David Whitburn

The last couple of weeks have been a busy time. I’ve been overseeing some of the renovation of my home and also on a rental of ours after tenants left, continuing to project manage infill developments for Fuzo clients and playing an integral part in the professionalism of the Auckland Property Investors’ Association Incorporated (APIA).

Renovating

Great fun from the teamwork, getting the family to help out. At one stage we had 11 people on the project, so that was fantastic. The most interesting thing I learned was when we stripped 3 layers of wallpaper in the living room and dining room, we found that the walls were not straight. So I got a straight-edge and found in fact they were out by 10mm in a couple of places. Not good at all. So a “few” hours wasted in the wallpaper stripping, as we want the house to look great so no more gib in those rooms.

Lesson learned is to get a straight edge. On older houses I would recommend replacing the gib particularly is wallpaper is on it, as gib itself is inexpensive and it is far cheaper (assuming you have no ‘free’ labour) to stop the join in the gib, rather than apply a full skim coat of plaster ready for paint (or wallpaper) finish.

Tenants left a house of ours last week too. Unfortunately the house is tiring now, so time for little plastering, a lot of painting and a modernised bathroom and toilet to maximise our rent.

Developing

My wife and I are having a great year and a lot of fun with renovating and development. In fact, so much so that we are on the look out now for another subdivisable central Auckland property to buy, renovate and sell the existing house, and build a FUZO subdivision new home on the backyard to again create Massive equity.

I enjoyed spending time with a couple of magnificient property investors in Nicola and Greg Loft last week. We toured their Auckland properties, monitored progress of a renovation of theirs, and went on a road trip and had a fantastic seafood lunch at Swashbucklers. Yummy. Some fantastic food and company.

APIA

APIA is in the process of professionalising itself at the moment. About 20 months ago we employed a CEO. This has helped as we have been a volunteer organisation, largely championed by the legendary Andrew King – a tireless worker and influential lobbier and networker in property investment circles. Sadly after 7 years of being the Chairman and President of APIA, Andrew is resigning. I have a really enjoyed working with Andrew and am sad to see him leave the role, but I know that he will still be a passionate APIA supporter. So we will be electing a new President in the next couple of months.

In the meantime I have been elected by the APIA Board as their interim Chairman. I am really enjoying the corporate governance side of this role. My Dad has been enjoying being a company director (mostly) over the past couple of decades so luckily I like this too, and can count on him for support when tough issues need to be discussed.

This year the APIA Board has had a couple of issues of conflict that I cannot go into for professional reasons. They are getting resolved though. This makes for big changes in APIA, but by having job descriptions, and performance expectations and monitoring we will achieve fantastic results for our members. Gone will be the days of being a passenger with APIA, whether on the Board, or in any role. This will be very exciting for all APIA members to see. I know it will acheive alignment of the Board and all staff to the APIA Constitutional objectives, and from there the platform should be laid to grow our membership and have a greater array of services to members.

Author and speaker Martin Hawes is presenting at APIA tonight. We look forward to him sharing his thoughts on planning for the retirement years, a variety of asset classes and property investment strategies to succeed with. Hope to see as many of you there as possible tonight – guest tickets $40, if you become a member your $40 is refunded. Go to www.apia.org.nz for details on how to join and the benefits you receive from being an APIA member. Love to see you there.

PS: With some dubious weather lately what an amazing wimbledon final Federer vs Nadal – so close, by the Fed-express did it again at Wimbledon for 5 in a row there. Next year Rafa!

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