my not so great investment experience: Cheapie strategy

Damn damn damn damn

Funny funny funny

I have properties on both those streets

Way to go! Dbl bulls eye!

 

Despite the news articles, Elizabeth and surrounds is completely fine. No one I know has ever had any issues.

I don't think I'd like to invest nor manage in Davoren Park though - that's really bottom end like Ashmont.

 

I reckon my next phone call received from the PM who says that both the tenants from these two properties wont be paying rent or continuing to rent because both now have free rent as of today ie JAIL!!!

 

no...thats why

 

guess what comes up when u google unscrupulous

unscrupulous
ʌnˈskruːpjʊləs/
adjective

1. having or showing no moral principles; not honest or fair.
   "unscrupulous landlords might be tempted to harass existing tenants"
   synonyms: unprincipled, unethical, immoral, amoral, conscienceless, untrustworthy,shameless, reprobate, exploitative, corrupt, corrupted, dishonest,fraudulent, cheating, dishonourable, deceitful, devious, underhand,guileful, cunning, furtive, sly, wrongdoing, unsavoury, disreputable,improper, bad, evil, wicked, villainous, roguish, sinful, ignoble,degenerate, venal; More

 

Well at least you've learnt. I've also learnt some lessons the hard way...

 

That's why we have a forum; it's easier to learn from others mistakes than making them ourselves

 

I agree. I was reading something the other day which made perfect sense to me. He was basically saying we often learn more important things from peoples mistakes then we do from their successes.

 

I wonder if i just got unlucky or people like nathan or his clients are having as much trouble as mine.

I did a free trial memebership of his dealfinder and some of the locations were horrendous and some of the deals were pretty average. However i only saw 5 of then

 

Might be a combination of bad luck and also inexperience in those areas .

I had the " advantage " of working in mt Druitt for 15 years so I could tell a good street from a bad one .

There are occasional posts people make about cheap areas which just pan a whole suburb as being terrible . I've seen posts like that about Logan and Mt Druitt . When we bought in Logan there were some houses / street that just looked bad .

There are no guarantees though . The house we had the most problems with was the one in probably the best street .

I think you might have spread your delve to thin . Might have been better to concentrate on a couple of areas and have a few properties with one pm , that way they might look after you more

I've never looked at Nathan's site but he does have the advantage of numbers , so his Pm's might be more careful with tenant selection for him .

Cliff

 

Got to be pragmatic as an investor sometimes and bite your tongue

 

Hmmmm.. what are you guys exoerience with blocked pipes throguh roots

Just got a bill for 600 for emergencgy toilet blockage via tree roots.
Seems like 1/4 of my properties have this problem.

Thats like almost a months rent down the drain. And if it fixed it i wouldnt mind too much but unclearing is a temporsry solution

I think i might have run over the toilet gods cat in a previous life...... or current one

 

My mums house used to get them all the time. Her pipes ended up breaking after using the electric eel each year for a couple of years and she had to foot a $4k bill... destroy every tree in that backyard quick smart

 

Pour copper sulphate down the toilet (not the sink as the fittings will corode) every now and then. It'll stunt the growth of roots and at least prevent things getting worse than they are.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience TMNT. I'm sorry to hear that about all the issues with the properties.

We face similar issues too with our lower end IPs and completely agree with you that good local PMs are most important for those areas. They usually have good feel for which prospective tenants are good/not and I learnt to rely on their judgement when choosing tenants. Other things that I learnt were to have good insurance for those IPs with low excess, and also use the same insurer for both building and landlord insurance. We had an IP burned down by tenant once and it would not had been covered to full amount had we had difference insurer for building and landlord (only covered for max. malicious damage of $10k). Luckily we had both covers under same insurer on that case.

Having said above, we also have some cheapies that are luckily trouble free so far, even with pretty ordinary PMs. I'm not sure if it's a coincidence, but these ones are block of flats where we owned the whole blocks. Maybe the fact that the blocks are well maintained (regular mowing and cleaning etc.) attract better tenants?

Fingers cross here that regional areas will soon fly following prices in Sydney. Look forward to loading off some of our cheapies too

 

Presentation is one thing that's very important for me. If you rent out a place that looks like a dump your tenants will treat it like one. Have it looking nice and tenants will be more inclined to keep it nice. It sets up the expectation from the start and usually attracts a better class of tenant (it also helps you achieve a higher asking price).

 

Doubt it......don't hold your breath !

 

But do these properties really give you cash flow positive income, when the properties are vacant, constant turnover of clients, or tenants not paying rent, it will most certainly negatively geared. Also these properties tend to be high maintenance properties as TMNT mentioned, damn it.

TMNT
Wow, you are a very positive person to continue with property after this. I hope you have greater success.
I am hoping you can somehow just offload the bad properties, its not worth having that kind of stress in your life.
I had a bad one and lost sleep over it, 12 months later offloaded it
All the best.



MTR

 

whats chippy means in dollar terms ..

 

150-200k