From the information in your post I would sit on them.  At the moment they bringing in rent and appear to be CF+.  You have gained some capital gains to help fund further expansion of your portfolio.As you said if you sell them you wont be able to do anything else, so you wont be missing out on a better opportunity.  As longs as they dont cause yo…[Read more]

I was going to type a long reply but will save my breath.  I cant see this thread improving

Michael,Just something a bit of topic.  Assuming all brokers charged an upfront fee for the service and rebated 100% of the commission.  How long do you think banks would keep commissions for?If banks stopped paying commissions do you think that borrowers will receive a cheaper rate?How many borrowers may go with the cheapest upfront fee and ge…[Read more]

Depending on the size of the appartment it could raise some difficulties in securing finance or LMI.  Also depending upon how many units are in the complex and the level of exposure a single lender or insure has may also raise difficulties.  This is on top of other issues with student housing.  If you do a search of this site for student ho…[Read more]

I'm with Maree,What you need to do is create a win-win situation.  The two issues that the vendor has is they need cash now for their business but if settlement occurs immediately they will be out of pocket for pentalty fees for the fixed rate loan.Your issue is you dont want to pay more then $210K.The agents issue is they want the commission…[Read more]

Depends upon your timeframe.  Worse thing when you go out and target a specific property, the vendor will know how much you are wanting to get in to it.  You will then probably end up paying a premium.  If you have a couple of local REA that you know ask them to keep an eye out, but some of them will then end up doing letter box drop/sending le…[Read more]

Got to be careful of including utilities, especially when your not living in the building.  Its amazing how many fan heaters, plasmas, computers, stereos, etc can be run at the same time in a 3 bedroom house.  If you have international students coming from a "hot" country living in a cold state – fan heaters at $20 are a good option when they d…[Read more]

Nowadays many tennants expect air-con.  They have trouble remembering 10 years ago without it.  I believe if you have happy tennants then you are more likely to reduce the amount of vacancy.  Spend the money on a decent unit. 

Lil,If you redraw from you existing loan account then you will have a mixture of investment and personal borrowings mixed in together.  Depending on your level of equity, another option is to take out a LOC credit secured on your PPOR to fund the 10%.  This LOC can jbe used again to fund future IP's as equity increases.  Depending on ci…[Read more]

Linar,Yes the leases had been terminated.  This was in the days in Perth where 1 small advert in the paper was enough to get 10 people through a home open.  I agree with Linar regarding keeping the tennants happy.  Small investments in quality appliances can save headaches down the track

Depending on the complex it may have a high number of renters, so if you place something into their letterbox then chances are the owner wont see it.

The problem is having both personal and investment loans mixed in one account, making it hard to account for the investment portion.  If there was a seperate account then that should be fine to claim the tax deduction

Yes the PM may have 20 vacant properties on their books for that complex, but another may have 50 spread out between many complexes.  When my complex settled the PM who had the majority of units available did a fairly large advertising compaign and most units were filled fairly quickly.  What is more likely to be a factor is where your unit is p…[Read more]

Having the same property manager as the majority of others in the complex isn't necessarily a bad thing.  My PPOR is a complex that has almost an identicle complex next door (same developer and settlement was 6 months apart)  There is one property manager that was recommened to the buyers and many have gone through with that manager.  I'm the ch…[Read more]

Alot depends on the current rental market,I know of friends who going back a couple of years ago loved it when tennants wanted to break a lease – it was perfect time to up the lease.  One such occassion original tennant paid up until Wednesday but final inspection done one the Monday and keys returned.  The new tennant moved in on the Tuesday (…[Read more]

Once you have been discharged you can apply for credit

Hi Gemma,There are many different factors to consider, yes the financial side is one.  The time of the reno, what is required to be done, still working during this, current rental market, etc.If you are living in the property and its a fairly major reno you could be having to put up with not having a functioning bathroom or kitchen for awhile,…[Read more]

Yiima,Do you know why the vendor wishes to have a settlement this financial year?  Are you aware of what the vendor will do with the property if it doesn't settle by 30/6/09?

Hi Yiima,The delay is most likely due to the lender and not the broker.  Chaning brokers most likely wouldn't make things any faster. As GOM said lenders are taking up to 6 weeks (in some cases longer).  If they say you can get a loan on the website in 5 days i'm guessing the website is out of date or got some conditions attached.  In the cu…[Read more]

Hi,I have previously owned both vendies and a laundromat – go with the property.  Vending machines – *very high capital to get new machines*takes a lot of time finding sites *if buying existing sites t/o is never anywhere near as good as what it is suppose to be *you have to be constantly available to respond to service calls*most service calls wi…[Read more]