Help me to Retire

According to depreciator.com.au 80% of property investors don’t take advantage of depreciation. To claim depreciation, you need a Tax Depreciation Schedule put together by a Quantity Surveyor. A Tax Depreciation Schedule is a report on all the items in your investment property that are going down in value. Basically with property it is the land component that is appreciating and the house and most of the things in and around it that are losing value.
Some examples of what items you can depreciate are:

• Hot Water Systems
• Carpets and other floor coverings
• Heaters
• Stoves
• Air Conditioning
• Curtains

A Tax Depreciation Schedule cost between $500 – $800 to prepare, but the years of tax return bonuses this could create for you should well out way the initial out lay.

Check out depreciator.com.au for more info.

Following on from yesterdays International Living article, I came across this great site today as I was on my daily where in the world would I love to own a place hunt.
Amberlamb.com is a great resource for information on property ownership in most countries around the world. Under each areas section they provide news on the local property markets and most importantly a buying guide, property investment potential and an investors guide for that country. For instance these sections will tell you weather foreign ownership is permitted in that country and how to go about it, or if other options are available to control property etc.

The site also has a small section on international mortgages for France, Spain, Italy or Portugal or another popular European destinations.

Anyway if you’ve fallen in love with a place you recently visited or you want to know what the latest international property hotspot is then Amberlamb.com could be the site for you.

The Defence Housing Australia Website is great place to go if your after a hassle free investment property with a long term lease for security. Once purchased everything is handled by DHA (Rent, Property Management, Maintenance etc).
DHA offer large newish properties at non-negotiable prices with long leases of between 6 and 12 years with offers of 3 year extensions after that.
The main problem with these properties especially for the first 3-5 years is the bad return they offer rent wise. The rent offered is what I consider quite low for the price of the properties. The other kicker is the Defence Housing Authority charges a monthly management/maintenance fee of 16.5 per cent (inclusive of GST) of the gross rental income for houses, or between 12 and 14 per cent (inclusive of GST) for apartments, units, and most townhouses where a strata/unit development or similar entity is responsible for exterior maintenance. This is very high as compared to the management fees normal Real Estate agents charge..  (between 7%-9% usually). The trade off you get for these high fees is complete hassle free property investment (well that’s what they say).

So if you are after a hassle free, great quality new/newish investment property and your keen for a decent amount of negative gearing then the Defence Housing Australia Website  might be one for you to check out. You can sign up for emails to be sent to you with their latest properties too.

I thought I’d talk a bit about buyers agents as I’m currently looking for one myself.
A buyers agent works on the side of the property purchaser rather than the seller.  Typically buyers agents are former real estate agents. This is great especially for inexperienced investors when out purchasing their first investment property as buyers agents do a whole heap of research on your behalf that could save you from making a costly mistake. They also know all the tricks of the trade that Real Estate agents can employ against you. This could save you thousands of dollars at negotiating time.
Reasons to use a Buyers Agent:

• Your looking at buying in an area your not familiar with or Interstate
• Access to the whole market, not just properties listed with a particular agency
• Property investment knowledge
• Time. They save you time
• Market research. Using the best research tools available to give you the best information, Residex predictions, REIQ sales data, Matusik snapshot, Midwood Report, PDS LIVE property sales database and others.
• Security and peace of mind in the knowledge that you have a trained property professional on your side.

To help you locate a buyers agent in the area you are looking to buy, realestate.com.au has a buyers agent section.

The Investors Club is an Australian property investing club that is organised to help you reach your property investing goals. To join the club is free, and to view the current properties available all you have to do is put in a request to see how much you can borrow with club loans ( no strings attached).
The idea of the Investors Club is that they locate high growth property with decent rent returns at a pre-negotiated price. The price is what I find is the only small let down with the Investors Club. As it can’t be negotiated, it’s take it or leave it, often leaving you paying slightly too much. But the club does need to make money to provide all the services it does for you and this is where they make it, in their commissions on sales. The club can often get a bit better price anyway due to being able to offer quick sales to vendors as they can present the property to the thousands of Investors Club members and have a buyer buy 4pm the next day.
The club offers many services to members including a leasing department, maintenance, insurance department, loans and legal support. It is these services and ongoing support from the club which is of great value. Investors Club property’s also have a much lower rental vacancy rate than a non member property’s.

The club holds meetings around the country so you can learn first hand how the club works and what it can do for you. It’s also great to spend time with like minded people and throw some questions around.

The core principles behind The Investors Club plan are:

1. Each investment property must involve minimal cash outlay;
2. Property selection is critical;
3. Every property must be as close as possible to positive cashflow from day one; and
4. Never, never sell.

The Club uses the motto “Never, Never Sell” as your retirement plan invloves living off the equity built up in your properties. As you will see when you go to a meeting, once you have enough properties, you can live off it indeffinetly!

Check out the Investors Club.

Are you ready to take advantage of the opportunities 2007 will bring? Bill Zheng & Michael Yardney are having their last property investment workshops for the year in November in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Cost $79 but you get a few goodies with that plus a full days worth of great info. I went to the last one these 2 guys did together in Brisbane in July and it really got me excited.

