Forum Replies Created
That’s an excellent response – big thanks David!! [^][
][]I am printing it off to show my partner who wants to head in this direction too.
Where are you based?
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Mel
[email protected]Howdy,
Seeing some very good property purchases in Rocky, Mackay and Townsville at the moment, particularly blocks of units which means you need a bit of equity/cash to put down but well worth it and lends up to 95% possible, commonly around 90% LVR. Hervey Bay is also zooming ahead as a lifestyle/tourism destination too.
Enjoy the llloooooonnnnnggggg break, summer is definitely the time to do it! [8D]
All of our restaurants are superb, just make sure you get into them before 8:30pm or the kitchen may close on you! We’re still a big country town at heart, plus the sun gets up at 4am in summer, so my puppy dogs like to remind me ….[}
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Mel
[email protected]Another option in Melbourne is Stuart from Prosolution, a very active forum member. His email is:
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Mel
[email protected]Hi Ingrid – welcome to the forum & Oz [
]I am a mortgage broker in Brisbane and have seen lots of areas around Qld where people are buying very good positive cash flow properties. These include everywhere from Toowoomba west, Maryborough north especially in the bigger regional towns like Townsville, Rockhampton and Mackay, and even in some of the less popular local suburbs like Eden’s Landing and Beenleigh.
Nothing is going to get you off to a better start than research though and hunting through forum posts as suggested is a great kick-off. Also look for posts about helpful information sources, one of the best is http://www.realestate.com.au.
Good luck and if you’d like loan advice there are several Brisvegas folk on the forum who’d be happy to help.
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Mel
[email protected](PS – Just fixing typos like suburb names … brain went to sleep before me last night!)
Hi Greg,
Is that Charchie as in teen swoon idol from Happy Days?? [
] Whatever happened to him anyway.I think Bill’s on the money regarding limiting yourself to one more IP at around $120K if you wish to stay within your equity limit and not pay LMI. There are plenty of other options too regarding loan set up which as a brisbanite I’d be happy to review with you.
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Mel
[email protected]Hi Mitzu,
The average home ownership in Australia is about 62% so 35% rentals is right on the average so I’d worry more about the no. of vacancies in the area you’re looking at than the no. of rentals available.
Regarding o/s investing, from what little I know about NZ it’s best to set your loans up there with NZ banks, maybe some online accountants can help you with the structures.
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Mel
[email protected]Terry can be reached via email on [email protected]. He posts a fair bit especially in the property section.
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Mel
[email protected]Hi,
Good luck with your broker Carrington, as Anna says you should be able to tell pretty quickly whether they support your plans and can help you get there. The only Sydney broker I know on the forum is TerryW from Discover Home Loans – a long long time formite and investor.
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Mel
[email protected]I top out at 32 no matter how hard I try. Started with -16 so not a bad improvement I suppose! [:0)]
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Mel
[email protected]Hi Cashking – like the name [
]Yes there are still plenty of cashflow positive areas around queensland and you don’t have to look too far out of town either. I’m in Brisbane and it’s is a bit harder here but I’ve seen it happen here too, certainly anywhere from outer Ipswich west and north of Noosa aren’t too bad. Depends what you are looking for but older houses and blocks of units seem to give the best returns.
Good luck in sourcing some NOT NEGATIVE IP’s in future!
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Mel
[email protected]Hi folks,
LuckyPhil I think you make a very good point about new bank products, and new banks for that matter. Around 1994 the Big 4 had over 80% of the home lending market and there was minimal competition to say the least, then the likes of Aussie, Adelaide Bank and others hit the ground running in the mid-90’s and woke up the competitive spirit so to speak. The Big 4 now only have about 55% of the market and they’ve tenaciously held on to that much through being fiercely competitive and offering v v cheap products.
While the Reserve Bank may increase rates slightly I think the fact that Brokers have easy access to so many lenders these days (we use close to 40 in our firm) and that as more people get comfortable with turning to brokers to shop around for them and with using smaller lenders and mortgage managers, that there will always be good rates available.
