Hi Ryan,
Just reading a story in "Your investment property" and RAMS is number 2 for the top 10 non-bank low-doc lenders. Interesting.

Rams requires no BAS statements LVR 80% with LMI. There's word that Adelaide bank is bringing in a new low doc product in approx 1 month which will require no Bas statement and an LVR 70% with LMI. Considering the very large amount of self employed people out there I cannot see low docs will dissapear. As real estate gets back to a normal pace of growth (which looks like it's happening now in SYD & MELB) banks will get allot more confident about borrowing, I reckon anyway! Just my opinion. I watched Mark Bouris talking the other day and he is already planning his move to come back into the market place in the next year and he won't be the only one. Our default rates are so low in Australia compared to any other country.

Just another thing on this sub-prime stuff in the USA. I am a perfect example of a sub-prime borrower out of the States. I purchased a property in the USA 5 yrs ago in San Francisco and I borrowed from a US Bank. Don't live in the US, don't work in the US and not a US Citizen. I used my friends address for all the paper work to be sent to and he forwarded to me in Auzzie.

The loan was fixed at 7% for 30yrs. Last year the bank rang me to ask if I was having problems making my payments. I had made all my payments on time so I asked why. They said because so many people are defaulting, we are just phoning all our customers who are not defaulting to see if your too proud to ask for help. I  told her that all that has happened for me was my rental income dropped by $500per mth. The bank modified my loan for 5yrs @4% with one phone call. 

Imagine a bank like that!

I was at an auction last Saturday (Ray White) on the Gold Coast where a whole heap of properties go up for auction (and hardly ever sell). One of these exact same properties came up for auction on this day and the Auctioneer warned everyone to make sure you read the contract before buying this property today. He opened the auction @ $130K bid but no one made a bid, then he said this MUST be sold today so can I get a $125K bid and so forth down to $120K. He passed it over as there were no bidders. I and many others in the room ran outside to see (we never seen a property this cheap) what the story was and to read the contract. It was exactly that —- a hotel contract with 2 yrs to go and the Hotel has the first option to renew it for another 10 years. About an hour later, the Auctioneer brought this property back up and again repeated about looking at the contract before buying this property. I watched this guy walk into the room when the Auctioneer said this property must be sold today can I get $115K. This particular guy missed what the auctioneer said and jumped on his phone and made a bid for $116K and very very quickly the auctioneer said SOLD! The guy had no idea what he just bought. All of us that read the contract only an hour prior were seriously laughing at this guy who just bought a melon! Easy to buy HARD to sell.

Good question Africandaisy, my wife has been moaning about not living in our own PPOR. We have 2 kids and another one on the way and she is getting that feeling that we should be settling down in our own home. My oldest child is 3. This is a emotional thing, not financial. We are always at the mercy of a landlord in our current  position. But I love it as we both don't have to work.

We are planning to buy in Sydney —- Maroubra or Coogee and may have  to sell 2 x IP to buy our PPOR cash. As I am retired, it's been hard to borrow money in this current financial climate.

I have been buying properties for over 22 years and there is one thing I have learned. When somebody says to me "when is a good time to buy property" —- my answer has always been "NOW".  Everytime I purchase a property there is always someone who says I should'nt be buying in this current time.

If you rec'd the FHOG, you MUST reside in the place for a min of 6 mths within the first 12 mths of ownership or else you'll get caught out and have to repay FHOG plus penalities.

I bought my first property in 1988 with an advance of $2,500 off my Bankcard. I paid $47,250 for the place. I then bought another unit in the block for $50,000 3 mths later again using my bankcard for the deposit. I sold both properties for $90,000 each 12 mths later. I had $80,000 cash sitting in my bank account at age 21. I am now retired with 12 Investment properties. Everyone told me i was nuts. If you have the ability to repay the C/C asap then why not!!!!

I know what you mean, but I have not experienced this. I go back to the same agents all the time. That's there business and REMEMBER ultimately you are the one that chooses your tenant's not the Agent. When they do all the searches and reference checks they come back to me  with all the info for me to make a choice. Agents are not that stupid to be doing things nasty!

In 25 years of being an investor I had 2 problem tenants. One trashed my place, $20K worth of damage. BUT I was insured and I got a total reno done fully paid by the Insurance Company, the place rented for $30pw more after that. I never blame my Agent for this bad one. We did all the checks necessary on him and all come up good. He just happened to have bad friends that took over the place and trashed it.

The other bad one was in my San Francisco condo. I  found the tenant (via a website http://www.craigslist.com) him, my Agent did all the checks and all was good. The first night he moved in, I had complaints after complaints about noise, I ended up serving him notice to leave. Upon leaving he did US$8,500 worth of damage, so my lawyer started proceedings against him. He paid up in full plus he paid for my flight to San Fran to inspect the damage and repair it.

i never blame my Agent for this. It's not there fault that this guy happen to go on a drug binge the night he moved in. I trust my Agents but I trust my own instincts better.

I self manage all my properties (I luv it) but when we need to find a new tenant we have an agent do it for this reason alone realestate.com. Agent  charges 1 weeks rent + GST and they do all the work (taking inquiries, ref checks, inspection report, photo's etc, etc).  Alot of agents try to charge 2 weeks but i tell them to get nicked. Now I have regular Agents who work for me now.

We are planning to buy our 13 IP in Sydney, but live in Qld (Bloody cheap to rent up here). Travel to Sydney all the time, will join in too. It's only a 1 hr flight from Gold Coast.

I just re-read your post and noticed it was a new purchase, not a refi with ANZ, is that correct?