Forum Replies Created
- 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 counterterrorism measures don't seem to work unless the "agency" , in this case, the real estate agency, is reasonably suspicious and reports something amiss.
It seems as if checks have got slacker and not tighter in the last few years. If RE agents had to legally require the prospective sellers to go through that 100 point ID test and match ID to property documents then I wouldn't be asking the original question.
I appreciate everyone's reponses.
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, (I take that to mean lending to borrowers who are ill qualified to be able to service a loan) but some lending practices could be a bit iffy if the website Infochoice is anything to go by.
http://www.infochoice.com.au/This is heavily used for objective information on comparitive loans and savings information. If you go into their calculators and calculate your borrowing power, a most interesting thing pops up. It's the default amount for what people are supposed to spend in their everyday lives. For a couple on a joint income their borrowing power is based on annual spending of $14,400 and a car payment of $350 month. If they have one dependent it goes up to $17,280. If this default is used by banks (is it?) then they have underestimated what people spend just paying bills and food, petrol, insurance, phone, internet – basic stuff no frills – by a considerable amount. The other interesting default setting is that they tack on 1.5% in interest rate to allow for future rate rises. Given that we just came close to 10% a couple of years ago, that is also a worryingly optimistic calculation.
Another figure which is strange is the one used in this thread somewhere – 2000 people arriving in Melbourne every week. Well, Perth, Darwin, Brisbane and Sydney are all claiming massive arrivals (funny how no one says how many people are leaving) and when you do the calculations it means that about half a million people must be coming into the country every year. Have we reached those levels yet?
With all these strange airy fairy numbers being bandied about, it makes it really hard for anyone to predict what is going to happen.
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 well.
On your website you imply that US real estate agents are probably worse than Australian ones. I can only speak for California but in fact we had positive experiences with USA agents and are extremely distrustful of Australian agents. The reason is because in Californian RE legally the owners AND the agents are obliged to give full disclosure. It is not like here: buyer beware. Everything is just so transparent and the sellers are responsible for getting every single report (roof, soil, pest/termite, electrical, structural etc) together even before the property goes on the market. The Californian property market is just streaks ahead of the Australian one in terms of ethics – we are embarrassed by how ignorant Aussie agents can be about the properties they sell.
The other thing you will find it easier is that you only need one good agent and because of the multi-listing service where agents share info (and fees) you don't have the hassle of having to view each property with a different agent.
However, the tenant's rights issues, the difficulty in finding good property management, and just the litigious nature of the USA makes it very challenging. Every single person we know who has invested in residential property in the USA has been sued (including us) so stay on top of the finer points of the law and be prepared to get legal advice (and pay a lot) at the first sign of trouble.
If you decide to invest in California, a great way to start is through the NOLO press books – these are self help books written by lawyers and used by lawyers but make it clear what landlord and tenant rights are and how to deal with issues before they become major. Although they are written for California, many of the general points apply countrywide.
Oh, yes, one other thing – on your properties that you have listed on your website (in Atlanta?) you mention this thing called "rent appraisal". Be very careful – they sound extremely optimistic. If rents were that high the tenants could easily afford to buy the property themselves outright after a couple of years. Be especially diligent about checking for yourselves what the real monthly rents are and remember that if it's not in writing it's not worth the paper it's written on.
Hope this helps – all the best..
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't the seller misrepresenting any info.
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 during the whole process, we did everything with a power of attorney form. This form was just taken at face value – no one really checked it as far as I know.
Maybe this warrants further investigation.
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 listing and selling houses and share the fees. The information in this database on each property is far greater than I've ever seen available in Australia. Even the agents' fees are listed (they are negotiable between the listing agent and property owner) and it makes the whole process of buying and selling RE much more transparent and honest.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 details.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 pockets of areas where families are really working hard and trying hard to improve their lot. In decades of being involved in education in the USA and Aust., I would say that 2 of the best run primary schools in the country are located in this area. "Best" means happy children, well run administration and excellent teachers who love the children and bust their guts to solve problems – it doesn't mean that the buildings are pretty.
The surrounding areas are low quality houses and it will take decades to improve the neighbourhoods. However, Frankston is close to the sea, one hour from Melbourne, has reasonably good public transport. From an IP perspective it seems to tick all the boxes.PS It's a relief to hear that that ghastly high rise in Frankston will be converted – but they've been saying that for years. What a shame it can't be demolished altogether.
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 part that I knew well – California) because the buyers have as many protections as sellers. It is a really excellent way for sellers who were downsizing, and didn't need the whole amount to re-invest, to earn a much better interest rate on the proceeds of the sale of the house. Of course it only works well if the sellers who do the "seller carry back" as it's called, are the only mortgage holders. They'd be mugs to hold a junior lien, or second mortgage behind a bank.
I didn't notice that prices were any higher for houses offering vendor financing, and buyers are protected from exorbitant interest rates by law. That is, a seller can't ask for any more than 10% interest rate (last time I looked) capped by the Attorney-General's office.
Just giving another perspective…
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 were many other offers coming in. However I gave 24 hours for the contract to be signed on my terms or not at all, and turned my phone off. If the vendor refused I had back up properties to put offers on so it didn't worry me about the feelings or financial circumstances of the vendor. The key is not to get emotionally attached to the property.
I did get the property for $380K so the other offers must have been wishful thinking.
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 suburbs (e.g. Carina) where rentals seem to be sitting empty for weeks.
Our landlord has increased our rent, but we are going to move – we think that with our track record as good tenants and the abundance of available properties we can get what we have now for less money, not more.
FROM BUYER'S POINT OF VIEW: As buyers-in-waiting we are still on the sidelines because we see homes in this area (Bulimba, Hawthorne, Norman Park, Cannon Hill, Balmoral etc) going down not up, even though when you talk to agents they seem to be all upbeat and saying how fantastically things have picked up. Really? It's not what we see when we go to actual auctions and track the sales. On real estate office windows there are little stickers over the asking prices – the stickers are lower prices. Some listings have 3 or 4 stickers on them.
That was really informative – thanks
Hi Kylie –
Starting point –
These are licensed builders in Port Pirie
http://150.101.71.113/pubreg/pubreg_jsp/resultPage.jssourced from the Office of Consumer and Business in SA
http://www.ocba.sa.gov.au/index.htmlThanks 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?
