The first article just sounds like marketing hype for his new business.

It's generally better to pay off non-deductible debt  like a PPoR loan,  which stops interest long term – it's a guaranteed return of whatever % interest rate you are paying on the loan. Money in high interest account general has poor after-tax, inflation-adjusted returns.

E.g, mortgage inerest is 7%p.a. versus deposit rate of 5%p.a. (which is about 2-3% in real terms).

So paying off the loan is generally better.

Cheers
Paul.

Sort of….just to clarify…..

E.g., Let's say you earn $100K p.a. from your job, you pay $15K p.a in interest, and you have a $20K capital gain for that financial year (and for the sake of the example, let's say that you do not qualify for the 50% capital gains discount).

My understanding is that it works like this:
The $20K capital gain is added to your $100K income to calculate your assessable income. Then the $15K is subtracted as a deduction, and you you end up with your taxable income.

To reduce the $20K being added to your assessable income in th first place, you would need to have a capital loss (either in the current financial year or brought forward from previous financial years). Income and capital are two separate things.

Cheers
Paul

Wikipedia…

Probably better to use other sources like ABS. Not sure about NSW but for Qld, also see Office of Economic and Statistical Research.

Also – if you are looking at the drought 'breaking' as part of an investment strategy, it's probably good to keep an eye on the SOI – in Qld, the government uses this, among other things, to estimate how much rainfall to expect looking ahead over a given time period, so they can estimate the amount of drought assistance payments they may have to pay.

Hope this is useful.

Cheers
Paul
 

Richard or Terry might be able to comment on the pros and cons of split loans, as opposed to separate LOCs better than me. What was your  goal/investment strategy when asking about the loan?

Cheers
Paul

Would be good to thoroughly research the B&B market – demand, pricing, demographcs of customers, etc….Bris southside isn't the first place that comes to mind when I think of B&B's. But difficult to know without more info on the place….just some food for thought.

Cheers
Paul

We fixed for 6.49% for 3 yrs in Aug 2009 but not sure any lenders would be offering that rate now. Some of the mortgage brokers on the forum would be better informed than me tho.

Cheers
Paul.

Yes, the definition of 'a good deal' is very subjective. Look at all the examples in glossy mags like Australian Property Investor and the like. Always showing articles on 'successful' people by reporting purchase and current valuation as a way to demonstrate 'success' or 'a good deal'. E.g. 'I bought a place for $250K and now it's valued at $380K' – but they rarely if ever report what it cost as an entire project and what the net profit was after ALL expenses and repaying outstanding loans, and after tax. So, I think you just have to have your own investment plan and do your own numbers to see what is a 'good deal' for you. 

Cheers
Paul 

All the info you need to make investment decisions is free….just do your research and put the info into your own Excel spreadsheet…

In my experience with private investors, you would need to offer around $350-400K (or approx 20%) if you were going to ask for $1.8M. We've been trying to get PI funds for a project (not property – something entirely different) for about 5 years now and the closest we have come, despite everyone saying, "yeah, this is a great concept and we're really interested" is someone saying, "you raise $1M from other people and I'll give you the $10M you're after". These guys don't part with their money easily in my experience.