to living in a trailer on site and having downstairs rented out - many people wont for reasons of ego or fear about what "others may think". I genuinly do commend you, I feel its a rarity these days to find someone (youngish - guessing your my age or thereabouts?) is willing to work anymore or have a "lets get it done" attitude and actually do the work required not just say it.

Personally I have lived in a 1 bedroom budget hotel in Canberra, slept days on end in the car, Commute back and forth from Brisbane to Sydney (staying in Manly), Sydney to Canberra, lived on-site, in the houses we have renovated, tents on site as has my brother in law who works with me. I have a family back at home, a wife who is a soldier by my side taking care of two kids.

Tcocaro,

Firstly, thank you for that excellent post. In fact it is probably one of the best posts I've read in a long time and resonates strongly with the point I was trying to make in my own post about sacrificing to get ahead. I genuinely considered not posting the bit about living in a van or even a tent on site as most people would scoff at the idea and ridicule the approach but I thought it important to not gloss over how I'm executing my strategy and the sacrifices I am having to make to achieve my goals. I'm not the type to gloss over my failures or sacrifices to paint a pretty picture and thereby improve my online persona as some virtual types seem to be.

Stress levels have been high, I dont show it but my body feels like its shredding - for anyone who has a controlled stress they may know what this feels like. Add to this the birth of my 2nd daughter this year giving my mother - my friend enough time to look at her before passing away from cancer.

So when I hear stories of woe or negativity in general on SS or anywhere for that matter I feel like saying stick it, this is life.. fight for what you want, dont waste time on haters and no matter how bad it ever gets keep smiling you only have the one life make the most of it and never ever regret anything.

Firstly, my condolences for your loss.

And I can certainly sympathise with your level of stress. I have been suffering physically this year from everything I have undertaken. I have had a terrible case of hives for the last 3 months and have been suffering borderline depression. I work in the Steel industry and my company OneSteel just announced another 400 redundancies to come last week on the day I sign my loan documents for another $300K with WBC on top of my existing $1.1M construction loan, $600K site mortgage and former PPOR loans of another $700K odd. And only one rental income in all that loan exposure, the rest being serviced out of my personal income at present. I did a IWTV with the ATO and now pay 4% tax this year...

So I know what stress feels like. But every day I get up and go to work and fight hard to do the best by my company as well as my projects. I'm a senior exec in OneSteel as well as a part time multi-unit developer and soon to be private builder.

Ah well, life wasn't meant to be easy. And obstacles exist to test just how much we really want something. The "can do" amongst us "do" while the others explain why it can't be done.

Cheers mate,
Michael

 

[MichaelW]

This all very interesting. Are you literally going to be living in a caravan for 6 months, fully self contained with no other place of residence? Very few would drop to this level for this time with a whole family. But you do what you have to do. What ever it takes as they say. No one can be or should be jealous of your achievements.

Yes...

Moving out of our really lousy rental property in Bardon to probably live in a tent on site for 6 months until I can finish the development in Mona Vale to allow refinancing then sale of the IP in Narrabeen. But for 6 months its tent life for me. Think Porta loo at the top of the block and bush shower in a little upright tent thingy. Think no washing machine and every Sunday night at the Laundramat. Think no kitchen, just a BBQ with a single gas hob burner on the side for pots. No study, no phone, no carpet, no computer, no internet, no bath, no laundry, no space, no lots of things. Three people in a tent or two... And me a senior exec on a strong six figure income and my wife a lawyer on another excellent income. Choices huh...

A journo at my wife's workplace wants to run a piece on us on how people live nowadays. Not sure I want quite THAT much exposure though.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[locko24]

Yes...

A journo at my wife's workplace wants to run a piece on us on how people live nowadays. Not sure I want quite THAT much exposure though.

Cheers,
Michael

I guess you'll be getting enough exposure showering in the middle of a vacant block

 

[evand]

HELLO!! ....Wheres the preaching? I just buy a property and rent it out. The less i hear about it the better.

I got other things to do.

and the other 1% are found on SS, so stop preaching to us!

