Just following on from what I recently covered on this topic, options are extremely useful and when you understand the fine art of how they work you really open yourself to having alot of control and power within the property market. It gives you the ability to control big values of property for relatively minute amounts of cash.
The most important thing is to ensure that your option contract is a good one. You need to get a good option contract that has been drawn up by a qualified property solicitor. You should ensure your legal rep has done the agreements before and has at least 5 years history in the area of property. If you dont have a property specific solicitor then ask your current legal rep if they know someone who has experience in this area.
You dont want to go an get an option, meanwhile get a DA approved, and then find out that your option contract doesnt hold any weight and the vendor has onsold the property to someone else or will now not sell to you.
When optioning property you generally do so for two reasons; to make sure it fits or to come up with the cash…or both!
To make sure it fits you may want to go and get a DA done and then either develop yourself or onsell it to someone else to develop. To come up with more money you may put the contract in place so you can then get your finance together or get investors together to make the deal happen.
Any good property investor or budding developer needs to understand this subject of options inside out, they really are one of the most powerful tools in a developers arsenal!
I am back in Sydney now but on my last day in QT I decided to jump off a cable car suspended 500 feet in the air between two mountains. Why not! So I thought I would go back to that day and tell you a little bit about it.
Can I just tell you now, I dont get scared easily and I will give just about anything a go. If you have been following my movements in QT you will know that I have done some pretty hairy things, but none of that really scared me - it was exciting and exhilerating but not scary.
Well that all changed on my last day in Queenstown. I was so scared I was visibly and violently shaking, I couldnt form a coherent thought and if you can believe it…I was speechless!
I knew that I could not leave QT without doing Nevis; the biggest bungy in NZ and the second biggest in the world. So I grabbed one of my students and off we went. The 45 minute drive there all I could think was “this really is not necessary. this is so stupid.” I really was dreading it and couldnt figure out why on earth I would put myself through it. But I had to do it, I cant really explain it but I would be so angry with myself if I didnt.
The drive there is in itself pretty scary; a 20 seat bus weaving up a dirt track and perched on the side of a mountain. Hmmmmm. We get to the top and get all harnessed up. One of the staff are checking my harness for safety when he looks at one of the buckles and comments “jeez, this looks a bit tattered…ah, its probably got one more good jump in it”. Then he chuckles, shakes his head and walks before turning back and say “just joking”. Um, yeah, not a funny joke. I walk over to have a look at the crevice that I will be jumping into. Holy @#$$#^%. The distance from me to the bottom is so immense I actually cant make out the ground. Then its time to make our way to the platform.
We get into a cable car which takes us to a suspended platform. Just that ride is scary enough. We all get out, there are about 8 others jumping in my group.
I can barely move. Im just looking around wondering what the hell I am doing in a suspended platform 500 feet above the ground and paying $250 to jump off it. I am holding my hands together to stop from shaking violently. My eyes are darting around trying to take everything in and weigh up my chances of survival. I keep asking “how many people have died?” and “so tell me what happens again?”. Im trying to apply logic to what Im about to do. The thing is, there really is not a lot of logic in jumping off a ledge into a river 134 meters below me with some elastics attached to my ankles.
They call out “carly” and I look around to see who that unlucky person must be that has to jump next. My student whispers to me “ah, thats you…you ready?” I look at the instructor but my mouth is dry and I cant say anything. He comes over and starts putting the braces around my ankles. I start peppering him with questions in between freaking out that its now only minutes away.
I then get escorted to the area where only the jumper and crew can sit. The elastic get attached to my feet. I sit there thinking….I actually have no idea what I was thinking, but my nails got chewed down a lot in that 30 seconds.
Then its time to walk to the ledge. I shuffle slowly to a metal ledge that extends from the main platform. The ledge is about 50 inches x 50 inches. A crew member helps me shuffle over and I hold onto him for dear life, he reminds me that he wont be coming down with me. Oh right.
