I am new to this.. Help with structuring and general advice. Please!

I am very new to this site. In fact this is my very first post. I love this site. I am hoping for some friendly advice….

I am recently married. Our PPOR is an apartment that I own in my own name in the Inner West (Inner West Property). We rent out an investment property in my wife’s name in the Parramatta area (Parramatta Property).

The Inner West Property is worth approximately $530k – we currently owe about $395k (we have about $40k redraw available). The Parramatta Property is worth about $650k – we currently owe $395k under the investment loan and about $60k on a personal loan (to help us with the wedding). There is approximately $20k redraw available on the Parramatta Property spread across the investment and personal loan.

Now the wedding is done and dusted we are looking to really start our property investment portfolio. In this regard we have requested our bank to give us an additional loan over each property up to 80% LVR. We currently have a total of $60k available in redraw and once the loan gets approved for the increase we should have another $70k – $90k available. This will give us a total of $130k – $150k to use towards an investment property or investment properties.

I am considered to be a high income earner and my income will only likely increase over time. My wife is a teacher. So I can see the benefits of income streaming. I also like the idea of asset protection.

Now my questions are:

1. Is the approach we are adopting in increasing our borrowing under the Inner West Property and Parramatta Property sensible? Is another approach ideal? If so what?

2. If we wanted to purchase a number of positively geared properties with a value $120k – $300k what approach to legal and tax structuring would be ideal? What trust structure would be ideal for the positive geared approach? If we went down this path I want to be conscious of not limiting our borrowing capacity in the future, that is, happy to guarantee loans but do not want them in my own name.

3. If we wanted to purchase 1 negatively geared property (which would later become our marital home in a few years – gets tough living in an apartment and we want kids in about 3 years) what approach to legal and tax structuring would be ideal? What structure is ideal for the negative geared approach? I guess given it would become our PPOR that it would be best to purchase in our own names.

4. I have read that it is strongly recommended you should never own more than 1 property per trust? Is this right and why?

5. Does anyone have any recommendations about a good accountant that I could meet to get in touch with to assist with general advice, structuring the best approach to ownership etc. Preferably someone that is reasonably priced. I would really like someone to hold my hand at the start. Once I have completed one set up I should be fine but would like this accountant to manage my investments moving forward + plus my personal tax (and my wife’s).

Thanks everyone!