I am looking for advice on what options might be available to us in relation to an IP we have (located in a mining town) that is in serious negative equity, any ideas, advice or even others experiences in a similar situation would be of great assistance right now.
We were young and had suffered quite a few struggles through life and decided that we didn’t want to live like that any longer nor did we want to work for the rest of our lives and achieve nothing so we chose property investing as our vehicle to financial freedom however we went in blind, uneducated and not really having a strategy, which now is beginning to hurt us.
The current situation is this:
PPOR – Value $430k, Mortgage $400k. Subdivision potential for 1 into 2 lots with one a corner duplex (approx. $80k total cost) or a 1 into 3 lot reconfiguration (approx. $120k), ideally we would like to do this not sure how to achieve it though with other financial issues.
IP 1 – Value $300k, Mortgage $263k.
IP 2 – Value $320k, Mortgage $289k
IP 3 Value $280k, Mortgage $620k. This property is in Moranbah and we pulled equity from it at the height of its boom to purchase and renovate IP4.
IP 4 – Value $795k, Mortgage $719k + $50k borrowed from family which we could delay paying back for another 12mths. Bought under company/trust structure
The tenants in the mining town asked if they could break their lease which we couldn’t allow under the circumstances therefore it’s pretty safe to say they won’t be renewing when their lease expires in Sept which is of great concern as the mortgage repayments on that property are too much for us to carry (and they have been for quite some time thus our cash flow is severely impacted) and considering the rental market in that area we’ll probably be waiting at least a year to get another tenant based on other properties/vacancies in the area.
I’m not sure what to do, where to go or what options I have available. I’m also unsure what would happen if the property sold and there was a balance left owing to the lender of around $330k is this even possible or would we have to sell everything to try and reduce that?
Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.
I am absolutely new to investing… in fact we are thinking about buying our first… so I am only writing from the point of view of what I might do with no knowledge… and no one has yet answered your question. Maybe someone will reply once they see my ignorance and feel the need to correct me? Maybe I might just help you think it through?
If I were in your situation, 4 things come to mind.
1) Do you have parents or people that you could move in with for a couple of years and rent out your PPOR? Perhaps even renting in a cheap share house and renting PPOR could give you enough cash flow to live in a reasonably stress free manner? OR get a border in to live with you.
2) Go pay for and talk to a financial planner and get professional advice.
3) If you are facing a situation of no-one in your IP3 for a year, I would offer some kind of incentive, whether it is a lower rate of rent or maybe first month free or something, as you can’t afford that length of vacancy.
4) My impulse would be to hold on as long as I could in the hope for capital gains in the other properties. I don’t know what your options are but if you are considering bankruptcy, I would try to hold out at least for 50K capital gains in one of the houses and sell it to repay your family debt first. In bankruptcy, your debts can be legally wiped *with penalties* but your family will still want their money, they are family…
I don’t know if these properties are in capital growth areas, but once you manage 50% growth in IP4 you have 300-400k, or 50% growth in 1&2, that will cover your negative equity, and you will be in a good position once again. I imagine selling the one with the growth and the IP3 at that point, and you should be left with PPOR and an IP or 2, hopefully with some capital growth and equity themselves. If you haven’t already by then, subdivide the PPOR with equity in what you have left. Sounds nice, but that of course relies on capital growth being reasonable and managing the cash flow situation for 5+ years. And that IP3 not getting worse in that time.
Well I hope someone with actual knowledge gives you some better ideas of how to deal with the IP3.
You don’t need a financial planner but a lawyer as it seems you have negative net worth and you could be tinkering on bankruptcy. It sounds like all your properties are cross collateralised and you may not be able to release the mortgage even if you managed to sell a property. I wouldn’t borrow from family as it may be unlikely you will be able to repay them.
Do you know which properties are securing which loans? Even the sale of a property with some equity may not be possible as it could trigger a valuation and then the bank will require existing loans to be paid down to maintain acceptable LVR – which you may not have the funds to do.
One strategy may be to stop paying the loans now or to just pay 1 loan, get this one down and sold and then let the bank take possession of the others.
1) Do you have parents or people that you could move in with for a couple of years and rent out your PPOR? Perhaps even renting in a cheap share house and renting PPOR could give you enough cash flow to live in a reasonably stress free manner? OR get a border in to live with you.
