Books on property are like books on learning how to ride. Useless except for a overall generic overview of property. Books and articles and magazines can give you ideas though on what property's have the potential to make money. You'll learn more from your first couple of property purchases then what you think you learnt in those books. 

– Buy…[Read more]

Not quite the same situation as yourself. But I did have one occurrence  with CBA on a similar topic. I was selling a property (that had been purchased with 20 percent deposit) about 10 months ago.  I had other properties with cba. All of them are not crossed together (always always took out a separate loan with a 20 percent deposit.) I'm 3 weeks…[Read more]

Always good when you get the colour right Jamie .  Reminds me that I have all the  downpipes and facades to paint on my. PPOR.  Perhaps if I leave it long enough the old paint will peel itself off so I don't have to strip it. Here's hoping 

Hi melb investor.

I'll be frank so I don't waste your time.
On those numbers I would not go ahead. 
Your outlaying  over a million to make a 40k return. That really is not good enough.
you also have to consider holding costs interest on the initial property 
interest on the construction loan
rates water taxes power whilst not being rented.
also…[Read more]

How much is it going to cost to subdivide?
Are you going to subdivide into torrens (green) title or community title? Community title will be $5-10k cheaper. and really makes no difference Unless they both have street frontage then torrens is worth the extra money.
How much are you going to spend to rebuild the two new homes, What level of finish…[Read more]

So that the owner of the building can hold all the strata funds in a trust account that is very sneakily a offset account. 100 k plus in the sinking fund equals more cash in his pocket.  IT happens.

Terry, Wont the bank want to look at the new director to see if they can service the previous loans of the company ?

and what happens if the past director of the company has given a personal guarantee. (as mostly standard these days). Are the absolved of their responsibilities if made not a director anymore.

Pretty standard approach.

Problems occur with always loan redrawing after completing renos on properties are the lowering of serviceability unless it is covered by a increase in rent. But also it becomes harder to move to the next level of investing. Lets say you bought and renoed and revalued a property. Drew down the equity made and went and…[Read more]

That's about normal now. 700 plus gst.
if you have several houses you can lump them in all at once for a better deal. 
It pays itself back 4 fold in the first tax payment with a schedule of 3500-4000.
sounds like a excellent deal to me. 
Also you get discounts if you give them a lot of business. 2 years ago I used to get charged 660 and now I'm…[Read more]

Those sample pots are better then painting the entire front of a house in overcast conditions before the sun came out and you reliesed you just painted the entire front of the house in bright gay purple.  And you stand there going that is not what it looked like the shop lol

well I would firstly Pay $300-500 to speak to a colour consultant so that they can pick the colors out. You would want to paint the most updated colour schemes that are out there. I've found that weatherboard houses can look especially striking with a darker colour palette. But for a 6 bed home double storey that sounds a OK price. Its not super…[Read more]

and the "include what you like" statement is just a Upsell so the banker can say they took out a 500k loan with 400k Line Of credit (900k total) instead of just lending the 500k.
Upsell for business.

Ejay If you had of gone ahead with it. It would not have been lent on the valuation price. The only reason your banker didn't raise any objections after you stated what you think the properties are "worth",is because hes getting your other security.  But they are still going to take the The Lower figure of the purchase price or valuation price, to…[Read more]

220k for a reno. You would have to of bought significantly well below market value and or have a huge suburb variance between sale prices of un-renovated and renovated dwellings. Only really possible on million dollar sale prices. IM not saying its impossible not to make money.
But if your spending 220k to renovate, that is excessive (unless its a…[Read more]

Or have them pay all usage charges.. Its actually easier. Because the figure is calculated in the bill and there will be no arguments. When you try to calculate the amount over the 137Kl, you constantly have to check that its been calculated correctly and if you have more then a few investment properties this can be tiring. Tennant's should pay…[Read more]

Hopefully your accountant meant that if you claim the "rent" from the property that you would go into the next tax bracket and not the depreciation.
Depreciation would be calculated on the quantity surveyor report.

standard SA tenancy agreements have the option to select either the owner to pay water supply and usage.
the owner to pay supply and all usage forwarded to the tenant.
and a combination of the both where the owner will pay UP to i think its like 137 KL (Anyway it works up to usage of about $50-$60 (combined with your sewage and water supply…[Read more]

"Or you could be reallllly un-nice to the vendor and call council up about the structure. That would put a cat amongst the pigeons for the vendor. "
Then low ball offer them (only if your mean)

– insurance problems would be chased back to the vendor lying on the contract (their insurance wouldn't pay either because they didn't disclose)
– Tennant problems ie the tennant getting injured by the illegal structure would also be chased back to the vendor.

But in both cases you would want sufficient proof that the illegal structure was there…[Read more]

If It is a illegal structure and the previous owners don't declare it is illegally built without council approval on the contracts. Then in the future if council ever approached you and said that is illegal. You can sue the previous owners and there have been cases where the previous owners have to pay for the removal of the old lean to. New…[Read more]