What is the greatest property lesson your relatives have taught you?

[Aceyducey]

I DID say that it was a LONG time ago.....

Have fun and thanks for pointing me in the right direction

hehe. It's not only your grandpa Dale

My grandfather believed that the stock market was an evil tool of capitalism & should be illegal.

I only posted to point out how the truths of yesterday don't always hold true

Personally I'm saving for my lunar condo.

Cheers,

Aceyducey

 

[geoffw]

Hiya Acey

I DID say that it was a LONG time ago.....

Have fun and thanks for pointing me in the right direction

Dale

Dale,

How long ago were the Dutch making dykes to reclaim land?

That must make you significantly older than me- and THAT's saying something!

 

[Peter 14.7]

The advice I had from relatives (and I have lots) about property was . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Nothing.


And none that I am aware of own more than their own home - one aunty, age 60, is still paying hers off.

So far as I know, I am the first to have an investment property (now have 5).

Am I happier than them? Probably not.

Would I be happy to replicate them in retirement? No way. I just want to be able to have a bigger menu of things to do in retirement - and retire earlier.

GarryK

Ditto, Peter 147

 

[wish-ga]

Yup....big lesson in life for me is to listen to what others have to say but make up my own mind.

Sometimes opinions of others chip away at my confidence but if I look at *why* they have that opinion it helps me get back on track.

I am sure we have all been told aaaalllll about property investing by people who have never owned investment real estate. Smile and nod...smile and nod.

 

[Peter 14.7]

Yup....big lesson in life for me is to listen to what others have to say but make up my own mind.

Sometimes opinions of others chip away at my confidence but if I look at *why* they have that opinion it helps me get back on track.

I am sure we have all been told aaaalllll about property investing by people who have never owned investment real estate. Smile and nod...smile and nod.

Soooo True. Those who can, do, those who can't, lecture. Personally I take it a rule of life to NEVER listen to advcie from anyone who hasnot do it them selves once at least. Knowledge is cheap but experience is priceless.

Many people fear too much Wish Ga. I often suggest asking considering what is the worst thing that can happen scenario? Often it is not as bad as your think. Buy and IP sell and IP. Lose some money but gain experience. Start small to cut your teeth if you wish?

Lastly, Somersoft is the BEST place to learn free about property from some real experts (you know who you are!) I know of.

If I had this info at 21 I would be retired now.

Regards, Peter 147

 

[Gee Cee]

Wisdom. (Or Been There done That)

Great words of WISDOM.
It amazes me how many people will lecture you on how you should run your investments and what exactly the market is doing.

I recently encountered a know it all Twenty something year old woman selling house and land packages.

She argued with everything I said. Had a opinion on everything. And how it should be done. When I bagged the builder she worked for (having had previous bad experiences with them) she commented on how terrible every other project builder was.

I questioned her as to how many projects she had built with each of these builders and where?. None. OK but she has heard things.

Then I questioned how many investment properties she owned or had built to sell. How many do ups she had been through and what she was working on at present.

Answer. Well actually none. But i am hoping to buy my first property this year. as long as the market does not go bad.

And these people are advising average Mr & Mrs family on how to make a successful investment

Like Peter said. There are always experts with degrees in everything including reading every article on everything.

But would you trust a Dr that had never had any practical experience.

 

[MarkR]

Advice from my family.....

Grandparents - lived through WW2 & leaving Scotland for NZ, they saved like crazy, had seperate bank a/c's & never spent anything they didn't need to. Going to the outdoor cement toilet in the middle of a Dunedin winter with snow on the ground was a VERY quick loo stop. When they both died my Uncle worked out they could've payed to bring the toilet indoors (via a door in the indoor bathroom) about 100 times over ! Additional to that their grandkids were a plumber, builder, cabinet maker, & one married a sparky so they probably could've had it done for next to nothing ! Learning from them: save to live, but don't forget to enjoy some of what you have

Parents - Dad came from a state home (council house) & did what everyone told him he couldn't i.e. became relatively succesful, but his investment properties were build & sell which didn't work on a couple of ocassions, rentals were deemed 'too much trouble' after he'd built 2 units & had one bad tenant, couldn't justify the time collecting the rent, fixing things, etc, so sold them for a profit & never had another rental property, Mum handled the accounting & tax but let Dad make the decisions even though she's had more brains than both her husbands . Learning from them: Learn from your mistakes, don't give up, & don't let anyone tell you what you can't do.

Basically I want to take the best of what they did & improve on it, so I've learnt to think for myself & trust my own instincts. So I've learnt from both generations.

Mark

 

[wish-ga]

Thanks for sharing this MarkR. Great messages in both scenarios.

Welcome to the forum

 

[Territorian]

Mark r
Here here to your comments... they reflect in kind to my own thoughts and experiences.
There is no greater teaching in life than to learn from those that came before us.
From this we can devise our own "risk factor".
And it certainly changes with the generations.
At the end of the day though there is nothing more serene in life than to appreciate the things that are real and surround you...nothing takes the place of your kiddies smiles or the closeness of a good friend/partner.... you cant buy that.. so there has to be a material and spiritual balance in life.
My partners mum is visiting from the UK at present and she is elderly, she gets up of a morn and sais "oh it is so good to be alive"...
hell what price is that???

