MrWinfield – it was an old thread I was hoping to breathe some life into, due to my own investigations into a burnt house as a reno deal… but the thread owner NBS hasn’t been around for most of this year… Hoping it may come back to life but its not looking promising!

Just curious, is your claim about it being likely illegal due to something about contractors only being able to receive 80% of their income from one company as a contractor? or something else?

I am aiming to do turnover deals through value-add to build up a capital base, then invest in commercial real estate to provide passive income.

For an income of $100k p.a., and using average commercial yield around 8%, you’d need to have min $1.25mil cash to purchase commercial property.

that’s my strategy for now…

Notify the individual utilities of your residental posting address.

Hi Billy,

My understanding is that you can only claim deductions on a property from the time it was advertised/available for rent. So if it is unrentable, it is possibly unable for deductions until the property is used for an income-producing purpose. I am unaware if there are different rules for rural properties, there are many knowledgable people on this forum here who could assist.

Also be aware that any repairs you do to the house to make it liveable are deemed as capital improvements and can not be deducted immediately, but rather they are depreciated at a percentage rate over several years, usually 2.5% over 40 years but can vary depending on the work done.

If it was purchased by a company there could possibly be some way of carrying a loss forward into subsequent income-producing years, but you’d need advice from an accountant on this.

LVR = loan to value ratio. Usually banks like it <80%, and generally for loans of more than 80 or 85% they will charge you Lenders Mortgage Insurance. So for an LVR of 80 you will need to come up with 20% of the purchase price, PLUS the closing costs (as a rough ballpark allow another 5%. may vary based on state stamp duty rates and other factors.

In terms of a deposit when making the offer, often $2000 or something similarly low is sufficient for exchange of contracts. But when the offer goes unconditional, or the settlement occurs, you will need the remainder of your chosen deposit. Whether its 20% you have saved, to avoid the mortgage insurance, or less is up to your personal financial situation and what the banks are willing to lend.

Cheers,
Emma

Hi Jazz

Requirements and definitions do vary a little from state to state I think, but all are clear that you can only apply once construction has completed, ie from May 2011. So I don’t think its relevant that he had no spouse when construction began… Its relevant he had a partner at time of construction completion, and some states define spouse as de facto from 12 months, others 24 months, all include spouse once married ie June 2011.

If he was to sign the application form today, I am fairly sure he would legally have to declare that he now has a spouse – you have to sign you have provided correct information, or they can reclaim the grant off you down the track…

However if there was some legitimate way to backdate the documents to pre-wedding and submit post-construction and pre-wedding, maybe its possible?

I wouldn’t rely on a verbal indication from one phone call – not if its anything like other government departments. Ring on 3 separate occasions, and each time note the name of the person you spoke to, date and time of call.

I avoided this situation personally by getting my husband to purchase our PPOR in his name prior to our wedding and claim the FHOG for himself, we had a nine month window between him getting permanent residency and being eligible and us reaching the de facto time limit.