Hey James

Welcome to the forum mate…

Being a property investment forum, you are going to get told about 101 different ways of making money through property.

At your age mate, best advice is to attend a few seminars (there are heaps available for either no charge or under $100) on both property, shares and business. Read a few books on each of the above subjects, talk to a bunch of people (eg. Forums, family friends, etc) and you will hopefully find that one attracts you more than the others.

Once that takes place, attend a bunch more minimal cost seminars (maybe even do a short tafe / other course), read a whole heap more books, talk to a bunch more people in your chosen field  and try and get a really good understanding of your chosen investment model.

Don't be in too much of a rush to invest your money, the road to wealth is a journey that is best enjoyed over time.

Matt

Other option, if you were not prepared to 'just get those fixed'  the agent could have informed the potential buyer that they were not working, and the property is to be sold with those faults in place…

Then, when contracts are exchanged, the agent simply gets the buyer to sign a 1 pager stating they are aware of the fact that the lights are not working…    this would protect you as the vendor, and also the agent. Eg. Written eveidence that the agent disclosed all known facts that could influence the sale price of the property. 

Hi Mayban

In concept, your strategy would work…    only word of caution would be living in a house under renovations for 6 months could be a rough experience at times.

Other comment would be in six months time, rather than selling your property and paying all the associated exit costs, simply re-finance and use the equity to go again…

Mate.

I don't think there is any hard and fast rule to calculate what rent to charge…    properties in the CBD will provide a vastly different rental return when compared to properties in mining towns.  

If you intend to buy a property, either ask the agent for a rental valuation (if the sales agent gives you a verbal, knock off a few bucks as they tend to pitch at the high end of what is achievable) or get one of the property managers to prepare a written evaluation for you.

Otherwise, do a search on domain or realestate.com and look for comparable properties.

When your calculating your actual cash in pocket each week, remember to deduct your expenses (strata if unit / townhouse, agent management fees, land rates etc).  

Hi Cellphone

Residex offer a report a Best Rent Report which lists 100 suburbs with a predicted return of at least 10% p.a.   5% rental return and 5% capital growth.

http://www.residex.com.au/index.php?content=positive&from=lhsmenu

So, a couple open questions;

1) What would be the effect if the rules were changed to allow people to buy their PPOR using their super fund ?

2) To allow the above to occur, would we need to allow people to borrow 80 or 90% LVR as opposed to the current 50% ?

3) Should the available limit for a PPOR purchased through super be capped at say $500 K. This would mean that the people that benefit would be the low to middle income earners who generally struggle the most to buy a PPOR and also have the least amount of super at retirement ?

4) Should we simply allow people to withdraw a portion of their super to be used as a deposit on a PPOR purchased outside of their super funds ?

Hi Darivo

To get the loan on the Investment Property you would need to have some form of deposit. Usually 5 – 10 % deposit with Loan Mortgage Insurance or 20 % deposit to avoid Loan Mortgage insurance.

Unless you have the cash available from the sale of shares etc you can use some of the available equity from your PPOR loan as the deposit for your investment loan.

So in effect, even though as you say you are robbing Peter to pay Paul, the way the banks see it, when the transaction is finalised they want to see that a) you have the capacity to service both loans and b) there is some equity in both loans. 

A good accountant / broker can advise on how to structure both loans so that the maximum tax benefits / interest savings etc can be achieved.

This is one strategy that Michael Yardney makes a lot of references to…

As referenced by Terry, the 'concept' may be a lot easier than the 'application'.

Hi Jimmy J

Does it really matter if they are receiving 'kickbacks' ( i prefer the term financial remuneration) for providing a service ?

Eg. A) Intellectual Property – they are proving a short list / recommended list of qualified tradesman who can complete the required work.
 
Project Management – They are responsible for overseeing the work and ensuring that it is completed to an acceptable standard.

My only concern would be if the person they were recommending and contracting to do the work turned out to be the licensees nephew who hasn't even finished the 1st year of his apprenticeship, or alternatively, the person who was willing to 'pay them the most'.

As long as the people they recommended were qualified and reliable, then i would be in full support of having them facilitate the required works…

Hi Romeop

Until the cooling off period expires, you haven't actually bought the property…   what you have, is a contractual 'option to purchase' the property.

As such, you can make a financially revised offer which will allow for the repairs to be completed, or alternatively, request that the required work be completed prior to settlement.

You will upset both the agent and the vendor by doing so, but you are well within your rights to make the above requests…    i guess, just understand that the vendor is also under no legal obligation to accept your offer. Should the vendor stay firm and refuse to lower the asking price or complete the required works, and you decide to not proceed all that will happen is that you will lose your 0.025% deposit (i presume this is the only deposit that you have paid) and the property will go back on the market.