if you sell you will give a lot of your capital gains to the government as tax.
not so if you use equity to borrow for more properties.

Just work out how close to the wire you want to gear yourself.

Cashflow positive properties on fixed interest loans would negate most of the limiting concerns you put forward.

But you will have to look at all the aspects of your life family, your income, your GOALS (VIP), your stress levels (SANF),

[]

Lifexperience

I think that a lot of people who take the long slow road don’t even try a shorter path. There are lots of easy to find reasons to NOT HAVE A GO, such as:

Too many stories of get rich schemes and “A Current Affairs” con men and the like is enough to scare the peoples majority off anything faster than a 45 year super retirement plan.

Heck, the lottery pays big and is a nice easy risk so why try anything else that would leave your balls swinging in the wind.

And while we’re at it, bills are hard enough to pay so why even bother risking extra cash in something that is not MONEY BACK GUARANTEED 100%, I mean a set of steak knives comes with this, so why would i risk money on anything like shares……oooo risky.

Hang on, I can get a loan for a big shiny new car and a plasma TV today, or risk everything on property or shares for some benefit years down the track?

THERE ARE LOTS MORE.[wail]

I began an apprenticeship at 18 in an old power station and worked with blokes who had been working all their life in the dust and heat for a pittance. All of them had struggled to pay off their own house and still did not have much retirement money to fall back on, and I asked all of them when they complained and moaned if they had ever tried starting a business or investing with a goal to get out of the 9 – 5 rut.

All of them had an excuse and none of them had tried more than once or twice to set up a financially free future.[blink]

$1 a day invested and compounded sensibly since they started work and they would have a million bucks plus!!!!![cool4]

I think the ones that have a shorter path to success, simply persisted with their desire to become financially free despite the knocks and setbacks that life ALWAYS tests you with!!!!!!!!!!!

o000o…………[bike2]

(I’m loving the bike smilie, it is like a symbol of the fast road to success

Lifexperience

When first looking at the ad, it is priced at the same as a LOT of other 3&4 bedroom houses on your search.

Maybe plug the long term lease a bit more on the ad and really push the flash interior on the smaller thumbnail buyers will glance over while looking through the realestate.com pages.

You may have to drop the asking price if the market isn’t interested.

Maybe research a bit more as to the kind of target market that would buy such an investment.

Get another agent?

Lifexperience

Seems reasonable, You are better off not paying any CGT (if it can be argued as your PPOR) than paying CGT as an investment property. I wouldn’t argue with an accountant who is reducing your tax.
If you are really worried, get the accountant to put it in writing with names and rulings they used from the ATO.
The tax office sometimes give different answers.

Lifexperience

I found the following out the hard way, I hope you have better luck

Police Checks – $27 – from local cop shop takes two weeks

Thelandlord.com.au for blacklist checks for private landlords costs $100 per year(or if you know a real estate agent property manager get them to check the TICA database.) takes 1 minute. Make sure you help this database grow by listing any bad tenants!!!!!

Send Baycorp Advantage a letter with all clients details and ask it to be posted to you. They will probably post it to client but it’s the only way (free) takes three weeks.

Get a signed letter from clients or agents may not disclose private information (just fax it through)

Oh… and if you want info from housing commision then get client to request a letter of good standing and a statement of account from the person they deal with there.

Good luck

May all your dreams come true. (except for those evil dreams and maybe that dream where you had no pants on in school, oh, and that other dream with the invading martians and the……………)

Lifexperience

I love all the market discussion, there is so many different ways to look at it.

I read somewhere a description of market prices:

The market is unpredictable, on some days the market gets excited and thinks its goods are worth more than they are[]. On other days the market is pessimistic and thinks that the goods aren’t worth as much as they are[cry]. But if you buy something based on it’s actual value, then you need not be worried by the unpredictable emotions of the market

Yeah I know it’s a bit simplistic and that a growing portfolio is given a big help by valuations above purchase value which depend on the market.

I am personally excited that we are entering a buyers market where sellers have to be open to different sales scenarios and negotiation.

I know the recent boom may look to burst in the face of history,,,,, but when in the past has the underlying finance companies (which make the purchase of properties so affordable) ever been so competitive and offer so many different options.

Of course there is all the baby boomers looking to retire by selling their homes to fund retirement (but I read somewhere that the average retiree dies shortly after retiring)… so suddenly the deceased estate distributes more deposit money to the benefactors of the will and the boom takes off again.

And what about the governments problem of dealing with so many people on centrelink handouts, the ratio will soon be 1 working person to 3 or four people on handouts (as opposed to 40 workers per pensioner back in the industrial boom days),……….unless they send our retirees off to Iraq to fight they are going to have to find a whole lot more workers(China?).. so these people will need homes too.

So many things can happen to sway the markets moods.

I am just trying to buy properties that are priced well for their worth, not so much determined by what the future market is doing.

Rental yields and areas with increasing housing demand are the keys.[]

May all your dreams come true. (except for those evil dreams and maybe that dream where you had no pants on in school, oh, and that other dream with the invading martians and the……………)

Lifexperience