…or if it’s anything but a brand-new place you can say you are not satisfied with the building report.

ChrisB, St George will lend for 45sqm (but that’s still a long way off 20sqm!).

Those 90K units are probably the ones that are specifically designed for students correct? If so then they are incredibly small studios mostly. And the body corp is not just a little high, it’s very high (can’t remember the exact figures, but I looked into “uni lodge” myself once). I can’t imagine rates in the city being cheap either.

-Ian

Look for “How investing in commercial property really works” by Martin Roth. It’s pretty helpful, and an enjoyable read.

I’m not sure about mip sales, but have you looked at public trustee sites?

http://www.pt.qld.gov.au/auctions/houses.htm

-Ian

quote:
This is probabaly a dumb question – but how do you finance deals in New Zealand when living and working in Australia ?

Would Australian banks lend you the money – or do you have to go to NZ financiers ? If so, what about proving income etc – or would the deal have to be so good that it stands on it’s own merits ?

Milla

I have no idea…[Read more]

Yes, and you have to remember that for every member that posts, there are probably many more that just read these forums without posting.

liviwell,

I generally agree with you, except for point 4. Do you have any hard facts about that or is it just your opinion? What age group/area are you talking about?

Almost everyone I know in Brisbane (aged around 20-28) prefer appartments. I guess because none of us enjoy tending to gardens. And there’s probably only 1 in 10 people I know that…[Read more]

quote:
But how many properties do you really want? and will you have the time to look after all of them … (trust me something ALWAYS goes wrong… the more you have the higher the risk too )

Pin

If you have 2 IPs and one of them turns out to be a constant problem, then 50% of your portfolio has gone sour. On the other hand, if you had 1000…[Read more]

Has it really taken anyone 11 whole seconds to work this out?

quote:
There have been many prperties that i have squeezed people out every penny i could and i know that they werent happy but they had no choice and yet, i still can go to bed at night and not be worried or even care.

If I agreed with that, I’d think you were a real b#$%@rd, but the fact is they do have a choice. They can say ‘no thankyou’ and…[Read more]

To clarify, I meant that the RE agent is also in Tasmania.

Care to tell us which company sells these reports for $30-$50?

That’s what I thought.

There’s actually one in Tasmania. You’ll see from that link posted, that the RE agent is from there too which makes perfect sense []

There’s the (minor?) condideration of land tax on single-state porfolios.

I plan to invest not only interstate but also in several countries.

Ultimately though, it depends what you’re comfortable with. I would have no problems buying sight unseen in a foreign country that I have never visited, if I ask enough of the right questions (Hmm, reminds…[Read more]

1) Quit smoking
2) Drink water, never softdrink etc.
3) Don’t drive places that you can easily walk to

Aside from that very basic advice, I just want to let you know that I am 25, approx $28000 in bad debt, and like you, plan to achieve financial independence by age 30.

I firmly believe I can do this (legally!) so if you have to wait another 12…[Read more]

This had me for a while… I thought you were all insane… until I realised you’re all talking about Australia’s Queenstown [] That’s the first I heard we even had a Queenstown!

Is there such thing as a “margin call” when applied to home loans? Or are the banks allowed to charge you mortgage insurance at a later date, if your property’s value falls bellow the required level?

I’m just thinking it might just be better to refinance your loans at the peak rather than sell.

My advice is just to keep looking. There are definately still cashflow positive properties out there (Steve’s book was written in 2003 I believe).

Also, while you are looking, keep reading more books

-Ian

I know you’re all having fun with this, but seriously, how would an Australian go about investing in Iraq? Is it even legal for us to buy there? If so, would it be possible to mask the fact that I’m Australian (just incase tenants have any grudges)?

Thinking big,
Ian

quote:
Any opinions on buying a property without inspecting.

I bought my first place without inspecting it (I only saw photos), and I would happily buy more without inspecting.

As long as you know all the numbers and you ask enough questions (like “Are the neighbours yards overgrown with weeds?”), and of course get a building and pest…[Read more]