Forum Replies Created
Hi Yessy,
We were in a similar position a few years ago and were overwhelmed by the prospect of making sure we bought ‘right’. Do you buy in the outer suburbs with good yield, but a likley lower growth, or inner suburbs, with maybe avergae yield, but potential for very good growth.
After many phone calls and meetings, we decided to go with Wakelin Property Advisory, based in Kew East. They mainly focus on properties within a close radius of the CBD and ones that have a scarcity factor. This is so to potentially achieve greater growth than average. Using an agent can take the emotion out of buying a property and they use their skill and knowledge to idnetify a reasonable buying price, as well as selecting properties that fir their criteria. They also offer after purchase support and can assist with recommending rental maanaging and finance.
Wakelin have a good reputation in the industry and have years of experience behind them. Personally, I can’t recommend them enough. Their number is 03 98599595, or visit http://www.wakelin.com.au
Cheers
Chris
Hi Terry,
Thanks for your suggestion. We have decided to keep them separate as there’s no real benefit in merging them. Our IPs are currently cross-collateralised, which will be addressed soon too.
Thanks.
Chris
Thanks kindly to the latest posts and suggestions. We saw our lending manager and have taken our cash out of ING and placed it into an offset account. Based on our calculations, this will pretty much make both IPs neutrally geared, a big relief to say the least. The next step we’ve taken is to contact our property manager and discuss rent increase.
I think we have a handle on the situation now and can only thank everyone on this forum who has replied and made some great suggestions for helping us.
Cheers and best of luck to everyone.
Cheers
Chris
Hi v8ghia,
Thanks for your thoughts and reassurances. The suggestions and advice I’ve received has been tremendous. I wish I had come on here sooner than I did, rather than leaving it when things started getting a little out of hand. It appears we have enough cash to offset the interest somewhere to the tune of around $10000 per year, which will make an enormous difference. We’re going to our lender this week to work out real figures and see if it’s worth doing, as we eventually want to upgrade our PPOR and will need these funds to do it. I think at best, it will buy us some time, which may work in our favour if our flat rises in value.
We’ve never thought that we haven’t done well out of our IPs. Whatever we do, I know we’re far off better than not having done it. Our main objective of paying off our PPOR was achieved in 5 years. Mind you we only bought it for $110,000 10 years ago, so it didn’t take much, especially when both workng and no kids. As you say, we’re doing much better than most. When I think about young couples today with their $300k loans and 30 year loans and having to work overtime or play the ‘corporate game’ to get more money to pay off their loans, I’m so glad of our position. I may not earn as much as others, but we eat, stay warm in winter and still treat ourselves to the occassional restaurant meal and holiday. I also get to stay home with my kids more than most, which is what I’m going to remember mostly when I’m old and decrepit, not the material stuff.
Not sure the baked beans are a good idea. I may a ‘problem’ with that, if you know what I mean!
Thanks again.
Chris
Hi Terryw, and thanks for your suggestions, and to everyone else too. We’ve drawing down from our PPOR loan to service the IP loan the past few months. I don’t like this as we worked so hard to pay off our PPOR. Our cash is in an ING account, providing us with an extra $700 a month in income. My part time job income is only $2200 p/m, so it’s quite obvious we have not managed our affairs as best as we could. Some of the strategies make sense, especially the offset and quite possibly changing agents who will work harder for us to get more rent.
I don’t mind that the properties are neg geared, it’s just the extent to which they are, especially one of them. When you factor in all the other costs too, ie rates, body corp, water, reapirs, etc, there are some months when we get bugger all from the rent. I know if we can lessen the impact to a degree and ride out this difficult period, it would be worth it in the long term.
Selling the IP will mean CG tax, but as my wife is not working and my income is not what it used to be, it wouldn’t be so bad. We have some shares that have made a loss that we could sell to offset the gain in the property
Looks like I’ll be making a few appointments, ie bank, agent, etc! My financial adviser wants us to sell and place the money into super and managed funds. I’m not so keen on that, especially super. Managed funds I’ll look at.
Thanks everyone.
Chris
