One Parent Families and PI Opportunities

[WinstonWolfe]

The following link highlights the economic hardship lone parent families face, and that lone parents are a rising demographic.
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/Latestproducts/F4B15709EC89CB1ECA25732C002079B2?opendocument

What property investment ideas can private PIers come up with to make life more comfortable for lone parents?

Or alternatively, do PI'ers believe that lone parents should just line up with the rest of housing consumers....??

 

[letiha]

well i'm a single mum with 3 kids (3,4 1/2, 9 1/2). They are my inspiration.

2 years ago i was on single parents pension, still studying and working a day or 2 a week child care or temping.

Now almost finished my degree, full time job as a paralegal and will continue on as a solicitor when finished and 4 IP's up my sleave.

I think its something that any one can accomplise if they work hard enough at it.

 

[alexlee]

What property investment ideas can private PIers come up with to make life more comfortable for lone parents?

Or alternatively, do PI'ers believe that lone parents should just line up with the rest of housing consumers....??

I can't think of anything particular to help lone parents. What would you suggest? It's not like we can provide child care.

I have one IP where it's a person taking care of children. The rent comes out of centerlink payments, so it's great for me.

Right now there isn't much incentive for landlords to do anything for tenants, to be honest.
Alex

 

[WinstonWolfe]

Letiha, not all single parents are equal.....some get a lot of help from their parents, some get stuff all...some have an IQ above the mean, some below...

Alex, it is arguably the fastest growing demographic in Australia.
Lots of PROFIT in it for a sharp investor, especially if you believe a recession is imminent.
Why not contemplate it for a day or 3? Alternatively, you can let KRudd and co pull 50,000 affordable dwellings out of a hat...

 

[alexlee]

Alex, it is arguably the fastest growing demographic in Australia.
Lots of PROFIT in it for a sharp investor, especially if you believe a recession is imminent.
Why not contemplate it for a day or 3?

I just honestly can't think of anything I can provide in an IP that would appeal to single parents. I mean, leaflets with local day care centres? Child-proof gates?
Alex

 

[lizzie]

hubby ended up a single parent of 3 kids - fortunately they were all all of primary school age so he could still work ... ended up with a mere $30,000 from his divorce and borrowed another $10k from his dad. bought a subdividable block with a battered old 1930's house on it ... he spent weekends doing up the house, subdivided the block and away we went. ( came into the picture sometime between doing up the house and subdividing).

it is possible - you just have to get rid of the victim mentality and work out "how" you can do ....

 

[Dis]

There are some amazing single parents out there.

But as a landlord I don't get to know individuals before they rent. Renting to them increases my risk:
a) Kids will have more wear and tear on th house
b) Income may be restricted if they cant work due to looking after the kids

What's the upside (for me) for targeting this market?

 

[geoffw]

What's the upside (for me) for targeting this market?

A higher pool of potential renters perhaps? People who have difficulty finding a place?

I have a property in which neither house has had kids in the five years since I bought. A couple with one child is now letting. They were offering $30pw over the asking rent to get the property. In a tight rental market, allowing kids (whether with a single parent or with two parents) can pay dividends.

 

[letiha]

Is it illegal to not allow kids???????

I think no matter what back ground someone has or what help they can get the option to work (unless there is a serious disability etc.) even working 1 day a week at a job that does not require a lot of experience or qualifictaions, open the paper there are hundreds of them.

1 day a weeks work will not affect the Centrelink payments at all and day care will only cost literally $5-6 dollars because of Childcare benefit. You can't force people to do this, but for those who have dreams or aspirations there is nothing stopping them.

 

[lizzie]

What's the upside (for me) for targeting this market?

guaranteed income from centrelink.

p.s. it is illegal to not allow kids, but in this current market of tight rentals (in our area at least) you can pick and choose from a range of applicants without appearing discrimatory

 

[yadreamin]

I have 1 ip with single Dad. I am looking at another ip with a single Dad already there. They are a growing breed.

What l have found is with the single Dads they look for a safe clean yard for the kids, single Mums tend to look at how close they are to the shops.

Not sure how you would target the single parent market specifically.
After all they are still just famlies wanting a roof over their heads like the rest of us.
cheers yadreamin

 

[Dis]

guaranteed income from centrelink.

How do you organise this? Specify direct payment from Centrelink and have a contract directly with centrelink? I thought that the tenant can revoke this at any time. Especially in a default / damages situation cant the tenant just tell Centrelink to stop rental payments?

 

[VYBerlinaV8]

What property investment ideas can private PIers come up with to make life more comfortable for lone parents?

Or alternatively, do PI'ers believe that lone parents should just line up with the rest of housing consumers....??

