Telstra shares and some listed property trusts will give you those returns. You can also gear them at about 70%.

IMHO the above options would be far far safer than trying to get that return out of direct residential Australian property, which at this stage of the cycle, is going to entail you taking a big big risk on future capital growth. FWIW,…[Read more]

210m2 says it all. Why buy a such a property when you can get another one for the same price with 700m2. Remember, land appreciates, buildings depreciate.

Neighbours will be very close and there will be a tiny backyard. Who is going to demand this sort of property in an outer suburb, especially in 10 years time after the house is not so new anymore?

Which property would you rather own?
Property A: $85 pw out of pocket, but increases in value by 8% pa.
Property B: $30 pw cash flow positive, but increases in value by 3% pa.

Just focusing on holding costs for an investment misses the bigger picture.

I would (and have) only bought a property sight unseen if buying through a trusted buyers advocate.

I “locked in a profit” when I sold a unit in Sydney 9 years ago. Today it would be worth 250k more than what I sold it for.

I would either
1) sell, upgrade to a nicer PPOR in Sydney and then buy an IP if possible. This keeps non-deducable debt low(er) than keeping the unit.
2) rent out unit, rent a place in Brissy for a year (dont buy) and see…[Read more]

It means you have a “cash flow positive” investment. Postively geared is if it makes a profit before depreciation. Either way a great result.

Here’s some things to think about
1) First, you’ve chosen great areas in Melbourne
2) You are paying the rental guarantee, it is built into the purchase price.
3) You make it sound like being on a main road is a positive, it isn’t, it a negative.
4) Off the plan (OTP) has numerous problems, most importantly the problem of likely low land content…[Read more]

I have a 6 room share house. Insurance is difficult but I successfully got landlord insurance with CGU. I even got malicious damage included, although the excess for it is $1000.

On utilities, Simon is right; electricity, gas and water is paid by the landlord. In fact competition in the area I have student accommodation has meant I pay internet connection charges as well.

As for rules, well rules vary state to state.

In Victoria the rules are
– 1 to 5 people on individual leases: no requirements
– 6 or more people on…[Read more]

Going guarantor is not a trivial matter. As others have said ….

DO NOT DO IT

Yes there are antivirus programs. No there are no OS X viruses. Why so? Companies are not producing products for the public good, they have an obligation to their shareholders to make profits, even if that means selling useless products.

Fact: in the 5 years that OS X has been out, there has not been a single OSX virus “in the wild”. It is…[Read more]

You still need an antivirus product for macs (yes some virus’s target macs), fortunately I think iLife comes with an antivirus product.

Macs look awesome, but I dont believe they are very upgradeable.

I recently spent 2800 on a rather nice AMD 4000+ Sli graphics beast with 2 gig of ram. (put together myself) I can at least continually upgrade…[Read more]

You should talk to your accountant, it doesn’t matter what we say, what matters is what your accountant says.

FWIW, you might be able to claim any expenses that relate to the period it was rented out, if that is 5 months then interest etc for those 5 months.

Originally posted by lifeX:

It will also recommend that you get

ANTIVIRUS program
Firewall program (the default windows one is crap)
Spyware program
Anti adware and popups blocker
Trojan Killer (only way to stop trojans and worms.

I managed to get all of these without spending a cent.

Or buy a Mac Mini for less than $1,000. Not only do you not…[Read more]

Wow, you are having this much trouble before a sod has been turned and you still want to proceed.

I’m unclear though whether you have a title to the land?
Are you obliged to use these guys as your builder?
Is the $2k refundable?
Do you only have a verbal that the $2k will be creditted towards the total price?
Is there a committed completion date…[Read more]

Ditto …

Take responsibility, learn from it and move on. This is a cheap lesson IMHO.

Think long and hard before going into a deal with a sibbling, especially at your age. I guarantee that one of you will want to sell the property within 5 years. At ages 22 and 24, 5 years is going to see massive changes in your life circumstances for both of you.

One option to consider is to spend 2+ years saving up your own deposit, then buy a…[Read more]

Yes. Sell the IP, use the proceeds to pay off your PPOR mortgage and then re-borrow to buy another IP. This will ensure all debt is deductable, but it comes at a considerable cost (stamp, CGT, agent fees, legals). You need to do the sums to see if it is worthwhile but here’s a start.

On the plus side $275k/yr @ 6.5% = ~$18k. If you are on the top…[Read more]

IMHO Frankston (esp. south) has a lot more potential for capital growth than the areas you mention. It’s close on the bay, is an area with a fair bit of development and has the new motorway going in.

I can think of several good reasons people use low/no doc loans, and it doesn’t have to be because they are hiding income from the ATO.

Banks servicability calculations for full-doc loans can make a number of assumptions that can mean someone doesn’t qualify for a loan for servicability reasons when in reality they could easily afford it. For…[Read more]