He tells me to put my hands out and fall, I ask if I should jump, dive or fall. I forget what he says. He says he will count me down…3…ohmygod….2….okay, okay, okay…1….Im already gone. I jump off and feel the complete and utter terror like I have never experienced in my life. I feel myself scream shrilly from the depths of my body completely by instinct…and then suddenly I feel like I am flying and I stop screaming and smile. I freefall for 8 seconds but it feels like 30. I reach the length of the rope and smoothly bounce back up. It is the most exhilerating feeling and unlike anything I have ever experienced before. I bounce up a second time and have to bend my body into a situp and undo a latch at my knee which flips me upright. They then pull me back up 500 feet to the platform and you can not wipe the grin off my face.
Talk about pushing your comfort zone. 50 units is easy compared to this!
If you want a real graphic look at it, check out this video
I have been getting a lot of questions about options of late and rightly so, they are one of the most powerful property strategies out there.
I just wanted to remind you what options are, why and how you would use them and some of the ways in which they can make you truckloads.
First of all you need to understand the basic concept behind what an option is. It really is quite simple actually, to save getting confused about it you just ned to remember that an option is a layby for property. Options tend to be confusing because they really do flip our system right around and prove that there are many ways to access and control property and purchasing doesn’t necessarily have to be part of the strategy!
When you option property you pay an option fee for the right to take the property off the market for a certain period if time. This is generally for 12 months and the normal option fee would be between 1 and 3% of the agreed upon purchase price of the property; but this is just a general guideline and by no means do you need to stick to the guideline.
When you option a property, you are taking it off the market so that in some time in the future you will be able to purchase it. This gives you the time to make sure that the property will fit with what you have planned and it will also give you time to come up with the money for the property.
When you are optioning larger blocks of land or property or rural property, or commercial property you would want to go for a longer option period, somewhere around 3-4 years. in fact the longer the option the better, with any type of property. If you do option for a long period be sure to include the clause that you will be able to purchase at any time, but you dont necessarily have to. You want options in your options.
There is more to be said on this, so I will cover more in the next few days on options and your options.
Well this is my second last day in QT and I think that I put it to very good use.
I was woken early this morning with a call from Tarn, from the heliski company here, he said “how are you this morning” and I replied “It depends what you are about to tell me” when he said “we have all the clear, lets go heliboarding” I was very excited! He gave me 20 minutes to get ready and get to the pick up so I jumped out and got sorted.
We went through some basic training of what to do if we cause an avalanche (!) and were then fitted with radio transmitters so we could be found if were buried in avalanche. Right, good to know. I was supposed to go up with some friends but they chickened out at the last minute so I got put in another group. I signed up for the intermediate run, when I met the other 4 in my group I asked how long they had been boarding and the responses were “since I was 2…my whole life…for ever” Ummmmm. Okay. Somehow I had been put in the “Hardcore Advanced” group! I mentioned this to the instructor and his response was “ahhh…you’ll be right, we’ll work something out.” Hmmmm. They turned out to be great guys and by being with an advanced group I had to get over my own fears of the mountain and keep up - it pushed me to a whole other level that I didn’t think I could yet do.
The flight there was beautiful and we landed on completely untouched snow, we stepped out of the chopper and literally sunk into white powder. I sunk to above my knees. We all huddled around the “safe bag” and waited for the chopper to fly off. The only way out now was to board down the steep mountain of white powder that went for ever. It took a little getting used to, powder boarding seems to have a trick to it. The good thing is, when you crash and do 5 cartwheel like turns, it just doesnt hurt. Its like floating through clouds. But a bit more wet, cold and icey. I made it to the bottom and the helicopter picked us up and took us back to the peak of another mountain where we did it all over again.
We ended up going up and down 5 times - we were having so much fun that we added more runs on during the day. It was extremely exhausting and I can barely move my legs right now but it was so worth it to carve down the mountain that is completely untouched, where there is complete silence and peace and just go hell for leather and hope for the best.
Off course I have a video and it will give you a bit of a taste of the white powder experience!…
Well still in Queenstown, counting down the time with just a couple more days to go. Back to Sydney on Monday and hopefully we wont be snowed in!