Some of the three year fixed rates are around 6.4% at the moment so if you wanted to fix part or all of your loan it wouldn’t necessarily be all bad either, although many have restrictions like high break fees and inflexible extra repayments which also don’t suit some more active investors like renovators wanting to draw upon newly created equity.
Matching someone’s overall investing strategy with the right style of loan is normally much more important than just the pure interest rate issue.
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Mel
[email protected]Hi Carrington,
Welcome to the forum! As a broker I agree with Gavin, on the info given you will have lots of options for low doc and no doc loans to continue investing. The rates aren’t that high at around 6.8-7.5% and many of them reduce down to the basic variable rates around 6% after 2-3 years of good repayment history.
Drop me a line if you’d like any further assistance.
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Mel
[email protected]Hi,
Actually I’ve found banks are very reluctant to take child support payments into account for loan servicing. They will take all regular government pensions though including Family Allowance which most low-income and single parent families are entitled to receive.
It’ll be interesting to see how the FHOG legislation gets changed. As Bear said it’s hardly the first loophole around and certainly not being plundered for the many millions extra every week that other welfare payments continue to be.
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Mel
[email protected]Hi Steve,
I tend to agree and as a broker I wish I had a dollar for everytime someone asked me if I thought rates were going to rise! If people are genuinely concerned then fixing part of their loan to ease the uncertainty is never a bad option either although personally I think variable does better over the long term.
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Mel
[email protected]Hi Sophsi, welcome to the forum [
]From the lending side it’s also not a bad idea to pick a town with multiple employers &/or within an hour of a major regional centre as lenders view these towns in a better light and will lend to 80% and sometimes as high as 95% comfortably. In areas perceived as very risky, eg mining town in the middle of nowhere, the maximum lend can be as low as 65%.
Good luck with your hunting, I’m sure you’ll find the forum very helpful.
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Mel
[email protected]Hi Shaun,
This is really tricky to respond to without knowing your other plans and details but as for paying off the 36K loan – do you think you could do better than $209/month + break costs by investing this money elsewhere? What interest rate are you paying over what term?
It’s probably worth it because it’s a guaranteed return, depends on break fee penalties and whether that leaves you living off a credit card etc. Good luck.
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Mel
[email protected]Hi Investor,
From a broker perspective if you intend to sell all/most of the units you may be able to get a short-term commercial loan based on about 70% of the final value of the 4 townhouses, hopefully covering your full construction costs. The lender will want to see experience in this type of development (personally or through the builder you employ) and possibly pre-sales of 1-2 of the townhouses, but still potentially lucrative if sale prices in the areas for this type of dwelling stack up. The minimum profit margin developers target is about 25% to allow for any contingencies like approval or building delays etc so make sure your numbers stack up first – a value of only $110K for your current house and land sounds a bit low so if that’s standard in the area you may have problems.
That’s my two cents worth anyway. Good luck!!
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Mel
[email protected]Agree Mini!
Kym there are heaps of lenders who will take the fact that you are in the same industry with previous self-employed history into account, plus as you noted with low-doc options it may become a non-issue depending on your deposit/equity funds and the properties you are buying.
There are quite a few broker folk on the site including me – drop one of us a line, you’re sure to have a lot more good low cost options than you think!
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Mel
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BrisbaneHi Brent,
That’s not a dumb question at all. In any property lending scenario the maximum LVR the banks will lend to are dictated by two things – primarily location, hence ease of resale, secondly full disclosure of ability to repay loan by the borrower. Different lenders have different spins on the risk levels they are willing to lend up to which is why both you or your wife may be right about the ability to use the equity in your IP for further investment …. [
]If you’d like to pose a specific scenario some of the forum brokers and experienced investors will be able to help you. I am a broker based in Brisbane and can be reached by email below if you’d like a more detailed review.
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Mel
[email protected]Hi,
Where are you located? As a broker in Brisbane I’d be happy to help – there are others on the site from Sydney – TerryW for starters, and some very good Home Loan Connexion people.
Good luck and keep looking – I’ve managed to secure 90% LVR for a few clients on regional properties in the last few weeks, it’s possible but often a bit of a black art to get through. [8]
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Mel
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] Whatever happened to him anyway.
