As the boys have pointed out, the lenders will have their own special formula that they use when calculating serviceability.  You yourself do not have to use such a general formula.  Nothing wrong with a bit of precision.  If you are interested in a property, you find out the current cost of its holding costs such as its council rates, water…[Read more]

A better approach is to take the following attitude : "I am happy for service providers I use (such as Accountants, Mortgage Brokers etc) to earn a quid on my deal if it is the case that they are knowledgeable people, and they area making me wealthier through their knowledge.  Further, I am pleased to find that because my service provider is so…[Read more]

In fairness to Mark, the pointers are essentially his intellectual property which is his livelihood….

Be aware that your insurer will charge you a higher premium if you opt to self-manage

Hi Dennis

May I ask why it is that you are looking at property that loses money (and not a small amount) each week?  Any reason why you are not looking at property that pulls its weight a bit more?

Have you considered investing in property via SMSF (Self Managed Super Fund)?  Either way, it is still possible to get 100% lend on certain properties.

I cannot see why a broker would do this.  You would essentially be asking them to write your mortgage application and go through the pain of seeing it through to settlement (no small task these days thanks to banks offshoring whole departments within their organisation) for virtually no pay at all.  You wouldn't go to work every day for free, so…[Read more]

Hi Ryan

A couple of other things to address: are the loans on your first property fixed or variable interest?

Is there any mortgage insurance in the equation on the first property?

Why are you thinking of selling?  A decent whack of money goes down the toilet selling down to then buy again (between capital gains tax and reinvesting the cash in…[Read more]

Very interesting thread.  I would be super interested to understand the balance each of you have in super, what your current salaries (and living costs) look like.  This will make the whole equation much clearer, and will shine the torch on the best path forward.  Investing in super is indeed an awesome opportunity.  With that said, the order in…[Read more]

kirbonavich wrote:
Mine is under an Investment Property loan…
I may just wait for this new transactional offset account to role out.

Hi David

Why wait?  I am assuming your loan is on variable as opposed to fixed (an offset won't help you if you are on fixed).

The MISA account (essentially an offset account)
You have $19k in your offset. …[Read more]

Hi Mikko

Hm could be tricky getting a refinance on your place, given the likely current value of it compared to the outstanding balance.

Is there a reason you've not paid off the build of your credit card with the $8k you have in the bank?  I'm thinking of that high credit card interest and how it would be a good thing to get that knocked on the…[Read more]

Annoying isn't it!

I find I have that problem in Internet Explorer but not Firefox, so maybe try a different browser.  Otherwise go through the oddly archaic exercise of typing out your post in Notepad and then copy and pasting it across into propertyinvesting.com

Hi Andy

The most important word in your post was "micro".

It is tricky to finance a dwelling that is of less than 50m2, so unless you're up for funding a huge deposit, it isn't an attractive option.

In order for a property priced at $350k to be cashflow positive, the weekly rent is going to have to be somewhere around $450+ per week.

Indeed…[Read more]

Good evening! 

As the others have mentioned, it is a government fee not a bank fee.  That says, such a fee applies to each and every property transaction so it would be nice to thing your bank/lender would ensure you understand how things will pan out.  Whilst there are some banks that are absolutely fabulous with response times and customer…[Read more]

jenny9 wrote:
I've also done Cherie Barber's Renovating For Profit course. It was amazing & I highly recommend it!

Cherie passed on her IP and loads more invaluable information. To go around swapping materials isn't really an ethical thing to do is it? Remember copyright laws…. Where is the honesty & respect for these amazing people who have…[Read more]

Hi MrEskimo

For that pricerange, you'll likely be looking in the outer Western suburbs of Sydney.  That said – remember… it is an investment property.  You won't be living in it.  It therefore does not need to be just down the road from where you are living.  You could for instance acquire something interstate with an appropriate pricetag and…[Read more]

Hi Joe

Welcome to the forums!

The first and most obvious question is, are you contemplating another IP purchase in your own names, or are you contemplating setting up a Self Managed Super Fund and using your superannuation money as deposit and buying costs on the IP?  I'm guessing you'd have sufficient funds in your super to fund a hefty deposit…[Read more]

mizfitz wrote:
Thats exactly right JacM, some photos go back years! I'll just have to bite the bullet and go for a road trip!!

Possibly yep!

Always remember to keep the numbers of things in mind.  Don't spend more on a road trip (petrol, accommodation, loss of wages) than you could just staying at work earning your wages doing what you do…[Read more]

Hi Chrighto

Jamie has hit the nail on the head in pointing out that your personality and risk profile will play a part in determining what type of investing you are comfortable with.

Depending on what your income is like, then assuming you wanted to invest your $200k in property, it could put you into up to 8 properties.

As you say you are…[Read more]

Certainly tread with caution buying sight unseen.  I've seen plenty of properties whereby the pictures are a few years old.  For example, pictures taken immediately after a new property has been built, but has since been tenanted for a few years, perhaps the grass has died, perhaps the demographic in the street isn't as you'd hoped.  The power of…[Read more]