Be careful, I'm certain I read somewhere that you can only claim expenses if the asset earned an income of some sort in the same financial year.  Look into it.  If you find this to be true, then if you have to, rent the place out for a week for a dollar.

Mcubed82 wrote:
Can you still claim a portion if you the owner is stiill living in the house, but u have someone paying u a weekly rent?cheersmel

Yes you can claim a portion.  speak to your accountant, who will probably tell you to charge your tenant rent but to not tell the taxman you are doing so, because you'd subject yourself to capital…[Read more]

What type of property is it?  eg flat/studio with one carpark on title?  nasty serviced apartment with no capital growth?

Hi Nathan Birch, what type of properties are are you finding that return 8% CBD areas?  (eg are they actually in the CBD, or fringe suburbs, or suburbs say 30km from the CBD?  are they regular houses rented to families?  8% is a very nice number!!)

Keep a close eye on the council website.  Keep a close eye on googlemaps to see if there are any new squares marked on the map.  Most importantly, make a phonecall (or better still, go in) to the council and speak to someone from the planning department.  Make them your new best friend, and contact them often to get a heads up on future plans.

Have you run the numbers on DHA investing?  In other words, is the return on investment sufficient for you?  If not, why would you buy a property that suits them and only them?

Good drivers for capital growth are:Forthcoming infrastructure (eg new highways, train lines, train stations). New shopping centres (go Mister Westfield).  Pretty much anywhere that Bunnings set up shop.  It is always good to be close to public transport (though not necessarily on the doorstep of it due to noise), and shopping, and schools.

Here is anoher useful term :PRE-DA.  You can get it faster than a DA, and it gives you a good idea as to whether you'd get the DA.  So you might be able to buy "subject to Pre-DA"

The first thing you should do is call the local water authority and find out if there are any easements or sewer mains on the property.  If there are, ask them to explain what portion of the land you are not allowed to build on.Then ring council planning department and ask them if they currently see any reason why subdivision would not be…[Read more]

Call the council planning department and ask what the minimum block size is for the area, for the purposes of subdivision.  A corner block of this size is wonderful, because if you split the block in half, the two resulting blocks will each have a street frontage.  You could then:1. Sell the two blocks off for a profitor2. Get planning p…[Read more]

HiTax is done in a couple of different ways.  Go to the http://www.ato.gov.au and read up on capital works to understand how you claim on renovations and so on.The easy answer to your question is:Get your rental return (which is 260per week) and multiply by the number of weeks you received rent in the financial year (we'll say 28).  That gives you $7…[Read more]

Depends what state you're in I believe.  Give consumer affairs a call and ask.

Just want to mention that I think this thread is awesome.  Very educational indeed, especially for those of us who are not tradies and not experienced in identifying issues such as described in the replies above.  Would love to see lots more practical "here are pics of my reno project, help me see what needs fixing" threads like it!

Also, I can see the spot where in theory the fridge would go… but I see no powerpoint.  Get your electrician to ensure there is a powerpoint for the fridge when he is there.  Also the powerpoint on the benchtop has only two spots.  So let's count:  microwave, kettle, toaster…. nope, not enough.  it would be better if there were four poin…[Read more]

The situation in the bathroom looks like there is some serious mould going on with the walls.  You might require some new plaster in there.  Either way, definitely get a fan installed.  Preferably one that automatically turns on when the light is switched on, but also has the option to turn it on by itself (ie for the daytime when lights don't ge…[Read more]

I agree it may be a bit drastic to be getting rid of the plasterboard.  Get some sugar soap and a bucket and a sponge mop and get into it.  You might be surprised how it comes up.Can't see the state of the sink in the pic.  Is it salvageable?  If taps look bad, they'll be cheap to replace.I'd get rid of that weird shelf thing that sticks out, and…[Read more]

Great result  It ultimately costs you money each time a tenant leaves – there'll be cleaning costs, costs associated with the agent re-advertising the property etc etc…. so ideally you don't have tenants shifting in and out too often!

Good luck!!

If they have kids, they might prefer an end date that falls during school holidays

I wouldn't want a lease that expires around the xmas / new year period.  Perhaps a happy medium – ask them about a 7 (or even better; month lease