2) Go pay for and talk to a financial planner and get professional advice.
3) If you are facing a situation of no-one in your IP3 for a year, I would offer some kind of incentive, whether it is a lower rate of rent or maybe first month free or something, as you can’t afford that length of vacancy.
4) My impulse would be to hold on as long as I could in the hope for capital gains in the other properties. I don’t know what your options are but if you are considering bankruptcy, I would try to hold out at least for 50K capital gains in one of the houses and sell it to repay your family debt first. In bankruptcy, your debts can be legally wiped *with penalties* but your family will still want their money, they are family…
Hi newandkeen,
Thanks for the suggestions and taking the time to respond, I really appreciate it. I have provided the answers to your suggestions below.
1) Unfortunately husband’s father resides in NSW and we cannot move there due to work commitments and my family have disowned me (long story but short version due to me marrying a non-muslim aussie :( so moving in with them is never going to happen…lol! Also we have two teenage kids a 17yr old and a 13yr old therefore the share house or boarder wouldn’t be an option for us.
2) Not sure a financial planner would be able to assist in this situation but I have considered liaising with my accountant to try and restructure some of the properties and a broker to refinance IP1 & IP2 to I/O and use the extra funds to pay down IP3 as much as we can but that’s a short term fix.
3) I will definitely be lowering the rent to keep it competitive in the current market but even so the feedback from agents in Moranbah is that even that may not work as workers are just being layed off constantly and they’re finding it difficult to get employment locally.
4) Yes I agree I wouldn’t want to let family down and would do whatever I could at any cost to repay this.
Ideally bankruptcy isn’t what we want to do as I believe the repercussions of that will be lifelong and will set us back way too much to ever succeed in being financially free. IP4 is in Daisy Hill QLD, so not sure that we will see such growth anytime soon. IP1 & IP2 are in Loganholme and out near Ipswich QLD respectively so as far as capital growth goes again unsure that this will be in the near future.
We were thinking to sell IP4 not yet repay the family debt and use the funds to subdivide the PPOR and sell off with a view to then repay the family dept of $50k and relocate ourselves to a new PPOR or even rent and pay down whatever is left on IP3 but timeframes are going to be short as the tenant will be leaving the Moranbah property in Sept 2015 and we can only sustain a vacany for so long….:(
This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by Yazdan.
It sounds like all your properties are cross collateralised and you may not be able to release the mortgage even if you managed to sell a property. I wouldn’t borrow from family as it may be unlikely you will be able to repay them.
Hi Terryw,
Thank you for your suggestions. I assure you the properties are not cross collaterised. This is one rule I have never breached in investing, all our loans are separate and only secured by the property they are borrowed against.
Unfortunately the money we borrowed from family was with the best intentions to repay as soon as the reno finished however the property didn’t sell, we had a contract on it for $800k which fell through due to the agents incompetence. The reno we did on IP4 didn’t go as planned and time frames blew out by a ridiculous amount resulting in cost blowouts and increased holding costs etc compounded by no sale resulting in having to place tenants in the property to keep it until the market improved. We are considering placing it back on the market this year however not sure whether there has been an improvement in values but we are hearing that it is a good market to sell in.
One strategy may be to stop paying the loans now or to just pay 1 loan, get this one down and sold and then let the bank take possession of the others.
Not sure how this would work exactly, does the bank not just come in repossess the property and sell regardless of whether a loss or profit which then if short we are still liable to pay. Also not sure how this helps in the IP3 situation as the property is in negative equity of $320k which the bank would then chase us for and we don’t have that kind of money just laying around to pay them out therefore we would have to declare bankruptcy which is what we don’t want to do either way we end up with a ‘black mark’ against our names forever.
So the thing that worries me the most about your proposed plan is what Terry said:
“Even the sale of a property with some equity may not be possible as it could trigger a valuation and then the bank will require existing loans to be paid down to maintain acceptable LVR – which you may not have the funds to do.”
You need to know under exactly what circumstances would such valuations happen and what the outcome would be. In particular, what would trigger a valuation of IP3?
“Even the sale of a property with some equity may not be possible as it could trigger a valuation and then the bank will require existing loans to be paid down to maintain acceptable LVR – which you may not have the funds to do.”
