All Forum Posts by: Thomas Banks

@Brian Lacey I will definitely be keeping my eye out for any deals I come across. Its a little unfortunate that I have most of my own capital tied up at the moment but if I find a juicy deal I will definitely be looking for some partners.

Hi All,

I know a lot of people are turning to virtual assistants to offload some of the repetitive tasks that are taking up valuable time for real estate investors.

I'm about to embark on a change of situation and will be living in Brazil for the next 12 months. I will be studying Portuguese part time but am looking to also keep expanding my knowledge of real estate investing by partnering with some real estate investors who are looking for virtual assistants.

I think I would be a valuable member of anyone's team as I have acquired some skills from my day job that are very transferable. I'm currently a mining engineer in an open cut coal mine and a lot of my job is evaluating the most efficient way of doing something. Although my biggest skill that would be transferable to the virtual assistant space are my computer skills. Currently on our site I'm the go to person for any excel/coding/macro jobs and have previously been an IT administrator.

The purpose of this post is to gauge if there would be any interest in people hiring virtual assistants that aren't at a super low rate and if anyone has any advice or criticism for me.

I would be very open to any other opportunities BP members suggest as well.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

PS: I wasn't 100% sure which sub forum to put this post in.

Hi @Scott Mardle

Welcome to BP. I'm from central queensland but down in brisbane all the time. I'd love to catch up with you and chat real estate sometime if your keen. I'm about the same stage of my real estate investing as you (although I have a principle place of residence already).

Hope you continue learning and enjoy BP. Hope to talk to you soon.

Tom

@Helen Rolls welcome to BP. I'm in the same boat as you about to jump into some deals this summer.

If you ever want to chat feel free to drop me a message.

This is an awesome story and congratulations on a job well done @Stephen Hundley. I will look forward to seeing the final product once you finish the houses.

I'll just leave this here if people are interested in reading two articles about a famous hoarder house in Bondi. At 200 times more expensive they are some rich hoarders haha

Australia's ridiculous property market.

http://www.domain.com.au/news/bondi-hoarders-house-up-for-sale-20150123-12wl6k/

http://www.domain.com.au/news/bondi-hoarders-dodge-forced-sale-of-their-home-20150217-13h6ev/

I sympathize with your situation erica, at least you are on the other side and realise that it is useless up sell programs that take peoples money.

This happens in every industry where people can make money, real estate is just one of them.

Personally i don't believe it will ever stop and no one can stop them as there will always be people that want to make money and will ignore the warning signs that it will not be what they promise. Also if these companies become legislated against they will find a way to get around it.

I hope i'm wrong though.

Hi All,

I currently am house hacking a 3bedroom house in a small mining town in central queensland and it has been going quite well. Over the past year I have been looking in my town (approx 6k population) and surrounding areas for my next property.

"Almost" all single family homes in queensland is not going to be a cash positive investment (at least no where around my area). So I have been focusing my attention on multifamily property where there is at least a chance to make some positive cashflow.

After searching there has finally come up a 4plex that could be a viable investment. It is located in Tannum Sands, Queensland. Its a small residential town that services a larger regional city of Gladstone which has some natural gas plants, a port, refinery, smelter and power station. 

Overall the town and surrounding area will be stable and shouldn't depreciate so the question is will this property make money? I wanted to get some people to cast there eyes over my numbers and possibly provide some advice on some metrics they look at when determining an area to invest.

So the asking price for the 4plex is $650k and current rents are 3x$260 and 1x$290 (market rent would be around $260-$280 currently). The overall condition is good and there would be very little money spent on repairs. Rates i estimated at $4k per year. Vacancy I need to check with real estate agent but is 8% (at least in my town). Property management is approx 10% of rental income. Insurance for a duplex in my town is approx $1600 per year. I set aside $2k for annual maintenance but think it would be less than this.

One thing that is a blessing and a curse at the moment is the interest rates at the moment are great approx 5%.

If anyone wanted to check out the property I'm happy to share as it is listed for sale publicly (not sure if it breaks forum rules is all).

When I run it through my own calculator taking into account principle paydown it doesn't really cashflow well but will pay itself off and will much money (as long as it doesn't depreciate).

Anyone have any thoughts or advice for me?

I wish Australia wasn't such an inflated market. Maybe just wait for the bubble to bust? haha

Hi David, 

Welcome to the site and good luck on broadening your knowledge. your experience will also be invaluable to many other investers as well.

Hope you didn't get rain like we did with Ex tropical cyclone Marcia.

Hi All,

Been a long time lurker on BP and listening to all the podcasts. Decided I should stop doing nothing and take some action.

Got a few ideas to discuss on the forums in the near future and looking forward to meet and network with some other BPers :)

Have a great day everyone.

Hi Jesse,

I'm very interested in this topic as it is the exact situation that my grandmother is in at the moment. She is sick of managing the two blocks she owns on the Gold Coast, Australia but still wants a piece of any property that is developed there for the family.

I hope someone can provide some info. I've been thinking about finding a developer myself and partner in the deal.