 

[Propertunity]

darn - vendor realised it was such a good buy he decided to keep it and roll it into his superfund.

Under the SIS Act you cannot sell your own property to your own SMSF (unless it is your commercial place of business).

Go back and tell him and then buy it off him as you planned.....

 

[Deltaberry]

Buying a property while the market is declining does not make sense. Why would you do that? It goes against all investing fundamentals (as opposed to mum and pop property investing fundamentals)

The other day Lee Shau Kee was on TV saying he only buys properties when they fall. That's how he made his first fortune, then his second, then his third.

Who's Lee? Oh just someone around 5x richer than Packer.

Promised to give citizens $1bn if the index hits 40000 points before he dies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Shau_Kee

 

[lizzie]

My wife laughs at me each time I stuff up because I always say, "Oh well its a learning lesson" about 3 times a day

Totally agree - there are no "mistakes" only valuable learning opportunities - and if you don't learn from it, you are supplied the lesson again!

 

[lizzie]

I work in the Steel industry and my company OneSteel just announced another 400 redundancies to come

My hubby also works fairly high up for Onesteel - and they've announced the shedding of 100 jobs from his location ... went thru a "worst case" scenario last night and fortunately "worst case" was okay.

Worst case was made redundant with no payout or LSL being paid.

Best case was 2yrs redundancy payment (been there 30+ years) and 10 mths LSL - which would set us on a completely different path.

Somewhere in the middle is staying employed.

Have you done your "worst case" too?

As for tenting it ... well ... Brisbane over summer. Why not?

 

[lizzie]

HELLO!! ....Wheres the preaching? I just buy a property and rent it out. The less i hear about it the better.

... only about dozen versions of:

"But buying low (but still high relative to past gross yield and affordability) and seeing the market falling while neg gearing does not make investing sense."

and

"Buying a property while the market is declining does not make sense. Why would you do that? It goes against all investing fundamentals (as opposed to mum and pop property investing fundamentals)"

and

"But what i'm saying is at this stage of the market, the trend is your friend. And the current trend is not your friend."

You have been heard alright!

 

[buster]

Who rings the bell

Who's saying that?




But buying low (but still high relative to past gross yield and affordability) and seeing the market falling while neg gearing does not make investing sense. Buy when the market is trending up, not down.

If you can get 8+ gross yield buy in any market. Doesn't matter.

Evand you buy a property on its merit. Did nt you learn anything in 2009 in May it was doom and gloom the markets crashing in July property was going up 20k a month, even tho commentators where going on and on about falling prices, and coninued like that for the next 5 months till it slowed down and only went 10k a month for the next 5 months, but there is not one market other markets were stable but have only stated going up in the last year. either way you lose waiting for an up trend. WHO RINGS THE BELL. By the time the stats show a trend prices have been going up for 4 months. It is harder to get 8% after the markrt has gone up.

 

[Dan_p]

Yeah. Investing in falling assets is good and makes plenty of sense
Maybe you can negatively gear it as well. That way you'll not only have a declining asset, but also be forking out even more money as well. Bonus!! You are a financial genius aren't you.

Much better to buy when the prices are going up and everyone else is buying. Can't beat the herd mentality.

He said long term investment, so what's wrong with it being negative geared for a while.

 

[bluestorm]

Much better to buy when the prices are going up and everyone else is buying. Can't beat the herd mentality.

He said long term investment, so what's wrong with it being negative geared for a while.

Negatively geared for a few years, on top of what will be a property market correction. Add up the loss of money on the "investment" in the near future. Anyway, I seem to be out of wack with the Somersofters in thinking that now is a very bad time to buy more property with the world heading into GFC2.

Anyway, I won't feel sorry for the people that get in now, and take a financial hit over the next 1.5yrs with a 30% correction. Will be good for the patient.

 

[devo76]

Negatively geared for a few years, on top of what will be a property market correction. Add up the loss of money on the "investment" in the near future. Anyway, I seem to be out of wack with the Somersofters in thinking that now is a very bad time to buy more property with the world heading into GFC2.

