I have found that you are required to make a small deposit on acceptance of offer – usually around $500-$1000 in my experience then follow up with the 10% within 7 days of finance aprroval (I have this written into the contract).
I have used a deposit bond for both my ip’s and this has saved me from freeing up cash to cover the deposit. This is particularly useful for long settlements.
I currently have 2 ip’s in QLD and am about to place an offer on a property in north WA – it has 4.5 years to go on a guaranteed rental so I think it should be ok – The rental can’t go below what they are signed up for but it can rise – with the future development in the town I think it would be a good investment.
gross rental yields are fabulous, however, when the guaranteed period runs out I can still rent it to anyone for approx $150 less per week and still enjoy a good income…