You need to know under exactly what circumstances would such valuations happen and what the outcome would be. In particular, what would trigger a valuation of IP3?
My understanding is (based on advice from brokers) that this could only occur if the properties were cross collaterised which in this case they aren’t, therefore I could sell one of the properties and it wouldn’t trigger a val on IP3 or any of the others. The only time IP3 would be valued would be if I wanted to refinance that particular property elsewhere which would trigger the val process. I could be mis-advised, not sure???
IP1 & IP2 are with Lender 1, PPOR is with Lender 2 and IP3 is with Lender 3 all separate institutions. Also should be noted that IP4 (with same lender as PPOR) is under a company/trust structure not in our personal names whereas all the others are a 50/50 ownership.
Have a look into this lady, she seems to deal with the legal side of protecting yourself from going bankrupt. I have only seen a few video recordings of her but her style of asset protection and helping people in your situation intrigued be. so have a look and touch base with her
You have some difficult decisions to make but you need to make them now!!!!
Your options as i see them are:
You can try to play games and put hurdles in the way of a liquidator buy establishing caveats on the properties with any equity. You could establish second mortgages on the properties with equity in favor of a trust your family / kids are the beneficiary of, this would cost around $7000 each, appoint a friendly beneficiary of your existing trust. These are all delaying tactics and liquidators and trustees in bankruptcy powers are considerable and they have the capacity to undo most of these options the cost to them might be more than they could make and they may not bother or this strategy might backfire and show you to be a practiced in this space they could choose to make an example of you and try to keep you in bankruptcy beyond the 3 years, prevent o/s travel etc. The limited amount of equity you have in any property and the costs involved make this option not recommended. Don’t be coned into it unless you know the costs and the risks.
You can appoint a insolvency practitioner to attempt to negotiate a settlement called a part 10. This would cost 10k – 15K with no guarantee of success. The bank will value all your assets and might accept 20% payment as full settlement for the banks likely losses i.e 20% of a $300,000 loss. $60k. There will be at least $100,000 in costs for a bank in liquidator costs, agent fees, advertising fees, holding costs, legals etc. If you can get an agreement and make the payment you would be able to be a director and earn any amount of income you can from the time the full payment has been made and should be able to find a bank who will deal with you but will be on record for years. If they don’t accept your offer this is a declaration of bankruptcy and they will take possession of all assets and sell them. This could include your PPOR if you have not dealt with this prior to going down this path. This is the best option if you can afford a $15k gamble. If you could not get $60k my guess is you would have less than a 50% chance of success.
You can appoint a friendly trustee and put yourselves into personal insolvency / bankruptcy. This is not the end of the world and i feel is your next best option. You can be released from bankruptcy if your creditors agree to a composition which is more likely to be accepted than a part 10. Or just wait the three years. As a bankrupt with 2 dependents you could both earn around $60 k each if you have a company this can be coordinated so the company pays the tax and earns the additional income, if you can not do this they can take 50% of the income above this amount, cars can have up to $7500 equity in each.
To protect your house you could sell it to an investor at a retail price and offer to lease it back for 3 years at just above market rent with the option to buy it back in 3 years if you believe the subdivision option is a winner. Ideally this is an investor you know and trust. Be weary of the rent to buy guys that operate in this space as most are predators and want you to fail and not buy the property back.
You can try to sell each property and treat with each bank separately if their is a shortfall and if they accept your offer your credit rating would not be affected at all. Having said this is if one bank does not agree to the settlement i.e the one owed $360k when it’s sold they will still wind you both up if you can not agree on a settlement amount.
If you can refinance the properties you hold into one name not both ,do it. This option appears to be highly unlikely. Once you start making these applications your ability to refinance will be diminished and could trigger fresh valuations, obtain any redraw you can now.
I would be putting all the properties on the market ASAP. Make sure you have the contracts prepared with a sec 27 so you can get access to the deposit money before settlements and use this to pay for living expenses , schools fees, rent, household furnishings, pull small amounts out in cash frequently for current (future) living expenses, and to pay back the family members who lent the $50k so they can buy your home and give you the buy back option. Have no accounts with more than $1500 in your own names.
Increase all credit card limits so you have the capacity to get the $60k if accepted or use to pay family in cash. Beware all transactions will be scrutinized and can be undone if they are seen to be to sharp.
