Landlords
Ensuring your home is adequately insured – What you need to know
Please raise your hands if you have received the “Dear Local resident” letter in the mailbox offering you the free property appraisal on your property? Yes, it appears we have all had one at some point in time. Today one of our staff brought in one such letter and showed it to me and asked:…
Read MoreProgress Claim Case Study – The MCG Method of Assessment
As part of the services of quantity surveyors, we are regularly commissioned to undertake progress claim assessments on behalf of financial institutions. During the last month, we have seen quite a common conversation held between ourselves and a client (developer) regarding the difference between our assessment of the builders claim and the amount that the…
Read MoreWhat you need to know about short term leasing your investment property
I’ll admit that I struggled with an appropriate title as the above one is certainly clunky, but I wanted to share some tips on how to rent your investment property out on a short-term basis, similar to an Airbnb type setup. My pet subject is depreciation, so I’m not going to let you get…
Read MoreDeductions & Depreciation for all – Why the kids are doing OK
Like any good analytical thinker, I love to hypothesise. Some think it’s a character flaw, whereas I – and those of my quantity surveying ilk – enjoy nothing more than ingesting data, extrapolating the assumptions and producing a conclusion. I was thinking about the recent federal election and the discussions put forward pre-poll day about…
Read MoreWhat the 2019 Federal Election result means for property investors
This question will be sliced and diced a million different ways over the next week or two, but I wanted to give you my thoughts on it. In the short term, it’s going to provide a lot more certainty, and it will be back to business as usual eventually. A lot of investors and even…
Read More5 Hot tips on how to renovate your investment property – properly.
If you are renovating your investment property, make sure you get the most out of your hard toil. There are some simple choices according to MCG Quantity Surveyors, that can boost your bank balance without any extra work. Mike Mortlock, managing director of MCG Quantity Surveyors, said many renovators don’t realise their choices of fixtures,…
Read MoreWhy does your split depreciation schedule not add up?
Apologies for the click bait article title, but I was at a loss as to what to call it. Let me start by saying that split depreciation schedules are fantastic. I’ve written about them before: https://www.mcgqs.com.au/blog/split-depreciation-reports-are-saving-investment-property-co-owners-thousands/) and we’ve done thousands of them. They’re a fantastic way for multiple tenants in common to see their exact…
Read MoreMy favourite QS BS – The top three furphies spouted by the depreciation industry
As a Quantity Surveyor or QS if you will, I have the pleasure of a little inside information when it comes to reading some of the articles or catch phrases written by other quantity surveyors. No sour grapes here, for the most part we all get along. I have some great relationships with a number…
Read MoreDepreciable asset or repairs and maintenance? – How to make the call
Owning an investment property will invariably result in having to spend some money on it. The good news is that the tax man (perhaps we need a gender-neutral term but technically the tax commissioner is a man) will let you claim that expenditure as a deduction. However, not all deductions are equal. Spending money on…
Read MoreThe recent regulatory changes and the state of the Property Market
The January CoreLogic figures have shown that capital city dwelling values have posted their first quarterly fall since April 2016. The peak of the market was called as far back as 2016, but now we’re seeing the evidence some two years later. On a positive note, the combined regionals edged slightly higher over the Dec-17…
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