Thanks Jasmine, I didn’t mind what your wrote at all. You said your piece, it was clear you were a friend of the company. When asked you told the truth.

Question: are you a selling agent and therefore paid by the vendors? or are you a buyer’s agent and paid by the buyer?

If you are a selling agent you don’t have to declare your commissions, but here undisclosed commissions are considered poor form, as is new or off the plan property, thats just a fact of life. I only buy new property for my clients and I have no complaining clients or do I need to advertise for clients. (other than being on this forum, that is)

I had a good look at your website, by the looks of your team there you have some very experienced mortgage brokers and must write a fair bit of work. Due to that fact alone your business has credibility. I don’t think there is anything wrong with a mortgage broker offering property investment advice per say.

As a licensed mortgage broker myself we don’t write any mortgages, all our mortgage work is referred out to a company (Brad Parks at Core Mortgages) that has 9 mortgage brokers writing business. I love them because Brad is a gun property investor, as well as a great broker, not a common combination in this game or on this forum.

It’s my choice to make my clients get outside finance advice, this just creates a separation between what we offer and the advice the client gets access to. We only want clients who want professional property investment advice we offer, so no one stop shop. We have passed on 12 mortgages so far this month, thats a lot of comm’s to handover, but it’s cleaner that way, in my opinion.

I think until someone actually has some facts about this company it’s best to stop taking cheap shots at them.

bjsaust,

The decision is easier than you might think. When you compare the opportunity cost of hold it as it stands, and then compare the investing out come to other property in the market.

Look at this very simple example, based on a $500,000 property held for 20 years. If this investment achieves 6% capital growth per annum and $500 per week in rent, the property will be worth $1.6M and have returned $575,000 in rent after 20 years.

But what if you picked a property that returned an extra 0.75%pa in capital growth and $50 per week in rent? You’d be better off by over $300,000 (combined capital growth and rent), before you even consider finance and tax benefits. The right property will make a big difference to your long-term return.

Richard is right, you need to focus on income. To do that you need to have a clear property strategy and plan this next stage of your life.
It’s not possible to give you advice based on the information you have given, or give you the sort of advice you need. It’s just too is far too complex to be carried out on a public forum.

An advisor needs to sit down and get the whole picture before providing you with a statement of advice.

On that basis telling you what I think you would be advised to do would be unethical.

We were buying near Penrith two years ago, the new sub-divisions there (Jordan Springs, Mulgoa Rise) have done well since then. Campbelltown has been see some improvement after a ten year stagnation in prices.

My partner Dave Ward & I have done a few unit blocks over the last 20 years. The largest development was a block of 74, 70 apartments and 4 shops. The apartments set a suburb square metre price record at the time (3 years ago). My best advice is to keep your LVR low, by low I mean: total debt below 50% at all times, 30% is better, IMHO.

Others may see it differently of course, but this LVR is based on how I see the risks of developing unit blocks. There is a lot to say on this subject, but the above in my best starting advice.

yuley7575,

Start with a clear strategy, that’s key to moving forward with your wealth creation. Know what you want to achieve as your investment outcome, know how much income you need to create and by when (retirement?).

IMPORTANT: Always look at where your advice is coming from and who is paying that advisor, if it’s not you paying them then they are not working for you. Ask lots of questions. Are your advisors property investors and how successful are they?
Property investing is buying in an area that is going to have strong capital growth over medium term and holding that property using the rental income to maintain the debt. The key is to buy right and avoid buying duds.

Nathan & Lisa,

Not everybody is just in it for the money. It is possible to care about the client, put their needs first and make a good living, at least that is what I set out to do very morning when I turn up to work.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 5 months ago by  Modernity Investing.

I just had a client this week with credit check 13 hits over the last three years, the three majors knocked him back because they all use scoring. He had a construction loan (3 years ago), Two cars one new and a refinance, all on a household income of $280K. Homeside/NAB put their hand up in the end, so it all worked out fine.

Still it shows you the new Positive Reporting system will take a while. 

JacM & Qld007, 

You are being unkind. I am very sure you can work out the intention of Arun's post, even if it's sentence structure is outside of the normal Australian vernacular. I personally are enjoying Arun's enthusiasm for the forum. 

Hamish_Q,

To answer your question: Buying an Investment Property 1st & your own home 2nd OR your own home 1st & Investment Property 2nd ?

The answer is over a $1,000,000 difference to your wealth over the first 10 years of property ownership.

Renting where you want to live and investing where the market is moving can give you the best of both worlds. The market calls them professional renters for a good reason. We have watched clients doing it the right way time and time again, so we see the results of making the right choice.

We have a client CJ: 28yo, self employed, single female, earning less than $90,000p.a. living in a rented Sydney harbor apartment (that would be worth $900k+) and pays $350 per week for her share. Living the good life and while saving a bit too.

CJ made her first investment 5 years ago, then another one 3 years ago. Both were positively geared and being positively geared has meant she has been free to continue her savings plan. Over the last 6 months CJ has bought another 2 investment properties with us. One is an 2 bedroom apartment and the other is a 4 bedroom house. That brings her number of properties to 4, 3 houses and 1 apartment. After Christmas CJ told us she going to sell the two older properties and buy three more new investment properties with proceeds. 

Her main advantage right now is all her properties are positively geared. She plans to buy 2-3 more investment properties before she buys a own home.

CJ will be able to retire at 45 on over $2000p.w. investment income.

If you delay buying your own home and invest first, your ability to continue buying (serviceability) is going to let you grow your wealth much, much faster. Once you take the luxury of moving into your own home (PPoR), you holt your ability to save and it often takes 5-10 years before there is enough spare money to start saving for that next property. The outcomes are as different as black and white OR you could say; well over a $1,000,000 in wealth.

You will get there if you start with a simple strategy and work towards a clear goal, as this quote sums up:

“You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.”― Alvin Toffler

I spend 50% of my week, working with prospective clients to help them get their strategy right. When they have their strategy in place, they tell me that they find investing less confusing, just as Alvin Toffler's quote puts it.

Good luck investing and I hope this info helps.