I dislike my bank at the moment too. I needed $360,000. The bastards only wanted to give me $310,000 (purchase price+costs). Apparently serviceability is why they wouldn't give me more. It's OK, I have two pay rises kicking in this year, one in 3 months and 1 end of December. They said I'll be right then.
– That's not ANZ though.

I'm thinking of…[Read more]

I think neutral is fine if it delivers capital growth like Shahin mentioned. It is better than negative because it ain't costing you anything, and it'll turn into positive geared property with a rent increase. I like the idea of neutral gearing.

thumbs up; thanks Jamie

Richard; I accept what you're saying about redraw amount, house I currently live in, won't be my long term PPOR. Given that, I will start putting money into savings account instead! I'm sure I knew this, but it ain't been clicking.

Would be be impossible for me to utilise the SMSF option, I'm only 26, and having done the uni thing for 6 years,…[Read more]

If you plan on making this your PPOR in 2 years, I'd go for the one you love. It will be nicer to go home to. Despite what some would say, I don't think buying property is all about the numbers. 

Thanks Richard; 

For me, goal is to get to an IP (need about $10,000 more in the savings account to do it), but I liked the idea of putting little bits of money into a managed fund, with the ability to access it in my 40s or 50s, rather than contributing little bits to super and waiting til I'm 60. Either way, will keep sticking the cash in the…[Read more]

if anyone updating, would be interested to hear about the future of Roma; how long does it have left?

The tricks that tend to get re-stated in forum are:

1. ONLY pay INTEREST, not PRINCIPAL.

2. I would suppose that after a few rent increases, even $5 per year, you would take a property from neutral to positive fairly quickly. 

3. I seen my bank has a three year fixed rate at 4.99% now. I fixed mine at 5.32!!! I hate when things like this…[Read more]

If owing 120k, and worth 145k – you need to remember, you wouldn't be able to take 25k away with you as the costs to sell the property would be about 10k.

What town are they in?

I got it when I purchased my PPOR last year. I was pretty naive, and sus on it, but I directly asked my conveyancer and she told me that she doesn't get any commission or kick backs from using it, so given she had nothing to gain, I got it. 

She said the other options were to get a surveyor to check boundaries, and something else done, costing…[Read more]

On the flipside; if you do contact the tenant directly, you'd save on agents fee and can offer to split the difference with them. Eg – Agent fee 10k, so take 5k off sale price and you both 'save' 5k. Or would this grump up the agent?

There is a difference between stating fact and the posting of flaming comments. Keep it professional, even if they didn't, would be my advice.

I had many poor dealings with agents when buying my PPOR. Blatant lies were always a big problem – – – – not to steal your thread, but if anyone is looking in Bathurst I'd recommend 'The Professionals' -…[Read more]

Bugaloo; I've only just started in the past two months to investigate the property game, so forgive my explanation.

1. They are saying to have an offset account, it's like a redraw, but just an account attached to your loan.
– If you owe 200k on your loan, you pay interest on 200k
– If you had 50k in 'offset' account, you havn't paid any of your…[Read more]

My dad is a carpenter, always self employed – he used to do a lot of work for real estates and that was that. No kick backs his end

I am in agreement; those older homes with cheap looking wooden panels for walls… YUCK!

What's 'Blue Board' – is this a type of gyprock? I remember dad talking about it being only a few mm thick and just going straight over existing walls. In my PPOR I have old walls (late 1800s) which were a pain in the arse to gyprock, then sand bank then…[Read more]

I am only just starting to get into the investment property game, although I'm still a few months off being able to buy one, I figure it doesn't hurt to start researching early. One of my techniques is to look at the census data for the area. The census data that is of concern for this town is the population is slowly decreasing. 
Since 2004 the…[Read more]

When I moved away from home to Uni (Wollongong) mum and dad bought one of these homes for me to live in, with site fees being the only costs. Was cheap and convenient and the sand was also about 100 metres away (park was located right on the water, between two flagged beachers). The big draw card was that it was boom gated to get in, and…[Read more]

Yes; closed in verandah as others have said.
I like stories from older people who lived in large families. The girls would have one room, the boys would have the sleepout.

Possibly depends on area. I live in old area, my PPOR was built in 1860, with later extensions. In my area everyone uses palings and they suit the area. In a new estate or with new 'modern' houses, fair enough, colourbond works better. 

To take a tangent, I agree with TheFinanceShop's post above, about palings being more appealing than colourbond. That said; which is better from investment property standpoint?

Let's assume on ChrisA1's property colourbond is $900, what would be cost of the palings?

As I understand it, should expect palings to last 20 years. How long does the…[Read more]