All Forum Posts by: Jeremiah O'Brien

Marc Ramsay thanks for you reply mate! and yes! there's no T in Minto!

Guys,

Once again I will be needing your help.

I need help with our current situation and would really appreciate if anyone can shed some light here as I think our Builder is taking advantage of our limited to no knowledge of the building process.

Here’s our situation:
House and Land Package priced at $384,800 in Minto, NSW.

Feb 2, 2013 – Exchanged contract with the land only as my solicitor said she will only do the land part of the deal and the building contract/discussions will be between me and the builder only.

April 19,2013 – Land was released from Land Titles office.

April 24,2013 – Settlement of the Land.

April 29, 2013 – I have called the builder to inquire if everything is ready to go with the lodgement of the building plans. He advised me that everything should be ready by the end of this week to be lodged to Council. The “water report” (sorry I don’t know that this is called) and the BASIX report will be received this week so he said everything SHOULD be ready by the end of this week.

Now here’s my question, is this the normal process in building a house? While we were waiting for the title to be released, I met up with him a few times to ensure that everything will be ready before settlement, and as soon as the land is settled, off goes the plans to Council. I told him that I do not want us to be the caused of any delay because we are all aware that it will take a good 12 weeks before Council releases the go ahead signal to build. We are paying rent now PLUS the interest for the Land. I am well aware of the costs involved but the process is what really confuses me. I feel that our builder is all BS but I do not want to injure our relationship because he will be the one building our house. Please help us with any advise you can provide.

*Note: the price is now changed to $390,500 because of some variation I have requested to which I regret now. ($180,000 for the land, $204,800 for building + $5,700 variation to increase the ceiling height from 2.4m to 2.7m, additional aircon $1200 and Peirring cost $3000)

Thanks for all the comments/stories guys. Appreciated!

thanks for taking time to post a comment here guys. really appreciate it.

Marco Santarelli thanks for the pointers mate!
Sam Daniels thanks for offering a hand. appreciated.
Brandon Turner thanks for the link bud, i have read them all before though. really interesting and informative.
Will Barnard thanks mate! i will definitely engage the forums. i do have a lot to learn.

guys if you can still remember, can you please explain to me how you guys started? what did you guys do on the first year? just a quick overview of how it all started and what kicked it off for you's.

and if its not too much to ask in one post, i do have a question in regards to financing, as per my recent post, we are currently building our first home and with a loan of AUD $390k, would the banks say no if I apply for another loan for my first investment property? would a trust fund be a wiser choice for my situation? i read a book from Steve McKnight and he said he never bought a property under his name, always with a trust. as you can leverage the director's income multiple times to guarantee the loan. thanks!

Hi Marco,

Thanks for your quick reply. This just proves that BiggerPockets really is a live and interactive forum.
Okay, now just basing on the very basic knowledge that I have acquired during my research, this is what I have came up with in terms of strategy for our current situation.
We are now in the process of building our very first home. So the money that we have set aside will all be used. Starting this month (April) we have set a goal to set aside all the money that we can save for our first investment property. Basically starting from scratch here, April (zero balance) and saving atleast $4k a month until we reach $30k (which we set to achieve in November).

Starting Balance: 30k (Nov 2013)
So we will be looking at units worth $150k or less (20% deposit)
Or townhouse/old house worth $300k (10% deposit)

We would like to acquire a property that will give us positive cashflow each month to help us in our on-going savings to purchase more property. Give another 7 months savings after November, (July 2014) we will have another $30k+ income from Property 1 + Equity from Property 1. We will use this to acquire another property/properties. This is just a mud map of what we are aiming to achieve. Any thoughts?

Hi Guys!

Just a bit of an introduction about myself.
My name is Jeremiah, 27 years old, married with no kids, and I will be a millionaire before I reach 30.

I know, a pretty bold statement from a newbie, but with a bit of help from this forum. I can make it happen. I just started researching about REI at the beginning of the year (2013). We are now in the process of building our own home. Made a few mistakes already (knowing this in hindsight before getting involved in BiggerPockets.com) but will rectify all that as I read through the forums and interact as well. At this stage, I am researching everything that I need to know about investing, but the hardest is not knowing what I don't know that I need to know. I am now in a point where I do not know what to research anymore because everything else seems to be similar already just different terminolgy. I do not know what to ask, because I do not know what it is that I should be asking. Apologies if this sounds confusing but I hope someone can understand where I am at the moment and give me an advise on what to do next. Thanks heaps in advance!