Macnatt,              Are you utilizing all your claims? Do you have a depreciation schedule, etc, do you work and have an income to claim your losses against, are you claiming your holding costs etc?                You haven't given enough information for us to check your situation, but if all is as you say, then unfornunately, your best o…[Read more]

kev2008               By your explanation of yourself ( working two jobs to pay the mortgage ) it doesn't sound like you should be trying to get into investment properties?  I think you should be trying to repay your mortgage and build up a buffer before getting into IPs.               As mentioned lots of times on this forum – I'm sure y…[Read more]

unmester,                 Wow, what a report. Lots of theory a bit hard to understand, but very interesting.Its interesting that it takes into account the house size increases and improvements to older houses in its calculations. I remember reading an article once about house price increases, it mentioned price of purchase and price at sale y…[Read more]

whiteknightoz,                         I think the general opinion of most is now is not the time to buy.You only buy if you can get capital gains and an income to cover your expenses. Do you think you will get capital gains at the moment…. most likely not.    Will your rent cover your cost of borrowing…..most likely not.             If you ha…[Read more]

Harb,          Well, if it is. You have to respect his decision to put words into actions!

Wealthyjvd,                   Just a few comments.Magazines like to cover stories that are spectacular – so don't think that is the norm. Most people build their wealth over time, one property at a time, as duckster says – it 's time that matters, rents increase ( but so does costs of holding ) so you slowly build up extra cash, thus eventually y…[Read more]

Scott No Mates,                            You are not quite correct on flats and townhouses. I believe it is the total land divided by the number of units or townhouses. Thus most townhouses etc have less chances of land tax . Please correct me if I'm wrong?

LnM,        Hi, and welcome to the forum.        Steve's book were written a few years ago now. So don't think that things stay the same, you will not get 10% returns in capital cities nowadays ( or course there are some exceptions ). I would suggest you do a bit more reading of other books and even this forum before jumping in, so you can get a…[Read more]

s michie,               I think you are very brave to jump into the Sydney market at the moment, but fortune can favour the brave.I don't know your personal details or how you get your figures etc, but I personally would be trying to pay off some of your loan at the moment and get that 95% LVR down. I have worked on mine for the last 4 – 5 years a…[Read more]

Hi mixedup,                     I agree with above.. excel is easy to use, most people know how to use it, no need to study manuals etc just start up your sheet and refine it as you go.  Each time you use it you improve it, and eventually you have it just the way YOU want it.                    I use excel sheets for each property and also run a…[Read more]

Sponge,              I agree with stargazer and tonyB, now is not the time in your position to jump into IP.Whilst you may be ready to jump in and try and buy at the bottom to make money, I think personally for you the best tactic is to use you 20K to offset your existing loan and save as much as you can. When you get a larger deposit, pro…[Read more]

Scamp Your theories are fine and you have based your predictions on many good facts. I agree that the world property prices are and will continue to fall over the next few years.Reading this article ( takes a few days ) has made me think – I think back to when I was young. Back in the old days ( not so good old days ), I battle to think of anyone…[Read more]

Hi,     Yes , I said the wrong thing.What I ment to say was the the trust can distribute the CGT whichever way it wants. Thus if you have a few people in the trust, you can give the CGT to the person who would be able to absorb or partially absorb the CGT.      But yes I said it wrong … sorry.  I think I was thinking about superannuation….Thanks all.

Digian,            Maybe you should give a good long thought to how many investment properties you wish to have in 20 years time.             A trust maybe your best starting point, maybe do a bit of reading first. If you wish to retire one day with lots of properties in your trust, then you can sell them with no capital gains tax. But if you…[Read more]

CHIS,           Yes, and "The best time to buy real estate is yesterday, the next best time is now and the worst time is tomorrow"but maybe they are only true for the past, and the future may not be the same as the past!

CHIS,          No one can predict the future, experts get it wrong just as much as the novice.However, a lot of people and many on this forum including myself are expecting housing to fall over the next few months or even years. It's not hard to see ( which is something most people do not ) that inflation of good and services is getting away fro…[Read more]

Sounds like Katies007 needs to do some reading !You shouldn't jump into investing or any other plan without first doing some research.Good advise by posters. As stated its very hard to explain in a few words how negative gearing, tax matters etc work, that's what the text books are used for.

Not so lucky,                       Agree, you are unable to get the grant. As above, if her first house was investment then no grant. If she lived in it for 6 months then should have been able to get. And maybe stamp duty rebate also?                       Are you married or just good friends? Government can check up if you lived togeth…[Read more]

Cairns Investor,                            Excel is OK as long as you improve your basic spreadsheet each year. Its hard to beleive you haven't access to it. You can usually get a free download of spreadsheets off the internet that are very similar to Excel or get it very cheap from a shop or …. you know.                     …[Read more]

Mini,        Are you leaving the country? Going to live with your parents? Need to let us know this before we can follow up.       Regards the paperwork ? Not really much to do. Just get a licenced valuer to give a price the day you leave, but again depends whether you are going to move back in within 6 years or have another PPOR etc.       …[Read more]