 

[MarkR]

Territorian
Couldn't agree more, there's a thread about what you'd tell yourself 10 yrs ago, funny thing is that the important things for me wouldn't be financial (although they'd be included but given I'm now on that path i'm not too stressed), it'd be around the opportunities I lost for time with someone who I can longer have time with.

I've had a few discussion with my step-dad about the generational differences with money i.e. he struggles to understand how my generation can spend to enjoy so freely & has had real problems with my financial direction (taking 12 months off work to study the share market, selling my PPOR, reading Dolf DeRoos - Mum's met him a couple of times but still refuses to recognise that his techniques CAN work). All I can put it down to is that his parents (& my grandparents) went through WW2 & a depression. I'm 2 generations removed from that, I've never seen the impact of a depression or a WW & don't have the frugal mentality that that would enforce, so I understand saving, but don't understand what's it'd be like to see 80% of the population of Melbourne struggling to get 1 decent meal a day.

Add to that the ready availability of information (forums like this, people who give so freely of info & time, soooo many books, seminars, etc) & it is so much easier for me to break free that if I can't do it, then I can only blame myself ! If my father had 50% of the opportunites I've got he would never have died still working !

I'll stop now & let this thread get back on track

Cheers
Mark

 

[Sarah...]

Good Question - What have I Learnt from my relatives?

Sadly I have learnt all the “what not to do’s” from my parents. I have learnt from their mistakes what to avoid. They know how to work hard and that is about it.

Then I got married and I learnt the opposite from my husband’s family. My husbands father, a educated profession, gave up his secure job with prospects to go it alone and set up his own business, from which he made almost a million and then ten fold in property. It is amazing how the world works, my parents are the two nicest, honest, most hard working people one could meet, and at the ages of 55 and 60 they are counting down the days to retirement. My father worked from the ages of 12 and will work till 65. It hurts me to see how little they have (yet they consider what they how now as adequate, so I suppose they are happy), which makes me work harder to become financial free, hopefully in a few years so I can buy mu parents a nice maintenance free home with a garden for the beloved pets.

Also, a lesson I learnt recently from my two sisters.

Both are professionals, yet they think so different. My older sister is a professional working in Finance, yet working a second (cash) job and living at home for the moment which enabled her to purchase here second investment, she is renting her main residence (on the side) to a family friend but put in the rental lease that she is living there (to cover herself).

My eldest sister who is on double her wages (Stirling, I might add), has ZERO savings at the age of 29, and constantly calls my parents to borrow money.

A discussion we had recently with my entire family, my father advised us to look at him and my mother and told us not to end up like them, and advised us to learn more about property (he has become very interested in it since my older sister has started to buy property, but unfortunately at their age and financial circumstances do not have the option to invest. He told us to not always get what we want but work hard for what we want and aim for something.

My eldest sister responded that would not sacrifice her current lifestyle to support more financial burden (credit cards I presume, she has no financial burden other than rent), she liked to go for drinks three nights a weekend, liked her new clothes etc. etc.

My older sister then turned to her and said, ‘you have all of that now but you will still be working at 65 and have nothing but old clothes that don’t fit anymore, whereas I have nothing now, but I will have all that you have by the age of 30 and I will be retired by the age of 35’.

What I learnt from that discussion is that my eldest sister is taking NOW, and will have nothing later. I think she may have taken all the financial pressures when we were growing up and is now afraid of money, she does not know how it works. She works for the money but is not allowing the money to work for her.

I have 120% admiration for my older sister, who is struggling now for her future. I can see now she will be retired at 32 and good on her, she deserves every cent she earns.

It is amazing how three sisters from the same parents turn out so differently, I would have turned out like my eldest sister had it not been for my husband and his direction, but now that I know a little of how it can be done I’m telling you I’ll never be like my parents or my eldest sister. My older sister is my mentor and I follow her example, as long as I have know her (24 years) she had never made a wrong decision, her favourite line is “research, research, research”, for as long as I can remember.

Take in other peoples mistakes in order to save yourself a few.

 

[Peter 14.7]

Hi Sarah

Firstly, Welcome. If you want to learn property investment this IS the place.

Secondly, thanks for your frank comments. Fascinating that one sister goes one way and one sister another. Just seems to prove you are born with 75%+ of your personality and whatever nurture you get can only influence so much.

Thirdly, it is great to see your goal to care for your family because that is what really matters in life IMHO.

I speak from experiences as I was born into a poor country family but was blessed that after prudent investment and hard work, my wife and I can now support and spoil both of our parents in their elder years.

Ironically they think we are too generous but I know how mum and dad did everything for us kids with very little money.

For example, my father in law put $7k into out first home which started us off and my mum gave us her $4k spare car when we had an old bomb.

Now we can, this is how we replay their love.

My Mum we bought her a house near my sister’s kids and she will be happy with no $worries till the day she dies. Last year we repaid Mum’s car with our three year old Subaru which in her word “is very goo-ie”. She is very much the trendy granny with her friends and immediate siblings

We love spoiling them because they will not do it themselves. So we brought them up to Sydney for the Para-Olympics, New Years Eve and such. They enjoy these things immensely but always insist to take a cut lunch for all to save costs!

