Held rather than lived in
Start with what it costs to hold, not what it costs to buy.
Strip out the romance and an investment is a column of costs, a tenant who either stays or leaves, and a long stretch of time. We would rather put the unflattering version in front of you now than let you meet it on your own in the second year.
Every property looks good on a calculator until you put the empty weeks in it.
Every cost, including the boring ones.
Rates, insurance, the owners corporation if there is one, management fees, and the maintenance that turns up whether you budgeted for it or not. Then the weeks between one tenant leaving and the next one signing. Those weeks are the line most people leave out.
And where any rent figure came from. We will not hand you a return with a decimal point in it and call that a plan. If we give you a number, we will show you what it rests on and how confident anyone can honestly be about it. Where we do not know, we will say we do not know.
The basics
- Property types
- Townhouses, houses, and blocks bought for the land.
- Where we work
- Cranbourne East, Cranbourne, Clyde, Doveton, Hampton Park, Dandenong, Narre Warren and Berwick.
- Ali’s number
- 0448 414 786
Numbers, then addresses
Drier than the rest of this site, on purpose. Nothing here depends on you loving the place.
First
We ask what the property is for
Income now, a block worth more later, something to pass to the kids, or a position you are working out with your accountant. Those are four different purchases and they do not buy the same house.
Then
We set the edges
What your lender has said you can borrow, how long you intend to hold it, how much you want to be involved, and how many empty weeks you could absorb without losing sleep. A property that works over ten years and one that works over three are rarely the same address.
Before you offer
We build the picture properly
Condition, what it is likely to rent for and why, what the owners corporation or the council may want, and what would have to go right for the sums to hold. If the sums only stand up in the optimistic version, that is what we tell you.
After settlement
You get handed over, not dropped
We are a sales agency, so we will not pretend to be your property manager. What we will do is tell you what to ask before you sign with one, and pick up the phone when something comes up a year later.
What an investor would look at
Townhouses, land parcels and houses across the South East. Ask for the numbers and we will send what we actually have, not the version that makes the property look best.
Straight answers
Do I need to see it in person?
You should, and the people who skip it are usually the ones who regret it. If you are interstate or overseas, we will film the walk-through properly, including the parts that would normally be left out of a video, and take your call while we are standing in the place.
New build or established?
They behave differently. A new home has fewer repairs early on and is treated differently at tax time. An older house on a bigger block gives you land, options and a maintenance list. Which suits you is as much a question for your accountant as for us, and we are happy to sit in that conversation.
What is the first thing you will ask me for?
Your borrowing position and how long you plan to hold. Without those two, every property looks equally sensible, and nothing else we discuss means very much.
Do you manage the property after settlement?
Not at present. We sell, and we would rather say that plainly than take it on and learn on your house. Ask us what to look for in a manager and you will get an honest account of what we have seen work and what we have seen go wrong.
More in what we do
Buying your first place and thinking about renting it out later? That changes what you should buy. Say so early.
Bring the numbers before you bring the postcode.
Send us a budget and a suburb and we will tell you what is realistic. Sometimes the honest answer is that it is not, and you will hear that too.
Call Ali on 0448 414 786