Dave Ives
Landscape Therapy
“I’m in my glory!” I thought to myself as I cleared the river rubble rocks away to make room for the next brick. Then my mind started generating other thoughts as follows: “This is fun! What a beautiful day. This is going to look great when we’re done. And it’ll provide a useful function.” I […]
What is Happiness?
Good question? And, what does it have to do with property investing? Well, let me see if I can make a tie in … Birthday Gift For my birthday last month I received some very nice gifts; one was a book called “Gittinomic$” written by a man named Ross Gittins. Basically, it’s a book about […]
Time to Change Property Managers?
What’s Going On? “Are the tenants going to renew their lease?” I asked my property manager. It just popped into my mind to call her. I was a bit nervous. I remembered last year when the lease lapsed she had a hard time finding a tenant. The unit sat vacant for over four weeks and […]
How Come it’s not Selling?
August 2007, Alice Springs, NT Australia “Look at this nice house on Mercorella.” I said to Marieta as I stared at the newspaper advertisement. “Been sittin here for weeks and not selling. I wonder why?” “I noticed it too. Why don’t we take a look at it?” Marieta replied. So, on Saturday, we headed for […]
Pick a House; Any House!
Setting: It’s late 1998. We’ve only been living in Alice Springs since March. I’m ready to buy an investment property. I search Alice Springs and I’m shocked at the unreasonably high prices. I start looking elsewhere. I stumble onto a deal with the Defense Housing Authority (DHA). Buy the house and they lease back for […]