Managing your own investment property could have its advantages and disadvantages. What a landlord like you should keep in mind, however, is that saving money is not always the best option. Sometimes, it could cost you much more in the unforeseen future. So, here’s a list of advantages if you hire a property manager.
Tracey's Property News
Why Your Property Investments Are Doing Badly
It’s a fact that investing isn’t easy, especially for those who are afraid of taking risks. If you’re an investor, you might be interested in what Michael Yardney, director of Metrolpole Property Strategists, says about the reasons why your investment is doing badly. Yardney highlights the 10 most common mistakes newbie investors make that regularly result in losses. He also indicates how pro investors overcome these mistakes to accumulate profits.
There are no fixed rules on how you can succeed in property investing however there are some valuable advice from those who succeed. Although you can’t emulate all the things that they do, you can have a basic understanding of how the world of investing works. It’s part of the process to commit mistakes. Whether it’s a few dollars worth of mistake or a thousand dollar worth of mistake, the only thing that matters is the lesson you’ll get from it. Once you know what won’t work, try something else. Never stop trying and learning. Just be sure you minimize the risk of failure as much as possible.
You can read the whole article here.
As a property investor, what advice would you give a newbie investor today? How do you take good care of your property investments?
5 Mistakes Buyers Commonly Make in Purchasing an Investment Property
When you’re excited to purchase a strata-titled property, you always make mistakes out of excitement. Aidan Devine, from Your Investment Property, highlights the five most common mistakes that investors make during their purchase. According to Devine, most investors forget the check the financial books of the company and records of repairs done in the past. It is vital to check the financial status of the company and the records of repairs to ensure that you won’t have any unexpected problems regarding these two in the future.
Investors, wowed by the unit, often forget to ask for the contact details of the landlord in case a problem with the unit arises. It is also important to look deeper and not just on the surface. You might end up paying expensive maintenance fee if you let the appearance of the unit and the agent’s sweet talk become your main reasons for making the purchase.
You can read the whole article here.
New Data-Matching Technology to Scrutinise Property Sales
ATO’s newest weapon against tax evasion – data-matching technology. 10.4 million taxpayers will face scrutiny regarding their residential and commercial property sales with the Australian Tax Office. ATO is more than eager to implement their high-tech data gathering computer systems worth $800 million.
Larry Schlesinger from Property Observer highlights the things that this new data-matching technology can do to ensure that taxpayers are paying their taxes correctly. With the help of this new technology, ATO can gather large amount of data and “slice-and-dice” that data to get the information they need.
Last year, the technology was used to help ATO analyse 649 million transactions according to the Australian Financial Review. ATO’s implementation plan for this new technology is for 7 years. Surely, more and more transactions will be scrutinised over that period of time.
Read the whole article here to know more about how powerful this new technology is.
What do you think of this new technology?
Population growth should bode well for the Australian housing market
Australian population is growing at a good rate and it augurs really well for real estate. Macroeconomics suggests that population growth is always a key indicator for the property market. For an year upto September 2012, the population spurted by 1.71%, says Michael Yardney for the Property Update. This is much higher than the 30 year average of 1.4%.
Smoking in the House Reduces Home Value
If you are a smoker, chances are you might end up significantly reducing the value of your property. I was glancing through a survey report by Pfizer Canada which revealed that smoking inside residential premises can shrink the resale price of homes by up to 29%. Pfizer Canada is a pharmaceutical organization whose products encourage users to quit smoking. The survey commenced on 31st January and concluded on 6th February.
Astonishing facts from the study:
- As many as 401 participants in the survey who were real estate agents acknowledged that it is tougher to sell house whose inhabitants were smokers.
- Home owners lose up to $107,000 on a residence located in Ontario, where the average resale value of homes is presently $369,000(!)
- About 56% of the participants agreed that majority of buyers would dislike homes which have been previously occupied by smokers. Similarly, about 26% of the respondents asserted that most buyers would vehemently oppose purchasing homes belonging to smokers!
- Nearly half of the participants said that smoking inside homes adversely impacts resale valuation of properties.
- According to other respondents, smokers stain walls and carpets of homes, besides leaving a foul stench.
I am not sure if the impact of smoking on your home value is quite as drastic as this study makes it. Pharmaceuticals are well known to have a way with numbers and statistics. Nonetheless there now is (yet another) reason to quit smoking.
