Today was another low point

hey Sparky

Can i just say hang in there and good luck, my accountant recently relayed a story where he helped a customer access superanuation under hardship provisions, would could this help you in any way stalling banks, helping lvr etc? Apra may give you some ideas, help?

http://www.apra.gov.au/

cheers and good luck
 
Hi Sparky

Chin up , the sun will come up tomorrow

I hope you have a great relationship , because if you do , the rest is second.

I used to have plenty , but a crap relationship , I am so much richer now.

Good luck , life is too short
 
Wow what can I say! You people are all so awesome - so much support and understanding. Thank you for the private messages too I will answer those over the next day or two.

Well today went well in court, after the threat of 2 years in jail (because he was addicted and paid fortnightly he bought fortnightly and was slightly over what would normally be deemed for personal use) he got a section 10 with 12 months good behaviour which means no conviction recorded and no fine which none of us could have paid anyway plus we have 3 months to pay the $100 court fees. You know he is a good kid and this addiction started because the friend of his I took in (after he got kicked out of home) was dealing drugs and so in a way I feel to blame, he fooled us all for a long time and is well beyond help.

As for my son I tried everything short of going down the path of so many of his friends parents and kicking him out, I just thought he would work through it and come out the other side. As it has turned out the police catching him was the big wake up call and he gave up immediately and has had a month or so of cold turkey and has no desire to touch drugs again or associate with people who use them (in this day and age this will be close to impossible)

Through this time he went to work every day for Green corps and got qualifications in conservation and land management, first aid, work cover, green card etc but this was a 6 month paid course which has just finished and so now he has no money, neither he nor his 20 year old brother can get centrelink as we are deemed to earn too much money but when they are 21 they can claim as they won't be linked to us after that time - how crazy!

He is trying hard now to get a job and can see his 'old' friends as the losers they are so a good outcome overall.

As for the properties we already have Yanchep as the cheapest 4 bedder on realestate.com in the area well below replacement cost which would be around $460,000 and have been reducing the price all year. The bank val last year was $500,000 and they were selling well over that last year so we are at least $100,000 below the price we could have got if only the house had been finished a couple of months earlier.

The Rockingham/Shoalwater houses are also below cost and $100,000 below last years bank val, a couple of similar properties are cheaper but to clear the loc attached I can't get any lower unless I can sell without agents fees.

Just about to knock some more off my duplex over here in NSW but I have to keep enough in to try and shift some of the debt we have been accruing so the new duplex plans we had are scuppered and I either have to sell the duplex block or save it for plan B for next year if we can come out of this year in one piece! My concern is that if all of our remaining equity is eroded we shall then be in danger of losing the family home. Bloody frustrating that if these rates come down to 4% or so next year we could have kept and afforded everything but a year of battling should have been long enough to sort things out, I can't believe we are here still going through this.

Thanks for all the stories to put things in perspective, I know that many people have been here and many people are worse off than we are. I also knew I was taking big risks, we got into this late and I was trying to play catch up and stop hubby from having to drive 3 hours a day to work his 12 hour shift in Sydney - now I might have made it all worse!

You are all helping me to bounce back up again - thank you so much!
 
Sorry to hear things have been so rough for the family. A new year is just around the corner and the only way from here is right back up again.

I'm glad court went okay for your son.
 
hey Sparky,

not too sure what to say in regards to your situation because I don't know details and I'm not all that experienced... however, I can without a doubt say to you stay positive and stay focused..... what doesn't kill us, only makes us stronger! It's important to learn and grow from all of this, there has to be a lesson or two in there somewhere that, albeit very painful and expensive, will help to propel you so much further than what you would have gone otherwise. It's almost like a blessing in disguise.

I am also in a tight position at the moment,but not as bad as yours... I have an assault charge against me where I can't really afford the legal advice to defend myself, yet I can't afford not to because I need my security license to help me service my properties.. I've also quit my full-time job worth $65k/year without having another full-time job to go.

It's been a dramatic change to only 2-3 months ago to when everything was on track and looked very rosy... A friend of mine told me to "man up and stop avoiding the consequences" of my actions... I did and a great deal of my stress has been relieved and I'm fully prepared to accept whatever comes my way as a result of my actions.

Stay positive, stay focused.... don't give up and don't let anything break you... success and failure are opposite sides of the same coin, you will find success is often just around the corner when you've thought about giving up. Stay strong and I'm sure something will come up for you.
 
great to hear about the court case ... now the hard works starts to actually keep up with his vow to not associate with the "losers". when times are tough it can be easy to slip back into the old way.

be strong for him - i know you can do it! as for work, can he do some volunteer work with landcare or the local councils regeneration project. something that keeps him busy. what about working with younger kids in bad drug situations - to use his experience in a positive way? is there some further training he can undertake to get a job - bartendering, waitering, barrista?

i too was in an awful situation last year - to the point i cried savagely into ss. they are a great crowd here.

good suggestion re super - although super is looking pretty shocking right now. can you apply to access some of it?

bon! fantastic to hear you so positive and forward moving in a great way!
 
