Whitehorse is a pain in the bottom – be sure to engage someone with real experience in the area, and if a town planner makes a verbal commitment, make them put in on paper….otherwise it can get messy.

All the best Cheers Ivan

Hi Tanelle,

Awesome it helped.

I have bought two development sites in the last 12 months in Noble Park – one within 500 m of Noble Park Station for $750 plus which will include 7 townhouses and another which we just had plans and permits approved for 5 t/h. I can tell you the obstacles are greater now than they used to be. Everyone will know that I love Noble Park (as an investment). You can get a 3bd townhouse in Noble Park/ Springvale sub $400k easy.

Ringwood is out of control – the chinese are heavily invested in development sites where 700sqm lots are going for $900k plus. Would not touch it.

Go a townhouse in the area for your price range – achieve rent for 4.75%+ and smell the roses. Capital growth has been strong due to the capital upgrades on the Dandenong train line ($2.5b) and Dandenong is also running hot.

To success, Ivan

Hi Brett – my first property (17 years ago) which I still own is on a main road in SE Melb. I subdivided it and kept the back townhouse. In this area the value of my townhouse v townhouse sold in the area is comparable with no major impact on valuation. The road is busy but not a major impact on value or tenant.

Now when I do buy now – I donot buy on a main road, I prefer the privacy of a side street so definitely it impacts my decision in terms to buy. To answer your question – I don’t have market research but I would think it does impact selection for a developer or buyer.

Cheers Ivan

Hi Don – to answer your question – yes they should. Not sure SMSf borrowing is accepted across all lenders as ANZ and NAB have exited the market and St George is continuing to tighten the lending criteria – as recent as yesterday St George introduced a 10% minimum liquidity requirement.

SMSFs (I am passionate about) are a great opportunity for people to secure their retirement by investing in direct real estate, many people are priced out of the resi market by investing personally and now have accumilated a significant amount of super – say $100k with a young couple, and would like to purchase property. The problem is that the spruikers out there are running seminars and getting these people to buy a property without understanding the risks involved, only the rosy picture of what a super investment it is. These people are easy to find but hard to prosecute. Unfortunately, they are operating now and people are buying poor/ overpriced property. That is the danger right there, being encouraged to buy property – and they are negative cash flow.

Well the other side of the story – which I have assisted hundreds of Australians with – is educating clients on the risks and benefits (in that order) of an SMSF, your responsibilities as a trustee, your borrowing power, the structure required to borrow and celebrating the choice of the right property. Pretty much all the clients on our books are neutral or positive and have properties that are taking advantage of the wonderful concessional tax rates for SMSFs and will benefit in retirement – with a diversified portfolio of properties and shares that fingers crossed achieve positive capital growth and zero tax on sale in pension phase.

Of course the story is not always rosy. I have assisted many that are victims of spruikers who are providing unlicensed advice on SMSF, their stories are tragic, but no different to people who have been conned outside super.

We need to also put SMSF borrowing into context, SMSF is a $600 billion industry of which only 3% is LRBAs. 3% of $600 billion is a small chunk of the pie – yes its growing but still small in the overall context of the industry.

My opinion is to limit the impact of spruikers we should limit LVR on Off the plan to 50% – this should put a kick up the butt of certain spruikers.

Hope that helps.

Cheers, Ivan

Disclosure – I am a SMSF professional and registered auditor and a large part of Redwood is SMSF – therefore I have a vested interest – but try to present a balanced view.

Stannis wrote:

Hi Lauriek,

I’ve got an apartment in Georgia and its been nothing but head aches when it comes to the administration. Not to turn you off your prospective investment, just to inform you that I have had to employ an American-Australian accountant to advise me on such matters, and file my LLC tax returns (state and federal). Such people are hard to come by and will cost you significantly more than say a standard Australian accountant. My LLC is in Georgia, and I havent had to file a BE12 or 15, however I have only owned it for 2 years. My accountant has not mentioned this however this may be because of how long I have held it for.

I would recommend finding an american australian accountant (they are out there) and pay for the advice. If you have no joy, PM me and I will put you in touch with Jason, who has fixed a lot of the gaps that the “investment group” that I went through missed.

Best of luck,

Ben

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Ben, which investment group did you go with? Many of these groups just focus on the sale then cut and run once the property closes. Many are left clueless with the regulatory and accounting and tax requirements as well as what to do when the dodgy tenant trashes your house.

Cheers Ivan

ISn’t ‘that’ organisation still spruiking the benefits of mining towns?

FIDO hang in there mate

Hi Natasha –

There is no minimum to set up a SMSF, it really depends on your investment objective. In relation to purchasing property within an SMSF, I see $100k balance as achievable, however this will depend on your purchase price of property. The reason the minimum balance has decreased is due to the fact there are many providers providing Admin services for less than $1000 annually, however, if you need a little tender loving care I would not reccomend a online service particularly when it comes to purchasing property, as you will need an expereienced advisor to walk you through the process including education around:
1. SMSF set up and structure / Deed and investment strategy
2. Bare Trust
3. Rollover of super and insurance considerations
4. Bank account
5. Finance pre-approval (recommended to determine your borrowing power)
6. Education of property investing (not all types of property will be suitable for you)
7. Contract of sale and solicitor/ conveyancer
8. cash flow analysis to ensure the property is making money and you are not relying on contributions
9. Costs involved in 1-8 which generally will be fixed with no surprises
10. Contribution strategies both concessional and non concessional.

This is not a complete list, however, you will need to be aware of the above as all will need to considered in the process.

I trust this helps.

Cheers, Ivan

Judith Ottosen wrote:

It’s possible to open a bank account with Capital Bank in Florida from Australia. A couple of small procedures needed but on the whole very easy to do. I am living and working in Cape Coral Florida and did the rounds of the banks to find one that would help. I too used OzForex for transferring funds and use UsForex for transferred back to Australia. Super easy, reliable and much better rates than a bank. Let me know if you want more information.

Hi there, there are a few banks that you can open a bank account from Oz, I used to commit to 2 weeks, however, EINs have been a little slow of late – pretty easy to open a bank account from oz to tell the truth and I have a few myself in the company names and my own as well as SMSF…

Cheers Ivan

Apek30 wrote:

Hi,

Can someone please tell me the correct date for the Bare Trust Deed that we are using for the property purchase under SMSF?
This document is going to be sent to the SRO for stamping

Should this be the same at the date the vendor signs the contract or sale or the date the buyer signs it, assuming that they sign the document on different dates? Or something else altogether?

Hi there,

Do you have a Specialist SMSF Adviser/ Lawyer? if not you should.

The date the Bare Trust is established will depend on which state you are in. For instance in QLD the bare Trust must be established pre-contract date. Given you are sending for stamping I assume you are already settled in which case the Bare Trust should have been executed.

Did you take out a loan with a bank – as they certainly would not allow a property to settle without the bare trust being settled…

Need more information and this is an important step from a SIS compliance and Stamp duty perspective, so seek advice before you proceed – otherwise it can be costly.

Hope that helps

Cheers, Ivan

Hi Ben – got to agree – Santander is a big NO