Hi Rocksquad,

I doubt that this can be done, but we’re about to interview a SMSF expert on one of our podcasts. I’ll ask him if he knows anyone and let you know.

Cheers,
Den

Hi Amy,

Make sure the loan you get is right for you as far as other conditions go before worrying about interest rates exclusively. Your bargaining power will depend on your LVR and your lender, amongst other factors.

Right now I have 6.21% with Commonwealth Bank but I have a larger mortgage and an LVR around 60%. It’s also worth noting that…[Read more]

Ultimately this concept involves living off borrowings and hoping that your capital growth will exceed your living expenses (and by a fair bit). A tax implication of this is that your living expenses aren’t tax-deductible so you slowly turn your investment (i.e. tax-deductible) loans into non-tax-deductible loans. Not necessarily a wise move. It’s…[Read more]

Hey there,

I’ve had a good sniff around this area and I reckon Blacktown is still a pretty good area to look at. Of course you need to do your research and make sure the place you buy is reasonable – there is a wide variety of property in Blacktown.

Add to this the positives that Sydney has the biggest housing shortage of any city in Australia…[Read more]

You're right mattsta, regional areas tend to offer a higher percentage of CF+ properties. You do need to be careful, however, that the area you're looking in is a viable community. Some mining towns may be booming now but they lose their "boom" and can become ghost towns in a few years. It's worth checking to see that there are enough other i…[Read more]

I reckon you can always get some inspiration from these free seminars, but I follow a couple of golden rules.1. I always consider the core purpose of a speaker. If their core business is selling property but they offer free "education" then I find it hard to swallow that the education will be unbiased. After all, it's in their interest to…[Read more]

Hi Big AJ,

Welcome to the forum.

I have advice for you:
1. If you want to get educated about property then go to a company or business that specializes in educating you about property.
2. If you want to buy property, then choose the property you want to buy yourself.

There ARE some great companies that will help educate you around property…[Read more]

Hey TT, and welcome to the forum!

Interesting point you bring up there! Have you had a look at where they get their data from? Quite often there is a little delay in the data they publish (so current magazines might have data for September 2011, for example) as the data companies need to make their money somehow! So I’d check how up-to-date the…[Read more]

lilhazel wrote:
Thank you all.

Personally i would buy myself, start small, structure it correctly and go from there — Richard, how do I ensure that I structure it correctly ?

G’day lilhazel!
Welcome to the forum.

You’ve a lot of questions and there’s a lot to learn. Have you done any reading about property investing? There’s lots to find…[Read more]

I’d be checking some tax-related stuff with your accountant.
By purchasing an investment property (in late 2010) you were eligible to claim certain tax deductions that you wouldn’t have been able to claim if the property was your PPOR. Check with your accountant to ensure you’re not liable to pay any of this back!

I agree with Derek, you need both cashflow AND capital growth.

Cashflow gets you into the market and keeps you there, but capital growth gets you out of the market in a profitable way. If you, like me, are looking at growing a portfolio and then selling a portion of it to pay off the debt then you need both. The cashflow will help you buy and…[Read more]

Hi Patrick,

I think there are a couple of things you need to sort out:

Who is your solicitor / conveyancer? Get them to look over the paperwork, and do it fast!
How much do you have and how much can you loan? Will this cover the cost property as well as purchasing costs?
How long is the cooling off period? You might be able to use this to your…[Read more]

Maybe the market has bottomed out – house prices have risen in November (0.1%) and December (0.3%). There are still relatively strong fundamentals (demand exceeds supply) and the lowering of interest rates will free up some more cash for those who are interested in buying (and for those who already have mortgages). I would expect mild growth for…[Read more]

I'm always wary of stories about people who seem to amass huge fortunes in a short space of time. There are a couple of things to keep in mind:1. some of the "bright stars" that are featured in articles like this took incredible risks that happened to pay off. They're not employing conservative strategies and they often buy in unlikely areas that…[Read more]

This is a toughie!

First of all, you need to sort out what is going to happen with the laneway between the two properties. You also need to get a good feel for whether development is going to be permitted. There’s no point buying them for development if you can’t develop them! Council planning offices are far more helpful than their reputations…[Read more]

I use excel spreadsheets as well. There are a few products available but I have always found that the spreadsheets that I create are more useful for me. I ran them by my accountant when I was creating them as well (it’s a good idea to do this, to make sure they include what you need) and he seems very happy with the lay-out.
Excel is easy to use…[Read more]

Hi!
Geelong and surrounds often gets pretty good write-ups, so you could definitely do worse than Belmont. There is a lot of government spending going on there, so it’s worth taking a look.
Do your numbers (my website has a property cashflow calculator for free, if you’re interested) and make sure you do your due diligence too!
Good luck!
Cheers,
Den

I think you can settle by the end of the year!
I often make an offer which gives two different prices depending on the settlement dates (I can give you a copy of the offer letter I use if you’d like – simply email me through http://www.everydaypropertyinvesting.com).
Thirty days is not out of the question – in fact I have bought two properties this year…[Read more]

Good stuff JacM, that’s exactly how to do it!

Get chatting with the real estate agent and find out what the vendor wants. I recently bought a place for $270k after being assured the vendor wouldn’t take less than $300k. Sometimes the last person to blink wins.

It’s also worth noting that any written offer must be passed on to the vendor, so if…[Read more]

Hi,

Depending on the profit, it may not be much to worry about so you might choose to pay rather than get too excited avoiding it. Otherwise there are other options which ultimately involve reducing your hubby’s income (I’d guess that he’s the person paying the most tax in this deal?). If you own other investment properties one of the options is…[Read more]