It depends….Are you buying the property as a lifestyle asset or as an investment?What are you aiming for? Capital Growth?What are your needs? or What are your tenant's needs?What is the demographics of the area you are investing in?Property prices are usually directly linked to demand and supply, which are largely determined by the population…[Read more]

Hi Kenneth, I would like to open my own business within the next 5 years and require roughly $AUD2-4m with a minimum of 10% deposit to get started Are you looking more at being a money partner or joint venture partner? If you are looking at being a money partner: What kind of percentage return are you looking for?What kind of…[Read more]

Yes, you guys are right.After doing some proper calculations, I've come to the same conclusion:"Placing money in a Offset account wins hands down in all scenarios where interest from the loan is greater than that from interest"

Yes. If the IP was negatively geared that would change the calculations and could mean that you would be better off having your money in a savings account in order to claim more from the interest associated with your IP loan.It all depends on the inputs.Particularly your marginal tax rate, and how much you are negative gearing by.Generally Offset…[Read more]

Rule of Thumb: Never invest in anything you don't understand

Looks like you've already answered the question yourselfInterest from PPOR is not claimable, whereas interest from IP is claimableSo it's better to funnel all excess cash into the offset account against your PPORUnless of course, you can do something better with the money

WJ Hooker has a good pointIf you are going to be a passive growth investor that is just looking to buy and hold, you would want your property to appreciate faster than the amount of money you are out of pocket bySimple calculation based on your numbers you provided above:$33,000 holding costs$13,000 rent$20,000 extra out of pocket expenses$540,000…[Read more]

What Lies Ahead for the Australian Residential Property Market?Quite an interesting article by Bill Zheng, who believes Australian Residential properties will do quite well during the next 10-20years, for the following reasons:Money supply will increaseAustralia is more aligned with Asia (and will benefit from its growth), than with Western…[Read more]

As JacM mentioned, you could offer the retired couple the price they want, and negotiate terms that would allow the deal to go through i.e. asking them to leave some money in the deal (30-40k), and offering 10% interest on that money with the balance paid out in 5 years time.

Guess it depends what your goals are, and what you want to achieve from purchasing the property. If you are buying it as a lifestyle asset then the numbers don't matter as much as the emotional side of things.However if you are buying it as an investment, then numbers mean everything and due diligence mean everything.As Michael mentioned, location…[Read more]

Tim Ryder:Australia is not one property market, but is made up of thousands, which are all moving in different directions or at the same speed. At given point of time, there are markets that are going backwards, markets that are flat-lining, markets that are growing moderately and some that are growing strongly. That means there are always…[Read more]

The banks mainly look at two main variables:Loan to Value Ratio (LVR)Your Debt to Income RatioThey have pre-approved the loan based on your income from your previous employmentWhether they would approve the loan now that you may not be making as much income is questionableThe only way to find out is to disclose this information to the…[Read more]

Impressive Renovations

A bit hard to determine just from the above information you have providedIf you can provide the following information, we might be able to give you a rough guessesWhere is the property located?How much is it renting for?

I believe that in the event that we have another GFC, interest rates may rise, but the government and reserve bank will try to do everything in their power to stimulate the Australian economy, and this might mean slashing interest rate and introducing various stimulus measures. Unlike other western countries around the world, Australia has a lot…[Read more]

CoolAny particular ones you would recommend that is located in Ballarat?

I was curious about this myself as wellStaging homes is definitely a great way to sell more quickly for a lot more moneyHowever, finding businesses that hire out furniture has proven to be quite difficultNot sure if there is a company/business out there that specializes in staging homesIf not, this might be a great business opportunity, provided…[Read more]

Naremburn123 wrote:
1 – If I buy the house next week – and exchange – Can I then purchase the property under a trust or company structure once I settle? As I haven't set it up yet.

If you aren't sure about how to structure your investments, the 'and/or nominee(s)' clauses could be useful, but make sure you double check this with a qualified…[Read more]

Yes…Having the IP loan solely under your name will mean you can claim 100% of the interest payments from your income, whereas having it with your wife's might mean you can only claim a fraction of it based on your income, and the other fraction based on your wife's income. Whether that fraction is 99%/1% or 50%/50% I'm not sure, but my guess is…[Read more]

xdrew wrote:
Having watched Nathan Birch .. he's doing what i would have done if I'd been 10 years younger and knew what to do at the time. The only thing that I would have to change from that for a 30+ investor is that you buy smarter .. buy with an intended 1yr turnover (tax reasons). You've got less time to work with the property and you need…[Read more]