Try Rural Home Loans.  They found me a 95% LVR loan on a Rural Property through one of the big banks at a reasonable interest rate.

Hi God,That would be the reserves – not full time defence.  If you are deployed overseas in warlike conditions, your pay for that time is also tax free (I'd rather not be shot at thanks…) All defence force pay and conditions are available on the internet.Cheers

GodFirstly I'd like to point out the salary Defence members get paid is not tax free.   Yes we do get subsidised rent, but so do many other individuals.  I can certainly say that the money I get paid including all those 'bonuses' is not much greater than someone in the 'real world' in the same career.  But then I don't serve for the mone…[Read more]

Good luck with it all!

Not so sure of the legal ramifications here if she holidayed in that house….though I did visit and stay with my parents over christmas etc and that doesn't count.  I guess if she had a residence elsewhere and was just visiting her investment property….If I was in your situation, I would put the application in and see what happens

I wouldn't be so quick to disregard.  The following is from the QLD Office of State Revenue.You and your spouse must not have previously held an interest in residential property in Australia on or after 1 July 2000 in which you or your spouse have resided (Ownership of an investment property after 1 July 2000 will not prevent you from obtaining…[Read more]

I managed to reclaim a portion of the LMI on my PPOR when I refinanced about a year into the mortgage.  I found most of my information by googling.  Off the top of my head, the amount you get is relative to the timeframe the mortgage is paid out – I think it must be within 2 years to get anything back though.  The way I went about it (and this wa…[Read more]

Hi Shayde,Thankyou for your feedback!  It's good to get some useful comments.As far as affordability goes, holding the property would not cause us grief financially, although it does consume about $700/fn of our money.  Including the depretiation (I haven't done this yet) I expect a nice little tax return.  Our main reason to consider selling is…[Read more]

I completely agree with you about positive gearing vs negative gearing.  And once we start buying investment properties, we will be searching for positive cashflow opportunities.$300 is low for the area (Yamanto is near Ipswich).  Market rent would be around $330-$350 for the house.  However my tenant is a defence member also, so I have added se…[Read more]

Does anyone have any constructive comments they would like to make.  I'm a bit sick of reading Scamps 'doom and gloom' comments.The house was my PPOR…it was not purchased as an investment property.  It is currently tenanted while we decide what to do with it.

Just because the mortgage is $305000 doesn't mean the house cost $305000 to build.  The house including landscaping etc cost around $330000, and then if you consider two years woth of interest….well $320000 would be a loss in my opinion.

I'm with the Defence Force and as I was posted from the location I am entitled to have the costs of sale of the house reimbursed if the sale takes place within two years of my posting notification.  You can find info in http://www.defence.gov.au/DPE/PAC/From what I can establish, houses in the same neighbourhood are being listed from about…[Read more]

Have you looked into a 'bagged' (?) finish as an alternative.  I'm not sure of the exact differences (it looks almost the same to me), but when I built my house, I wanted it rendered – until I found out the cost.  After talking to the builder, went with a bagged finish, which only cost about $5000 more than a normal brick finish.CheersTanya

Hi Richard,We are really just starting in the investment game.  We own a house which was our PPOR and converted to an investment in December last year.  It is highly negatively geared, and having picked up Steve's books recently, are now looking at selling in the near future.  Even with the market the way it is, we should walk away from the ho…[Read more]