Hang in there, Sparky. I was recently in a very, very tight spot and in danger of losing some serious assets, too. :eek: My main suggestion would be to keep problem-solving; just keep on thinking and thinking of ways of getting out of this situation, and eventually one of them will come through. Can you refinance, or borrow money from family or friends? As in our situation, it may be that an injection of $100K now will prevent us having to lose perhaps $500K in equity by selling in the current market. And seriously, don't just ask one or two brokers or lenders - I looked for finance all over, kept getting told no, and just kept looking and asking. Eventually got an unbelievable offer from a bank that I haven't previously dealt with; better than I dared dream of. (Once we've settled, I'll share the whole story here.) There probably is a lender out there who'll do the deal; you just have to find them.

Even if you definitely do have to sell, can you offer vendor finance to somebody who'll buy at a reasonable price but doesn't have a deposit? Can you rent it out for a while? Just keep thinking, and thinking, and thinking!

Chin up, and hang in there. :)
 
Thanks again everyone, we do have another refinance application in at the moment but in the end we do need some sales as we should be getting out of debt not getting into more. We have 31 days left before Yanchep is reposessed, maybe there will be more people looking this weekend.

My son is doing 2 days work experience with bushcare and also attending access each week, they are a group who help people into apprenticeships, he is almost over his hot sweats and cold turkey and is being very selective about his friends, his new best friend was on the course with him and has also just given up drugs. I think he has a new maturity about him. He also has job applications in with 3 of the local councils for landscaping/bush regeneration type jobs. He is also going to call in to mission australia as he can do free fork lift truck training and also can get scaffolder/rigger tickets so he is trying hard.

Good luck to everyone else going through bad stuff at the moment!
 
Just received an offer!

It looks as though you lot are bringing me some good karma!

We have just received an offer on one of the houses in Rockingham. I don't know whether it will be enough that the bank will let us accept it as its a bit complicated and I'm not sure how things work! I stuck a new thread up on property finance so hopefully the experts on here can give me some advice.

But hey at least I got an offer so thanks everybody!

Also I forgot to mention that a few people on here sent me a pm and offered to continue the sponsorship of my little James in Zambia so thank you for that!

YOU ALL ROCK!
 
sparky23 said:
Also I forgot to mention that a few people on here sent me a pm and offered to continue the sponsorship of my little James in Zambia so thank you for that!
Click to expand...

oh god - that made me all teary (and guilty that i didn't think to do such).

agreed. the people on this site a awesome ... and fantastic news for you regarding the offer. tomorrow is the weekend so here's sending some karma that 2 groups will go thru tomorrow and start a bidding war.
 
Hi Sparky,

I only pop on SS now and then these days as I too am experiencing some pretty heavy financial difficulties.

You have received some great advice.

Can I firstly advise that you don't let your sons friend allow you to lose your faith in good judgement and compassion that you so obviously have? I was fortunate enough to have two of my friends parents put a roof over my head while I was completing my HSC and wouldn't have finished it without them.

It is great news about your son and I hope you are able to sell your IP. I have had several properties on the market as the cheapest in town, but have had to bow to pressure and reduce them in order to sell.

I pulled an auction off in 3 weeks - no sale but it brings out the serious buyers and bargain hunters. I am in price negotiation at the moment. It is really important to have the right Real Estate Agent in this market. Not just any agent can sell a house these days. '

I am not out of deep water yet but another 1% interest rate reduction will certainly give me some grocery money!:)

Good Luck and we all look forward to your updates.

Regards JO
 
Good news on the offer sparky. You know you can accept offers or place offers with any reason/excuse. Go on accept it.
cheers yadreamin
 
Any White Knights?

Hi Sharon
It really upsets me that you are in such a predicament at present.
I don't know your full situation so I cannot really comment. However I have been thinking about your situation family and business wise .
I understand the situation with drugs. Seems like every second friend in our local area has a story to tell about their children. My wife is a teacher and comments about young teachers that have everything at their feet doing ice etc :eek:
Also, this may sound a bit strange? I can understand addiction. When I had my kidney transplant I was on a drip that I controlled by a button for pain. Morpheine I think:confused: After 2 weeks on that stuff I was having withdrawal symptoms once removed. One shot and you were with the fairies.

As to the properties. I have driven past your Hayward Bay units. Very nice:).
The market is slow but you have given that agent a fair go at selling. I really do not think they are a active agent:mad:
I would be moving the sale to a more pro-active agent that seems to get the runs on the board. Closer to your catchment area. I would imagine with your present agent the listing has gone stale. Time to Lower the price and get new blood actively working for you:cool: Set it up before X/mas.
Maybe the same for W.A . properties.?

Other option. Can you rent the H.Bay properties. Even if only for a 6 to 12 mth period to bring in some cashflow? They should bring $310 - $ 350 p/w each from just a quick think . (PM me if you need a good rental agent.)

