Thanks Michael, your very helpful. I was wondering can you give me an honest opinion on this particular scenario. Say if renovations come to roughly $10k to increase the market value and I leave a bit of extra money to buffer so all together it may cost me $25K including stamp duty and LMI etc. Do you think it would be better to take the loan out…[Read more]

do you think it would be worth paying a professional to give me there exact opinion on cost to renovate, or is there another way to evaluate the property to find out how much needs to be spent?

Well I was thinking after a year of doing some small renovations to bring the place up closer to the median price in that particular area which is around $220K and then getting it re-evaluated to loan off the equity and invest in a more expensive property. Would you suggest this to still be a bad idea?

Interesting… Thanks Jamie and thank you Michael for your input in backing up Jamie's comment. What if I found a 3 bedroom property for $150K and it was currently being rented out at $200 per week? Would you say that woud still be a smart investment even with a $10k deposit?

Hi Jamie,

Thanks for the info. would you say that I then need roughly $40K in order to start investing on to avoid the LMI in most cases if I was to aim at a property between $150K-$200K?
If not $10K is still over 5% of $150K plus the mortgage insurance costs. Would you advise to invest in this way or to save more money first ?

Thanks for the advice Benny I appreciate your support. I think going to a group meeting may be very informative and really help me out in the long run. However I'm sure there are opportunities at some level and if anyone else may have any advice I would very much appreciate any feedback.