Not all property related, but OK, here we go:

Option 1: Scrape together whatever savings you have and use them to buy a managed fund with a reasonable yield. Take a margin loan, but gear only to a point where the interest cost results in neutral cashflow (or even some positive cashflow) after tax. Add $$ to the portfolio as you can, and slowly draw down more borrowed funds to grow the whole thing. After several years you will have a nice portfolio that generates a regular return, potentially with franking credits attached.

Option 2: Find a small property that you could easily afford to pay off. Buy it, move in, and after a couple of years get a revalue and draw down the equity for other (preferably cashflow positive) investments. Renovating on the cheap may well help here.

Option 3: Buy into a listed property trust holding commercial property with good expected returns using the same model as Option 1.

Basically I think the approach needs to be to scrape together whatever savings you have, and then find somewhere to put them that returns a positive cashflow. Consider turning this into growth by leveraging through borrowed funds.

Fundamentally, we cannot escape the true underlying tenet to becoming wealthier: spend less than you earn and invest the difference into something that generates a tangible return. It all flows from here.

 

[WinstonWolfe]

One of my work mates is a lone parent. She has two Asian students living in the house. Has improved her financial security significantly. This highlights that the growing trend to build 1-2 bed dwellings to cater for smaller avg household size isn't necessarily the most cost effective way to go. I'd argue that it will always be cheaper to house more people under the same roof. The point is we all need to learn how to get on. And that comes down to finding people with similar values.

In creating investment property, I am certainly considering house designs that might more harmoniously accomodate multiple mature adults, or a lone parent family and another adult wanting to live separately....maybe time ro rebadge granny flats to nanny flats...or uncle units.


And I'd agree V8, that is all about consuming less than we earn...

 

[caz]

2 of our IP's seem to attract single parents. They are really clean and tidy and well looked after and affordable. They have been great tenants. Never missed a payment always in advance, IP always kept clean and immaculate. We originally wanted no kids but all of our single parents, with one child only have been great Tenants.

 

[Peter 14.7]

How do you organise this? Specify direct payment from Centrelink and have a contract directly with centrelink? I thought that the tenant can revoke this at any time. Especially in a default / damages situation cant the tenant just tell Centrelink to stop rental payments?

I think the point was they cannot lose their income like job. I didnot think C/Link would pay Landlord direct?

Peter

 

[Peter 14.7]

well i'm a single mum with 3 kids (3,4 1/2, 9 1/2). They are my inspiration.

2 years ago i was on single parents pension, still studying and working a day or 2 a week child care or temping.

Now almost finished my degree, full time job as a paralegal and will continue on as a solicitor when finished and 4 IP's up my sleave.

I think its something that any one can accomplise if they work hard enough at it.

AWESOME POST!!!!

This post needed to be put in the recent social debate on rich v poor thread.

"You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink".

Everone, be they: high IQ, low IQ, rich, poor, and regardless of race, colour or creed has to personally take responsibility for their life like you have.

So cool, Peter

 

[letiha]

Thanks Peter

That what I truly believe, its about taking responsibility for yourself and your life.

Stuff the bloody '"Secret", sure its all in the mind, but its about determination. If you are not happy with your lot in life change it. If you want something you can have it by working hard enough.

Investing in something that everyone has to learn, I had to sit and learn for 2 + years before I had a chance to invest. A few false starts...but now i'm almost there. I am not going to stop till I get my goals.

Its a pity that others don't share the mentality...just watch ACA or TT, the poor me its not fair mentality will get you no where.

 

[lizzie]

Stuff the bloody '"Secret", sure its all in the mind, but its about determination.

aha - but that is the secret - and that is why it is still such a secret because so few people "get it".

the secret is about opening yourself up to opportunities that may have not registered on your radar of opportunities when you had a closed mind.

and once you have opened up and aligned yourself - opportunities are boundless. that is the problem with most people on welfare - they are totally closed to any opportunities around them because their world revolves around the "oh, woe is me." therefore they get more of "woe is me".

but we promise not to hijack this as a "secret" thread ... just that it is possible. saw a great quote today going along the lines of "the world is moving so fast that by the time someone has said it can't be done, they are interupted by someone doing it".

it's not a case of "can't" but the mindset needs to be changed to "how can i?"

 

[steveadl]

Thanks Peter

That what I truly believe, its about taking responsibility for yourself and your life.

Stuff the bloody '"Secret", sure its all in the mind, but its about determination. If you are not happy with your lot in life change it. If you want something you can have it by working hard enough.

Investing in something that everyone has to learn, I had to sit and learn for 2 + years before I had a chance to invest. A few false starts...but now i'm almost there. I am not going to stop till I get my goals.

Its a pity that others don't share the mentality...just watch ACA or TT, the poor me its not fair mentality will get you no where.

Very well said Leitha, you should be extremely proud of yourself and what you've achieved!

PS If only more people had this sort of attitude and determination.