Still thinking.?

Above all try and keep positive.
I know the situation.
A few times since 1979 I have woken up in the night in a cold sweat, trembling and thinking OMG "What have I Done". Then taken years to crawl back .

Try and hold everything as long as possible before handing over to banks. Drop prices. Keep treading water. Better you to control the situation than have a bank dump a place at any price to anyone. Then they try and re-coupe losses from you.

As everyone here has said you are not alone. Any one of us that takes risks and does more than the average person is at risk of a bad situation. Funny thing is that those you see that do nothing never have anything. So really I feel they are the losers.


Hope this helps in some way.


Gee Cee

Greg

I will get across to visit soon.


(Just look out for the Sexy guy with the screeming kids!
 
Sparky I apologise if you have explained this in another thread, but I could not find anything.

Did these problems occur with the properties because of all the interest rate rises last year and most of this year???

Is that what caused all of this??

FWIW my hubby has twice been wiped out and the last time in his 50's but has recovered from all of that so it has been proven time and time again that this sort of thing doesn't always mean the end of something but often the begining of something that could end up being even better!

That is what I wish for you.....
 
Hey Gee Cee make your mind up - am I looking out for a bald guy with dog and screaming kids driving a porsche now? Geez I might lock the door if I hear you coming! LOL

Yes you are right about the agent, they all seem to lose interest after the first 5 minutes! From this weekend I have Ray White on the job (just that the board hasn't changed yet) We started out at $399,000 and will be kicking off at $379,000 with Ray White. I can get rent at $395 through my rental lady at Ray White for each townhouse (she has executive tenants on her books, bluescope and port management and that kind of thing) but I need to get money out quickly as I have a substantial debt that needs to be paid and whilst on the market I can't get tenants in. My hope is that as these few weeks have seen me getting more FHB and investors through at work then the same will happen at the duplex with a new agent all revved up and not stale. I changed agents once in WA but at least over there they have managed to find buyers and get contracts out but the buyers haven't been able to get loans. I believe the new offer has people with finance approved.

I have had some pretty bad nights too but I always feel better after coming onto the forum and unloading on you lot!
 
Hi Petal

It all began coming up to Christmas last year, the house in Yanchep was a little late getting finished and as the buffer was getting a bit low I thought instead of renting (the original plan was to build and hold not sell) we should sell this one bearing in mind that at the time similar homes had been selling for around $550,000 which with costs around $350,000 would have been a good years work. Bank valuation at that time was $490,000. We also took out equity at this time as I had a land settlement for the next duplex.

Brilliant timing - this was exactly when things began to slow down and even though we began at $520,000, just like many other people I didn't realise what was about to hit but I have been steadily bringing the price down and staying at the bottom of the price range for similar houses. Today we sit at $419,000 and there is no cheaper price on realestate.com for a 4 bedder in the area. I only have about a month left on that one before it goes to the bank.

Of course after christmas the interest rate hikes began and shortly after that my job finished and since we began investing about 5 years ago all of my salary has gone into investing/developing so losing that income meant the remaining buffer was quickly wiped out. Over the year the rates kept climbing, I couldn't find work and the duplex build dragged on a good 6 months longer than it should have taken. We managed to get out a couple more refinances and then I had to resort to extra credit cards which is a no no but I have desperately been trying to protect our credit rating as once that is gone a comeback will be so much harder.

So that is pretty much what did it. Christmas is being ignored this year which is rough on the boys but hopefully I can make up for it when things are better, I am juggling payments on everything, shopping at Aldi which I don't mind at all now that I have got the hang of it, paying all of the rates bills in $100 instalments - they are the killer when you have so many properties I am paying 10 lots of rates, then each month I have to decide which loans to pay and which not to pay.

I have been back at work since September and now with an offer on the table for one of the houses today I can only hope things are about to get better.

The funny thing is I can't even look back and know that I would have done anything differently because at the time everything was the right thing to do - only now with hindsight could I have gone back and changed things.
 
Thank you Sparky for your response and thanks also to Y-man for attaching the older tread as I am now up to speed.

Well the one thing that shines through to me with all your post Sparky is that you have an absolute handle on what the issues are and how to try and rectify them. This may seem like a strange thing to say but in my experience other people who are in the situation you are in.

1. Don't have any real clear idea how it happened
2. Couldn't succiently describe it to you if they tried
3. Have no clue what to do, to get out of the situation.

At least with your obvious intelligence and honesty with yourself and others as to what has happened will stand you in good stead as you work your way through this situation and yes I truely believe you will come out stronger and better off down the track at the other end.

I don't know your age but guessing 30-40 and if so you have mucho time to get back on top again.

As the old chinese proverb goes 'this too will pass'.

I know I am not offering you good practical advice, others on this site have done that to a much higher degree that I could have, I am offering you my cyber support and best wishes.

Take care
Petal
 
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