Hi Jeff,

I’m sorry to hear of your experience with brokers in the past. I trust neither were people who post here, as all of the brokers here are very knowledgable and would save you, or anyone else who went to them, money.

I have heard a lot of people, including the author of a research report on the broking industry, suggest that brokers place people where they get the highest commission. I’m sure there are some who do, but the truth of the situation, is that the difference is usually so small that the broker would be crazy to not act in the best interests of the customer, even from a purely selfish point of view.

NAB have a lot of success with their private bankers, I think mainly because they make people seem important. However, these people do not always have the clout you might think they have in terms of pricing etc. I recently negotiated a 0.4% better rate for a client than their NAB private banker was able to offer, this is simply because, as a broker I have a choice of lenders and at times one or more become very aggressive. A good broker will know which and be able to take advantage of that for their clients.

Regards
Alistair Perry

Hi Jubb,

You only need a 5% deposit (less if are prepared to pay a higher interest rate), plus enough money to cover stampduty and other costs to purchase each property. With $200K in equity deposits for the two properties will not be a problem.

Regards
Alistair Perry

Hi DrX,

The fact that you have objections does not mean that you will not get your permit. One of our clients last year received 30 objections and still got his permit without having to go to appeal. As Michael stated, if the objection is not reasonable the couincil will not take it seriously.

I assume your development is in SA, so the situation may not be the same, but in Victoria if a neighbour takes you to appeal on grounds that are not reasonable, you can apply for costs against them (unfortunately this is not damages, just the direct cost of going to appeal). It may be worth mentioning this to him if you receive a permit and he appeals.

Regards
Alistair Perry

Hi Magic32,

It all depends on your future goals. It is obvioulsy more expensive to pay LMI, but this will leave you free cash to use elsewhere (btw if you contribute a 5% deposit and other costs, you can capitalise LMI for most loans). There is no right or wrong answer, it is a metter of what works best for your strategy.

If you do use a 95% loan, and it is for investment, make the loan interest only and you don’t have to worry about redrawing. You can use an offset account to reduce your interest if you have excess cash.

Regards
Alistair Perry

Hi Wassa,

It would be very difficult to give you any mreaningful input without knowing more about your situation eg what is the value of the other properties in your portfolio, what sort of LVR are they on and what would be the taxation implications for each one if sold. You need both a good accountant and a mortgage broker to assist you.

Regards
Alistair

Hi Renee,

You should speak with Chris Lang from Gardner and Lang. He has been assisting people to invest in commercial property for years, both through small private syndicates and individually. His contact details are:

Web Page http://www.gal.com.au
email: [email protected]

Regards
Alistair Perry

Hi Collette,

I think there is definately potential for making very large profits in Florida, given the continued strong influx of people which should continue to drive prices up over the longer term. However, it concerns me that prices have risen very substantially over the last few years, so I think risks for short term investors there are substantial.

Havoing said this, if you travel there frequently you would probably have a better feel for price movements there than I do.

Regards
Alistair

Hi,

If you are going to offer vendor finance you definately need a specialist lawyer in the state that you will be operating in, multiple lawyers if you intend to operate in more than one State. I’d be happy to give you some names if you post where you will be operating.

Regards
Alistair

Strawberry,

The advice re the try before you buy is sound, and i also think that a property in Richmond will be a good investment long term. However, structuring your finances with a stack of equity in an investment property and none in your PPOR is not a sound debt strategy and, depending on the capital gains consequences and your tax rate, could cost thousands in cashflow per year.

Without having run the figures I am almost certain that selling the Richmond property and using the money to help pay for the PPOR and then purchasing another IP with 100% finance would lead to substantial savings long term. You need to go over both scenarios with your accountant so that you can quantify the actual cost of each.

Regards
Alistair

Hi Persian,

If you are after a financial advisor that is interested in property Roy Halibi, who posts on here as GPSnetwork would be a good person to speak to. You could fiund some of his posts using the search function or have a look at his website http://www.gpsnetwork.com.au

Regards
Alistair