a new adventure in property investing

Well, maybe calling it a new adventure is a bit much.  It’s more a key milestone along the way of the same adventure we’ve been on for a couple of years now.  We’ve done up a website, advertising our short term rental properties.

There are a few reasons why we decided to go ahead with a website.  Firstly, any advertising is good advertising.  A presence on the internet is a good way to get the word out about what we do, and how we do it.   Secondly is the ability to put up any amount of detail.  As the properties include everything, this means it can all be listed out.  Finally is the ability to put up as many pictures as we like.  As our properties are really nice, the more photos the better.

So yes, we have a website.  In order to remain anonymous, I’m not going to link to it here, but it is out there on the interwebs, as they say, and it’s becoming a wholly diverting interest.  Every day I come home and check the statistics as to who has visited it, and we’re slowly starting to get enquiries through.  It’s all very exciting.

update

Yes, I’ve been MIA again. There was a good reason – SO and I were in Victoria.  We spent three days in Ballarat, and three in Melbourne. 

We were in Ballarat to catch up with my lovely friend M, the single mum of three kids under five.  (Just pause and think about that for a moment.)  She recently turned 30 and had a bash to celebrate.  We normally wouldn’t travel for something like that, but with the divorce over the last year or so, she’s had a hell of a time and we wanted to see her.  Anyhow, it was wonderful catching up with her and the offspring, all of whom are completely adorable.  She was so happy that we came over, too.  She told me that after she dropped us off at the train station to go to Melbourne, she had what she called ‘a sook’.  Poor darling, it would be so good if she were closer to us, but Ballarat is where her family is, and they help her out with the kids more than we would.

So yes, after Ballarat we went on to Melbourne.

mundane stuff

Life has certainly settled down a bit. Not having renovations to do leaves both of us with a lot of ’spare’ time.  I say ’spare’ because in reality it’s taken up with lots of things – like going through our house, deciding what to keep and what to move on.  We have a kerbside collection for household goods in a couple of weeks, so we can get rid of lots of stuff that way, like the oven we’ve had to replace. 

It’s been on the blink for a couple of months – everything lights up but it doesn’t heat.  According to my mother, it was the heating element that had packed it in.  So SO had a look at it over the weekend.  Not only had the element gone, but the fan wasn’t working.  As a result, and given the age of the oven (around 14 years old), I made an executive decision that it wasn’t worth fixing.  So I started pricing replacements.  Amazingly, they ranged from $950 to the one we decided on – $569.  I couldn’t believe the variation in prices.  We went for the $569 version.  I’m not interested in cooking, SO isn’t either, and paying an extra $400 for an oven that’s still very basic seems like a waste.  Hopefully we’ll be picking it up either tomorrow or Thursday.  I’m excited, primarily because I’m looking forward to having the gaping hole in the kitchen filled up.

We’ve also been going through a process of rationalisation of our clothing. 

reno #4 drawing to a close

Reno #4 is coming to an end.  There are a couple of things that need to happen – namely, doing the bathroom plumbing, and fitting and painting the bathroom door – but otherwise, it’s all coming together.  I spent Saturday cleaning out the oven and stove top, and Sunday cleaning the rangehood and fridge, so the main cleaning-type activities have been done.  This coming weekend we’ll do some final stuff like putting up the window treatments, and on Monday we have organised to get the laminate flooring laid.  Tuesday we’ll have off work, to transport all the furniture and get the unit ready and set up for Wednesday, when the quantity surveyor will come through.

So yes, it’s all happening here….. I’ve already advertised the unit on some websites, sans pictures unfortunately.  If we’re incredibly lucky, we’ll have tenants in and paying rent by next weekend.  Whew.

tenant issues

I served a notice of non-payment of rent on two of our tenants today.  They’re a couple who live in one of our units – the fully reno’d one that took us eight months or so last year to get finished.  They have a history of paying late.  They’re supposed to have the rent in the account on Saturday.  Well, they were good to start with, then they slowly started paying later.  And later.  And the original phone calls we got apologising changed into text messages ‘letting us know’ and then, nothing.  I don’t like calling or texting tenants to ask when the rent will be paid.  As far as I’m concerned, it’s their responsibility to remember.  Surely it’s not that hard to forget to pay for your shelter, whether it’s rent or mortgage payments?

Anyhow, they paid a week late the week before last, and I said to the girl that we would charge a late fee next time.  I served them with the notice this afternoon, after work.  They’re five days overdue.  I wasn’t sure about the reception I’d get, so I actually used a digital voice recorder from work to tape the coversation, just in case it gets nasty down the track.  It was a short but courteous interaction, so hopefully they’ll get the hint and start paying on time without me needed to hound them about it. 

