karenhudson66 wrote:
Approval of your loan request depends on how well you present yourself

Present yourself?    I never met a person getting my last loan.  It was all internet, phone and Aussie Post.

Terryw:   I'll look into seeing if my old friend would be willing to place a caveat on her own property – it seems an inexpensive way to buy some peace of mind.   I wonder how much it is, and what the procedure is, to remove it and will look into that.Thanks Sonya – that's very interesting.   And alarming. AM – the anti-money laundering and coun…[Read more]

My answer is yes.   It wouldn't be sitting by doing nothing, it would be throwing everything they could at it.   However, market forces are generally stronger than democratic governments.

couldn't he have seen that no government would let house prices drop by 40%?What a funny statement – given what jaw dropping decreases we've been seeing around the world in the last year. W4L:   I'm am interested in your original question and think that it is a very reasonable one to ask.      We think that there is no sub prime lending here…[Read more]

I wish you all the best of luck.    As someone who could buy American property  pretty easily  (we lived there for over two decades and still have all our accounts, offers of loans,  SSN and still pay US taxes etc etc) there is just too much to worry about for us, but if you are there on the spot and can navigate through the tangle you may do we…[Read more]

That's the kind of insider information we all wish we had.       I don't think it's illegal to act on such information.    It happens all the time, especially with  big development companies who lurch from project to project on inside information.   (Sorry to sound cynical).      It's not as if you are dealing in shares in a company, and you aren&…[Read more]

Oh whoops.   Just when I thought I could stop worrying on  her behalf.     I know that when I sold a property in Melbourne, the only time anyone ever asked for my ID was in the lawyer's office right at the very end during a final transfer of money from buyer to my account.   Even though my spouse was on the title, but absent in another state du…[Read more]

Great thanks for that.

any other cause, matter or thing beyond the control of the vendor;Wow.   Seems someone was asleep when reading the fine print.

It's a dream buying and selling property in the USA compared to Australia because of the MLS – Mulitple listing service.    You just find an agent you would like to do business with, and s/he will locate any properties which suit what your requirements through the MLS.    This is a database of RE for sale – agents cooperate with each other in li…[Read more]

The stand out is Mahogany Rise.  Small tightly run school with fabulous teachers.   My last contact there was one year ago but most of the staff are there for the long haul so should be still around.  The other one is in Cranbourne so that's a probably a little too far inland. Feel free to contact me via this forum if you'd like to know more det…

I lived in Mornington for 3 years, just south of Frankston and worked with many schools in Frankston north, south and Cranbourne and generally all over Mornington Peninsula.     Frankston north is home to low income families and many immigrants especially from Africa.   That usually means trouble, but in Frankston's case there are large poc…[Read more]

Very interesting topic.  One of the reasons  that it is such a risk in Australia is because of the concept of "buyer beware" which unfortunately predominates the whole of the RE industry here.      The concept of  "full disclosure"  seems to be a long way off. Vendor financing was a pretty good way to go in the USA (well, at least the only par…[Read more]

I did the same as you 4 years ago – my first offer was my final offer.    I can't be bothered with all the stuffing around and game playing with negotiations.    On a sale price "range" of $410,000 – $430,000  I offered $380,000.   Vendor was outraged, and I got all these phone calls from the agent wanting me to "be reasonable" and that there we…[Read more]

Hi Rob,That was an amazing story  – thanks for posting and for the warnings.

FROM TENANT POINT OF VIEW:  It's been almost a year since we were looking at a property to rent (close to Brisbane CBD) .   I'm blown away with the difference a year makes.    This time last year I could hardly find a spacious, airconditioned 3/2/1 townhouse south of the river for under $400 week.   Today I found over 100.   There are some subu…[Read more]

Thanks for that.   Super came into Aust. when I was living in the USA so I'm still getting my head around it.  Wouldn't people put their own money into Super if they didn't want it included in the amounts of savings that Centrelink  "deems" as income and assets?  And isn't it accessible if you declare that you have retired after 55 (…

Question:  What are reportable superannuation contributions as opposed to non-reportable super contributions?

In some parts of Brisbane the owners also pay the water bill. 

Man, this thread should be re-named Scam Central.       Entertaining, though.