Have you tried contacting Rick Otton to see if either him or one of his students are offering rent to buys in the Hobart area?

I just googled "rent to buy hobart" and there is a listing here;
http://www.yourestate.com.au/ad/16141/
and another here;
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Rent-to-Buy-North-Hobart-/290429756382

If you plan to do that with $350k cash and no finance, you'd want to be extremely careful. 

Let's look at an example.

Purchase a house for $300k.
Stamp duty costs are $14k.
Legal fees re purchase are say $1k.
Spend $20k on renovation.
Selling fees are say $10k.
Legal fees re sale are say $1k
So that's a total spend of $346k.

The question is, can you add sufficient aesthetics to a property in this price bracket to encourage people to pay more than $346k for it in the resale?  (Remember profits you make will be subject to capital gains tax.)

You'd want to be well educated to know 100% what every single expense, and anticipated resale price is going to be to avoid copping  a loss.

Perhaps some other forumites that are actively renovating and reselling can add some thoughts for you

Hi Ingrid,

I'd love to know who your accountant is if you care to share?
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It tends to be the case that property goes up in value, relative to its current value.  Let's say a 2br place in Footscray is currently worth say, $450k, and a similar property in Richmond is say, $600k.  In a year they'd be say, $495k and $660k respectively.  Why on earth would you expect that Footscray would become equal in price to Richmond, and that if it doesn't it is a poor investment suburb?  All that matters is a property's performance relative to its own current value.  And this is driven by all the usual factors – infrastructure, proximity to employment, unis, hospitals etc etc.

Just my 10c worth…

Can you split the title and sell as two apartments?

The more "prestigious" areas are Geelong West and Newtown.  The Corio area is more working class (and receives a better rental return for cash outlaid, I might add).  Growth areas are to be beyond Grovedale.

Hi there

Your accountant doesn't necessarily have to be located in that area. 

Here is one to try: