Forum Replies Created
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
God
Firstly 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 money!
Secondly, all tenants are defence members. make what you wish of that. However, all damage is rectified by DHA and you still recieve rent while it is being repaired.
Oddly enough, all DHA houses are located where Defence bases are nearby. Whether that is in a good capital growth area or not varies. For example, many properties are just being released in and around Ipswich… you can't say there hasn't been growth on those properties.
Whilst I personally wouldn't invest with DHA, it doesn't mean that their product isn't right for someone else.
Do your research before you make a decision about DHA, and before you make comments about what defence members do or don't get!
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 the Grant provided you have NOT lived in the home).
If she purchased the home after 1 July 2000, and has not lived in that home, then she will be entitled. In my case, I helped out my parents in a bad financial time, and by name only, shared the title and the mortgage for their house with my mum. This was around 2003. I had moved out of that house in 2000. When I built my house, I applied for the FHOG, but was initially rejected. I appealed the decision as I had not resided in the property while I had an interest in it. In the end I recieved the FHOG for my new house.
I would check with the Office of State Revenue – but if you think you should be entitled, don't be afraid to appeal the decision if it goes against you initially.
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 was painful) was to ring the lender (who was Aussie Home Loans) who pointed me to the people who actually financed the Loan (I don't remember who that was), who then pointed me in the direction of the people that provided the insurance (GE Money). After speaking to what seemed like a dozen people within GE in order to find the right department, I finally had a point of contact (make sure you get the name and number fo the useful person or you have to go the full circle everytime you want to contact them…). Once I knew who to speak to, it was quite easy. I just provided the loan number and my details, and I had a cheque arrive in the mail in about two weeks. Sorry the details are vague, but the answer to your question is yes you can get some of it back! Of course the process may vary with different lenders and Insurers. Hope this helps!
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 to give us some cash for deposits in order to invest in more properties, hopefully positively geared.
If we don't sell, I expect it would be difficult to get finance, with no money as a deposit.
At this stage, we're thinking of putting it on the market, but determine our minimum acceptable figure and stick to it. If it doesn't sell for 9 months, then so be it. We're not that deseprate for the cash that we need to take a loss on the house.
Thanks again.
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 security as well as not requiring the services of a real estate agent. No doubt if I did use a REA to rent it out, I could get more for the property, but I would lose a portion of it in management fees, and may not end up with as good a tenant. The rate was based on the rental allowances and ceiling defence uses. I would have to charge $600 a week for the property to be positive cashflow, so increasing the rent is not the solution.
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 $360000. The most recent sale was for $355000 and that was in March. I'm going to ask a few real estate agents to value it when I am up there next month to get a better idea of what they think its worth. I know my house is a higher quality than the other houses in the neighbourhood as I was living in mine when they were being built, so I know the sizes, the floor plans, the features and the quality of finish in comparison to mine, but I think if anything that works against me.
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.
Cheers
TanyaHi 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 house with a nice capital gain. What we hope to do is use the money recieved from the sale of the house to start investing in positive cash flow properties.
So what advice do we need? Well how to structure our finances – setting up a trust etc? What would be best for us given our circumstances. We are both in the military so have available to us a few perks surrounding home sale and purchase, rent assisstance etc, that we want to make the most of too. The other aspect is my husband pays child support and we have no intention of letting his ex take advantage of any additional income made through our investing.
I have initially been looking for an independent, fee for service Financial Adviser, and someone who has personal experience in property investing (preferably not negative gearing), but happy to take recommendations.
Cheers
Tanya
