I would think that between all the members of this forum, we'd have enough property books to start a library!

On this topic, are there any real estate agents that accept credit card for property purchase deposits?  I really fancy the idea of earning half a holiday worth of frequent flyer points for my troubles of purchasing a property.

If anyone knows of any agencies that accept credit cards for this purpose, I would love it if you could list them here!

Hi again – yes wasn't sure if you were planning to sell the house.

However with the apartment, what is the purpose of having a bunch of money sitting on that, while you pay non-deductible interest on the house?  I was suggesting looking into whether you can refinance the apartment to rectify this.

This house you're having built… you mentioned the mortgage is $410k, but what was the total cost of purchase?  Are you lanning to sell or keep it?  If you are planning to sell, maybe consider moving into it for a few days so it can be declared your PPOR and thus be CGT free.  Not convinced it's worth selling the house, as you'd be close to a break-even I would have thought. 

Can't comment much on whether it'd be wise to sell the studio apartment or not – others will no doubt ask for more details on it (the suburb, the rental return etc). 

Another option is to consider refinancing the studio, plunging into more debt, but pulling funds out to dump on your PPOR.  That way you reduce your PPOR debt, and increase the IP debt.  The logic in this is that you can negative gear the IP debt.

Here is what the report says:

"In April 2005, a tenant of a rental property in Ashfield was seriously injured after his hand struck and shattered the large glass panel that formed part of the front door. "

I wonder if this is what actually happened, and if so, thanks very much Mister Tenant for maliciously damaging the property and then suing for it:

"In April 2005, a tenant of a rental property in Ashfield was seriously injured after his hand struck and shattered he punched the large glass panel that formed part of the front door. "

My first thought is that you might want to check if it is actually cheaper to build a duplex than it is two separate houses.  If not, and if space permits, why not just build houses?  I would think the value would be higher than for attached dwellings…

You don't necessarily need to split the title…. it is possible that you could keep the existing dwelling, and build another one or two dwellings on the block, and keep all of them.  If you did that, you'd spare yourself  the subdivision fees.  In this scenario, you'd want to look at what the eventual rental return is for the entire lot, and how much you spent to achieve it.  If for instance you worked out that the eventual rental return would be $600 per week, but you had to spend $800k to achieve it, then it isn't really a great return.  But let's say you worked out that you could generate a return of $900 per week for an outlay of $600k, now that's some nice numbers. 

1800m2 with 23m frontages front and back is a very useful dimension.  Depending on council rules and regulations, you'd easily fit four HOUSES on it!  And if you got creative with double storey townhouses, even more.  Which raises an interesting point…. perhaps you don't have to build anything.  Perhaps you could simply apply for permission to do so, and then resell the entire block to a developer for a profit.  Again, the numbers would have to work…

By the way, where on the block is the current dwelling located?  And what is it made from?  Brick?  Weatherboard?  If it is weatherboard and in good condition but annoyingly positioned in the middle, maybe you could "pick it up and shift it over".  If memory serves me correctly, the May edition of Australian Property Investor Magazine had an article on a young couple that use this "slide and divide" strategy well.  In fact they didn't even build new dwellings in the vacant spaces.  They trucked second hand weatherboard houses in from wherever. 

Yes. 

I have used John Nelson from "Building Inspections Geelong".  Tel 0418 521 652.  He was fantastic.
http://www.buildinginspectionsgeelong.communityguide.com.au/

For pest inspections, I have used Lindsay Read from "Just Go Away".  Tel 0418 540 322 .  He was also fantastic.

Have you had a depreciation schedule done on the property?  That'll claw back some tax….

1. Never heard of that…
2. Sounds more like it to me!
4. Have you asked the broker if he has a written statement from ANZ that he can provide, and if not, if he could ask ANZ for one?

No worries.