From reading it seems you cannot afford to buy in your area, you do not want to move, so you will have to continue paying rent. I know a lot of people are a bit turned off by rural areas because I guess they see less oppurtunity or growth in there, which I guess is a fair assumption, but provided you purchase in a steady rural town that has some…[Read more]

There are a lot of benefits for both renting and buying, also a lot of disadvantages, many of them are not always financial. Things like in your own home you can just about whatever you please regarding decorating and internal design, but with renting you have the flexibility to change where you are living relatively easily. And as the rent is…[Read more]

In the above post I made a mistake and calculated interest on the property value of the property when in fact it should only be on $110,000, not $150,000. Anyway in the end rent received would be $52,500 and interest would be $38,500 so that makes $14,000 extra, and also I think I made a mistake in the sums where I got $45,000 and it is supposed…[Read more]

I think the best thing to do is to just calculate it all out and try and see if it is worth it, investing in the USA or investing in Australia. Taking into account a wide range of things such as forecasting the AUD/USD conversion in the future, capital gains, interest rates etc etc, and by using a spreadsheet to be able to change variables…[Read more]

Yes the land is in Culburra, I couldn't think of the suburb when I was first typing it up and my friend just told me it was near Nowra.

I bought my PPOR in Seven Hills at the end of 2009 and I feel it was a great choice for me. The area is definitely up and coming, new AFL team is based down the road, as well as a new cricket team and plenty of new transport facilities proposed for the Blacktown area. I would go for the townhouse as well, mainly for the lower strata fees. However…[Read more]

Just a question, if you could buy it from the partnership, wouldn't there be a lot of fees that would have to be paid? Stamp duty, attorney fees? Probably a few other things I am not thinking of at the moment.  Just seems like it may be cheaper if you could transfer the name on the title instead of just buying it off the partnership?

It is pretty hard to gather what exactly you need to gain this financial freedom that you want. I guess some things that you may need to answer would be:How much is your current house worth?How much do you save on average a month?What are your current repayments on your business loan?And probably a few other questions as well.You can just make a…[Read more]

I cannot speak for Carlton, but I have lived my life in the western suburbs of Sydney, and currently own a house in Seven Hills, which is a few suburbs along from Auburn (the other side of Parramatta). These suburbs do tend to have a bad reputation, which is understandable, there are a few problems here, but I do not think it is that much worse…[Read more]

As a lot of people will tell you, property value travels in cycles, up and down, over periods of time. 2000-2006 was simply an up cycle and at the moment we are basically in a flat cycle (although it may go down if compared to inflation). Basically, property prices wil go up again some time in the future, however they may go down significantly in…[Read more]

I have not been successful in setting up a US account with Citibank from Australia. They all seem to require you to visit in person to set it up. Will have to get someone on my behalf to set it up in the name of the LLC that is based over there. You can maybe try Bank of America, they have an office in Sydney I believe, have not tried it myself…[Read more]

ummester wrote:
Personally, I don't think the rate of house price growth (which averages to around 10% PA from 1999 til now) can continue. The long term average is in line with inflation (around 3% PA) and I believe that average will be reached again either via stagnation or correction.

I agree with this point, and I also believe that property…[Read more]

There was a good article I read months ago, couldn't tell you the name of anything anymore sorry, has slipped my mind. Basically the guy in the story bought a house where he wanted to live when he was older, out in the suburbs, lots of bedrooms for the future family, nice sized yard, near schools etc etc. But in the present, he wanted to live near…[Read more]

Cappy,I agree with ALF1 and believe you have made too much of a generalisation of your inputs. I see your point of not being able to obtain finance in the USA and so you have to purchase a property outright. However this is only due to a lack of credit raiting, after 12 months or so you should have some sort of credit raiting to be able to obtain…[Read more]

Interesting read, to be honest I do not believe there will be a housing crash in Australia, maybe a slight correction where prices may steady for a few (or many) years until they reach a historical average over time. There is no doubt that they are over-priced at the moment. That being said, I am no expert, I did not do finance or economics at…[Read more]

My brother and I did something similar a couple years ago. I was 22 (24 now) at the time and had been working for just under a year, and to ease the burden of a mortgage we bought a place together. It sounds like it is for similar reasons to yourself, we just wanted a place to live in and not have to continue paying for rent.At the start of the…[Read more]

George,

All the best with your endeavours, it is important to start young, I myself am only 24, however have not started full on investing, but I did purchase my PPOR when I was 22 so I guess you could call it passive investing.

I understand your situation, you have all these plans, all these ideas, and you want to make everything happen right…[Read more]

George,All the best with your endeavours, it is important to start young, I myself am only 24, however have not started full on investing, but I did purchase my PPOR when I was 22 so I guess you could call it passive investing.I understand your situation, you have all these plans, all these ideas, and you want to make everything happen right away,…[Read more]

Angel,If you look at the start of Haratio's post it states she could stay with an elderly aunt for free indefinitely. So this negates any rent required for housing herself. I have a similar situation myself where my grandmother is tossing up the option of living with one of my aunts and renting her place out (5 bedroom house in Five Dock, Sydney).…[Read more]

Congratulations RickH, I really hope it all works out for you