For the last two days I’ve hit the slopes and gotten some snowboarding in, can’t come here and not get some boarding in! I spent the day yesterday on the slopes of Coronet Peak. It had been a while, so took a few runs to get back into the hang of it. It’s not quite like riding a bike….each time I go snowboarding I seem to spend half the day getting used to it all over again. And seeing as I generally only go once or twice a year I feel like its groundhog day everytime! So I thought I would get a personal instructor this time so I could jumpstart the day and get back into it quicksmart. Stacey my instructor was brilliant and reminded me of the the key points and started teaching me some tricks as well “ollies, alli-oops, tail thunders” basically: little air jumps, 180 spins and other neat little things that saw me face planting the snow and feeling pretty sore! But well worth it, go hard or go home right!
I was supposed to go heli-boarding today in fresh powder snow down untouched mountains, but the weather had other plans and we couldn’t fly. So fingers crossed for tomorrow! But my friend Skye and I still planned to have an absolute ball up at Coronet Peak, footage is probably more interesting, so here’s a quick video of the snow adventures so far, enjoy!
Still in QT and loving it. If you have been tracking my adventures of the last few days you will know that the helicopter to the Glacier was my favorite thing so far. Well that changed pretty quickly when a student of mine took me flying in his aerobatic small aircraft. HOLY CRAP - INTENSE!
This was the most breath-taking, awe-inspiring, sickening, eye-opening adventure ride I have ever done - and I have done a lot!
“Superpilot TT” as I call him did my course at the end of last year, I have been to NZ a few times since then and he has invited me up in the plane but I have never had time, so this time I made sure I booked it and I am so glad I did. Tony made this plane himself over a period of about 5 years in his garage! It actually look like some kind of toy…well it is, but a very expensive and performance based toy!
Today we flew for about 1 hour and 40 minutes, we started by flying over the Wanaka valley, we flew low right over the tops of houses, trees and farms. He then suddenly and without explanation decided to flip the plane backwards in a 360. I made the mistake of telling TT before we took off “I dare you to try and make me sick, do anything you can to try and scare me and make me vomit”. I don’t really get scared or nervous with stuff like that and so I thought there was no chance of getting sick. I was wrong. Very wrong.
After doing double barrel rolls, backward flips, flying vertical at 360km an hour towards the sun, sideways and upside down flying, negative g flying…well I was so close to vomiting I pulled out the sick bag. It took a lot of heavy breathing to keep from vomiting inside our 90cmx90cm cabin.
TT took me on the flight of my life skimming snow capped cliffs and hills, chasing wild deer across rugged mountains, skimming lakes between monolithic mountains - words really cant explain so luckily Ive got some footage that does a better job.
But it wasn’t just a fantastic adventure experience, TT also gave me a personal and aerial tour of local property and development but Im still doing a bit of research and will tell you more about my thoughts on the local QT property and development market in the next few days. In the meantime
enjoy this video and if you ever get a chance to do this…do!
Did I mention that I love this place? It is absolutely beautiful and so much to do. I love adventure and thrill seeking stuff and this place is chockers with it.
Okay, today takes the cake so far. This was the most phenomenal experience so far since Ive been here. I caught a helicopter with 5 other friends: Peter Bland, Jamie McIntyre, Shereen, Megan and Maree. We left from QT airport and flew over to Milford Sound. A preserved nature park surrounded by glaciers that are millions of years old. It was just phenomenal, flying low and high between huge cliffs formed by glaciers, snow capped mountains, frozen lakes beneath us, waterfalls flowing over the glaciers, seeing sheep run atop completely isolated mountains…we stopped right in Milford Sounds and had a walk around. As the helicopter was landing Maree commented “its very windy here”. Yeah, a helicopter tends to cause that effect, needless to say she didnt hear the end of that all day! haha!
The magnitude of everything is quite overwhelming and every where you look is a picture perfect postcard, its very peacefull, very green and you just dont know where to look, totally breath-taking. We hopped back in the copter and headed for the coast. We went right to the edge of NZ to the coast facing Australia and the Tasman Sea and stopped on a pebbled beach with huge waterfalls running into the ocean, and again you just dont know where to look and you dont really want to leave. But back in the copter we jumped and headed for a glacier. This was the absolute highlight and something I have wanted to do for a while, we flew right to the top of the tallest mountains that were just covered in meters and meters of white fluffy snow. Some sections were so icey/snowy that they were actually blue.
