He is an interesting speaker and the $60 I spent was not wasted.

If you do go, and if it has the same format as the last one, then at…[Read more]

The chemicals that they use under the slab these days lasts an initial 5 years, and…[Read more]

http://www.osr.qld.gov.au

You would want to avoid any of the houses that are close to the main road that goes from Sandgate Road out to the Airport, probably would get a bit of traffic noise. Ones on the other side of the complex should have the noise muffled.

It is not such a bad location, close to Toombul Shopping Centre and a reasonable run…[Read more]

The review is quite scathing, however irrespective of this, it was in reading his books, and those of other authors, that my wife and I began contemplating investing in real estate.

I suspect this is the same for most people getting started. Without them I doubt we would have had the impetus to begin.

Regards,
Stephen

We have 1 PPOR, 3 IPs and 1 vacant block of land to build IP#4 on.

We started 16 months ago with our first property, signing the contract within 2 hours of seeing the property – mind you we had been looking for a few months so were on top of things when we saw the opportunity. It is a 4 B/R house in Windsor, about 5 Kms to Brisbane…[Read more]

http://www.realestate.com.au or
http://www.property.com.au

You will still have agents with their own websites, so look at the for-sale signs in the area you are looking at to if they mention a site.

For the rents, you can use the same sites, as they will also list places for rent, so you can easily see what is…[Read more]

Total expenses: $D + $E = $Y

You will also need to be careful about what you are claiming as a repair, as it may actually be classed as an improvement and would have to be depreciated rather than be completly deductible. Check with the ATO or your accountant.

With my simplistic view I see it as basically the following:

Gross Salary = $A
Total Rent from IP#1 =…[Read more]

We use Wilde and Woollard (also National I believe), and it costs us $385.

My name is Stephen, 33 and married to my lovely wife Linda. We have 3 children – Kathryn who is almost 4, Christopher who is almost 2 and Timothy who is 4 months. I am an IT professional, these days managing a Technical Support Centre that services Asia Pacific and Japan. My wife is a Research Scientist with a really flexible work…[Read more]

As a side note, as long as your intent is to purchase the vacant block of land and build a rental property on it, you can claim the interest paid as a tax deduction from the start. If your intention changes, then you can no longer claim the deduction. You should also be able to claim the public liability insurance that you take out on…[Read more]

I also use EBM’s Rent Cover Plus, looks pretty good to me when I compared them with other insurance covers.

I too would be interested in any negatives people have had with them.

After tax, this will…[Read more]

This is how we started. We had no mortgage on our PPOR and wanted to get into property investing. As we could secure the purchase of an investment property against our PPOR, we could borrow 105% and not have to pay mortgage insurance.

I would suggest setting up a Line of Credit against your PPOR as this will give you a working account…[Read more]

I am led to believe this is open to anyone. But again, not everyone is going to be able to have finanance pre-approved, have 10% deposit and be able to settle in 2 days, so it will limit who turns up.

Personally, I am going to look out for them, and go along to see what happens – all part of the education.

Cheers

After a little more research, apparently there are occassional adds in the papers, but in the Business sections under General Auctions or Bailiff Notes, not the realestate section.

The Auctions happen at a local magistrates court, and you need to ensure that you have finance approved. You are required to pay 10% at the Auction and there is a…[Read more]

I use EBM’s RentCover Plus. It is $245 per year, but gets cheaper with more than 4 properties. Personally, they all seem pretty similar.

Sounds about right, they would have also had to buy the land, do all the water works, electricity to each site, subdivisions, etc and landscaping and recover costs for the common areas (e.g. pool, driveways, paths, stairwells, etc). This is probably another $10K to $20K across each apartment without taking the land component into account.

I have to agree with AD, you need to be able to sleep at night and be comfortable with what you are doing.

For us, we went down the interest only route. If we elect to pre-pay the interest, we get a cheaper interest rate and the added tax benefit for the current financial year. We also chose properties that would have excellent capital…[Read more]

I would suggest working with someone who has done Development Applications to the council in the past – there are lots of hoops to jump through in order to get the approval to do this. You will also need plans for what you propose to build on the land and ensure that they comply with all of the regulations set by the council. Some DA guys…[Read more]

The property.com.au website has a search category which is “Mortgagee Auction”, this is the closest I have found for this, but often there is nothing listed here anyway. Some newspaper adds will also indicate that the house has been re-posessed. The other avenue to look at is the Public Trustee. Again, this will typically be an auction as…[Read more]

I am also based in Brisbane, but have not used a Mortgage Broker. All of our deals are done through the Commonwealth Bank and we tend to borrow about 105-110% of the property price (still managing to keep them cashflow positive). The bank secures the loan against the equity across all of the properties we have. I suspect that provided…[Read more]

Not sure. Should check the implications with an accountant.

All the best

If you hold an investment for more than 12 months, then on the sale of the investment you would be subject to CGT. As you held the investment for more than 12 months the rate of CGT that you will pay is 1/2 of your nominal tax rate at the time. The 50% reduction will not change if you hold it for longer. I believe the rules are also…[Read more]

I would suggest the following steps:

1. Decide to be an investor
2. Determine what you want to achieve by investing in property
3. Choose an area that you would like to invest in
4. Start small and look at the deals
5. Continue to invest in your education
6. Build relationships with your accountant (find one who also invests in…[Read more]