You don’t really need to restrict yourself to an accountant that lives around the corner.

How many times a year do you need to visit him/her?

Never really. Send in your paperwork. Get it back. I do visit with my accountant for chats on my investing but i could do it over the phone.

Good on you for analysing it. Lots of people just read this stuff and believe everything they read.

But-

YOUR rental yield hasn’t dropped because you paid $500K. So your rental yield has increased.

If someone 10 years later was buying that property THEIR rental yield would be lower. But who cares about them! Haha!

Capital and rent won’t…[Read more]

Hi, First I would personally never buy a 2 bedroom house unless the land had potential for subdivision. You are restricting your tenant base too much. Try to stretch for a 3 bedroom.

As Sydney is coming to the end of a boom rental yields are low. This will change. Rents (like prices) go in waves. Prices go up, then rents go up.
So your rental…[Read more]

I did the financial advisor run around years ago to no avail. Complete waste of time.

Post here or on other property forums eg somersoft for a lot of advice (some good, some not so much).

I’ve learnt more that way than from all the advisor’s put together.

I could live on $30,000 a year if I sat home and didn’t go out anywhere. What sort of life is that?
My mum lives on the pension and saves $100 a week (since she gave up smoking) but I need more than that.
im not a big spender but my travel budget blows that out if the water.

Risky why not just retire and go in the pension if you wish to live…[Read more]

What sort of info are you after. A lot of cherie’s course tells how to pick a good area and what type of property to look for but it sounds like you don’t need that.
She gives colours she typically uses but they are neutral to appeal to a multitude of buyers.
Is your an investment property? Are you just looking at a cosmetic reno? I can answer…[Read more]

Hi, I only paid P&I off my first home. Then I found out my mistake.

I have a low LVR, but I have a very low risk threshold. Plus that gives me good cashflow, which was my aim so I can retire. Very difficult to retire with a high LVR but people have high LVR’s to build a portfolio faster. Some then sell down to increase equity and cashflow to…[Read more]

People who “make it” don’t leave money idling in P&I accounts. While they are in the accumulation phase anyway. Depending on your SANF (sleep at night factor) as to how much you “have” to leave there. I know many investors who are happy to have 85% LVR. I am not one of them.
If you pay P&I and do not withdraw equity to buy again, it’s a slow road…[Read more]

Jaxon it seems you don’t understand how an offset works.

You still paying the same amount off the loan but instead of GIVING the money back to the bank you are LENDING it to them. It sits in the offset (which reduces the amount of interest you pay, the same as if you were paying it down) BUT YOU have the option to pull it out if you want.

eg…[Read more]

NO!NO!NO.

DO NOT pay down the loan. Change the loan to interest only NOW!!!! See if you have an OFFSET account attached to the loan (NOT A REDRAW).

If not get one with an offset.
Pay interest only and put any extra money into the offset.

The reason for not paying down the loan is that if you decide to keep this house as an investment then…[Read more]

Why do you say that? I assume the OP means exit strategy by exiting the workforce (the end goal), not exiting property.

There are quite a few different exit strategies. Everyone is different. It depends on your timeframe, structure etc.

One strategy is buy heap of properties, wait for CG then sell half and live off the rent.

Some Live off…[Read more]

With assets of $750,000 (assuming they are income producing) with the low interest rates you’d be lucky to get $30,000pa (4% return). That is in no way a comfortable retirement. So how are they thinking these people are going to live?

You would have to dip into the capital, so it wouldn’t be long before you did qualify for a part…[Read more]

Yeah, had to laugh at Joe Hockey telling everyone that this is a great time to borrow and invest. Some people will though with no thought about interest rates going up. In a few years some people are going to be in great pain. Especially those negatively gearing properties.
I’ve got cash at the ready for when it happens.

The sh^t hit the fan. That’s what. Investors started selling. Prices dipped and rents soared.

I don’t see that happening again.

If you buy well you shouldn’t be negatively geared for more than a few years. I don’t like negative gearing myself and only once bought a negatively geared property.

We’ve done quite a few in Sydney. How do you post photos on this site?

We typically paid 2,500- 3,500 for each one. We installed a few ourselves and paid for a couple to get installed.

If you are willing to demolish yourselves and you don’t move the plumbing it’s not expensive. Did you want to do some yourself or have someone do the whole…[Read more]

The problem in the future may arise if you want to invest further. Even though you both hold 50% share, when borrowing the bank takes into account the whole loan. So this will reduce your borrowings.
If you buy another property- same applies. Yes- If you wish to transfer the names it will incur stamp duty. CGT depends on structure, purpose etc.…[Read more]

Good points Benny.
I wasn’t impresses with the sales push back then and wouldn’t consider buying there myself.

Property Box- never heard of the 2 guys running it and looking at their past newsletters there are only 2, the first being Dec 2014 so I’d be VERY wary of investing with such a new company.
When property is in the news and the hype is…[Read more]

No you missread my post. I didn’t say I don’t have public liability on the houses. I said I don’t have Landlord Insurance on the houses. Building insurance covers public liability on the houses. Whereas the strata building insurance only covers common areas (not inside my unit).

The $20M is what one of the policies has. Who cares if it’s too…[Read more]

OK You are right in the fact that the person suing you needs to prove fault.

That does not stop people from trying, which can be very costly for you.

There are many things which a home owner may not be aware of (but could be proved that they should have been aware of, and therefore liable).

Example- Smoke alarms. Do you know your legal…[Read more]

Is this for investment?

Is this through Positive Real Estate? They have been building and pushing that area to clients for 7 years that I know of. In 2008 they were calling it Boomera Coomera. What has past growth of existing estates been like? How do their prices compare to the new estates? Becuse in a few years time they will be the ones you…[Read more]