1st thing to do is talk to your bank mortgage specialist. Explain your situation and needs. He will assess you then give you an estimate on what sort of price range you should be looking for.

With that information go browse http://www.domain.com.au/ http://www.realestate.com.au for the location of your choice. See if the one you looking for suits the price range given by the bank.

As a single mom working as a teacher I would imagine your dream home would exceed your price range. That is normal. Then you can come back here explain your findings and I'm sure some of us could assist you to find an alternate for your dream home which however may ultimately help you getting it in near future.

Yes Beginners that is my understanding as well. You can treat it as your PPOR without the need for you to actually move in to the property.

Unilodge does have a bad reputation over the years. However I bought one there and live there currently. It is far from my dream home but for what it is worth that is pretty much what you get.

With the limited income I only have few options:
1. A house in a good suburb but 60 mins away from the city
2. An old house in not too good suburb but only 15 mins away from city
3. A small apartment in the CBD

It is true that the body corp does put the apartment outgoing to the top compare to the other options. But time is money. If the body corp is $3650/year that is $10/day. If I chose option no 1 the time I spend each day on traveling should be more than $10/day. Not to mention petrol/ car maintenance/ train ticket.

An old house will attract higher maintenance fee like renovation/ plumbing/ etc. Insurance rates might be higher as well as the suburb profile presented.

Growth, houses will definitely higher. Apartment in CBD however attracts almost double the rent rate compare to houses. Growth is compound, exponential hence it is good for long term investment. For a 10 years investment, an apartment may deliver more money than those houses.

I'll try to do some excel on rent vs growth for 10 years investment. Lets see what I come up with.

Hi Paltsi,

Welcome! I'm new too

If I were you I would stop renting and stop supporting someone elses IP dreams. I would buy PPOR and then buy some IPs and let others support my IP dreams

What do you think?

Interest only option is usually chosen when you just basically buying time than buying the property itself.

If you think the property growth over years is higher than the amount of interest you pay during the time then interest only option is good.

But if you are planning to own the property one day then paying principal early on would be better.

If the property growth is lower than amount of interest you pay then I think dont buy it. just rent.

Main objective is you PPOR. If you can manage the min mortgage then do not sell it. Looks like a good growth and nice rent as well.

Do renovate though. That would attract more renters and possibly higher rent rate as well. So your cost on renovating is not a loss.

If the income from this property is not enough to help your PPOR then maybe refinance. If that doesnt help either then sell it.

While we are trying to know how exactly he did it, do not expect to copy his method on today practice and still achieve the yesterday result.

The forum is free and the book cost doesn't include a tutorial session. Still trying to learn from him and calling his book crap is not a very good method of learning.

It is too good to be true to invest in a book then having yourself 130 property in 1 year. When it is too good to be true most likely it is too good to be true. So believe me there is more to it.

So while we are learning the basic of it, Remember that success comes from doing things differently. It would be no different things if everyone knows everyone else's methods. However the forum is for you to share the community as much as the community has given you.

Good luck with your situation, Steve.