We tried to land in one area and it was quite scary, we were shaking around a bit and couldnt get a stable footing as it was just too deep and too fluffy. So we headed for another glacier and stopped right on the edge of the cliff. Bloody hairy. Somehow I feel more comfortable just floating through the sky with a a parachute than I do in a fully enclosed helicopter!
So we landed and jumped out. Now I really didnt dress the part. When I came here I pretty much thought I would get my business out of the way and then get a couple of days snowboarding in, so I didnt really come with the right wardrobe. I was wearing 3 pairs of stockings, a dress, too jumpers and a big coat and just normal flat shoes. I jumped out of the helicopter and the snow came up to my waist! It was awesome, so fluffy.
I started running around like a maniac and just throwing snow at everyone. Thats when the fun started. Peter Bland who was with me is also known as “ICE MAN” because he is the absolute adventure man and has trecked through the Antarctic, almost died, in fact he has been there many times and experienced some amazing adventures. You can find his book “A STEP TOO FAR” in all good book stores! Anyway he was my main target to take down on top of Glacier, so I ran and tackled him. I probably didn’t weigh up my opponent correctly; he is a 6 foot, adventure hungry ice man who always wins. So he pretty quickly tackled me back and had me pinned deep in the snow as he claimed victory, but I didn’t give in that easy and we both ended up rolling down the side of the glacier! I finally broke free and was covered head to toe and inside out in white snow - you couldnt see the Carly from the snow! I had snow inside out, upside down, my dress was soaking, my stockings were wet and I was numb from the waist down.
We jumped back in the copter and headed back and Shereen rubbed my feet back to life and saved me from hypothermia. Landing on a Glacier is definitely the highlight so far…but I am yet to jump off a 143m high bridge, jump out of a plane and board down an untouched mountain and twirl upside down in a plane. So keep posted to see which experience wins as the highlight of the QT trip, and Im still open to suggestions. Im here till Sunday and can fit much more in.
In the meantime I am looking into a few property opportunities here and Ill let you know how they turn out, Id like to go home owning either land, property or a potential development site so Ill see what I can do!
Well I have gotten most of the business side of my trip sorted and apart from keep up to day to day stuff (it never stops!) Im going to be getting up to all sorts as of now.
So I though I would fill you in on my antics to date. There happen to be a group of friends and colleagues in QT as well at the moment, so today we went on the luges to see who would be crowned King or Queen Luger. For those that dont know, Luge is like go carting but without and engine. You sit in a tabogan like sled that has wheels and you fly down through a down hill track. I had never done it before so the first time I had to do the beginners run, it was all very new and a bit scary but fun. I was with a group of about 13. I caught the chair lift back to the top of the mountain and this time opted for the advance track. Crikey. Intense, it has almost vertical drops and tights turns that feels like they are right on the ege of the mountain. Add to that the fact that I was lugeing with a group of male maniacs who each want to prove their prowess on the luge and it was bloody freaky! The guys were banging into me to try and make me stack, but no luck. By the fourth time down I was crashing into them and successfully made a few of them tumble off track! If you have never done it, definitely worth a try.
Good fun and the more the merrier. Right next to the luge track was a paragliding place, so I popped in and they said they could take me up right away. So me and Craig Jervis (some of you may know him as Wealth Perception guy, cool dude) were game enough and hiked to the top of the mountain to give it a go. It was tandem, so we didnt need to train and we could literally just jump straight in. Still I was a little concerned when my instructor hooked me up with very little instructions and then said “right, just run off the cliff” My response…”aahhhh..run off the cliff? hold on you really mean run off the cliff? like this….?” and off I went. You haven’t lived until you have RUN off a CLIFF!
