Should I Stay or Should I go

[Wongo]

My in-laws (to be neighbours) are building a new house in Chatswood Sydney. It will cost them almost $600K. Wow. If I did not agree to do most of the woodwork in their new house then it would probably cost them another $50K.

[Rocker]

Don't make the shed too big, otherwise, when you decide to go and fetch something from the other end, by the time you get there, you have forgotten what you went after. Seriously, I think 9 m x 12m is a pretty good size for a shed.

Seems to me that you can't go too far wrong if you can buy land for $200K and build for $1000/m2. No town water is a bit of a worry, but you get plenty of pretty regular rain down there, so, if you have a large tank, I suppose you will be OK.

Is it impossible to buy what you want already built, so as to save yourself the hassles of building yourself, and paying architects etc.?

Rocker

[HappyHammer]

SC,

Not sure about down your way but at the outlaws farm they have to have two large tanks and only use one as the other is for the rural fire brigade, should budget these if you get no town water.

HH.

[bitingmidge]

I've only skipped through this thread (and 450 others ) but I can't resist giving someone I don't know free advice, specially when there's no chance of getting sued if it's bad!

1) Sit down, look at the ocean, then look at your yard. Given your well publicised propensity for mowing, you'll just love looking after an acreage!! It's the great Australian dream after all!!

Be aware though, that they just aren't making any more lots with water views, and the rate of capital appreciation of quality lots is far greater than for "normal" allotments, and there is no reason to suspect that this will not continue. You may find yourself in a situation where you won't be able to buy back in after the rush of blood to your head is over.

2) DON'T become a developer...at least not for now. You are at the end of a long upward cycle, where there are a lot of "experts" who have made a lot of money by being in the right place at the right time. You are undoubtedly in the right place, but the time is not right when there are no builders available for umpteen years, and you have no way of controlling costs.

Wait till the beginning of the next cycle....How will you know when that is?? If you can't work it out, you're not ready to be a developer...wait some more.

3) Why not become an investor?? Use the equity in your home to fund an investment property which meets your dream aspirations. Find a small acreage nearby with an existing house on it which can be let out... with a bit of luck it'll even have a shed which you'll tell the tenants is there for your purposes. Your old man can potter with maintenance, you can have your furnace and other messy stuff there (keep the workshop at home), and in 35 years or so your tenants will have paid off your shed (which will have certain tax benefits as well if your accounting is "right")

Cheers,

P

[numbat]

Darren,

Some more free gratuitous advice - particularly about the lack of town water. This will be a big concern if you ever have a bush fire (the current SA one and of course the ones we had here a few years ago (I dont want to go through one of those again) come to mind).

Make sure that you have a couple of big water tanks and make sure that you have your own working diesel water pump (test regularly) to fight the fires (dont have an electric one - you probably have wooden power poles right - I can still remember exploding pole top transformers and decimated power lines).

Also you are a web developer right? Do you rely on ADSL connections to work? Make sure that wherever you go that you can get it.

Also be especially interested in access roads to your block - are they flood prone, wash away potential, are there bridges to get to your block. Not good if you desperately need medical help and you cant get out of your place.

Good luck with your deliberations.

Cheers
Steve

[Christopha]

"There is no mortgage on it. It's been the family home for nearly 30 years. My parents live in the flat, which is part of the deal with us getting the main house rent free."

Answer..... it apparently doesn't belong to YOU..... wait till the poor old buggers cark it before you sell THEIR home...........

[Dean]

I'll keep it simple...

If you have a doubt, don't do it...

[silentC]

Christopha, where do I start? .....

We've looked around and anything already built is going to leave us without enough cash left over to do what else needs to be done. Most places on the market are 3 bedroom and don't have a separate flat, so we would need to extend whatever we bought. The new development approval process here means you have to bring the rest of your house up to current standards as well, so unless it's a new house, it's just going to cost too much. People selling new places expect to get their money back and some (unlike when selling just about anything else that's second hand). If we build, we can build what we want and have the best chance of saving money.

We looked at a 2 acre block yesterday that is walking distance from town, the school, the pub . The road in is a bit low in one place, so getting cut off is a possibility but there is an escape route up the back of the property on an old firetrail if worst came to worst.

Regarding water, my BIL makes rainwater tanks and the old bloke is a plumber, so we should be covered there. As long as it rains... We are in a drought at the moment but we got a few good inches a couple of weeks ago.

The power and phone lines are underground. I'm going to check out ADSL and 3 phase power. It's a new subdivision, so hopefully they've put in plenty of capacity and not split lines between lots.

If we held onto the beach place for another 10 years, it might skyrocket. As I've said though, money is not the motivating factor.

Still thinking....

[numbat]

OK - so what did you decide to do?

Cheers

[silentC]

It's on the market. Open day this Saturday and auction in March. If we don't get what we want for it, we're staying put. Signing a conditional contract on a 1.1ha bush block this week. If we exchange on the house, then the contract on the land is binding. If the sale of the house falls through after that, we either lose our deposit (which is a fraction of the deposit we'll get on the house) or we buy the block anyway and make it a more long term plan.

Do you reckon 12x6 is too small for a shed?

[simon c]

Do you reckon 12x6 is too small for a shed?

Depends if it's feet or metres - sorry wrong thread

[Wongo]

Whatever it is good luck mate.

Do you reckon 12x6 is too small for a shed?

Bastard! i hope you only get 12 feet X 6 feet.

[Cliff Rogers]

......Do you reckon 12x6 is too small for a shed?....

That'll do for the workspace, as long as you have some other sheds to store stuff in.

[Daddles]

Do you reckon 12x6 is too small for a shed?

Yep. It's big enough to build your 6m boat but there'd be no room to store the others when you allow working space. It's a half reasonable start though.

Richard

[silentC]

I was thinking of getting a shipping container or two for extra storage. I hear there's one full of clamps coming over in a month or two, think I'll arrange for that one to get washed off the ship and floated down here.