Your family that lent you the $50k have a legitimate caveat able interest and it would be ideal they lent you this money to help you hold onto a property with equity that you can not sell. Get a caveat in place minimal cost $1000.
Waiting for growth on properties in mining towns might be a longer more painful option and keep you broker than becoming a bankrupt. This option has a finish date which could be a relief and provide some light at the end of a dark tunnel.
Head up shoulders back deep breath. You always have options some are hard decisions.
p.s Who sold you the strategy to put all your eggs into buy mining town investments? They have most likely been paid 10% or more in commission on each sale. If your accountant referred you sack him.
Yazdan,
I agree with the previous post. You have some difficult decisions and they need to be made now. In this situation you cannot afford to be picky. You’re in dire straits and discarding the share house/border options because you have teenagers sounds like you’re still trying to look good (and protect the children’s status) even though you’re up the creek without a paddle. You also seem to be hanging on to what the “potential” is for the various properties IF you had money to put into developing them. That’s great, but from the sounds of it you seriously don’t have the money to put into anything.
If you prefer not to go bankrupt you will have to make some really hard choices and life will not be a picnic for some time. I have been down that route about 25 years ago when the after taste wasn’t so bad. What you will need to watch is something someone suggested earlier about selling something and paying the family first, then going bankrupt. If you do go bankrupt they will investigate prior financial transactions and “claw back” or “rollback” any payment’s or structures which you have put in place that look like you were trying to avoid paying your creditors who you are now including in your bankruptcy.
You do have some advantages though, not cross-collateralised and different lenders which could work in your favour. You don’t say where your PPOR is though since you have all your IP eggs in one state I’m presuming your PPOR is also in QLD.
Luckily the Moranbah property has a lender all by itself and they won’t call you in unless you stop repayments. You say you can’t afford the mortgage but the flip side is if you don’t afford the mortgage they’ll come after you and the whole deck of cards will collapse. With the tenant moving out in Sept and the possibility of no new tenant you may want to investigate your “hardship” clause with the lender and see if there’s a bit of relief there. You should get a tenant though no matter what rent. Usually it’s better to be tenanted than vacant and subject to the possibility of vandalism. (I’ve had IPs vandalised when vacant.)
You also don’t mention if the other properties are negatively geared but it sounds like they might be. I guess if they were cash-flow positive you wouldn’t have posted this thread! You need to work out what each property is costing you in cash per month. Aim to sell down the most cash costly first.
You also have to seriously consider your PPOR. About 10 years ago I found it was better cash flow to move out of my PPOR, renting it out and renting another house. I had two teenagers at the time. It also turned the PPOR into a tax deduction – but that’s a side benefit as we’re talking cash-flow here. If the rent on the PPOR covers the expenses it could be an option – if it’s going to cost you money you’re no better off. As long as the rent on your new rented place isn’t more than the mortgage on your PPOR you’re coming out in front cash-wise. This might not be what you would “like” to do but you’re between a rock and a hard place!
You’ve borrowed a lot of money and spent it. If you’re not going bankrupt you have to pay it back. It sounds like you’re not going to be able to trade your way out of it because you have no more cash or equity to “trade with”.
Knowing only what you’ve said here, I’d be selling IP1 and IP2 ASAP hopefully with some proceeds, put 1/2 on Moranbah, give the other 1/2 to the family and ask them to wait another year for the rest. This gets rid of lender 1, removes some negative gearing and hopefully helps the family feel more confident about getting their money back. Sell Daisy Hill, pay the family off and put the rest on Moranbah. This has you with Moranbah, the PPOR and no family debt. While the family debt may be “OK” I think it’s best to only owe the banks. Work out if you want to sell or rent out the PPOR and do it. Get a second and/or third job and pay Moranbah down big time. You’re basically starting again from the ground up – except you’ve got to dig yourself back up to ground level. I wish you all the best with your decisions and following through whatever plan you end up with.
Have a look into this lady, she seems to deal with the legal side of protecting yourself from going bankrupt. I have only seen a few video recordings of her but her style of asset protection and helping people in your situation intrigued be. so have a look and touch base with her
Thank you for your suggestion Brad C, I have sent an enquiry through.