Before we took off I told him to do as many crazy and insane tricks as possible, really try and freak me out! He tried, but I just kept laughing. It was great fun and possibly one of the best places in the world than you could paraglide. It was a beautiful clear day and such an amazing feeling to float above the world. He got low enough to some pine trees on a cliff so I could kick the top of the tree with my foot - dont try that at home! We then started doing crazy turns, hooks and other things that made my stomach pretty concerned. It was over in about 8 minutes and a great experience that Ill definitely do again. I have been sky diving a few times, but I actually liked this better. Give it a go…checkout this video of me doing it if you want a preview!
I flew into QT yesterday and I am in love. It is one of the most amazing places I have ever seen and I haven’t even seen much yet. I am over here for business but I am going to extend the trip and get some time off to. No resting though! I am going to take advantage of every possibly adventure that I can!
Here is whats planned so far…lugeing, paragliding, bungy jumping, canyon swing, helicopter to a glacier, heli-boarding, adventure plane ride, jet boating….any other suggestions???
Bring it on QT here I come. I have never been here so if you have any ideas, mention it on the forum or make a comment. Ill make sure I include some pics too.
I was thinking more about what I told you guys yesterday, about the Warrens story where something I had said had stuck with him for almost ten years and really effected his life and in that instance it was a positive experience.
It made me think of all the things we do and say and how they might effect other people. When you walk past someone you know and don’t say hello do they then start thinking you don’t like them and do they get in a bad mood which makes them then snap at someone else who gets upset and then….and so the cycle continues. Just because you forgot to say hello to someone.
And I thought it really does go both ways. You can take action to positively effect other peoples lives and you can also take action by not taking on the negative effects that other people may purposefully or inadvertently try and create upon you.
This reminded me of something that happened when I was about 20 years old. I was in Byron Bay holidaying with a friend. We went to a place just south of Byron called the tea tree lakes, or the coca cola lakes as my dad calls them - because the water is the same color as coca cola due to all the tea trees.
Anyways, I was overweight for my height at the time - I was about a size 12-14 but I was on holiday and I was feeling good and we went for a swim and I felt totally comfortable and thought I looked fine.
There was a group of 6 other people swimming right next to where my friend and I were swimming. They were between the ages of 18 and 20 I would say. One of the guys started coughing and as he was coughing he said the words “fatty” or “your fat” and pointed my way. I thought I must be hearing things and just ignored it. But he kept doing it as well as other words and sentences “you look terrible”, “put a paper bag on” etc. His friends were laughing and they all thought it was quite funny. My friend got really mad and embarrassed and said “lets go” and she walked off to the car. I was in the water at this time and realized I was going to have to walk out of the water and cross the road to the car, I was so embarrassed and humiliated and as I walked to the car they kept saying these things. It really was horrible.
I got in the car and we were about to drive off when I asked my friend to stop for a second. I took my towel off and in just my bathers I walked back to the lake where the group was. They saw me coming towards them and started avoiding eye contact and looking uncertain. I walked right up to them and in a very calm and polite manner said something along the lines of “how are you guys today?” a couple of them said “okay”. I continued “You know I just wanted to come and talk to you about what you were doing to me and saying to me just now. Its really not cool to say those things to someone. You may think it is funny but it really is not and it really upset me and that is not worth any amount of temporary humor for you.” I said “You are lucky that I am quite a strong person and have chosen not to take that on board and not to let it get it me. However I could have been someone who was very depressed, upset and insecure and really concerned about my weight and then you saying could tip me over the edge and make me want to go home and end my life.”
They just stared at me and I stared back. I then asked very calmly and politely still “do you see what I mean, do you see how that could effect someone’s whole life?” a couple of them nodded, two did nothing and two said to me “I am so, so sorry. I don’t know what to say, that was terrible I am sorry” or something to that effect. I said “thats okay, I forgive you just never do it again” and I walked away.
I can not tell you how empowered I then felt and I have remembered that feeling ever since. I took a situation which could have left me feeling horrible, insecure, upset, ruined my holiday and stuck with me forever and I turned it into something that made me feel on top of the world, in control cause over my life and my surroundings and untouchable. And it really did teach me that we don’t need to be the negative effect of other peoples harmful actions - never ever.
