Craig,

Feel free to email me at [email protected].

I have a spreadsheet which you should be able to use, should be fairly straight forward.

I will get on to Nigel and see how I go.

And yes I do have a risk management strategy, appreciate your concern but I do not have all my eggs in one basket. Along with my properties in the US, I also have property in Australia and shares in Australia as well. I understand it may seem risky to purchase property all within the same area in the US,…[Read more]

Looks good Engelo, looking forward to seeing the “after” pictures…as well as a bit of a breakdown of all the costs, it is amazing to see how much work you can get done to a property cheaply over there in the states.

I just read an interesting article about renting verse buying, I have looked at it all before and at the end of the day it really is a personal decision, but if you do want to look at it from a purely financial perspective then maybe the option below would be for you –
Option 1 ) Purchase 3 x $200,000 investment properties at 7.00% interest rate…[Read more]

I use OzForex whenever I transfer from AUD to USD, seem to give me decent enough rates anyway. Easy to deal with as well, never had too much of an issue.

I think one of the biggest things that turned investors off was the dream returns that always seemed to be promised simply did not come. So all confidence was lost in the market.

Unfortunately some times being brutally honest does not make you the best salesperson so unless you are willing to stretch the truth you will be unlikely to win over…[Read more]

I am not sure why all the focus has gone off the US at the moment (well for the past few months at least anyway). I know I am still heavily looking into and actively investing in the US markets to try and build my portfolio over there as much as possible while the buying is good (and I believe it is still very good for the time being).

I know at…[Read more]

Ok I have had the day to let it all sink in try and reflect on the experience, I will try and put it all in a summary so if anyone did want to follow in my footsteps they could hopefully have it a bit smoother than I did.

Step 1 – Met with Mortgage Broker while I was over in the US (October last year), overall he was not too much assistance, but…[Read more]

Just an update, it looks like all the frustrations I have had over the last couple of months have been worth it! The house is now mine and deposit has been paid, still awaiting the actual title documents to come through but it look like I have finally made it!

I guess looking back there are a few questions I will be asking myself – 

* Would I do…[Read more]

It is definitely a big decision, and of course a lot people are always going to want to have their 2 cents worth.

I have developed a spreadsheet which allows you to compare if it is worth buying a place or renting. Basically while renting you are able to save up more money for a deposit, and in turn will reduce the amount of a mortgage you will…[Read more]

I just do not understand why they are so pedantic about some things when other things seem so trivial….they cannot spell my address properly (despite telling them right from the start my suburb is spelt Carlingford, not, Carlingsford). And also telling them I do not work for Murphy Pipe Engineering, and that I am an Engineer at Murphy Pipe and…[Read more]

I did a similar thing with my grandmother, she wanted to invest some money to pay for her funeral (morbid I know, but it was her money), and I offered to use my home loan.

Being family you obviously just offer them the same interest rate as the home loan, so it is no benefit or harm to you, but a great benefit to them (hopefully Karma is…[Read more]

I was currently looking at properties around the Central Coast as well, initially was looking or a place in Sydney, but was just too expensive. I do not want to be under a burden of a mortgage for the rest of my life. Plus I really have no reason to be around Sydney, would much prefer be in a nicer, bigger place on Central Coast, just a short…[Read more]

Julsss1, the property is only $82,000, broken down into a $50,000 mortgage and $32,000 deposit (roughly, with some fees and such in there). The rent should cover everything. Currently the tenants are in the property paying $800 per month and the monthly repayments will be $425. So this leaves $375 a month for maintenance, property taxes, fees etc…[Read more]

You could try and do something similar to what I did with a friend recently, basically I let him "invest" into my offset account.

So he puts his money into my offset account, and I offered him an interest rate slightly less than my interest rate for my home loan (which was a fair bit higher than the interest rate offered for a savings…[Read more]

Well I appreciate your admiration, I just do not know why they make it so difficult…it has almost broken me I can tell you that.

All I am trying to do is give the US Banks some money, but doesn't even seem they want to let me.

Thought everything was sorted, then I got another hurdle to jump, hopefully should be the last one though. Unfortunately it may prove to be a near impossible one logistically.

Basically, with all the loan documentation, there is one document that needs to be notarised. Now that would be simple enough (about 6 documents needed notarising and that…[Read more]

Only one last thing left outstanding, just need to organise insurance for the property, should be just about there by tomorrow, frustrating having to wait for US to go over the weekend, everything just goes on hold for a few days.

Still worried something else will pop up causing another issue, I guess just a healthy bit of pessimism