Interesting legal case involving the conveyencer I used, Lawyers real Estate:
read more about it here:
CONSUMER AFFAIRS VICTORIA v PETER JOHN MERICKA & ORS
Atfer seeing a lot of the dodgy behaviour in the real estate biz it’s been informative to read up on the tricks following Peter Mericka’s blog, I hope it all goes well for him.
I have not written much here, but there hasn’t been a lot to write.. since the acquisition of a mortgage, the most rational investment option has been to simply reduce interest payments on my mortgage by getting it paid off, which is where the bulk of my effort has gone. Mortgage is at least now substantially reduced.
To this end, all my shares except Bendigo Bank and some AEZ (APN European Retail Property Group) have been let go of. I would have sold the AEZ but there value has sunk down to almost nothing - they dont meet the minimum trade requirement at ETRADE, it it’s OK to keep them around as an object lesson.
Bendigo Bank, although below the value I purchased them at, continues to deliver dividends. As I bank with them it seems good to own a slice of them.
Interesting article from Sydney Morning Herald, The Dirty Secrets Of Financial Planners.
Obviously from this the only financial planners worth using are fee per hour ones who can disclose they take no fees from financial product providers.
Plus the mess from Storm Financial and similar would have highlighted these issues.
Well since I got the house the share market has been on a crazy ride, mostly downward. Though I would be happy to go along for the ride, buying for the long term rather than the current market value, having the margin loan forces me to keep an eye on this so I’m selling down to minimise (or eliminate) my LVR so I can focus on a slow but sure periodic purchases of index funds rather via dollar cost averaging rather than having to keep an eye on my LVR.
Well as we had to repair the iffy bathroom floor, which would involve ripping up the tiles, we got talked into a full bathroom renovation as most of the bathroom would have to get ripped out to properly waterproof the walls and floor. This is fine, as we had factored in a bit of expense.
Along the way we got talked into upgrading the normal bath to a air jet spa bath.. sounds cool, though I have never used one myself.
After looking around my wife eventually settled on the “Multiform Joy” spa bath, choosing it from a catalogue. It was duly ordered from Builders Renovators Warehouse, Mitcham, with an expected wait of “a couple of days” until it could be delivered from the factory.
After more than a week the bath showed up and was installed (wife was at work when this happened).. this appeared to be fine except the “joy” bath we got, although the same dimensions as the one in the catalogue, has a completely different arrangement of jets. Wife not impressed, as this is NOT the one on either the catalogue or web page. I’ll admit I didn’t even notice, I was just relieved that the bath had shown up at all after such a long wait with all the tradespeople lined up to finish the installation. But we don’t want to turn this renovation into a money pit of unexpected costs and further delays to rectify this so I guess we’ll just leave it as it is. But still, confused as to why they didn’t deliver the same bath as what their catalogue shows.
Other than that the bathroom renovation has gone great - we have gone from a daggy mauve old 80s cheap and cheerful, badly laid out bathroom to a nice simple white and chrome bathroom with a much better layout for the vanity and bath. In the long run, the spend on the upgrade should more than pay for itself.
Settlement has occured… which is real estate jargon for the transaction and legal stuff is over and we can call the place ours (and the banks). This time, with a competent, professional and straight down the line Real Estate Agent to deal with, while keeping the same Mortgage Provider and Conveyancer as last time (If it aint broke, dont fix it) - it all went smooth and without a hitch. Some minor errors here and there within the mountaints of paperwork being bounced around (possibly inevitable in such a complicated operation) but all picked up and rectified promptly with no negative ramifications.
I guess the payoff from doing it second time around is we ended up with a nicer place, with larger land, a bigger garden in a quieter location that’s closer to public transport so at least we ended up in a better spot.
Australian Power and Gas - listed on the ASX - have 10% green product.
Victoria Electricity - owned by Infratil - which is listed on NZ stock exchange - have 10% green product.
ActewAGL - owned 50% by Singapore Power and ACT govt? .. hard to tell because of the vague wording on the web site.
Origin Energy - ASX listed
Overview here:
http://www.greenelectricitywatch.org.au/
Additional comments in an article from Neerav Bhatt’s blog:
http://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/dont-get-tricked-into-choosing-fake-greenpower-electricity/
Right now tending towards Origin - even though I left them for TXU a while back because one of their door to door sales people was harassing me at home when I was home from work very sick.
Jack Green looked OK but then I read this story of fairly crappy service from them.
Just pasting some stuff on flooring found on the web:
my guestimates for the loungeroom is 26 m2
two bedrooms all up 31 m2
will measure more precisely on pre-settlement inspection.
found on ebay, laminate flooring from $13/m2
http://www.tiptopfloors.com.au/ - located in Springvale.
also: (NSW though) http://stores.ebay.com.au/Ankors
Style Plantation Bamboo floating floors is $50/m2 at Bunnings, it looks really nice from the demo boards on display there.
http://www.stylebambooflooring.com/products/strand_woven_bamboo/technical_specifications.php
Some of the Bunnings laminate flooring looked cheap and nasty, some of it looked not bad at all. Seems very durable. between $13 and $25 per m2.
Mentioned on propertyinvest forum:
http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/20137078 $19.94 / m2
http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/90082181 $14.95 / m2
Ikea bamboo flooring:
http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/40080877 $45.00 / m2
looks really nice, maybe easy to install cos it’s Ikea? not solid bamboo, bamboo on a base of cheaper stuff? Googling for KVIST gives mixed reviews, some like it, some don’t.
http://www.eco-strong.com/bamboo/intro.html - distributor in Balwyn, some was for sale on ebay.
http://www.bambooandtimber.com.au/ - in Oakleigh
http://www.grasswoodbambooflooring.com/ - Mount Martha, showroom in Mornington
http://www.goldenfield.com.au/new/gold_frame_bamboo.html - “It was $55/m2 or
$80/m2 installed” from someone we know who got it last year - located in Preston. They also appear to trade under another name, http://www.timberfloorcentre.com.au/
Timber Flooring Clearance Centre
861 Princes Highway
Springvale, VIC 3171 - Trading post online store, but have some Bamboo flooring from $38 / m2
Another found on the Trading Post Seeview Flooring who have some Bamboo flooring @ $39 / m2 on their Australian Trading Post page
A long time ago I wasn’t impressed with Westpac, so I moved my banking somewhere much better. I also switched my credit card to a product that seemed better at the time, Virgin Mastercard. Now I read (yes I know this is month old news but I just found it now) that Virgin is selling their Mastercard business in Australia to Westpac. Further news from The Age on this here.
No big deal, I guess I’ll just move my credit card over to Bendigo Bank which is supposed to have an excellent credit card product anyway, plus me being a Bendigo bank shareholder I’m kinda sorta putting the fees back in my own pocket.
Also on a similar note if St George Bank get gobbled up.. my St George Bank shares will become Westpac shares and my St George margin loan will end up owned by Westpac.
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