This book really is interesting. Here's some principles I learnt that confirms what C2 said above.

1.  For any seller, cash is king. Hence, if we want to finance property using OPM, which is not necessarily cash, the seller must have an incentive to accept this. Hence, it's very difficult to use this in blue chip suburbs as there are plenty of buyers willing to pay cash deposit.

2.  We have to have the background knowledge eg. tax, finance, property and negotiation knowledge to be able to evaluate these opportunities ie. where the seller is willing to sell but we think the price is too dear. We need to assess:
– what's the highest price we can do (financial, property and tax skill)
– what price we can push the seller to come down to (nego skill)

Then we structure the deal using these tools:
– cash: maybe $10k now, another $10k in 4weeks, first mortgage on my share portfolio and a second mortgage to my existing commercial property.
– time: long settlement time ie. similar with WRAP or short settlement time but with little cash. The vendor might be interested in minimising his tax by getting the sale proceed in the next financial year which, for example, is 7 months away.
– other assets vendor might be interested in
– other things (I haven't finished reading the book)

3. The deal have to be structured in a way that's beneficial for both sides. Hence we really need to know the cents and dime, our own cash flow etc. Hence we can make sure that every deal is positive cash flow. If it is not, why bother negotiating. Remember, the seller is willing to talk to us because he is having problem finding a buyer.

4. Deals like these have to be found. So we need to plough the streets and be sensitive looking at every possibilities in a deal. It sounds like we need to be a full time investor to do this. Also, when you are a full time well known investor like Steve, people come to you with all sorts of deals and willing to negotiate. So after a while, when we have our reputation, the deals find us rather than the other way around.

5. There are private investors who are willing to lend money to do deals like these. Aparently in the US, the accountants and lawyers have access to their clients' financial strengths and interests. They play a major role in contacting their clients telling them there's a quick bucks to make. So for example, I need $100k to finance a purchase. Rather than going to the bank and pay 8.7%, these private investors are happy for 7%, which is better than bank savings rate. Obviously, there has to be trust. We have to have earned our good reputation before the door to this private funds is openned.

The lawyers / accountants get a fee. So we have to incorporate these extra fees into our numbers to see whether the deal is still worth our while. Aparently there's many incidental fees like this, so again… our financial / accounting / taxation skill must be top notch.

6. To get this good reputation we have to be visible, have lots of good connections. The book speaks about keeping contacts with council officials, bankers, accountants and lawyers, fellow investors and leaders of the society. Sounds like hard work to me, but not unbelievable.

These people will give you bits and pieces of information that will not be available to the public. Or at least we'll know much sooner than the public. It is then up to us to put the pieces together to see the big picture and identify opportunities.

7. This is an entirely different ball game from the regular property investing I know ie. pay 20% deposit, take mortgage with the bank. I didn't even negotiate because there's this RE agent who said this has to be so and so….  and yet everything is negotiable. But then again, I probably didn't have much chance to negotiate as there was always legions of buyers willing to pay cash.

Happily sharing with you,
Cattleya

Hi Foundation,

Interesting theory and statistics. Interesting does not mean anything if the data is unreliable. Would you please tell us your credentials, where you got the data from etc… etc… so we know whether to believe in you.

This is an article from the RBA (ie. very very reliable…) Sure it's 1 year ago, but still is relevant.
It speaks about:
1. how other develop countries (US, Canada, UK, Netherlands, etc) manage housing affordability / how the provide affordable housings to their residents,
2. how these practices compare to Oz
3. Why RBA is not concerned about the sky rocketing property  prices – which mean they're not gonna try to make it come down.
4. many other things, but basically refuting a lot of what Foundation foresees.

Enjoy… 

http://www.rba.gov.au/rdp/RDP2006-12.pdf

Cattleya.

Hi,

Don't know much about lending practice in UK but I'm suggesting you finance it from where you earn your income to avoid foreign exchange risk.

Forex risk:
You buy property in UK using a bank in London
Monthly mortgage payment is GBP2000, of which GBP1000 is paid from rent income. The remaining GBP1000 is paid from Oz
You live and work in Ozy land
Forex usually means you have to pay AUD2500 to UK bank
Suddenly GBP rate moves and now you have to spend AUD3000 to buy GBP1000.

