Forum Replies Created
@L.A. Aussie Nope, not from near La Brea. Though I did work on Wilshire Blvd. once. I am from Long Beach.
"No property tax"?
Everything I learn here I Google and try to gain expanded insight. According to the Real Estate Institute of Australia:
"Currently, Australia ranks the fifth highest nation in OECD countries in respect of its reliance on property taxes. Governments in Australia now collect nearly as much from property taxes as they collect from motor vehicles, general payroll taxes, and gambling taxes combined."
While I don't doubt what you wrote LA Aussie, perhaps you can clarify what seems like a discrepancy?
Thanks for the rates tip. This brings up another issue. I still don't quite understand Councils. I'd always assumed they were like Districts in the US or possibly Counties. But while I have heard of County taxes, I have not heard of County approval to paint your house pink (for example), which I understand can be the case in AU?
Though it's not always the case, in the US, the attitude is "I own the house, I can paint it any damn color I want". The caveat being agreements to the contrary; for example, condo associations.
No worries. And thanks for pointing out the spelling error (fixed).
@foundation: now that we've clarified things maybe you can help educate me on the nuances of AU real estate.
You clearly seem familiar with many of the US concepts. Maybe you could provide a point by point comparison of the items I raised and then perhaps add others.
Nope, not me. I am from Los Angeles, and never lived in Sacramento.
And believe it or not, I don't know that guy… surprising as it may seem, I don't know everyone in the US.
Thank you for the response.
Torrens title… I have now googled this and read up on it in Wikipedia. Interesting concept. So in short, once a name is attached to a property with the appropriate government body, then by virtue of that registration the person is deemed to be the owner (or at least partial owner). To a suspicious mind, that sounds kind of scary. (i.e. I'm the owner because this book says so and you can't refute that. Regardless on whatever shenanigans may have occurred to wind up with my name in the book, once recorded, I am the owner.) But it is a clean system.
I'll google "cash flow mortgage" and also hope to hear from some of the brokers who frequent this forum.
I'll also look to hear from the brokers on the subject of "no doc" loan. The ease of the US situation (at least in California where I'm from) was that I was able to get a "no doc" loan AND the low ARM loan. Because I had the score, I was approved for $750K at 1.5% for 3 years on the strength of my credit score alone. Now of course the bad part of the story is that the California market is/was so over heated that even then I couldn't find a deal that met my investment criteria. Every deal was upside down. I was looking to buy small apartment buildings where the rents for fully capitalizing the mortgages — didn't find any. I'm now in Sydney and am investigating similar scenarios.
Thank you again
