I too have been toying with the trust idea. I came out of reading Steve’s books with a different mentality in regard to the family trust idea however. I was under the impression that the trust would provide a little more security in terms of lawsuits.
I don’t plan on being used at any stage but you never know what might happen. If property…[Read more]

I like threads like this, i find they help keep people motivated.

Myself, well i haven’t got any further on my IP apart from finally paying extra off the IP again. But as of last month we are almost entirely free of “bad” debt. Credit cards officially gone, thats been a pain in my side for a while now, eating up extra funds when work is quiet.…[Read more]

Another thing you could try is when it comes time to discuss a lease is to put the rent up to compensate for the ‘risk’ involved with your tenants not being on a longer term lease. I ended up doing this with my tenants, my agent said it was time to put the rent up and i suggested that if the tenants want to sign a longer lease i would be more…[Read more]

I work in/Around Roma on a regular basis. I’ve had my eye on the area for quite a while, I would say the boat has sailed on capital gains but if you are looking for positive geared IP’s they are there. I don’t know how long that will remain that way for however.
I know some CSG work has wells planned to be drilled for the Area for the next 30…[Read more]

I had this same thing happen in Victoria in my IP. At the end of the day, apparently they can switch to a month-month in vic automatically however you can not continue the lease after a month and they will either have to sign a lease or find somewhere else to live. At the end of the day, are they good tenants and would you rather them stay than…[Read more]

So just to elaborate more on what has been said so far. When you draw on the equity (using the example above) does your loan increase back up to 270k when you use the 30k equity?

Hi Flex, i actually live in that area and there are huge amounts of houses in there that are rental properties. I’ve been watching the property there and while there doesn’t seem to be huge vacancy periods (houses for rent gets picked up quite quickly). However there is one part of the suburb which just sold for a record price 1.2+ million.…[Read more]

If it were me and i bought old, i would do the reno's first however it would depend on the state of the unit.  If it more or less just needed cosmetic i would make it "comfortable", tidy it up, cosmetic sort of stuff.  Then as your looking at a 10 year investment i would look at upgrading closer to the end of the 10 year period. Perhaps even…[Read more]

One would assume though that if you justified the $10 rent rise that VCAT couldn't say that it is unreasonable correct?

I have a friend who recently moved out of a rental property after being there 3 years in QLD.  Only received one water bill for usage after being there just shy of 12 months which was paid.  Upon receiving the all clear for the…[Read more]

Great find mate and a good read.  Its nice to read something every now and then about someone who started at the bottom and worked their way up.  Its also nice to see different tactics that people apply on a weekly basis.  There is so much information available in books these days that it all tends to become a blur.  Its nice and somewhat…[Read more]

At some point you need to get in the game but you still want the best outcome possible.  Yes mistakes are valuable lessons but other peoples mistakes don't cost you a dime!  CBarry in answer to your question about capital gains it depends on what structure you purchased the property in, e.g. trust, Self Managed super, but your definition is…[Read more]

You need to remember with Steve's book that he bought properties years ago and has been fortunate to have massive capital gains which meant he could have a rental increase as well as use the equity to fund more investing.  Steve's use of trusts (i have read most of his books) was a large part for protection incase of him being held liable should…[Read more]

The interest rate on your house is probably better than what you would get if you but the money anywhere else (i.e. term deposit) so think of it as making you money (by saving you interest), that is more or less what i do and also what Richard is getting at.

I had a similar thing with the backdoor on my rental property.  I paid to get it fixed, well actually, my tenant was a building apprentice so i paid him to fix it for me .  To me that sounds a lot like it would fall into wear and tear, unless you can prove they have been malicious when it comes to slamming the door, I'd just arrange to get it…[Read more]

Have you been to see a financial adviser at all?  One of the first things they may mention to you is to look into some life insurance and income protection so you are covered with your investments should you be out of work.  On top of this you can shape your portfolio to be as passive or aggressive as you feel comfortable with.  It really depends…[Read more]

Hi Matt,
           My first property i bought when i was 19, it was my PPOR and is now my first IP.  I wasn't very thorough in my selection of my home loan, i went with variable with a terrible company and i had a lot of problems with the company my loan was with.  Due to that while i never received a bad credit rating or anything like that, i…[Read more]

If your looking at unit's specifically, in that area, according to API magazine Petrie & Mango Hill are looking good around those parts.  From memory median unit price is closer to 300k however.

Good Luck.

I think that is good advice from Jamie, one thing to remember is that everyone has different needs and different plans.  The point that Jamie raised on how it may limit your market that you can sell to is a valid one as well.  I suppose it comes down to how aggressive you are being with your portfolio 10 years is a long time to have a property…[Read more]

The work to the railway is just one of the many developments that has been approved for redcliffe.  I'm actually watching that area at the moment as an area of interest.  Once the freeway is finished being worked on it will also help with access to the city from redcliffe which could also help.  I would hold, but my goals aren't as aggressive as…[Read more]