Bill

Food for thought! Thanks for your comments. It is good to get another point of view on the matter of PI.

You appear to be very knowledgable about investing in many areas. However as a new investor to everything I would be loathe to place even $1000 into the Stock market. I don’t know anything about it and my impression is that you need to have LOTS of spare time and constant access to be able to be successful.

I am still young – 35 and have been married for close to 4 years (no kids yet). I suspect that by the time I retire there will not even be a pension. I also suspect that there will not be a middle class. So I definitely do not want to be poor, but don’t necessarily want to be rich. I do want to be comfortable.

As I do not have any relatives or friends to assist me in investment matters, and going to a financial planner was a nightmare (just wanted to sell us insurance, insurance and more insurance) I was wondering if you interested in helping us with some of your grounded advice?

If yes – please email me.

I’m looking forward to hearing more on this topic.
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Hi

I’m very new to this site but thought I’d suggest that you approach a mortgage broker and find out exactly what you can borrow.

Then I would start looking on the real estate websites for possible places to buy. Some lenders will lend you more than others. Most mortgage brokers are free for you to use (they usually get paid by the lenders) so why not?

Good luck.[]

Hi Paul

As a newbie I can’t help you there but I just wanted to reply to say “Good on you”. You seem to be motivated, are asking heaps of questions and appear to be on the road to being freeeeee.

Hope it all works out for you.

Mary

Hi all

As you can tell, my name is Mary (34). I’m happily married to Brett (31) for 3.5 years (no kids yet) and am a newbie to this site (less than 1 week).

We live in Inner Sth West Sydney in our PPOR unit. We are about to settle on our first IP which will be slightly -ve geared, in QLD, using the equity from our PPOR.

I purchased Steve’s book in a bookstore last Sunday and read it in just over a day and now am eager as ever to invest in more. Brett is very interested but also a bit wary and hesitant. This is not going to stop me as I am very persuasive (at least with him).

Am looking forward to being a regular on this Forum and have even updated my internet hours just to be able to log on and read what you more experienced (and not so experienced) guys are saying. My belief is that you can never know too much and at present, I certainly don’t.

I’d like to thank all you guys for the questions and answers and think it’s great that you all give of your time to contribute.
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My experience is that Body Corporate Fees tend to vary according to the state the IP is in. QLD for instance has high fees. Our IP at the moment has body corporate fees of $1700 per year. Yet the unit we live in, in Sydney, is only $1100 per year.

Usually if the property has a lift, swimming pool and lots of landscape gardens, as well as on-site manager, you are going to be up for a bit of money.

But don’t let that stop you, just factor it in.

The benefit of BC fees is that they include insurance, and repairs for things like the roof, etc, whereas if you purchased a house you would have to come up with the money for these things.

EG: Our IP (townhouse) in QLD has had a leaking roof and the BC has to repair it. If it were a house we would have had to repair it ourselves.

All the best with your IPs

Hi Del

Thanks for the welcome.
I’ll be looking out for next seminar. Can you give me an indication on price?

Mary

I would love to attend one of Steve’s seminars. As I am a newbie (but posting lots in the last couple of days) I have no idea of where to begin.

I live in Sydney so does anyone know of any seminars coming up soon?

Perhaps seminars regarding IP should be a permanent part of the website???

Hi Simon

When starting out don’t you need to wait to get your property revaluated? We just purchased our first IP and own (the bank owns most) a unit that we live in, so we have used most of the equity we have. To save 10K in a matter of months looks almost impossible! Any ideas on how we can get back in there in the next couple of months to buy the next IP? Do you think going with a different lender may help as they could value the property differently? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Dear xyzzy12

Don’t mean to be nosy but as a newcomer both to the Forum and property investing I am curious to know if you have had this apartment in Brisb for long?