This year we completed the most development projects for our clients in our business history but it wasn’t until I sat down to lunch with one of my builders and team last week that I’d even had time to reflect.

I had a call from Dave today.  He said ‘Hi Jo, can you help me with a dual occupancy project’.  To that I replied…’sure Dave, we’d love to.  Tell me a bit about your strategy and what you are hoping to achieve from a property development’.

Read Part 2 of our clients weekly progress reports. We do this each Friday in a formal written report with photos. The report system proves to be a good record of progress and what happened throughout the project.

As project managers, one of our roles is to report to our clients on the progress of their project. We do this each Friday in a formal written report with photos. The report system proves to be a good record of progress and what happened throughout the project. Our clients get to keep the reports of course and they act as a handy reference tool, giving a snap shot of their project at every stage.

In a shared cab on the way home from my brother in law’s birthday party (whilst dressed as Carmen Miranda) I asked this bloke who was a friend of the birthday boy, what he did?  By the way, it was a Rio Carnival party; I don’t normally go out with fruit salad on my head!

It’s 5.45am and I rush to grab one of the last bikes left. I pedal furiously, my heart is pumping and soon my legs are fatiguing.  I wonder why I put myself through this.
 

I am of course in the cycle class at my gym and I do it to try and keep some resemblance of my past fitness.  I’m lucky these days if I make it twice a week to the gym and today is one of those days.

This week I went to an eye specialist. I’ve decided it was time to consider laser surgery as I’m short sighted and need glasses for driving and now I also need glasses to read (yes I know, a sign of aging!).  I spent about an hour peering into various machines whilst my eyes were scanned, measured and flashed at.  At one point I thought I was in a disco with strobe lighting, but unfortunately no John Travolta materialised.

One of the first questions I ask anyone enquiring about Property Bloom’s property development project management services is what is your goal?  What do you want to achieve from your development?

This morning I was watching my fav morning show whilst getting the kids breakfast sorted. I always look out for the financial overview; it’s not much but gives me a little something to go on through my day (OMG that sounds a bit boring?).  But by watching this 20 second update, I can see what the share markets around the world are doing, the value of the Aussie dollar, inflation figures and gold & oil prices and occasionally they’ll touch on property.  This is when I grab the remote and turn it up. I have to say, I find the financial overview very bias, but what can a property investor do?

Last week Property Bloom was offered a few DA & CC approved dual occupancy sites. They are in a town where dual occ sites are extremely hard to find right now. This town’s median price has been growing steadily as a result of investor activity increasing over the past 24 months as people are attracted to the high rents being achieved due to an undersupply of housing.

If there is a two speed economy, this Hunter town is in the top speed category.

Sunshine said she really liked the concept, so much so she decided to do a development project with us herself.  She was certainly the first financial planner I’d met who really walked the talk and who didn’t just promote boring old managed funds. She owned her first property at the age of 23 and accumulated ten properties by the time she turned 30.  I really liked Sunshine and we connected through property.

Last weekend I packed up my four year old son and we embarked on a road trip to Bulahdelah, a small country town about three hours from Sydney. I wanted to see my dad on Father’s Day. Mum had to suddenly find a nursing home who could take dad when she recently discovered she needed some medical treatment herself and would not be able to look after dad during her treatment. Dad has Alzheimer’s disease and whilst still in pretty good physical condition at 89, his memory is disserting him, he now needed full time care. It’s a cruel disease and very hard on carers.

When developing, your Property Team should..

Developing property can be risky and not for everyone, there are many things that can go wrong so it is important to really do your due diligence and understand the many facets involved.
 

I’ve compiled what I think are the top three things to do first when embarking on a property development.  Here is Tip No. 2.

You’ve found what you think is a brilliant development site.  Now it’s time to jump on that roller coaster and start the ride of your life as you commence the analysis process.  Will the project be feasible?  What is feasible anyway?

What exactly is a property developer?   I quite like this description found on Wikipedia;
 

“Developers buy land, finance real estate deals, build or have builders build projects, create, imagine, control and orchestrate the process of development from the beginning to end”
 

Did you know that women are two and half times more likely to live in poverty in their old age than men?   By 2019 on average, women will have half the amount of superannuation than men have?* and 40% of women over 50 will be single through choice, divorce or death of their partner.

I had a call this week from a chap who was weighing up whether he should develop property or just go out and buy some new properties.  I explained that buying existing property is like buying at full retail prices or perhaps at sale prices if you are lucky.

What a special day it was yesterday…a real contrast for me.
 

Subdivision is one of the many ways you can develop property.  It involves converting one piece of land or existing dwellings into several. Raw land subdivision entails legally and physically converting raw, undeveloped land into developed land so that one or more buildings – residential, commercial or industrial – can be constructed.  As you will be changing the lands usage and appearance for example perhaps from a rural rezoned paddock into a residential land subdivision, you’ll also be building the infrastructure required such as roads, paths, drainage systems, water, sewerage and perhaps even public utilities such as a park.

Last week we found a fabulous property for a client wanting to do a granny flat project with Property Bloom. It was fabulous for two main reasons;

• The large 950sqm block with extra wide frontage and rear lane access.
• It was renovated.

