Thanks JamieM for your comments.I do have some questions:1. We have previously paid LMI in our home loan.  How much more LMI do we have to pay?  2. Can this LMI be capitalised on the top up loan?3.  Is the the top up loan a separate loan account?Thanks again for your help.

Thanks to everybody for their valuable input.After reading some related posts, there's going to be change of plans.  Won't rent out our home anymore (after some horrible stories I read) and will just stay put and pay interest only on the mortgage with the offset acct. Will try to build up our savings for our 1st IP. When the fixed period exp…[Read more]

Do you know of a lender who can give us a better yield (valuation)?Actually, I already converted the variable portion into IO 2 wks ago. Need to wait until the 10/06/11 (Fixed loan expiry) before I can convert the Fixed loan (the bigger loan) to IO. I considered converting to IO as we are thinking of renting out our home and thus turning it into…[Read more]

Thanks Jamie for the reply.Actually, CBA did a valuation August last year at 430K which we think is so low. I just based my estimate on the selling prices of same houses in our suburb. So we just accepted that maybe we can't tap on the equity as of this time. That's why we are thinking of ways to boost our savings for the deposit of the IP. That…[Read more]

Hi, this is my first post. I think Pootie and I are almost in the same situation only with us, we don't have the equity.We bought the land and built a house on it in 2007. Total cost is 420K. Estimated value now is around 440-460K. Amount owing is 380K (286 Fixed and 94 variable). Paying P & I of 2,695/month.Got a balance of 5K in our Offset…[Read more]