Apr
22
Written by:
Graham Binder
22/04/2010 11:14 PM
After our first year of real estate investing, my wife and I have decided to branch out from the safe established properties and buy a block in Mandurah, WA. Now our second year will be a journey into unchartered waters with new trials & tribulations.
We've spent the first year hunting for those elusive cash positive properties, less than 5 years old and located in boom towns. What we've ended up with so far are a house Mildura, another in Kempsey and a unit in Sydney. Whilst they are cash positive, thats where the resemblance finishes.
And so Jan and I have decided to take the plunge and build from scratch.
Finding a block of land was simpler than I'd thought. I contacted a few of the project builders offering 'house and land' packages for ridiculously low prices in the suburbs of our home city (Perth). They were quite happy to point us in the right direction for a couple of small building blocks in Mandurah priced around $100k. We actually made the 1 hour drive to check them out. This was a new experience as we have never actually seen any of the other properties.
The blocks of land were in fact blocks of land - big surprise. Apart from that it was nice to see the surrounding houses but I had to admit I could have done that on "Street View' and "Google Earth'.
We put in an offer, did the haggle bit, pretended we weren't interested, and ended up getting 315 m2 just 2 minutes from the train station for $92k. Next came the visits to display homes and the questions I wished I'd thought about before.
Is it deep sewered?
Does it have gas, water, electricity?
What does 'Strata block' really mean?
What is an R17.5/20 zone?
What is a variation?
Is that kink in the fence line a problem?
What are the site costs, does it need retaining, whats the slope, debris, tree trunks, limestone.....
By some miracle, at this point I'm optimistically cautious we have somehow managed to dodge most of those bullets. Many builders refused to take on a strata block - others were put off by the shape of the block. Finally we found one not daunted by the challenge and we are in the process of contracting for a nice little 3x2 with double garage to be built.
Fingers crossed.
2 comment(s) so far...
Re: Buying a block and building
I would love to know what does 'Strata block' really mean with respect to a block on land.
By Les Thomas on
27/04/2010 9:43 AM
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Re: Buying a block and building
Good question. It's a standard 'Green Titled' residential block of land that has been sub divided into two. There are obviously no corporate fees. If you want to see it Google Earth 25 Waldron Boulevard, GREENFIELDS.
By Graham Binder on
28/04/2010 7:40 PM
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