My most read and commented on Blog was my thoughts on the NRAS “Scheme”.
Interestingly enough, we have gained considerable business from the Blog, as many investors who were about to buy an NRAS property read my Blog and didn’t proceed. And then of course, invested with us.
It currently sit at 166 comments and replies.
Well, I can say I was right and the story of this “scheme” only gets worse I’m afraid.
Will be interesting to see if any of those so called ‘NRAS fans’ or those flogging these properties comment on this Blog.
Earlier this year I had a client call me and let me know her NRAS property in Sydney, that she purchased through another property company, had been trashed. She only found this out after not receiving rent for two months. This sparked her to inspect the house to find they had fled the house and left it damaged along with rubbish everywhere.
When she investigated it further, she found that 4 bedroom house had 8 people living in the house. The lease agreement was only approved as having 4 people living there. The consortium managing the property had not done any of the required property inspections, like they had said they would do.
And funny enough, they now don’t return her phone calls…
So after spending several thousands of dollars in repairing and cleaning the house, they thought they may want to sell it. The bad experience had put a foul stench in their mouth. I offered to refer her to a friend who is an agent, who works in the area and they have done an inspection. Now the fun begins…
The agent gave them what they believed to be fair market value price in a strong Sydney market and this dollar figure was still $80k less than what they paid for the house.
Obviously there were some major hidden kickbacks on this deal…
So, now they have a house that has been trashed, now vacant and worth far less than what they paid for it.
Could it get any worse?
Yes it can…
Now I don’t know the reasons why, but it would appear that the government department responsible for NRAS has amalgamated with another government department and as a consequence many (and quite probably all) of the tax refunds for NRAS were not paid for the last financial year, due to a software glitch that they couldn’t repair.
These payments amount to close to $10k per annum that the investor is supposed to receive back in compensation for letting out their property 20% below market value.
To make it even better, they have no ETA on when the problem will be fixed… if at all…
Yay Happy Days…
This was money these investors could have really done with to help pay for the trashed and damaged property they have been left with.
So I am sorry… but have I missed the positives out of NRAS?
Feel free to jump in and leave a comment so I can understand where I have gone wrong here… but I cannot see a positive in this “scheme” here at all!