I have hit a fork in the road and would mine some advice / opinions / ideas

Hi Guys,

Sorry that this is a bit long winded.

I joined the forum today and after having a look through some of the threads it seems there is years of experience from property investors here.

I have come to a bit of a fork in the road and wouldn’t mind using the forum as a bit of a sounding board to get some ideas opinions etc on the way forward.

But before a ask a stack of questions I will give you a little bit of back ground on where I am at the moment regarding my investment property journey.

I am a touch over 40. I purchased my first property back in 2000 and since have 5 investment properties in South East QLD. About 12 Months ago I sold up in Sydney and moved up to the Whitsundays in QLD. The strategy I used was following the Principles of Seven Steps to wealth, Buy new property with land content for capital growth near major city centres. At the time I sourced the properties via the Investors club that were house and land (As I wasn’t confident enough to do my own research). Due to life, wife, kids etc investing in property has been put on hold for the last 8 years. But now I think it’s time to jump back on the investment property bandwagon and continue to build the property portfolio.

One mistake I made was having all my properties in QLD. The first three I purchased in 2000, 2002, 2003 and have got great capital growth over the 15 years. I thought that the Capital growth would continue. So I purchased another 2 properties in 2007 and 2008. These two properties have had minimal capital growth as of 2016. Some people have talked about the GFC effecting the market in QLD and I have read a lot lately about SE QLD being the next place to boom (At least i hope so).

Now the investors club really don’t have much to offer outside SE QLD and seem to do more apartment complexes etc. so I have begun the process of working out what to do next. So here are some questions and I would love to hear from forum members on what they think.

What would be the best locations outside QLD to invest in over the next 12 months looking at new House and Land type properties with okay rental returns?

I am a little time poor to do extensive research on areas etc so I have been looking into the likes of Phil Anderson, Real Wealth and Michael Yardney and Beinvested. Has anyone on the forum had any first hand (not I heard from so and so) positive or negative experiences with any of these guys and or any other property organisation?

All the properties I have purchased are in my name. Only now have I realised that it may not been the best way to have it structured. I have asked my accountant and got a bit of a mixed answer. See below

“Certainly companies and trusts can provide you with not only asset protection (I would also advice a discussion with your solicitor to get more clarity on what recourse people can have) but land tax benefits. On the negative side, trusts and companies cannot distribute losses for the use to offset your personal income tax as you currently receive with your other properties. Companies also don’t receive any tax benefits (50% CGT discount) upon the sale of the property, it’s a flat 30% and then you have to take the profits out beyond that.”

So I am none the wiser what to do and just wanted to see if anyone has the ideal structure for purchasing property or should I just continue buying in my name?

Is anyone doing the Positive cash flow strategy like the guys at Beinvested do and is it working for you? I see the main guy Nathan has just got his 200th property (Been all over the News) in the same period as I have only managed 5 so I just wonder if I have picked the right strategy from the start.

Any direction / opinions / or personal experiences on the above would be much appreciated.