I am not saying you should not finance with UK bank. I'm only saying there is this risk and the banks are usually concerned about it. They are more comfortable with local money.
That's also one of the reasons why hardly any Australian borrows from Japan (very low interest rate) to finance properties in Australia.

Kind regards,
Cattleya

Steve,

I second Mikeking's post above. I didn't mean to be rude… on the contrary, I am very very curious to learn.

Looking forward to hearing Steve's comments,
Cattleya.

All, …. given this discussion is not answering Sitting on the Fence's original questions, this is my last post on this. Promise.

I maybe a young romantic who's full of nothing but ideals. However, can I please ask why you (maybe seank??) think it's not fair.

When you stay at home (house husbands as well as housewives) looking after your kids, don't get a chance to build your own nest egg and suddenly your spouse finds somebody else…, wouldn't you want to be protected? Example is Greg Norman and his ex wife.

Also, if your gold digging spouse wins $13 mil lotto and suddenly wishes to divorce you, wouldn't you want a piece of the winning as well?

Adler still has $10 mil but he used to have $100 mil. His client put in his life saving of $50k and got only $5k back. Sure the client lost his life style, but it's not Adler's fault that the client only had $50k in the first place and did not have the wisdom to put it into different buckets. I'm sure Adler did not deliberately set out to bankrupt his company, but he made mistakes and shits (excuse the pun) do happen.

I don't condone what Adler did, just think that we all should be accountable for our own mistakes and shits (excuse the pun) do happen.

Kind regards,
Cattleya

Hi Misty,

Buyer solicitor usually organises the payments. So the steps are:
1. X (buyer) gives his account number (where X's deposit is) to his solicitor.
2. Buyer solicitor organises what money goes where as per Vendor Solicitor's instructions. See Richard's response above.
3. Vendor solicitor goes to Bank1 (where the old mortgage is) to pick up the title deed. For Bank1 to give the title deed to Vendor solicitor there must be sale contract and solicitor's signed receipt of the title deed.

4. Bank2 (where your funds is) issues the cheques as per buyer solicitor's instructions and give them to the buyer solicitor.
5. Bank3 (where your new mortgage will be) issues cheques as per required. Money to Bank1 is usually electronically transfered rather than via cheque.

6. At a mutually agreed time, Buyer solicitor meets vendor solicitor and bank3 and exchange documents. The cheques go to vendor solicitor, title deed goes to the bank3 and buyer solicitor gets nothing.

So for X to use Y's money to buy property, here's what needs to happen:
Buyer solicitor needs to get legal authorisation from Y that he can access Y's account. No personal cheque is allowed lest it bounces and fails the exchange. That legal authorisation must also be acceptable by Y's bank. Whether Y gets ownership or not is not relevant as it could be a gift. His signature on the authorisation letter is more important.

This is very complicated. Most likely thing to happen is buyer solicitor will ask Y to directly transfer the money into X's bank account and the process works as explained above.

Hope this helps,
Cattleya.

Hi Anny,

Before I and everybody else say what we think of your investment, please follow your heart. You knew it was the right decision, whatever everybody else says cannot change the fact that it is yours and it is best to stick with it for at least a year, possibly even longer.

First, it is important to find as much tax deductible expenses as possible. If it was mine, I'll make sure to get GST invoice for the mowing services, otherwise it is not tax deductible. Also, lender's mortgage insurance is tax deductible. Contact your accountant to find out what else you can claim. You are a very nice person, but you don't really need to pay for lawn mowing.

From gearing perspective, as I learnt from this website, it is ok as long as I have enough cash reserve to cover emergency repairs and possibility of paying interest while having no tenant for the longest period needed to find a tenant.

Your annual return of $2260 is approx. 1.6% of the property value. It varies between investors, but I usually want at least 4% pa from my IPs. Unless I expect good capital gain.

No idea about capital gain potential. I suppose you are quite happy with this otherwise you wouldn't have bought it.

I don't know much about the property, but just from info you provided I wouldn't change a thing there. Not now anyway, not for $100k.

Good luck,
Cattleya.

CGT is calculated pro-rata to how long it's tenanted.

