Solar power in an investment home

Solar power - what a wonderful invention, one that is slowly saving our planet. But recently an investor was faced with a dilemma. If they invest in a property that has solar, or installs a new system, who will really benefit? At first, it's obvious that the savings (or even the profit in some circumstances), will show up on the electricity bill, meaning the tenant is the only beneficiary. In essence, this means the owner has to somehow account for this financially. How though? Work out the approximate saving and include it in the rent? Ask for the electricity bill to be in the owner's name? Is it just to the benefit of the tenant? A cheque in the mail from a larger solar system is still a cheque in the mail. Interesting dilemma.

Time to spice up this blog a bit!

On odd occasions, I like to see the data that my blogs produce, from views and visitors, to which country they're from and what brand of toilet paper they use. Interestingly, something VERY peculiar occured; during the past month, a blog which I NEVER POST IN, received MORE views than this blog!!!! How could this be? Where has my readership disappeared to? The answer is very straight forward and obvious.

I had one post on the other blog, which I linked to a comment I made on a popular blog; that's it. One popular blog comment, and it resulted in more views than for all my postings on here! So, it's time for a different angle of attack to promote Property Investing in Australia.

So far I have mainly received readers from Somersoft, a forum that I used to frequent, however, when I did not post there, there were no views of this blog. I had attempted to comment on other high hitting keyword related blogs, but to no avail, still no google hits. So, I am going to start doing what others do, just completely FLOG THE CRAP out of my blog. This means Twittering, commenting like crazy (with my blog as a link) and so forth. Maybe I can get more than 3-4 hits per day. Also, I am going to start introducing a lot more photography, something for people to see, not just read. 

Feel free to give me more advice on how to increase my exposure.

Till next time Gadgets...

Property Investing Stalemate

Tonight I'm going to write about what has recently happened to me regarding the world of property investing. Since 2006/7, I have continued to feverishly gear myself towards becoming an 'expert' property investor (whatever that means). It got to a point where I was confident enough to give those people that were prepared to listen, some advice. But something happened. Something in 2008, after I luckily unloaded some properties at exactly the right time before the GFC, I began having doubts. I still visited re.com.au, Somersoft was still my friend, but, as you can see on this blog, I no longer posted as much. I no longer went out looking for bargains. I no longer did the 'research' that was so familiar to me. Something inside of me got spooked. And now, as I sit here contemplating the last few months of my life, I have came upon the realisation that indeed, things have changed. Capital gain, in my world anyway, is no longer a sure bet. Rental income, again for my properties, do not always go up what they need to, or as much as they need to. Things like sliding doors break and with stupid quotes of $1700 to replace it (needs new rollers that the maintenance guy can't find) I begin to think if it's really worthwhile? Our house in Ingham, hit by the cyclone, has been a constant chase up with insurance quotes, lazy/busy/incompetent property managers, and the apparent inconvenience of 'distance investing' comes to the fore. 

But alas, I think its just my sentiment at the moment; property investing is too risky, especially on a single income. 

Anyway, just to summarise, I no longer consider myself an authority at any level regarding property investing. I'm still learning, there is still hope that my portfolio will blossom again, but for now, its a waiting game. 

Until next time....

What is my PPOR worth in today's market (according to www.realestate.com.au)?

Purely out of boredom (and the need to kill some time before my next iRacing race), I decided to go on www.realestate.com.au and perform the obligatory search for suburb, house, bedroom, that fits the description of my house. Looking past the outliers (i.e. busy road or weatherboard mainly these days), the cheapest one is $289,000. It does look a little nicer than ours, AND it's in a cul-de-sac, but is it possible that I have just made a quick $30,000 at the purchase of our house? I know, I know, I'm jumping the gun a bit, but the suburb has an aweful lot of potential and the prices, as far as I can see, are on the increase right now. Is it possible that finally we have stumbled onto a winner? Our last one was way back in 2005 when we bought our Miles property, which made a beautiful quick little profit, but it's been a dry patch since. I think though there is one important thing to keep in mind here; we like this place, it suits us nicely and as I had predicted, the smaller block size, while keeping me busy, is easily manageable. After the reno is finished (yes, it's still going), I think it's a place where my little family can put down some roots, a place to call our own, a place for my kids to grow up. Toowoomba is slowly growing on me day by day, I am loving the convenience, the drive to work is quite enjoyable and the climate is currently cool, but bearable.

So, it's a keeper is what I am saying. I'm toying with the idea of rendering the place, but how would that work when all other houses in the street are brick. The cheapest rendered house on the market is $342,000 and for the effort and minimal cost, it could be added to my list of things to do. Anyone with thoughts? I will post this dilemma on Sumersoft, see what responses I get.

Ciao for now.