Hi JessM, how did you go?

From my experience, 5% is not hard to get at all. Just got our solicitor to negotiate on our behave all the time.

secondly, most of the time early access won't be a problem if the property is vacant. However, I doubt you would be allowed to carry out any renovation work prior to settlement. because you don't legally own the property prior to settlement, if any of your tradie or any uninvited guests got injured in the house while they are carrying out renovation work for you, the previous owner of the property is liable for it, because he/she is still the legall owner. For this reason, most owners will only give you access to measure up or take quote and they have other restrictions such as the RE agent must be there and must be monday to friday working hour etc, but won't allow you to carry out any actual work.

saying that, there are some owners who have no idea about their legal responsibility and don't mind you renovating prior to settlement, if that's the case, you are lucky!

Btw, Losty, just noticed your accountant's suggestion on putting more money in super. If I were you, I wouldn't follow that advice. You have no control on how your super will perform and you can't have access to it for 25-30 years! at early 30s, you can use the money else where and make double or triple of the return super can give to you.

I personally don't expect to retire on my super at all. it's just a bonus when I reach a certain age.

Hi, we will settle one of the new development in middlemount later this year.

price we paid is 300k for a 3 bedroom house including furniture package and airconditioning. appraised rent is 650-700pw.
majority of the mines there is coal, with a couple of small gold mines.
currently the workers in these mines are living in dysart, which is pretty far to drive to and from everyday. they are very keen to move to Middlemount to shorten their daily travel.

459k price seems fair price. As the price in middlemount has increased in the past several weeks. an old 4 bedroom house is asking around 400k, so 459k for brand new ones sounds reasonable.
btw, the one we are buying has already increased 10% value and it hasn't even been built yet.

just like any other mining town, there are risks. If you do not fully understand or are not comfortable with the risk, then you shouldn't buy it.

hope it helps.

I've called several major insurance companies (AAMI, GIO, NRMA, Allianze) , the answer I received are all the same: they would not insure student accommodation where more than one lease is in place for the house.
I was told that some insurance broker might be able to help on this one.

Hi Mav,

sure I will contact her next Monday to find out.
Also, has anyone purchased the toolbox by Dean and Elise? How is it? I am interested in purchasing it from someone who doesn't need it any more. If anyone has it, please PM me.

cheers.

viv

Hi Mav,

I got a friend who is attending their 2 days workshop next weekend. I've been to their 2 hours seminar only, but I found it quite informative. But I didn't enrol in their 2 days program because I too find it too expensive.

I will catchup with my friend in a couple of weeks, will let you know what she says.

I personally am very interested in all the templates and checklists they built. The workshop itself not too sure, as they will talk about asset protection, subdivision, strata title etc, which I already know about, it's kind of waste of money to listen to it again.

Anyway, will keep you posted on my findings.

Viv

Hi dogkangaroo,

So both of your IPs are negative geared, plus you have to pay rent for the place you are living. Based on the current tight lending policies, you may have a difficult time getting a loan for a 350k place (even if it is a 80% loan and you use all the 70k as 20% deposit). And you will need extra 10-15k to cover the legal fee,stamp duty and some other fees.

if I were in your position, I would use the cash to increase cashflow in the existing two IPs by doing some value-adding, such as install aircon, do a simple renovation on the bathroom and etc. Then buy a 3rd IP at a budget of 200k-250k and positive gear or neutral gear, that way you will still have some cash left in hand and income position is better than now.

from a strategic point of view, at this stage cashflow is more important to you rather than capital gain, so more negative gear IP will not help your future purchase.

hope it helps!

Hi Lukey,

In order to be eligible for the FHOG, the property has to be under your own personal name, as your partner already used her FHOG, her name must not be on the title.  I am pretty sure that when you take a loan, it has to be the under your own name too. And I don't think you can use the equity in her property unless she refinance, setup a line of credit to withdraw the equity and transfer to your account as a gift. I personally never heard of one person being loan guarantor for another person.

Hope it helps and good luck!

Vivian

Hi Shahabr,

I drove around Lakemba, Wiley Park and Liverpool area in the last a few weekend to get a feel about the area.

Wiley park is a good area, price is moving up now a bit with lots of FHB. I went to an auction in Wiley park this Saturday, a 2 bedroom unit 65sqm, in a 30 years old block of 4 was sold in auction at 245k. The unit was in original condition, need a complete reno to do it up. It is not liveable/rentable in the current condition. My husband and I planned to buy it at auction at below 180k, do a reno then rent it out at around 300pw, it will be neutral to slight +CF. unfortunately there were several keen home buyers and the price just got lifted up too high.

I personally would keep an close eye in Lakemba, but wouldn't invest overthere right now. It is an area with crime issue and most non-local people would feel unsafe walking on the street after sunset. Although cashflow is good in the area, if the crime issue is not solved, the future capital gain in the suburb won't be as high as surrounding areas.

I agree that Liverpool is a good area to invest. However, the price and rental in north and south are very different. Generally speaking the units in northern side of the train station is closer to the Westfield and hospital, so the rent is at least 50-70pw higher for units in similar condition and the price is much higher too. I doubt if you could find a 2 bedder in northern side below 200k now. It won't be hard to find in southern side though.

In the end, you may want to balance the CF with expected capital gain.  the units below 200k in these suburbs will not give you huge CF like the mining towns or regional area, so if you are purely looking for CF, they are not the best choice. However, they are not bad if you are looking at long term buy and hold with neutral to positive CF.

Anyone who tells you 'give your money to me and I'll do the rest for you' or 'I can 100% guarantee your return' is pretty much a scam.
AndrewH, in your investment journey you will see plenty of people like this one. They are pretty easy to be identified once you get enough investment education. my advice: build your network, read more books, go to real educational seminars (like steve and dymphna) and do the deals yourself.
good luck with your 10 year retirement plan!