Anyway, I won't feel sorry for the people that get in now, and take a financial hit over the next 1.5yrs with a 30% correction. Will be good for the patient.

A 30% correction. Really. When do you expect this to happen...no no wait. 2013/2014 got it.

 

[bluestorm]

A 30% correction. Really. When do you expect this to happen...no no wait. 2013/2014 got it.

Next 16-17mths to end of 2012. 2013/2014 is when I plan to buy again. Two different sets of dates devo.

Laugh all you like devo. You probably also laughed as well when I called an eventual 3200 ASX early this year by Nov 2012 didn't you, so still a further 25% drop at least for the ASX.

Don't worry devo, property will boom in Australia while the world falls apart (the Somersofters say so), yeah right

 

[Dan_p]

Negatively geared for a few years, on top of what will be a property market correction. Add up the loss of money on the "investment" in the near future. Anyway, I seem to be out of wack with the Somersofters in thinking that now is a very bad time to buy more property with the world heading into GFC2.

Anyway, I won't feel sorry for the people that get in now, and take a financial hit over the next 1.5yrs with a 30% correction. Will be good for the patient.

Somersofters are generally out of whack with the general public opinion.

I think it is a good time to buy. I lived in Butler WA a three years ago. The prices are the same then as they are now. The big difference is back then you had to go in a ballot to buy a block of land. At that time everything was looking terrific, you can't go wrong with property in WA. So we bought in Sydney where not many people were buying and picked up something for what was a relatively good price.

Now there are about 60'ish (3 pages on realestate.com) 4 bedroom houses in Butler for sale mostly a few years old. This says to me it is a better time to buy now then 3 years ago in that suburb, buyers market. I would only get about 5% yield, but then again it is not all about the yield for me, I want capital growth too.

It is good to have differing opinions, helps me to assess from a different view point.

What sort of unemployment figures would Australia need to have for property to go backwards by 30%?

Perhaps I do agree with you in one aspect of your point being it is a very bad time to buy more property with the world heading into GFC2. Australia is in a much worse position to tackle gfc2 compared to when labor was handed a debt free account for the first crisis. We will feel the full brunt of this crisis however severe it might be as there is no money in the kitty to blow.

 

[turk]

Next 16-17mths to end of 2012. 2013/2014 is when I plan to buy again. Two different sets of dates devo.

Laugh all you like devo. You probably also laughed as well when I called an eventual 3200 ASX early this year by Nov 2012 didn't you, so still a further 25% drop at least for the ASX.

Don't worry devo, property will boom in Australia while the world falls apart (the Somersofters say so), yeah right

Bluey

Your call for property was by the end of 2011 now pushed out to end of 2012,
because of in your words, government intervention.

Anyone that could not see that the government would be intervene in property in a GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISES when they were cashed up and could save their bacon is an absolute amateur and completely naive.

 

[Aaron_C]

There's some really good properties out there for sale right now. I just wish I had more money to buy them all

 

[House_Keeper]

I don't understand this talk about GFC2. There is no liquidity crisis like there was 3 years ago.

Maybe people are extrapolating a bit too much from the recent market nervousness.

 

[bluestorm]

Bluey

Your call for property was by the end of 2011 now pushed out to end of 2012,
because of in your words, government intervention.

Anyone that could not see that the government would be intervene in property in a GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISES when they were cashed up and could save their bacon is an absolute amateur and completely naive.

What difference does it make. The US and Europe are still intervening trying to keep the whole thing from collapsing. In the end, all that government intervention has done is delay the inevitable (and put the world into even more debt, which is the cause of the problems in the first place). This is true for Australia property as well. The only thing that has been achieved by the increased FHOG before, and other measures is that when property corrects, more people will feel the financial pain.
2011, 2012. Potato, Potaaato. Don't call me heartless in 2yrs when I salivate at all the distressed sales. If you want to listen to Somersoft "good times" and lollypops for property, and that now is a good time to buy, that's fine. I see it differently, and aim to take full advantage of others distress in a few years.