See if you can use a different material instead of driveway – if it’s already in place you’re going to have a fun time getting the council to change their mind on this.

Having more than one loan with the same lender isn’t necessarily an issue and can indeed give cost benefits of scale in being able to negotiate rates lower. This still does need to be done from the perspective of focussing on your long term borrowing potential however – as centralising all of your lending to one bank is a fast way to run out of…[Read more]

It’s a poorly thought out policy which can cause further asset distortions. If there was a considered response needed for adjusting negative gearing – the asset class would just have the losses quarantined so it can’t write off losses against other income sources, but bank them ongoing until such a time as the assets create a profit.

From an…[Read more]

Ripehouse has a lot of the capability you’re looking for – I’ve found it quite useful.

It really does come down to the individual and their risk tolerances.

How are you paying for your policy – through your super, personal name or combination of the both? The important balance is ensuring if you did need to call on the policy that you can still meet your liabilities + personal living costs without going backwards, at your age it’s…[Read more]

We have a lot of clients using Karen Young’s Property Zest buyers agency. Andrew Allen is also always popular – however this popularity in many cases means he may not be taking on clients.

That can be one of the things they do. They can also just have it on a standard rent – but leave as soon as they can, which if the property is in a difficult to rent area/type of property can completely tank the investment.

Generally pump and dump – but I’m sure theres exceptions to every rule. You’d have to ask yourself why they would offload a property to reduce their flexibility and rental security. There’s the increase in liquidity which may be used to invest elsewhere, but selling a commercial asset just to get access to funds isn’t sending the best…[Read more]

All lending is stress tested, even if using a multi-lender structure. What it does however is reduce any additional layers of stress testing which can make a portfolio which is substantially cash flow positive, appear heavily negative. Standard stress testing under this kind of portfolio will see debt costs tested 25-30% higher than the actual…[Read more]

Definitely isn’t the same thing to go direct to a banker vs broker – quite simply the broker is going to have access to dozens of different policy sets and hundreds/thousands of lending products – so they can find a product to fit the investors needs, instead of try make the investor fit the product.

Hey Borat,

Good question – it all comes down to how each lender looks at their own debt and debt of other lenders.

Every lender when calculating your borrowing capacity will stress test the amount of funds you’re borrowing, by calculating the borrowings at a higher rate, and generally at principal and interest repayments. So as an example, a…[Read more]

What aggregator are you with currently? Changing aggregators is a pain – not something I’d do likely.

Quite happy with Choice, won’t be moving the business from them anytime soon.

It’s early days – there hasn’t been any mention about it being transitioned to YBR, just the business has been purchased. I haven’t heard anything about any consolidation of brand or changing of products.

Loan Ave is fine as a lender, they’re a mortgage manager who provide a number of niche products. I’ve always found them to be a reasonable brand to work with. (they’ve also just been bought out by Yellow Brick Road – Mark Bouris’ new brand.

Definitely should have a rate with a 3 in front of it. Homeside may not sharpen their pencil to get to that level as their primary market isn’t for CHEAP rates – so you may well be better served looking at the greater lending options for your situation.

It does all come down to your greater financial picture however – if the lender is helping you…[Read more]

For investment? ~ 4.59%

Owner occupied ~ 4.49%.

Still a significant premium being paid for 5 year rates compared to say 3 year rates, which can be up to 0.7-0.8% cheaper than their 5 year counterparts.

And without x-coll you wouldn’t have triggered the break fee, as you would only refi the variable loans. ;)

That’s the big issue with cross collateralisation, it’s not a problem until it is. Then you sit there wondering why you gave up so much fleixibility for nothing.

I wouldn’t be too concerned about the $10 fee if the rest of the loan makes sense for your situation – ie structure, lender choice enhancing not detracting from your long term plans, cost etc.

If the other factors about the loan aren’t sufficient to justify staying with them it may well be worth using this time to consider moving the loan – but…[Read more]