What is the your price range (purchase price) and which state are you looking to buy in?

Regards

Shahin

Sit down with your broker or banker and crunch the numbers. In short, 'Pros' – you both have exceptional incomes so the sky is the limit in terms of what you can borrow. 'Cons' – you are deposit poor. Therefore the maximum you could purchase a house with a deposit of $30k (of this depending on which state you are buying in) would be somewhere around $325k-$330k. 

There are a couple of strategies you can implement which can be determined once you have gone through each scenario and option. Based on the limited information above I would be ok with a high LVR loan for the IP. Basically the less deposit you use the better as you are young and sound like you have an aggressive IP strategy. Also since you are high income earners – you need you understand the importance of saving as may not hit the servicing wall but rather the deposit wall. LMI on the above scenario would cost you give or take $10k. 

Regards

Shahin

Whilst I don't think there is anything wrong with purchasing a property without seeing it – I do think its worth paying a couple of hundred dollars in airfares and a few hundred more in accommodation and inspecting the property. I did this twice (but didnt end of buying) but did make a weekend of it with my wife.

Regards

Shahin 

Based on your initial post you are definitely cross securitised but you do have enough equity to unlink them. You can get your broker or banker to restructure them but you would be up for another set of LMI if the larger security was pushed into LMI territory but this is not the case so you should be fine.

Its best to set up standalone facilities for a lot of reasons but make sure that the equity you will use against the higher security is a standalone facility so the interest is not contaminated. 

Some of the disadvantages of cross securitising your loan are;

1. If you are in LMI territory then the LMI calculated will be on the higher loan and LVR amount rather than the individual and lower LVR and loan amount.

2 If you sell one of the securities then the bank may reassess your financial position and if both of you are unemployed at the time of assessment then this may cause issues.

3. If you sell your property in order to use the funds elsewhere then the bank may ask you to deposit the proceeds into the loan.

4. If the valuation on one of the securities come back lower then you don't have the flexibility of moving that specific security to another bank.

5. Generally speaking you lose the flexibility to moving or negotiating with the bank as they have 'tangled' your properties.

Regards

Shahin

I would invest in APM or RP Data reports which will show you recent sales. This can help you do 2 things:

1. Help you determine a reasonable price based on recent sales in either the street or surrounding streets

2. Help you justify why you are putting a potentially low offer.

At the end of the day if the vendor wants to sell the property for $100k more than its worth then there is not much you can do. 

Real Estate agents are professional negotiators – you cannot 'beat them' at neogitating but having some stats and information will help your confidence and case.

Most brokers and bankers can run these reports for you for free.

Regards

Shahin

I have a lot of investors who have or are purchasing these types of homes. Many of them generally miss out because someone else sees the opportunity but ends up overpaying for the property. So you need to be very careful that you don't overpay because you are distracted by the 'potential to make money'.

Regards

Shahin

You can change it to a IO and then change it back to an P&I. From a tax deductibility perspective try paying off the car loan as soon as you can even ahead of the PPOR as this is bad debt (going IO temporarily may help this without affecting your current cashflow). 

If you are wanting to use existing equity to fund a new IP purchase I don't recommend a LOC but rather standard variable with a linked offset but just make sure its a separate a/c for tax purposes.

There is a few other ways to increase servicing (depending on the lender), you can fix a portion of your loan (I would recommend that you do this purely from a risk mitigation perspective and not purely to increase your servicing) and negative gearing benefits. You may not be able to borrow $500k but it may work out quite close that figure. 

Also you shouldn't sell your property because of finance as there is generally a solution. You should only consider selling a property if its costing you money and not going anywhere or a better opportunity comes up and you need the funds or of course you are in financial diffiiculty. 

Hi Blade, 

I think you are looking at this the wrong way. Try working backwards to determine what property strategy works well for what you want to achieve. 

Now NRAS is a type of strategy. It is a great strategy but its not for anyone and not any type of NRAS property is good. It has a lot of benefits and certain restrictions so just ensure that what ever strategy to you choose – these benefits (which the sales guy will give you) but more importantly the restrictions are explained to you by a professional and not the sales guy plugging the property.

Regards

Shahin

Yes! It's actually quite surprising how many people think that claiming depreciation is only applicable on OTP properties.

Gosh these groups just keep popping up im losing count. Andrew's comment above is great – I personally like to see a track record and talk to people who have used their services before.

Regards

Shahin