Howto Where to post

A lot of our members are either confused about which topic to post in (or too lazy to find the correct topic), or mistakenly believe that only threads in the General topic ever get discussed (which is very much not the case).

The majority of users who are frequent visitors utilise either the "New Posts" or "Recent Posts" searches to find new content and so it doesn't actually matter which topic things are posted in.

However, for those infrequent visitors or for people simply searching for specific information - it's not always possible or trivial to utilise the search facilities to find what you want, so being able to break the discussions into smaller sub-topics really does help with locating relevant information.

For this reason, I strongly discourage people from simply posting in the General discussion area.

I do acknowledge that sometimes people aren't sure about where to post (and indeed, there is often a lot of crossover between the topics) - so to help people understand the structure of the discussions a bit, I decided to make a list of the types of discussions we have and where they belong.

If you are unsure, just post your thread where you think best and perhaps report your own post with a "unsure if this is the best location for this thread" type message and the mods will move it as required. Worst case scenario - just post in General and request it be moved (don't discuss it in your post - the mods may not see it, use the Report link on your post instead).

Feel free to comment or give feedback on the specifics about these topics - I'm still experimenting with some of the newer topics recently added.

 

Property Investment Discussions

General Property Chat

• General discussion about property investment
• Only to be used when you genuinely don’t know where to post

Where to Buy

• Where to find IPs
• Which suburbs are booming
• Which suburbs you think are going to boom
• Where to find positive cashflow
• Anything dealing with location
• Ideally should deal with specific locations (suburb or even street level detail)
• Exception: anything city or state-wide is more likely better put in Property Market Economics - depending on the nature of the thread
• Exception: questions about the type of property to buy or the type of infrastructure to buy near belong in “What to Buy”

Investment Strategy

• Discussions about overall strategy
• Cashflow vs capital growth
• Adding value
  
• Gearing levels
  
• Debt reduction
  
• Rentvesting
  
• Buy-and-hold vs flipping
  
• When to sell
  
• "what would you do?" type questions
  
• Exception: questions relating to specific locations should be in “Where to Buy”
  
• Exception: questions relating to the type of property should be in “What to Buy”

What to Buy

• What type of property to buy
  
• Houses vs units
  
• New vs established
  
• Number of bedrooms
  
• Off The Plan (OTP) vs already completed
  
• Which infrastructure to buy near (public transport; shops; schools; etc)
  
• Features to look for
• Exception: questions relating to overall strategy should be in "Investment Strategy"

Property Market Economics

• The state of the property market
  
• Influences of the economy on the property market
  
• Influence of the property market on the economy
  
• Property cycles
  
• Inflationary effects
  
• Interest rates

Investor Stories & Showcase

• Discussions about what our members have achieved.
• Showcase of actual properties purchased by our members
• Discussions about regular investors appearing in the media can also appear here
• Exception: discussions about spruikers or people who hold themselves out to be experts belong in "Property Experts"

 

Buying, Selling and Managing Property

Property Management

• Finding tenants
• Managing properties
• Managing property managers
• Dealing with problems and risks associated with owning tenanted property
• Working with strata corporations
• Insurance
• Services and utilities
• Anything to do with managing a property you already own

The Buying & Selling Process

• Negotiating a deal
• Rapport with agents
• Finding motivated buyers/sellers
• Conveyancing
• Finding a solicitor
• Property searches
• Buying & selling costs
• Marketing methods
• Engaging a buyers agent
• Engaging a vendor advocate
• Exception: discussion about the legal side of conveyancing contracts should be in Legal Issues

Property Experts

• Property experts and "gurus" - discussion about the authors, commentators, seminar providers and spruikers who hold themselves out to be experts in real estate markets and strategies.

Property Analysis

• Dissect and discuss a property you see advertised
• Analyse the deal
• Commentary on the listing (although if used as an example, would equally work in The Buying & Selling Process)
• Discuss the location
• Crunch the numbers
• Exception: advertising a property you have a financial interest in is strictly forbidden

 

Finance, Accounting, Tax, Legal

Property Finance

• Lenders
• Loan products
• Valuation
• Mortgages
• Borrowing strategies

Accounting & Tax

• Accounting
• Tax
• Structuring
• SMSF
• Exception: asset protection discussions belong in Legal

Legal Issues

• Property law
• Contracts
• Conveyancing
• Liability
• Asset protection
• Litigation
• Anything dealing with the legal issues of buying, owning and protecting property
• Exception: discussion about finding conveyancers and the services they provide should generally be in The Buying & Selling Process, although they do fit here too
• Exception: while structuring questions are often technically legal ones - other than discussions about asset protection, structuring is largely about the flow of money and the taxation implications, thus most structuring questions are best put in Accounting & Tax

 

Adding Value

Development

• Building new properties
• House and land packages
• Subdivision
• Rezoning
• Landbanking
• Anything to do with changing the nature or usage of the land
• Exception: Building Granny Flats should be discussed in Renovation & Home Improvement

Renovation & Home Improvement

• Adding value through renovating and extending existing properties
• Granny flats

Repairs & Maintenance

• Fixing problems with an existing property

Styling & Decorating

• Cosmetic (ie non-structural) improvements to properties
• Painting or decorating
• Updating fixtures and fittings
• Furnishings
• Staging properties for sale

Landscaping

• Adding value to the rest of the property other than the house
• Gardening
• Trees

 

Advanced Property Investing Topics

Commercial Property

• General discussions on all aspects of investment in commercial property (i.e. non-residential)

Airbnb & Short Term Letting

• Being an Airbnb host
• Airbnb management
• Homestay
• Short term letting
• Holiday rentals / holiday homes
• Accommodation sharing
• Stayz

NRAS

• Discussion about the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS)

Innovative Techniques

• Innovative property related money making and financing techniques
• Wraps
• Lease options
• Flips
• Put/call options
• Cashbonds
• Any other "non-traditional" techniques

 

Other Investing Topics

Other Asset Classes

• Investment vehicles other than real estate
• Shares
• Managed Funds
• ETFs
• LICs
• Business
• Art
• Collectables

Investor Psychology

• The psychology of investing and finance
• Why people invest
• What motivates people
• Setting goals
• Overcoming fear, negativity and apathy

Information Resources & Tools

• Where to find information and discussion and reviews of information resources and tools for investors
• Books
• Magazines
• Seminars
• Websites
• Software
• Exception: discussion about seminars run by “property experts” where it’s the name of the property experts being used to market it, belong in “Property Experts”

Philanthropy

• Giving back - either financially or through volunteering your time to help others

 

Community

Introductions

• New to PropertyChat? Say hello here and let us know a bit about you!

Networking & Meetups

• Post and discuss info on upcoming networking events, and social gatherings.
• Exception: discussion about seminars not run by our members should be in Information Resources & Tools or in Property Expers, unless you are trying to arrange a group gathering at someone else's seminar

Help & Feedback

• Bug reports for things that don't work as expected and suggestions for features you'd like added to the forums or changes you'd like to see

News & Announcements

• Site news - features, changes, updates and analysis

 

We have topics which cover pretty much every aspect of property investing - read the descriptions of each topic to understand what goes there.

Just make your best guess and go with it - we can always move your post if there's a better topic for it.

 

New members can't initiate a thread initially until they have made a few posts (by replying to other threads)- I'm not sure just how many.

Asking a question

 

Just go to the topic you want to post in and click the Post New Thread button