desperately trying to figure something out…

Have you considered improving/renovating you own house? could you squeeze a bit more out it? Your own home has the added advantage of being tax free. Otherwise, becareful at the moment,it is easy to buy a house spend heaps on the reno and actually make a loss. With a low income you may feel the financial squeeze if you try to buy another property too soon. Having started where you started I know how hard it is. Real estate investing is long term, a million dollars is only $50 k per year over 20 years!!! Oh, and don’t worry about seminars. Most times you will get more valuable and tailored advice on this forum. Reading books is better value. This might be your best starting point.

JTW

With $190k you can buy 8+cf properties !

Hello Romina

Would you consider doing it all over again? I mean selling your home and buying another in need of renovations?.

I don’t know the costs of selling in Qld (stamp duty?). Maybe you could try selling it privately to save the agents commission as you don’t need to sell it in a hurry and can wait for the price you want.

It would be really hard with a baby in the house and you would have to carefully calculate how much profit you would make and if it would be worth the hardships.

Just another thought. [smiling]

Elka

Hi, just to add an old hand’s perspective to the mix. Most people take a long term view i.e. 5-10 years for property to realise enough gain to make it worthwhile.

Looking at your numbers, I would concentrate on ‘gathering’ more cash first. Jumping into another property without cash or income backup is very, very stressful.

A 20% deposit is much better. You already have about 10% sitting in the equity of your improved home [from $210K to $260K]

Save another 10%. Redraw the other 10% by refinancing. Then buy the investment property.

Bear in mind interest costs have gone up.

You’re doing the hard yards that most of us did before. When interest rates went up 2% in one year in 2000, I desperately worked 3 jobs & paid down $26000 in one go. Then interest rates went down again while property prices went up. I bought 2 more properties with the excess. Needless to say, I have not looked back.

Another point to consider is this. Capital gains of less than 25% is hardly worth selling. Transaction costs swallow up the bulk of it. When I sold my 1st house, the gain was $28K. After tax & all, I calculated the broker made more than me!

It is good you have the desire. You’ll do well. Time is on your side. Be patient & research.

Good luck,
Kum Yin

Let’s say you might pick-up a two bedroom house on 400m2 of land for say $220,000. Would probably rent for around $210.00 in good condition and rates be PA approx $1500. That is the starting point for crunching some numbers.

Hi all, we are back… and with good news.. I have gone back to work, and although I miss baby very much (my parents baby sit mon-fri) I know I am doing it to venture into the PI world…

now… my hubby is still on 34-35K and I am on 43K… we have a $192K loan, 1 dependent and general monthly payments (insurance, groceries etc)… what is our best option? I was looking to buy something with a tenant in and keeping it for say 6 months, then freshening it up a little and then selling it.. what is the options available? Our dream way of doing this would be buying at a great price, renovating it and reselling it, but everyone is advising against that, and to buy something with a tenant instead.. things is, we are hoping to move back to Italy in 3 years, so we can’t really buy something with a long term tenant in there….

any suggestions?

Thanks

Romina[baaa]