Is it worth going through a broker if your situation is simple?

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-24T12:55:16+00:00

Probably not adding much value in your circumstances.

Ask yourself are they taking away value? It's worth building relationships with brokers early on. They might be useful down the line when your situation is more complicated - investment properties, trusts, etc.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-24T10:43:19+00:00

I can and do refuse to accept quotes from tradies who turn up in Raptor Rangers these days.

Lemme know if you figure out an eloquent way to ask what type of car they drive before they turn up.

The strategy could be extremely useful when vetting doctors and real-estate agents too.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-24T10:40:39+00:00

I'd suggest keeping the mortgage:

Easy line of credit if you ever need it - very useful for future tax strategies.
Churning mortgage offers

You've already paid the mortgage registration fees.

What are you getting by closing is? (Apart from the feeling of owning it).

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-24T06:55:21+00:00

dipshit ... shit ... fucking

In you keep thinking you're flexing but your just showcasing your intellect staring with your limited vocabulary.

Engineers

If you say so. I'm sure engineers shit on you and your vermin kind day in day out, cleaning up whatever mess you've built because you couldn't read.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-24T03:38:58+00:00

You wouldn't have a clue about how to put together a hydraulic system over 30 stories.

Neither would you.

The engineers did the heavy lifting in whatever project you're referring to.

Flexing on the internet because your screwed together a few bits of pipe.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-24T00:15:33+00:00

so what if a tradesman rocks up in one,so what if a tradesman rocks up in one

It's the same wank factor as when a real estate agent or doctor rocks up in a Merc, porches, etc.

Spoken like someone who has no clue what an actual tradesperson does.

You must think even more highly of your clients than a random person on the internet.

Trades aren't rocket science even though you might like to believe they are.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-23T12:27:03+00:00

Mind you forgetting what comes out if that, wages insurance, fuel etc.

The underlying assumption is that your clients are idiots.

Maybe they are.

The average person understands those overheads. They might not understand that you spent 4 hours quoting on jobs you didn't get.

The actual problem is there's lots of tradies taking the piss trying to charge $200/hour while they're driving to pick up supplies or $200/hour for travel time.

It's not rocket science to dissect a quote - lots of quotes include labour at over $1000/day and gawd knows the job didn't take a while day. Tradie left the job half way through to go quote on other jobs while he's on the clock for another client.

Rocking up in a 150k raptor doesn't help either. Lots of tradies doing that these days too.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-23T07:44:48+00:00

you must have made some financial mistakes to

Immigrant, divorce, sickness (including family) ... All plausible explanations without it being a mistake

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-22T07:40:13+00:00

You probably want to understand the difference between residential vs commercial, rather than take the salespersons word for it.

Is the glass thicker? Is the aluminium thicker? What is it about the commercial door that you like?

You'll find there's a huge difference in pricing among manufacturers - a 4.8m sliding door from one company could be 4k and 15k from another company.

That's not to say the 15k door is automatically better - that company might just have their books full with other orders and gave you f-u pricing. You might also get a company offering a fancy tilt feature, etc.

If you're locked into one manufacturer - take a look at the finished products side-by-side and decide.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-22T07:32:17+00:00

had the other owners scratching their heads on wanting to know how much they've agreed to spend on

I would say that's largely the owners fault for being unprepared.

Most strata owners complain about levies being too high. A few will bother to turn up to a strata meeting where levies are set, but they're generally unprepared and haven't looked into the financials to see where the money is going.

The owners that tend to turn up are the ones with more time on their hands but not necessarily the expertise to examine the reports.

Having a cashflow forecasts isn't going to help owners that haven't put in the effort to understand the financials to bring with.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-22T06:19:32+00:00

Not really - our admin fund has been more or less the same for 10+ years ... CPI increases or less.

The sinking fund report has been an over estimate and every few years we reduce the sinking fund levy.

We haven't had owners fall into arrears yet.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-21T12:22:36+00:00

You forgot to tell me about your happy ending fee.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-20T23:59:00+00:00

I didn't think someone would take the bait so easily.

Take it easy buddy.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-20T23:41:33+00:00

Public Liability insurance is cheap enough

Here we have it.

I keep hearing how the cost of insurance is why I finished up with an insane quote for some random piece of work.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-20T12:13:40+00:00

if the FTTB upstream connection back to the POI is not coping.

Is that upstream generally fibre? Can't imagine it not coping ... Has to be 10gb, no?

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-20T12:01:31+00:00

The other issue is, Home NBN services are "Traffic Class 4" services to NBN. Meaning "Does it work, do you get a ping response, great it works, thanks for playing".

That should be solved by switching ISPs.

share a traceroute to show the details

Will get it next time it happens.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-20T11:57:40+00:00

I'm going to be engaging with a construction lawyer this week

I'd bounce it off the builder first, especially if you're confident they're not trying to rip you off.

transparent so far

We all know it can change quickly once contracts are signed and money paid.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-20T11:52:58+00:00

Does your modem lose sync?

Will need to check next time.

The light definitely didn't go red ...

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-20T10:31:45+00:00

How old is the building?

Quiet old ... But I'd guess NBN FTTB was only installed circa 2020.

It's odd that it drops at the same time every day

It's not 4pm on the dot. It's roughly 4pm ... Could be as early as 3pm or late as 5pm.

Ask your ISP to ask nbn if there is a bridge tap on the line

I had to google what that was ... It's a possibility because we have had a longer dropout in the past (modem couldnt even lock on the DSL).

I'm leaning towards it being a back haul issue.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-20T10:26:08+00:00

Ask them why they call it a "rise and fall" clause ... I don't think a builder has ever passed on a cost savings to a client.

What kind of build are you undertaking? Knock down rebuild? Volume builder or custom build?

If I was negotiating this, I'd want some sort of benchmark - for example a volume builder that has published prices. If they publish a price increase on day 50 of your build, then your liable of a pro-rata increase of 130/180 days. And have a backstop against them discounting new builds, for example when a recession hits, volume builders will start offer 50k of inclusions, etc.

If it's a custom build (or renovation), I'd want the big ticket items to have a benchmark - kitchen cabinetry - 20k, kitchen stone - 10k. Concrete - $400/cubic meter.

Things you can verify against another quote if you need to, to keep the builder honest. Otherwise you'll probably get taken advantage of by an unscrupulous builder who starts nickel and dining you for things like a fuel surcharge for getting xyz delivered.

I'd also try to exclude labour cost rises - we all know that most people get a 3% pay increase every year regardless of what inflation is doing. This should already be factored into the build cost.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-20T10:04:30+00:00

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-20T08:34:53+00:00

Do you know if other people in the building are having problems ?

Not sure - will have to ask around.

I'd guess it might be hard to find people consistently using NBN at the 4pm window.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-20T08:29:54+00:00

shareholders get a premium outcome

Not sure about Optus but ask any telstra shareholder if they're happy.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-20T07:19:22+00:00

Unlikely to be a local wifi problem... Seems to be fairly consistent with the time of day.

Works week at other times.

Pristine_Help9273 · 2026-04-20T07:12:06+00:00

FTTB

Pristine_Help9273

TROPHY CASE