Book keeping

There is nothing to stop you having 1 savings account where all of the inflows go including your salary or similar which is a 100% offset account linked to one of the investment loans (assuming that you have no non tax deductible loan) and separate loans on each property.

By using different lenders for each property you may find that you are not able to negotiate as good as a deal as if you had a larger loan with the 1 lender.

As long as the loans are not cross collateralised then i cant see too much of an issue.

Your mortgage broker should be able to structure this correctly for you.

Swany,

I have a few loans with different funders. However I find it easy to manage by having one main savings account (with the CBA) that I utilise for transferring direct deposits for the interest repayments on all the loans. It also acts as a day to day account with a credit card and cheque book attached. I run a 100% offset account alongside the CBA loan account into which I put any extra income or other funds and only have a smaller amount in the running account – say under $500. I can shuffle funds easily on netbank to ensure this process works efficiently. I can deal with my local branch if any issues arise. I also have online access to the other loans if I wish to make extra repayments or any redraws but I don't use their credit cards, cheque books, etc. as it would become too complicated.

Hope this helps, Ian

Another finance question,

If you are looking for IP's can you claim flights, car hire, etc.  If you haven't put a contract or pruchased a property.  Can it still be a tax deduction? 

I have a simple excel spreadsheet for each property and separate ring binder folder (not computer) for all the receipts and other property paperwork to be kept. I simply enter each invoice into the relevant spreadsheet as it comes in and file the paperwork. My spreadsheet for each property has columns differentiating things like Capital costs, Interest payments, Rates and Insurance, Maintenance,etc. The spreadsheet for each property goes to my accountant at tax time and he sorts out the rest.

On Loan Providers

I have recently started using a Mortgage Strategist / Broker for my loans as it was all becoming too complicated for me to handle myself. I had been dealing with different banks and different brokers and the whole process was hampering my progress. I came to the conclusion that if I intended to build up a growing portfolio of some significance then I needed to ensure that I could access funds at the crucial times when I needed them. A competent strategist will provide this service and also guide you to some extent with your financial goals – depending on how experienced they are. A Mortgage Strategist is just one person in the important team of supportive professionals that you need around you to keep things ticking along smoothly. Like everything else, I am sure there are good ones and bad ones out there. It's just fate or karma I guess that some investors are fortunate enough to select efficient and compatible advisers / professionals from the start and others run into inexperienced ones and need to tweak their team every now and then. I think that, at least , it is desirable for your accountant and mortgage strategist to be actively involved in property investment themselves so they understand your needs.

Good luck, Ian