It's worth a billion well that's how much it cost to build anyway. Not a bad location either.

Cheers

Jamie

Hi there

Nothing wrong with older properties per se. Yes, depreciation will be a bit less (but it's usually still worth getting a schedule done up) and there's usually more maintenance requests. However, older properties will usually sell for less than their newish counterparts and there's more scope to add value through improvements (which is something that's usually not possible or financially viable with newer properties).

All in all – I wouldn't be too worried about purchasing an older house providing it fits in with your longer term plans.

Cheers

Jamie

There you go astroboy – makes sense to get Richard on the case for you.

Cheers

Jamie

The first step is converting your loan to interest only. Since it's going to become an IP and you may end up purchasing another PPOR – there's no point in paying down any more of the principle against the current property given that it's going to become a deductible debt soon. Instead, place all of your spare cash in a linked offset account – this will save you some interest in the mean time and when you purchase a new PPOR – you can move the funds from the offset onto the new PPOR. This effectively reduced your non-deductible interest whilst boosting your deductible interest.

This article I wrote for API magazine explains the concept in greater detail.

Which lender are you currently with?

Is the current loan set up as variable or fixed?

Cheers

Jamie

Hiya astroboy

Suss out the real estate buyers agents of Australia website as well http://rebaa.com.au/

You might find some registered BA's up north that you can contact.

Cheers

Jamie

Hi again

The smart access is a standard transaction account – not an offset.

CBA have the Mortgage Saver Interest Account (MISA) which isn't quite a normal offset account. It will offset interest – but it's a pain when it comes to moving around funds.

However, they are also in the process of rolling out a new transactional offset. You should consider one of these accounts when their available.

If you've got a PPOR – link the offset to that loan instead and park your spare cash in there.

Cheers

Jamie

Hi there

Just so I understand this correctly.

You've got a $304k loan and a savings account with $19k sitting in it?

If so, I'd be placing those funds in an offset account against the loan. That way, you reduce interest and don't pay tax on interest that you earn  – and you also don't risk contaminating the loan when you withdraw the offset funds.  

Is this property an IP or a PPOR? 

Cheers

Jamie

I tend to agree with you wema. For a straight forward purchase or sale a conveyancer should be fine. However, I also find that there are plenty of solicitors out there that will do the same job for a similar price anyway. Just make sure you have an understanding of their price structure before proceeding.

Cheers

Jamie

Hi inverse

Welcome aboard.

It doesn't really replace anything that's already out there on thousands of websites. 

How are you calculating max borrowing? There's dozens of different lenders with different ways of of determining this – so the different between the least generous to the most generous lender can be quite large.

Cheers

Jamie

I use Chrome and have never had the problem.

Sometimes I post on the iphone/ipad and it's usually all good too.

Cheers

Jamie