I absolutely demand that if I have a rental that is to be offered for rent, it be on http://www.realestate.com.au/rent right away, with pictures, and that there be open for inspections twice weekly – once on a Saturday and once on a weeknight at a timeslot people can actually attend (ie 5pm or later).  I have no patience for agents that open property once a week at stupid times when prospective tenants are all at work (eg 2pm Wednesday).  Further, I have no patience for them not bothering to put it on the internet till the last minute such that hardly anyone knows about the open.

Is your property advertised on the internet?  If so, how many other similar properties in the area are available for rent, and for how much per week?  Are the open for inspection times advertised within the ad on http://www.realestate.com.au/rent ? 

If the agent is not doing all this, then ditch them.

Hi Sunny

I think maybe it is unwise to start your investment plan by saying "I will buy in a mining town".  Maybe it would be a good idea to first determine:

1. What are you trying to achieve?  Starting to assemble investments to live off in retirement, or to leave your job early?

2. How much spare money do you have each month that you could put towards a mortgage if necessary?

3. How much do you have in savings that could be used for deposits and stamp duties?

JacM

Hi Sunny

Welcome!

What is your question?

JacM

Hi Jamie, are you thinking to extract the equity by means of selling or refinancing?

I'm sniffing a business opportunity here.  Loaning out kids to people who are about to apply for finance.  Such entrepreneurship!

I like to keep an amount in the bank that is equivalent to 3 months worth of rental roll.  If I was not working to cover my own living expenses, I'd want my cash reserves to be higher.

If I struggle to sleep at night with this kind of cash reserve, my comfort level would dictate that I would need to beef my cash reserves up a bit.

Right ok.  Well there are a few options I suppose:

1. Sell your house to pull out your equity, and by a four bedder. 

2.  Rent your house out, and you live in a rental.  You'd have six years to move back into your house after which you could still sell it capital gains tax free.  If however you remain absent from your home for more than six years, or if you buy something else and live in it, then the exemption no longer applies.

3. Rent your house out with the intention of you living in rentals permanently.

I suspect option 2 might be your best bet.  Interested to see what others say.

You can get that lovely "new" smell for a few hundred dollars worth of paint and some new carpet

In Vic, the law is that the landlord pays the service charges and the tenant pays the water usage (provided the dwelling has its own water meter.  Otherwise the landlord pays the water usage as well).

I agree.. I don't understand why the landlord has to pay the service charges during a tenancy.  It is the tenant using the service after all.

In the UK, the tenant even has to pay the council rates (yes, even in residential property). 

I'd be on the lobby group to get these two items chargeable to the tenant for sure!  Anyone know how we would go about getting the laws changed?