Hi guys,

Kooringal, while I sympathise with your predicament – I really do – I have to respectfully disagree with the method that Chandara has suggested.

Firstly, the valuer’s job is not to get the highest or lowest value for the client. The valuer’s job, and the valuer’s duty to the client, is to arrive at a fair and reasonable value.

Secondly, even if a valuer is “local”, wouldn’t he or she still have to do some homework in order to be satisfied with the valuation that you want? It’s a chicken and egg thing. You’re telling the valuer that you won’t hire them unless they agree with the valuation they want, but if they are to do their job properly, they can’t say yes without doing the work they would have to do to arrive at a valuation.

Thirdly, if there are in fact valuers who are willing to accommodate the method you described (ie agree on a value over the phone or without thoroughly researching comparable recent sales in order to get the job), then wouldn’t that degrade the integrity of valuations?

Don’t get me wrong – I totally agree with what Chandara and others said about getting the research done and providing written evidence, as well as doing your best to persuade the valuer to agree with your opinion on your property’s valuation. But it’s this “valuer-shopping” that worries me. One of the key causes for the finance brokers scandal in WA (where thousands of investors, many of them retirees and pensioners, lost their life savings investing on dodgy property development deals with pumped up valuations) were valuers who were prepared to compromise their integrity in exchange for getting the job. I’m not saying it’s going to come to this, but if more and more valuers started doing this kind of thing, the reliability and credibility of valuations will start becoming eroded.

That’s just my view. You obviously have the prerogative to adopt a different view.

Cheers
M

Hey you think you’re addicted? Check out the time on some of my posts…

Man need to get some sleep…

Hey vluu27

I’m sorry to hear of your predicament.

I suggest that you make a journal of all your dealings with PCG – write down the details of every single meeting and telephone conversation you had with them. Try to remember dates (even if it’s a month if you can’t remember the exact date), names and even times, if possible.

That’ll help you if these people try to take it further.

It seems from their conduct that they may have in fact agreed to release you from the contract, if there was ever one in the first place.

As for your credit record – if they have no reasonable basis for putting an adverse report on your record and they do so, I’d call that defamatory conduct.

they’re probably trying to scare or bully you into paying up. In my view, you need to do something to show them that you’re putting up a fight. Ignoring it isn’t going to make them go away – you’ll just be sending them the message that they can keep hounding you with minimal risk of any consequences for their actions. But bluster and angry words is a waste of time too – it needs to be something effective.

One example is to get a lawyer to write them a nasty letter. However, it’s going to cost money to do so, and if they still keep hounding you, it’ll cost more money to defend any claim by them, and to right any wrongs that they do to you.

Best thing to do is to take up Richmond’s offer – onya Richmond (BTW my sympathy to you for having to work the entire weekend – I missed your Eagles-Hawthorn commentary, unfortunately)

Cheers
M

I’ve heard of this too, but I know exactly how oyu need to structure things in order not to run foul of the self-managed superannuation fund restrictions. One of those restrictions is that you can’t mortgage superannuation assets. If you stuff up and break the rules, your super fund will become non-conforming, and you could get slapped with 48.5% tax on the entire value of your super fund!!

The moral of the story is to make sure you get sound tax advice from properly qualified professionals.

Cheers
M

Hi Hamster,

My WA accountant said the same thing to me – I didn’t pay too much attention to the details, because I’m not planning to sell until after I retire. I think there’s a technicality in the ITAA which gives you some CGT exemption.

It’s definitely worthwhile checking it out before you do anything, because you’ll probably have to ensure that you structure it properly.

Cheers
M

Hi Fishoholic,

“Releasing” the equity in your home simply means that you put it up as collateral for a loan you take out to buy another property.

For example, your home is $380k. Assuming it’s fully paid off, 80% is $304k.

You want to buy another property for $300k. 80% is $240k.

This means that you could borrow 100% of the purchase price of the property + costs, let’s say a total of $315,000.

The bank will lend you up to 80% of the value of your collateral without charging mortgage insurance (which is around 1-1.5% of the loan amount).

So you borrow $315,000, and put up your 2 properties (ie the one you now own and the one you’re buying) as collateral for the loan, giving a total collateral value of $680.

This means your borrowing LVR is only about 47% (ie $315k divided by $680k), so there’s no problems getting the loan!!

And no, you don’t give the bank ownership of ANY of your properties. You still own all the properties you have and you buy. The bank simply slaps on a mortgage over your properties, which secures the repayment of its loans to you.

Cheers
M

You’re welcome Kavita – keep asking those questions!

picjal,

I thought I was on the 110% loan. But I’ll go home and check, and let you know.

Westan is right – don’t just give up when you’re so close!

I’m still looking to buy, although I’m extremely fussy about what I buy, and always set a realistic price limit on what I’m prepared to offer.

But I have to admit, it is very hard to find a property where the vendors don’t expect to get $20 to $30K more than the market price.