Year 1 is a year of planning and observation. I should also look out for frost during Winter. Since there is no real need for development on certain areas of the property, it may be a good idea to rent out portions of the property in the meantime. The real estate agent gave me a "very conservative" estimation of the rates to expect.
1) House alone without paddock - $400 per week
Even in such a terrible rental market (for landlords), $400 per week for this house is an absolute steal. I have no doubt there will be takers at this price.
2) House + lower block to the river - $450 to $500 per week
3) Front horse land only - $100 to $150 per week.
Therefore potentially, I could rent out the entire place I am not working on for $550 to $650 a week. That gives about $31k for a year. We don't need to be a financial genius to know for a property that cost about 2 million bucks, that is a miserable yield. However shitty that yield is, it is still higher than fixed deposit in Singapore banks and I get to feel sibei song. At least some 30 grand will be able to cover the operating cost of the land, maintain the place and even add a bit of value with it. Having said that, it may take a century to get a full ROI at this rate, unless the land appreciates in value with another (unlikely) boom in WA in future. Who knows?
So we cannot say this is the worst investment in the world. Well, you can argue it will be very hard to liquid this purchase, as compared to Singapore banks fixed D. However, the weakness of such an investment is also its strength. One can create liquidity with the land.
But how?
That is where the average minds do not dare to venture. Unfortunately mine is one of them. That is why I am doing this exercise. To mock at myself and learn. There must be some form of ideas that can give higher yield of the land that can be implemented from the beginning of Year 2. I have yet to come to it, sadly. This post is still about Year 1.
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| The area marked green is Horse Around, the rest to be rented out during the first year |
Well there you have it.... let's talk about the land a little more. The flood plain boundary on the right looks scary but it isn't really that bad. It's just normal land when you walk through the site. The boundary is set by the water department to demarcate where they think a flood will happen on the worst case scenario. Thus, they will not encourage major structures to be built within the boundary. Land owners are free to build simple structures such as gazebos or sheds, conduct any activities or grow crops on it. During the "1 in 100 years" flood last Summer, the water came into the dotted area I marked (4) on the top right hand corner. For a flash flood of that shock level, it didn't affect this land that badly. Further up, the contours increased to 5m above river level and rising quickly to 8.5m. It'll take a massive volume of water to reach that level. Still, you'll never know. KL-J said ice caps are melting elsewhere. Hmm... seriously, then he should be looking for a land on the hills with a waterfall, not a land abutting a river lah!
The first thing that a construction manager does is to establish an access route. There is more than enough time during the first year of observation to identify the most ideal access routes. During the last few months before the end of Year 1, access routes to the fields have to be opened. On the first glance, the current one to the warehouse is illogical and will not serve any commercial purpose properly. So 2 new entrances to the warehouse have to be made. One in front and one at the back. The terrain leading out from both new entrances are not ideal and have to be cut and filled for to get the gradient more gradual. It is not a big scale earthwork project and should be easily funded from the rental of the property.
By the end of Year 1, Horse Around has to be ready or almost ready to start. The stable makes it a natural setting for the theme. However, the menu remains a problem. I have no problems designing a menu. Imagine I called one item on our school canteen menu "Chocobo Egg" The students (seemed to) love it and the item was sold out each time it featured on a certain day of the week. I draw my inspiration from Billy Bombers, which amused me when I dined there for the first time. I ordered "B-52" for the name rather than the food. So it is easy enough for me (and probably anyone else) to come out with names for a stable themed cafe. Such as, (description are not actual menu descriptions but to explain to noobs like you)
Entre
Pegasus Wings - same as Buffalo wings but I refuse to call that, that.
Haystack - Vegetable salad
I can eat a Horse! - Jumbo size platter, consisting of fried junk food.
etc
Mains
Trojan Horse - Cheese and bacon stuffed chicken, shaped like body of a horse with nuggets and potato sticks as head and limbs held together with Pocky Sticks. Cheese oozes out from body when you make an incision. I wish I can make soldiers dashing out to give diner a good smacking but don't ask for too much ok. Otherwise, fucking kick ass meal.
Dark Horse - Scotch egg (pork) on baked rice. Wish I can try that with a salted egg but I don't want to kill somebody.
Lead a Horse to water - Fish 'N Chips
One Trick Pony - Spaghetti Bolognaise, MY version
My Kingdom for a Horse - Mushrooms in cheese sauce on a panfried chicken chop with an intricate thin crust.
On the High Horse - Grilled Braised Pork Trotters with spiced peanuts
etc.
Deserts
Crack of the Whip - Rich whipped chocolate mousse
Two Horse Race - Double banana split
Unicorn Horn - Rainbow coloured jelly in v-shaped glass with evaporated milk on top
Hold your Horse! - Double scoop ice cream on cone
etc. etc. Too tired to think of a complete list. To buy a full version of menu .... please pay $57.
I have no freaking idea how to draw a crowd in. I can add items on menu and set up a decent SOP for the entire running of the place. The basic set up requires 3 staff to run optimally. 2 staff if business is still quiet. I can train them and even help out but I cannot be full time involved at this stage. Business better be good enough to pay their salary with access for profit. I wish I know how to make this work.