Bill will be talking about Property Finance, Investment Philosophy & Wealth Psychology and Michael, Property Selection, Market Trends and Investment Philosophy.

Click here to book a ticket or read more info, I highly reccommend it.

Here’s an interesting article I came across today, have a read -

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Source – Deppro newsletter

The significance of the baby boomers in the Australian property investment market is underlined by new figures released by DEPPRO.According to Paul Bennion, Managing Director of DEPPRO, some 50% or around half of all property depreciation reports prepared by DEPPRO are for baby boomer investors. “Baby boomers have been very active in all the markets now serviced by DEPPRO throughout Australia,” Mr Bennion said. “A growing number of baby boomers in Australia now view property investment as a low risk way of building wealth for their retirement compared to the stock market or even superannuation,” he said. “Many baby boomers have been attracted to buying investment properties because they can leverage the large amounts of equity they have in their owner occupier homes to organise home loans in excess of $1 million to purchase several investment properties. “For many baby boomers, property investment is now a financial imperative because a recent survey indicated that less than 10% of all baby boomers have more than $100,000 in superannuation. “This financial imperative is further underlined with the year of baby boomers (people born between 1946 to 1965) turning 60 years of age during 2006,” Mr Bennion said. “DEPPRO is finding that baby boomers are now particularly active in the ‘red hot’ property markets of the Northern Territory and Western Australia,” he said. “For example, more than 65% of depreciation reports for property investors in WA which are prepared by DEPPRO are for baby boomer investors.
Paul Bennion – Managing Director of DEPPRO – Depreciation Specialists

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There sure are a lot of Baby Boomers out there that will be relying on the government for assistance! Do yourself a favour while you still have time, get into property! The next property cycle is already upon us. Prepare now, do your research and look into living off your equity, you’ll be glad you did in years to come.
Also keep this in mind about your Super (401k). At the moment everyone is putting money into (topping up as they are encouraged to do) their Super funds and therefore into the markets… the markets have been going up… As the baby boomers retire and start taking their money out, where do you think the markets are going to head? Real estate could look pretty dam good then! Get yourself a copy of the book Rich Dad’s Prophecy by Robert Kiyosaki, it goes into more depth.

Now this is a great site with a free newsletter that if your into or interested in property investment you have to visit.

Michael Yardney is a property investor, developer, business owner and author. When it comes to property, over his lifetime he has seen it all and done it all before. As he has been through so many property cycles he is a great resource for information on where we are in the current cycle and what to do in the different stages of the property cycle.
Michaels motto is to only buy well located high growth properties, do your research (past growth in an area is a great indication of future growth over a 10yr period), find motivated vendors, make cheeky offers and buy investments below market price and in particular look for properties to which you can add value creating your own capital growth.

The Property Investment Update website lets you sign up for the free monthly newsletter that contains articles from Michael and a heap of other property experts.
Micheal Yardney also has a book out called “How to Grow a Multi Million Dollar Property Portfolio – in your spare time”. I have read this book and highly recoommend it and I will review it on this site at a later date – stay tuned for that!

For now head on over to the site, have a read and sign up for the newsletter.

Ok, I’m figuring as its seminar season, I’ll only get a few more days worth of these and then we can get onto some different topics.

Tonight it’s Aspire. Run by Perth based self made millionaire Craig Turnbull. Aspire now works in Education, Finance, Property and Wealth Planning. Craig is a well known author and Aspire also runs a metoring program.

The Aspire seminars or Investor updates as they are called are now in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.

Here are Aspire’s 5 Great Reasons to Attend

1. Share in Craig Turnbull’s market analysis and property predictions for the year ahead.
2. Network in the company of like-minded investors.
3. Hear Craig’s most up-to-date thinking on the current market.
4. Tweak your strategy to best take advantage of market opportunities.
5. Craig will address issues that your wealth plan cannot.

I have read one of Craig’s books and was impressed, I’ve also seen him speak once before. I am very tempted to join his mentoring progam ($99 a month). But for now I’ll be paying the $25 to attend this investor Update, might see you there!

Click here for details 

The Renovation Kings – Geoff Doidge and Paul Eslick two ordinary blokes who have combined their considerable talents to build the successful property investment phenomenon that is Reno Kings.

These guys are great. They have a wealth of experience under their belts and they and keen to share it with anyone who wants to learn.

The Reno.com.au website is absolutely packed with information and resources. Firstly there are all the great articles, then there is the forums where you can chat with other investors who can help you out or have been through a similar problem you might be having. There is also a renovation materials section where the guys have listed a whole heap of the best places to get materials in your state. And to top it off there is the property links page which has a link to almost everything to you will need for your next property investment.

The Reno Kings also do Workshops which cost a couple of thousand dollars, but I’m sure you’d get more than your money back pretty quick once you take action with your new found knowledge. I’m hoping to attend one of their workshops soon.

Anyway, sign up to their newsletter to keep informed and have a look around the reno site, as I’m sure you’ll find it very handy.