My one piece of advice is go and stand around at a property at all hours, especially sleeping hours.

I lived in two units that were around the corner from eachother in London, both very busy roads. I always thought noise didn’t bother me, great trade off for convenience, and I am never home sleeping at peak hour. In the first unit, you could…[Read more]

Just read the GE article and saw that they are charging a fee of $58. None of the UK banks do this, definitely worth asking for this to be waived!

I have just moved from the UK, where 0% for 6-9 month c/c deals have been common for a few years. Yes they are great for people with large c/c debt, but plenty of diligent people are getting them, and using the cash to either pay down their home loans, or even just putting it in the bank to gain the interest. I know of people who have up to…[Read more]

Thanks that is a nice tool.

Have to pay the mortgage duty as well!

Most of my friends (I’m 30)spent everything they earned on travel and drinking until they were in their late 20s and had done enough of it. However by then they are earning pretty decent money – most between $70 and $100k – so once a decision is made to buckle down it doesn’t more than a year or two to save a house deposit.

I don’t know anyone…[Read more]

Two bedroom units/townhouses, Inner North – buy for $215k rent for $230/wk; buy for $240k rent for $260/week; buy for $270k, rent for $290/week.

I’ve purchased 3 properties in Qld by only viewing digital photos, as I am living in the UK.

Each time my dad went to look at the property, and he is a builder so good at looking at practical things, but I would equally be happy having a friend with good common sense go and view as well.

I did know each of the areas very well as I had lived…[Read more]

Recommend Suncorp Metway. Once you have a couple of loans with them you become a Premium Client, then you have your own contact person who does everything.

Don’t know if I have just been lucky but my guy went well out of his way last time, when my solicitor was slack. I live overseas and most of my contact is by email.

I am no property guru, own 2 IPs and about to buy a block of land. However I have lived in London, UK for the past 5 years, a property market which had fast growth and has now ‘peaked’ and here’s some observations.

Over the past 4-5 years prices rose at least 20% per annum. The price rises gave homeowners lots of equity, which they used to buy…[Read more]

Adam

Just some info.

Southport is indeed the main business centre on the Gold Coast. Having said that, it is not exactly a big business area, compared to other cities with 500 000+ population.

It is at the north end of the Gold Coast, which is useful as it is commutable to Brisbane. The hospital is also a plus as it attracts hospital workers…[Read more]

IMHO the only area that has properties at that price and a train station (essential!) is Beenleigh.

If you are not familiar with Brisbane, I would recommend looking at a map of the rail network, make a list of the stations, then search on realestate.com.au on those names. Try http://www.transinfo.com.au for the rail map

In the next 20 years being…[Read more]

I have just bought a property in Qld and live in the UK.

My agent came with good personal references, but I am thinking of writing to the tenants and giving them my email address –

a) so they know I’m a real person and not a company or similar and so may have more respect for the property
b) in case they get bad service from the agent, they can…[Read more]