Recently my wife and I flew to Melbourne for weekend with the family. Celebrated my sisters 33rd Birthday. Went to Mums Church followed by morning tea and cake overload with her friends. I then took my nephew to his first AFL game for his 6th Birthday and my wife took our Niece to “girls only” shopping and movies session. To cap it off on Monday we took all the parents to a Guesthouse in Daylsford and enjoyed a luxury long lunch by the lake.

But you know, in the end, I think Mum enjoyed showing off her son, dutiful daughter in law and grandchildren at Church to her elderly friends on the Sunday more than anything else.

Proving as the ads say “the airfares went on MasterCard but some things are priceless”

Enjoy the ride and best wishes, Peter 147

 

[djsherly]

Peter 147,

this sort of story warms my heart and embodies all the reasons I want to invest. Not just for myself, but for those who have helped me along the way.

Bottoms Up for you!

Cheers,

Chris.

 

[Peter 14.7]

Hi Djsherly

Thanks from the bottom of my heart. I have one myself as well.

Cheers, Peter 147

 

[pennyk]

well, both my parents and my husbands parents are property investors, although my parents wouldn't consider themselves as such.

From my parents - take opportunities when they arise. my parents owned their own home in a very nice area in the northern suburbs of SYdney. My grandma lived next door and when she died, they bought out my aunt and uncle's share in the property. Then when the next door neighbours were selling, they scrimped together the money to buy that. I think it was about 75K, in the 1980's which is an incredible thought. They now own 3 quarter acre blocks next to each other, backing onto bush, in a fantastic area. unfortunately, when another neighbour was selling recently, they didnt feel they could buy that. it ended up being sold for a steal, and would have been a great buy. But, when they were younger, they did take advantage of the opportunities.

From my in-laws - buy large blocks of land, with duplexes, or multiple streams of income. they love buying duplexes on large blocks. they also have an acreage in northern Brisbane, which is appreciating quickly.

both sets of parents tend to buy and hold, and haven't taken many risks. they both also worked hard and saved to pay their debts off as quickly as possible. both have also been generous with their money and their wealth. neither live an opulent lifestyle or consider themselves wealthy. both have helped their children with buying their first home. both are nervous about overextending in property investing. Both are fairly conservative in their investments.

So, we've learned character as well as skills, although I don't think either set of parents has set out to teach us financial or investing skills. Like I say, my parents don't consider themselves investors!

Pen

 

[geoffw]

I’ve just had an experience from a relative I don’t want to learn from.

My wife was talking to my sister-in-law’s sister-in-law several nights ago. She had just seen a story about me in PI Mag last year. She was crying that she was so poor, and we were so rich- and that we are family, after all, aren’t we?

Yet she has some of the means to get herself into a much better situation. She has a house in the Gong- not one of the best areas, but a largish solid house, with views, not far from the beach- fully paid off, an inheritance.

She uses it solely as a guest house for her family. She doesn’t let it out at all, because it “may affect her pension”. Obviously, she could use that house for leverage.

Since that article, she has been the only person who has used it as a way of trying to get something out of us.

 

[always_learning]

Since that article, she has been the only person who has used it as a way of trying to get something out of us.

Geoffw, since you are so rich and famous could I have $500 to spend on a couple of designer shirts , cash would be great; thanks in advance!

Oh and a bottle of good red and a nice foot massage too!

.....

 

[sbe]

That's an easy one Geoff.

Since you're obviously rich....what you need to do is explain how it's all tied up in assets, and that it's not just sitting around.

Then, offer to help her with a fixed regular income, at the same time taking that old drafty house off her hands that is obviously a burden to her.

She'll get a nice income (off the books loan), and you'll get another IP

 

[Sarah...]

Geoffy Boy

You never told me you were that rich, ok I'll have a weekend in Paris and then a quick visit home to my family back at home, and I'll just send you on the bills, ok???

In all seriousness that sounds a horrible situation to be in and as for sbe’s comment on explaining to her it is all tied up – good luck with that one. Preferred his comment "taking that old drafty house off her hands that is obviously a burden to her”, this one sounds a bit better.

Your comment “Since that article, she has been the only person who has used it as a way of trying to get something out of us.”, stay strong and don’t fall for the guilt trip, I know it sounds harsh, but she could always ask you for help instead of laying the guilt trip. You seem like a friendly enough guy to me who would be willing to help, but if not asked for you can not give.

Good luck

 

[geoffw]

Your comment “Since that article, she has been the only person who has used it as a way of trying to get something out of us.”, stay strong and don’t fall for the guilt trip

I feel absolutely no guilt trip at all.

I've really no respect for that branch of the family at all (they are only related to me by two sets of marriages)- and the fact that they have the means to help themselves but choose not to use it (perhaps just because they don't know) does a lot towards taking away any small amount of guilt I may have felt.

My daughter was staying at MrsW's sister's place, at the other end of the phone conversation. She tells us that SIL's SIL was very much unsober when the call took place