My Property Investment Journey - Week by Week

Terri Scheer is apparently a good option too, from what I've read it seems like TS and EBM are the market leaders and the safest options

 

I have all of mine with EBM as well. A few weeks ago I posted about an issue I had with a tenant that ended up costing about $8k and EBM were great. I've heard good things about TS as well.

 

Good to know. Mine are with EBM, and some people say terri scheer is better.

 

I've heard that too, but never had TS so can't really compare. All I know is that EBM were awesome when I needed them (full details in my post a few pages back in case you interested ).

 

both very similar... i never had issues with ebm... always good experiences...

 

So learning of the week: a few weeks ago I promised myself that I'd let my PM get a quote and handle all non - major repairs (under $2-3k), instead of sourcing my own trades and arranging quotes. This is in line with my mission of learning to delegate better and trust the people who work with me so I can focus on what matters more - my own business and personal development, instead of getting caught up trying to do everything myself.

They got a quote for a hot water system - $2200.

I approved it, thinking I'd saved myself a couple of hours researching and getting quotes. But something in me nagged myself into getting a second opinion on the forums.

Turns out that a reasonable price is more like $1500-1600. So I immediately cancelled the approval and went with a plumber someone recommended on here and saved myself $600. (well, less than that after depreciation, but still quite a bit of money).

Eventually I hope I'd be so successful as an investor / business owner, that I don't need to do these things myself anymore to save a bit of money. But for now I think I should try to save money when there difference is in the hundreds and more importantly, put in the effort to understand how much things should cost and what's reasonable/what's not. This is all useful knowledge if I want a multi property portfolio.

 

Yeah fine balance isnt it. Not wanting to be taken advantage of on one hand, but also wanting to delegate and spend time productively and delegate. Maybe could ask PM get 2-3quotes so you have an idea

 

Well done, @kacheek. I've been there, it's frustrating.

What I do is to simply ask for another quote and then I also do some online research. The simple act of asking for a second quote shows the PM that you're not just blindly approving anything and sometimes a 15 min "research" gives you enough insights to arm you with questions and challenge the PM to get a better quote.

Tks for sharing your experience btw!

 

@kacheek once you got the better quote, did you have to ask the PM to organize it?

 

always DYOR... PMs always get quotes from the same tradies... unless its small items... always research by yourself

 

My PM told me if I wanted another quote I should arrange that myself. Next time I will push back.

Yes, I gave the contact details of the plumber I found to her so she could coordinate dates and access because she would have done that with her preferred plumber anyway.

The plumber has completed the job. It was a good price but he wasn't very responsive when I had questions whereas the more expensive plumber my PM sent explained everything in detail and was super friendly. I'm spotting a trend with my PM's tradies vs other tradies. The ones she recommended were all super nice and communicative, easy to deal with and responsive. But not cheap. I'm guessing that as a PM you want to deal with these types of people to make your life easier and the landlord foots the bill anyway so price isn't important.

Being interstate and having had to fix MANY items so far I'm really appreciating tradies that are nice to deal with. Not being there and remotely managing everything can be very anxiety inducing so I really need responsiveness, thoroughness and communication. I'll try to give them jobs where I can unless there really is a huge price difference.

 

That's interesting... I didn't have issues when I used my own quote/tradie for a big maintenance job I once had to do. Was I lucky? Or maybe you got unlucky?

But yeah, good point around ideally not having to deal with unresponsive professionals, especially interstate.

Regarding the PM not waiting to get a second quote, for me that's quite outrageous. I'd be infuriated and look for another PM! As far as I know, asking for a second quote it's common and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it (at least that has been my personal experience through 4 years of investing and 4 IPs).

 

thats terrible service... refusing to get a second quote... you need a new pm...

 

Thanks for the tips everyone, very helpful

 

@kacheek do you mind sharing who your PM is?

 

A few weeks without a new post but here I am again, writing one last post to wrap up the year.

This one is just to share the exciting news that we settled our PPOR on Monday, after almost 11 years renting in Sydney. It's a house in North Lakes that we bought in early October and thankfully the seller agreed to a late December settlement as there would be no way for us to move in this year (work, dog... not to mention the obvious challenges with state borders).

As it has become the rule rather than the exception in QLD, we had to buy unconditional otherwise the owner wouldn't accept our offer. I have 100% confidence in my broker and he guaranteed from the beginning that we'd would have no issues getting the loan, which gave us good piece of mind.

Not having a B&P clause was a bit of a risk, but the house is relatively new (built in 2006) and we had friends attend to an inspection and video call us during it, which helped us give additional peace of mind. I ended up doing a B&P just to see the outcome, even if it wouldn't impact the deal, and thankfully nothing came up apart from very minor things that are absolutely normal and expected.

One thing that I'd like to ask the smart and experienced people that usually read my posts: is it normal/expected for the selling agent to be extremely helpful even after settlement? I'm talking things like:

- suggesting a timeline on things to be done ahead of moving (organize electricity asap to avoid the pool going green, then do a pest spray, then a pool clean and chemical, then this, then that...)
- going to the house to check that the electricity was working fine after I switched providers
- organizing professional cleaning for the day before we move in

It's my first time buying a place to live in rather than an IP, so I really didn't know what to expect on that front. He was always helpful and responsive during the whole process, but for some reason I thought he would go a bit off the grid after settlement. Wonder if this is just normal/expected or if he's actually going the extra mile, would love to hear from other PC'ers on this.

Lastly: thanks all for all the engagement, help and positivity over the past few months. Looking forward to a new year with plenty more posts, engagement and learnings for everyone.

Have a great break, PC'ers, and bring on 2022.

 

congrats on the purchase... well done on buying unconditional... thats the only way in bne right now... if you bought well its already gained value in 2.5 months...

 

Congrats @Jose Eduardo Slompo and thanks for this thread, I learned so much from reading it. Keep up the great work, looking forward to your posts next year. Thank you for being transparent about your mistakes and honest about what you don't know, you are an inspiration to me and others in the forum.

Sorry but I can't answer your question, I'm still on the hunt for my first property, never been through a settlement process. Expreienced member like @sash @Sackie @boganfromlogan @Patrick Bateman @MTR @Gockie etc will surely know, I hope they are ok with me tagging them.

Merry Xmas everyone

 

Merry Xmas.

Not unusual with some agents as they go the extra mile. Just use due diligence and common sense. Some agents build long term relationships.

 

Tks @sash, that's good to hear. He's definitely going the extra mile then. Merry Xmas mate.