I won’t know if I don’t ask so I’ll wait and see what sh’e about. From what I have read about the ‘real estate rescue’ side of her business it seems it’s more around her company purchasing distressed properties, quite ironic I think considering it was one of the things we were looking into a few years ago after attending a ‘property education seminar’ now it seems I’m on the other end of that table and not the good end, how so very frustrating and sad :) and they say hindsight is a wonderful thing. I suppose this is a lesson I have to learn and hopefully I get the opportunity to continue investing in the future where I can make better choices/decisions and learn from this :)
Hi, your post……”The current situation is this:
PPOR – Value $430k, Mortgage $400k. Subdivision potential for 1 into 2 lots with one a corner duplex (approx. $80k total cost) or a 1 into 3 lot reconfiguration (approx. $120k), ideally we would like to do this not sure how to achieve it though with other financial issues.”
My reply……Why is the cost so high for you to subdivide your PPOR land from 1 lot into 2 or into 3 lots – $80K & $120K???. Is that what the new lots will be worth after subdivision or is that the cost that you have been quoted to actually do the subdivision? I would have thought that a cost of $10K would be sufficient to subdivide into 3 lots.
Have you heard of “Backyard Buyers”? I think that they are only based in VIC however QLD could have an equivalent business. I cannot endorse any businesses such as these because I have never used them but the process goes something like this: They give you a free assessment of your PPOR block & its subdivision potential by using their experience/knowledge & by engaging the local council, town planners etc etc. They tell you how much money that you will get from them if you decide to subdivide by using their services & they make a contract if you agree. I think that they give you the total money upfront (before they even subdivide) and they show you the build plans so that you know what’s being done on the new lots next door!
They then pay for and organize for the subdivision whilst they build the dwellings on the lots (in the mean time they look for a buyer that wants a home on those lots). At this stage it’s all their responsibility, your part ended after you received the money. They build the home and sell it to that new owner.
Supposedly they make there money by giving you less money than what the new lots are worth (but still a good enough figure that you will find it difficult to refuse it). They are the “connector piece” in this puzzle. They have a seller that wants money, they have the know how and money to create & buy the lots from the seller. They have the customers that trust them to build and sell them a new home on that new lot. I think that it’s a smart move to search this up & investigate whether right for you or not. It may get you out of trouble (or out of some trouble at least).
Be aware that the bank will be involved as subdividing your PPOR will lessen it’s value (most likely) and it may not be something that the BANK will approve. The business will help you in these circumstances as they will show designs, data, values etc. You will also need to be aware that you are not really winning much here, the subdivision business is winning the most. You are selling parcels of land under value but to a sure buyer & you have to make sure that these people are completely legit. I have read up on it a while ago and just thought that it may apply to you. Have a think. Investigate it. Maybe it’s an option for you. A little different from the options listed above.
Hi Yazdan, very very simple answer… capital gains may be a thing of the past. Sell each property at retail price on a rent to own contract making sure each has positive cashflow. Do not even consider bankruptcy, that’s the cowards way out. Most financial advisers are a waste of time because none of them have a bank account bigger than yours. Also, negative gearing has never ever worked as you lose a dollar to save 30c. Accountants and tax people are the only ones who think it works. Always think positive cashflow otherwise you will go down the drain. Communication with your bank is very important. Never cross collateralise.
Hi Yazdan, I’ll start by giving you a little background: I have been a Property Investor for several years now and had a (less magnified) similar situation off the back of advice from a highly recommended Financial Advisory group in Perth which took me 7 years to get back to square 1 (without going bankrupt). The difference being that I could afford to hang on – I was using family money to do so but was able to keep the banks at bay while I did this. I then got more serious about investing and got involved with Steve McKnight and his team + mentees to learn how to mitigate risk to significantly reduce the risk of loss.
I am now a resident of Moranbah and have been for over 3 years now. I have been in mining all around the country for over 15 years. I have several friends who invest, some even vastly more experienced than me, who are caught in the Moranbah downturn in similar (and some worse) positions. I will mention here that I have never invested in a mining town as after I had my first lesson (and that loss was investing in the Perth area so i thought it was safe !) I could never accept the risk of towns which had few or only 1 industry to fall back on.