In my former life (pre property developer) I worked in the cosmetics industry.  One of my claims to fame was that I invented a whole new product category.  A category is a group of products that have similar characteristics. For example, when you go into the grocery store, everything is categorized in aisles; so the cereal aisle will be made up of categories such as mueslis, oat products, biscuits (eg wheat bix) etc.

“Hey Jeff, just wanted to let you know that I’ve transferred some money into my super account, can you tell me the best place to invest it right now within the fund?”  This was a question I asked of my financial planner yesterday.  It was that time of year when I had to make the obligatory transfer of money into my managed super account to meet requirements as an employer (to myself).  Each year I struggle with this: transferring cash into my super then watching it disappear into the deep, dark hole of the managed super fund then opening my bi-yearly statement to see it has disintegrated!

In the last few weeks I completed a dual occupancy project in Muswellbrook, a town in the Hunter Region of NSW.  This project took two years from the time that I found the land to the time that we had both four bedroom houses tenanted at a record high of $500 per week. Sounds like a long time for a dual occ…but time was on our side.

1. Getting Started
2. Design, Planning and Approvals (as seen last Thursday)
3. Construction Time

Rich is a country lad brought up on a farm in rural NZ…no it wasn’t a sheep station. Lucky for me, he decided to ‘cross the ditch’ and settle in Australia to make his fortune in developing property in the Hunter Region of NSW. He was working with one of my builders when I discovered his expertise. It was some time later that we ended up working together.

1. Getting Started (as seen last Thursday)
2. Design, Planning and Approvals
3. Construction Time

1. Getting Started
2. Design, Planning and Approvals
3. Construction Time

Today I drew inspiration from a lovely young man I had coffee with today. His name is Matt and he’s one of our clients.  Matt’s a switched on guy, maybe about 30 or so, has a Psych degree, owns three investment properties, all high yielding (I’m talking 9 – 15%!), runs his own importing business, has been to a property seminar or two and he and his wife are expecting their second child in a couple of weeks. Oh and he’s also very polite.

The recent news that the aluminium smelt is closing in Kurri Kurri, a town in the Hunter Region of NSW is very sad.

I used to get very excited when an agent called me to say…”Jo, I’ve got a great DA approved site coming up…”   My little heart would pound as I’d eagerly keep checking my emails for the plans and consent to come through.

Is it the draftsperson/architect who is designing them?  Or, perhaps a town planner at council?  Or your lender?  maybe you?  In my opinion not.

When I explain to people what I do and how I’ve made a business out of what I love – developing property – they often say “I wish I could do something like that.”

As part of our process, once we’ve located a suitable development site and if there’s an existing house on the land, is to order a pest & building inspection. Management of the renovation is part of the development process.  But to what degree do you renovate and when is it considered over capitalising?  In these regional areas, we are not looking to massively upgrade a house but to add cost effective value and maximise rental returns.

his week I was really excited to find a fabulous property that we could add value to.  Add value?…in what way I hear you say.  Perhaps you are thinking through renovation…new kitchen, new bathroom, paint throughout, perhaps a deck out the back or even maybe add another bedroom?  Yes, this kind of work would usually add value to a property.  But actually, I was thinking along other lines and two words had sprung to mind….GRANNY FLAT.

I met with Danielle this week for a coffee. Danielle is a part time town planner and full time to mum to three kids.  I’d met Danielle when she’d asked me about helping her with a medium density development. Then, through some unfortunate circumstances Danielle found herself a single mum.  She couldn’t finance a larger development.  But she used her experience and prowess in understanding the planning process to make herself a cool $70,000 profit from a simple two lot subdivision.

You’ve found what you think is a brilliant development site.  Now it’s time to jump on that roller coaster and start the ride of your life as you commence the analysis process.  Will the project be feasible?  What is feasible anyway?

There are two words that describe why I do what I do; Financial Freedom. My driving desires to build my investment property portfolio and also Property Bloom; my property development project management business is financial freedom.  Not just for myself but for my family.  This drive has come from watching my parents in their retirement.  Whilst they are living in a beautiful part of NSW and own their own home, they are on the old age pension and really struggling to pay bills. There is no spare cash for a holiday or to reward themselves for working so hard all their life, but they are still happy.

If you are looking to become a property investor things are looking good for you right now. And, if you happen to be the grandmother of an investor you could count your lucky stars.

I’m not going to talk about interest rates and the RBA’s decision not to cut them this week because every man and his dog has an opinion on that right now. Rather, I’m going to talk about being Present in your investing.

So as we approach the first day of 2012 under the Chinese Astrology Year – February 4 – we can look forward to a “year of great deeds, innovative ideas and big projects. This will be an advantageous time to begin new projects in business and socially”.

As we moved into the new year of 2012, I found myself celebrating another milestone.  One of the council’s we work under finally gazetted a new LEP – Local Environmental Plan.  Right now, the NSW planning system is undergoing the biggest change in 30 years. The NSW Government is changing the way that LEPs are developed and approved for our communities.  This means many councils are undergoing a change to their LEP.

Personally, I am really bullish on the investment property market for 2012.  Please note my reference to ‘investment’ market as I do see a split between the owner occupier markets and think these may remain subdued or perhaps grow slowly.  Its property investors that will dive into action and stimulate the market into a steady capital growth wave.