Hold: 18 months.
PPOR: 13 months
Tenanted: 5 months.
taxable net profit from property sale: 50k.
Cgt is calculated as : $50k x 50% x (5/18) x your tax rate

Cheers,
Cattleya

Hi,

I read this and I thought you'd be interested. It's got fancy graphs, statistics and much more meat – it's a 36 page document.

Retail Outlook: A Strong 2007
A strong year for retail despite higher interest rates.  More tightening coming through. So far consumers are continuing to show resilience.

Policy levers at loggerheads
Monetary tightening being stymied by fiscal boosts and booming labour market.
Rate hikes and tighter credit conditions will impact on disposable income, new borrowing and may see consumers turn cautious but these negatives are being offset by strong job markets, strong gains in wealth and non labour income plus a hefty boost from the government.
Net effect has been positive for household disposable incomes.

Household cashflows tell the story
Surge in income has swamped higher interest payments and even allowed households to rebuild savings while also spending strongly.
Situation is set to continue with labour demand still strong and another $10.5bn in tax cuts and other payments to households.

Interest rate will bite harder in 2008 with household interest payments likely to hit $100bn.
But the incremental impact on aggregate household cash flows will again be swamped by labour income.

Risks centre on financially vulnerable households
Impact on financially vulnerable households is the real risk. Bankruptcies and home loan arrears still comfortable while cross sction analysis suggests most indebt households are well-placed to meet their obligations.

Still significant number of exposed households eg. 11k low income first home buyers which are likely to be accounting for most of the rise in bankruptcies so far. Risk is that there prove to be significantly more households in this grey area, but few signs of a serious problem so far.

Inflation pressures continue
Higher inflation and interest rates looming as the main threat in 2008. Two more 25bp rate hikes in 2008H1 should do the trick but risk that more may be required.

Escalating prices erode purchasing power as well, most notably through higher food, fuel and rent costs.

Global prices and the AUD
Relative cost of many retail items has improved significantly over the last 7 years helped by the GST, falling global prices and a rising AUD.

Chinese deflation threat has moderated / reversed. Currency price effects will also reverse medium term. AUD to push back above 90c US but gains will be hard to sustain.

A return to pricing power for retailers?
Strong profits as surging sales volumes have combined with well contained costs. Some recovery in pricing power has also helped but still in the context of strong long run trend decline.

Wages: watch this space
Wages have been remarkably well contained at least in part due to the introduction of Workchoices. Policy will change under the new Labor Government

Resurgent housing market a clear upside risk
Housing is a key source of upside risk for retail. Housing shortages appear to be driving an upturn, albeit one constrained by affordability problems. Rate hikes will dent the upswing but it may still gain momentum. Upside risk to demand for housing fit-out items but also a big boost possible through rising household wealth.

Household wealth and housing equity withdrawal
Housing equity withdrawal an unpredictable ‘wildcard’ for demand.

Outlook for 2008: some moderation
Retail: Real sales growth to slow from a stellar 4.6% in 2007 to trend 3.3% in 2008.
AUD:  Volatility remains high as credit issues stalk the landscape. The current account deficit position comes under major scrutiny whenever liquidity tightens. AUD denomination of foreign debt is a partial hedge.
Interest rate: Interest increase to 50bps in the 1^st half of the year despite weaknesses offshore.
Australia: Growth is at a 3 year high but is this the peak? We remain optimistic that 4% growth is achievable in 2008. Constructions look formidable and capital expenditure still has legs. The export recovery has arrived and consumers will be resilient due to robust income growth.
Australian consumers: Our analysis of income flows shows that rate hikes and tax cuts broadly cancel each other out. Neither comes close to matching the importance of old fashioned labour income. Jobs are the key factor, and at this stage the outlook is good. The real risk to households revolves around the impact of rate hikes on financially vulnerable segments, not a squeeze on the sector as a whole. Job creation has accelerated and broadened to more sectors. Wages tend to have done likewise with traction retained in construction and manufacturing even though communications, finance &insurance, property and business services has not seen jobs growth but remains robust.
Share markets: Volatile times to persist into 2008. Wall Street stages a partial recovery but economic outlook is soft. Australian market outperformance to continue in 2008 but unlikely to shine as brightly as 2007.