One of the things I did include was a service charge of an additional $50 on top of their overdue rent.  This is specified in their lease, should they break the Residential Tenancies’ Act or their lease, and a notice be served as a result.  Finally I thought, no, it’s in the lease for a reason, and we’ve let it go before – it’s not like it’s the first time they’ve been late.  So I included it with the notice, and mentioned it to the girl when I served the notice.  (‘Serving the notice’ sounds formal, but all it means it that I handed it to a relevant person as defined under the Act.)  She seemed a bit surprised, but I did kind of appear from nowhere with the paperwork, so that’s to be expected.  (I didn’t want to call in case they pretended to be out when I got there, which would prevent me serving her with the notice.)

Yes, so that is one to keep an eye on.  I’m so hoping they get the hint and just pay their bloody rent on time from now on.  Watch this space.

latest on renos etc

As per usual, it’s been a busy week and I’ve been slack with blogging.  However I’m sitting in front of the idiot box, full of food and coffee, and I have the time to assemble my thoughts into something resembling coherence.

Reno #4 is progressing nicely. 

reality check

My father in law is very good value. As well as being a lovely guy, he helps us out so much, both around our own house and also with our units.  We couldn’t have done half of what we have if it wasn’t for his help over the last couple of years.

On Tuesday night, before meeting our new tenants, we dropped by the current reno to speak to him.  He’d been there most of the day, painting on undercoat/sealant on the walls and ceiling of the smaller bedroom.  I was having a whinge about how tired I was from the night before (see previous post for boring details), and about how hard it was, and how tired I was, etc etc.  He paused for a moment, painted some more of the cornice, and said: ‘And just think, in ten years’ time, you’ll be told how lucky you are.’

Talk about putting something into perspective.  In ten years’ time, we’ll be financially set up for the rest of our lives.  Minor crap like doing the hard yards sometimes, working all day then painting ’til  midnight at the latest reno, dealing with problem tenants and regular turnovers, that’ll all be in the past.  We’ll be reaping the rewards for all that stuff, and it’ll be in the past, while our lives will be immeasurably financially improved from our hard work we’re putting in now.  Let’s face it, you get very little in this life without doing some hard work at some stage.  We just happen to be at that stage now.  And really, we’re already reaping rewards.  We got a great tax return last year, and we should get another great return this year, so even apart from the capital gains the properties will inevitably produce, the yearly returns are going alright too.  We’re making our own luck.

Next time I’m complaining, I’m going to remind myself that we’re doing okay.

rentals, rentals, and other stuff

It’s Thursday night already!  Where has the week gone?!

As per usual, it’s been a busy one.  Monday night we had an annual general meeting for one of our groups of units.  It was a good meeting, we got a quorum, and we decided on some capital works projects for the coming financial year.  We have a good group of owners in this block, which is good to see – all very concerned with maintaining the building appropriately.  That went from 6pm to 7:30pm, so it was basically straight after work.

After the meeting, I went to our just-vacated unit and did a clean.

the latest drivel

Wow, it feels like longer than a week since I last wrote here.  I must admit, nothing spectacularly interesting has been going on.  We spent every evening except Friday at the reno after work, sanding and patching, sanding and patching.  I think we may FINALLY be coming to the end of it.  I’d forgotten how slow and monotonous this part of doing a reno is.  Still, in a few days’ time we’ll hopefully be painting, which will speed things right up.

We had tenants move out today, and this is a first for us – we don’t have new ones lined up to take their place.

reno #4 – slowly progressing

Today was a good day.  The weather was beautiful, and SO and I had a lovely snuggle and sleep in this morning.  We so rarely do that, and it’s so nice when we do.  Normally as soon as I’m awake, I’m out of bed doing stuff, but not today.  It was great.

Then we got up and had a leisurely breakfast, then got ready and went to the unit.  I spent all day (about six hours) in the bathroom.  While the tiling’s finished, the walls and ceiling needed a fair bit of remedial patching, which took a while.  I had an extra special bonus when I was patching the ceiling – a huge chunk of plaster dropped off and nearly got my eye.  Fortunately I saw it coming and took evasive action.

SO spent the day sanding the two bedrooms which I’d patched a week or so ago.  He hates doing it, and I do some of it, but I’m just not physically strong enough to keep holding the sander for any length of time.   He did a fair bit, I think he’s finished the main bedroom.  We agreed tonight that all the walls and ceilings are going to need a coat of sealer prior to actually painting them the colours we’ve chose.  They’re in such poor condition, we can’t bring ourselves to just paint straight onto them without some preemptive action being taken first.

We’re probably going to go back tomorrow night after work to do some more.  Ideally I’d like to get the bathroom all ready for painting in a couple of days’ time, but that will take some serious work at night time, which is hard on the eyes (and the body).  However, we’re getting there, slowly but surely.