After reading through the replies here – most are really good advice in the options they are considering. I especially like mckero’s response as it gives you solid options of what you can do right now. I had to do similar, and because I was taking positive action had a little luck on my side and sold some existing well performing IPs at a good price. It still got swallowed up by the massive debt I had, but as mentioned I was able to sort of ‘limp’ through until values nearly came back some 7 years later…
The better news is that I don’t expect Moranbah to take that long (7 years) to pick up, excepting that in my opinion housing will never see the prices at the ridiculous highs it was a couple of years ago. If the bank lent you 80% meaning you purchased at around $750 K + costs, I think it will be difficult to achieve, but you will of course need to find out in your action taking what kind of sales figure you need to get back to square 1 – at least then you will have a figure to work on with the rest of your portfolio.
What I really think is important here is the assumption which has been made about not being able to rent the place. I have advised many people who have exactly the same situation as you to pull out all the stops in order to keep income coming in for your ip. I know of 2 of these within the last 2 months who have successfully rented their properties on long (12 month) term leases on reasonable money (of course not the rents of a couple of years ago but somewhere around the $300 – $500 mark). I always encourage those who contact me to try a couple of things. 1) (Probably the easiest): Contact the local agents (I am assuming you have someone managing the property already). Depending on who you’re with, Moranbah Real Estate (http://www.moranbahrealestate.com/) seems to have the best results and I know Vicki in that office comes highly recommended as a PM. Bella who is the principal of the Agency has been in Moranbah forever and would be worth talking through all your options – don’t leave anything on the table, discuss selling, online auctioning, renting, rent to buy, anything you think of or you learn from this website. Don’t forget, even if they only become a facilitator of any transaction – bear them in mind for some commission to make sure you can access their local knowledge and database (such as if you were to sell on Vendor Finance contract or similar). Discuss the merits of setting your house up for ‘FIFO’ or ‘DIDO’ workers – which as you may already know is those who work in town but don’t reside there permanently. This is the way of the future for the big mining companies to take absorption of massive rents out of their costs equation, hence the push for compulsory FIFO and the fact that there are now over 6000 camp accommodation rooms in Moranbah. What i mean here is setting up your IP effectively as a big hotel room where no work has to be done by the tenant i.e providing a washing machine and dryer, approach the local camp providers and see if it is possible to set up an account or swipe card with them for your tenants to be able to get their meals in the food halls they have (this is very convenient and provides all meals for travelling workers), see Civeo (http://civeo.com/#) the main provider of camp accommodation in the area. Also little things like having the gardens done by a local lawn contractor, providing some furnishings (even the basics of beds, tables and chairs, lounge and TV) – anything as most workers leave at 5 in the morning and don’t get home until 7 at night so have very little time to do anything else. I would also look at local facebook groups to advertise – though I don’t see much success with these, some specifically targeted property will get interest, things like fully furnished or property with specific features (https://www.facebook.com/groups/206032136158670/) and even the community noticeboard which won’t give you much useful information at all to do with renting, but gives you town news and an overall feel of how things are travelling (https://www.facebook.com/groups/Moranbahcommunitynoticeboard/). Also bear in mind if you are going to purchase furnishings or similar for your property, being a mining town,much of this stuff gets sold locally at very cheap prices from those on the move (https://www.facebook.com/groups/moranbahbuysellswap/). Secondly I would Call every business you can find a number for in the area and ask them about rental stock and if they may be interested. I know someone who recently rented to BMA (the largest supplier in the area) even though they are in the process of removing all external rentals from their lists. There are still many local business doing external rentals, Kalari, Dyno Nobel, Anglo, even McDonald’s was looking for housing at one stage !! Discuss this all with a local agent as I recommended and let them know how badly you want to make this work to keep at the top of the pile of investors in the same position. If they don’t show you the love your after, don’t be afraid to contact companies directly and deal with them as I know many others do – and companies will effectively have their own Property Manager overseeing employee accommodation.
You have a lot of work to do but I would say all is not lost. The investors 80km down the road in Dysart do not even have any of these options as there simply is no mining in the area to support it – I was offering $25K (yes $25 grand) per house for a group of 13 that went to auction late last year !!! At least you picked the busiest hub in the Bowen, some ‘one stop shop’ investment property ‘experts’ are now advertising Moranbah as the place to buy at it’s low. Get a feel for it and do some ground work to give your investment every chance you can.