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There are a number of issues that you should familiarise yourself with before jumping into one of these investments:
How is the income distributed? ie is it pooled and distributed to all owners equally or each fends for themselves?
Returns are highly volatile depending upon the quality of the management
How easy will it be to assign the ownership (new management agreement etc)
What % fee will the manager be taking? Is there any adustment to this rate?
What other charges apply eg cleaning, linen, broadband, power, water rates, pool, grounds maintenance? How are these adjusted (linen/cleaning/set management/administration fee)?
What are your rights with regards to private use and private bookings (holiday accom)?
How much use do you get (holiday use)?
When are you required to refurbish?
Are all units required to refurbish at the same time?
Are all units of the same standard (ie exec/standard/budget)?
How is accommodation assigned? ie do the bookings get assigned to each room in order or does the manager play 'favourites' leading to more use (and better returns/higher maintenance) on some units?Contrary to all of the doom and gloom – I'll postulate the following scenarios:
If house prices (hence affordability) keep dropping then affordability will increase;
If rents remain stable/increasing (during a period of house price stability/dropping market) yields are increasing;
If house prices are dropping combined with drops in rental returns then investors will lose out with decreasing yields and capital losses;
If house prices are increasing/rents are stable, then yields are decreasing.At present (at least in the Sydney market), we are seeing the second scenario. It will be when greed for increased yields outstrips availability, prices will rise and yields will drop to levels experienced over recent years. For the yield chasers, go out and buy whilst there is a correction, for renters do likewise as housing affordability increases. When prices continue to drop and renters are leaving the market (demand) then it is time to start worrying. IMHO
Woopi, consider what is important to yourself for the next 10, 20, 30? years. As you have ceased working you will need to live off whatever you have accumulated in your working life. Your investment profile will need to remain conservative ie not highly leveraged/minimum risk investments (this may be cash at bank, term deposits etc), your house is most likely capital gains free as well as pension test exempt however this situation will change if you sell your house and sit on the funds or even if you give away more than a certain amount – it will affect your pension status. You may consider downsizing into a more appropriate house/unit (possibly an over-55's development, an easily accessable unit/house etc), use some of the funds to update/spruce up the new place, give a portion of your sales proceeds to your kids (check the limits which apply to pensioners) and retain the rest in a low risk environment.
See a financial planner as to how best structure your affairs.
The location of the view is not relevant, it is how you make use of it. As you point out, a well designed house will take advantage of it – the view will add value regardless. As you are on a quiet street, why should all your living be out the back (unless you have a north facing rear yard).
Consider the price difference between your block and one say 2 or three streets away which does not enjoy the view. Is your block cheaper or more expensive?
Looks like a much better bet than any of the compressed 'education' provided by the spruikers or non-accredited parties. If you have ot the time, it is probably worth a look, discuss it with the head of the school and see where it takes you.
Remember that a 20 week course will give you a lot of information at a rate that you can take it all in, no pressure to buy someone's overpriced book, dvd or 'system' and plenty of time to raise questions with an experienced crew
If you qualify for the FHBG then you may also qualify for a stamp duty concession or exemption depending upon the cost of the unit. So using the unit as a rental may not be your best option in the first 6-12 months if you can carry the holding costs.
As for the works 'needing' to be done to the place – are they necessary or 'would be nice'? Will they add value? Can they wait? Can you live in it 'as is'? Will the rent be that much higher if you do the work? Rembember that these costs will probably need to be depreciated as they will be incurred in bringing the unit up to a rentable standard ie they are not R&M.
As others have pointed out, it is not up to the agent to disclose why the vendor is selling (reasons can be numerous and revealing some reasons can put the vendor in a poorer bargaining position).
It is up to you to decide if there is a deal to be had on your terms.
rudo1ph wrote:I am not quite at this stage yet but will be in a few weeks. Why do you need to put down tile underlay and fibro on the walls? I had assumed I could chip out the old tiles and make sure the floor was level, reseal the floor and then lay tiles………….
Am I dreaming here?
Rudi
Tile underlay if you have joists (ie you need to have some sort of floor) otherwise you'd run with a mortar bed over concrete, then seal (need to seal floor, junction, penetrations and walls in accordance with the BCA). As for the walls you'd generally use compressed fibre cement sheet or moisture resistant plasterboard (and then apply the waterproofing membrane over).
StumpCam wrote:As for the low start: I assume they are somehow getting you to quarantine your grants and use them piecemeal as part of your repayments. There's no mention of what rate of return your 30k of grants is getting in the process. If it were up to me, I'd be simply letting the grants sit in an offset account that's being directly debited with the loan repayments. If you need to reduce the payments in the first few years, then you just let its balance run down while you're feeding it with whatever payments you can from your income.Either way, you are still going to have to stump up with at least a 20% deposit and then the repayments will not meet the interest being charged.
Crashy, step 1 – substrates should be the same ie all concrete or all CFC otherwise you will need an expansion joint between the two.
3a Waterproofing (essential)
4a Shower screen (if any)Strata is a form of subdivision. Subdivision is permissible if the zoning & planning instruments permit. You may need specialist town planning input to help your case.
In isolation, probably not. There are several factors to consider to get the full picture, these include your marginal rate of tax, the amount of depreciation available (you'll need a qs to determine this), the value of having the benefit of home-owners warranty on a near-new house, likely higher rental value, lower initial maintenance costs, more stamp duty payable, higher interest bill etc.
Not all of which are positive.
Consider setting up your own smsf – salary sacrifice into that and use the funds at some point to purchase an IP.
Set up your own IT company and have it as the contractor – then split your income with the +1.
It may pay to see an accountant/financial planner to discuss strategies applicable to your situation.
This is subject to the rate being applicable for the whole year. If you used it in a peak period, the % adjustment would be much greater.
There are no guarantees in life – regardless of how good her intentions at present, she may change her will on her deathbed & you may miss out. You will need to have a caveat or retain % ownership.
Stratum allows the owner to further subdivide by lodging a strata plan. If you visit the websites of some of the larger survey companies it will give you the full explanation.
Plumbing & investing are like cheese and a good bottle of red. Not essential but it will help along the way (with maintenance).
White Knight used to have a paint for this purpose otherwise there are some companies which respray insitu.
A couple of things to consider: the property has been owned prior to the introduction of CGT and would generally have been cgt exempt. I believe that if they sold the whole of the property it would have the exemption, eg sold to a trust to realise the whole of the profit/cgt. If it is sold with the approval then they can realise the entire capital gain without attracting cgt. The trust can go through the motions of subdividing and having a nil profit (if this is desireable). Your friends could then rent their house from the trust (like any neg geared property).
A val on the portion to be sold shouldn't be required as it is to be sold at market (ie what ever price market pays).
AS for your plan, selling the remaining 1/4 acre would not attract cgt if it is their ppor.
$2-2.5k/m2 would be about right. Maroubra has sandy soil, needing engineered footings. Project homes are cheaper.
