http://www.ato.gov.au/content/00325402.htm

"The government will remove eligibility for the 50% discount on capital gains earned after 8 May 2012 by non-residents on taxable Australian property, such as real estate and mining assets. Non-residents will still be entitled to a discount on capital gains accrued prior to Budget night (after offsetting…[Read more]

It's worth calling the Bowen dropoff centre and asking if any church groups near you are doing collections.  You could drop off nearer to home if so.

Reasons to pay off debt would include:

If you find you don't sleep so well at night due to being slightly uncomfortable with your debt level, or if you spend all your days worrying about it, then perhaps your life would be happier if the debt level were a bit lower.

If there is some money left from your rental roll after paying bills and the…[Read more]

ps Brady…. I sent you a PM

Hi Brady

I have set up my own SMSF in the last year and used it to buy a property.  In a nutshell, I found a great accountant who set up the super fund an corporate trustee for me for $1600.  There a plenty of ripoff artists out there charging massive fees for what is not very hard.

All in all, if you want to know exactly how many dollars I…[Read more]

Great stuff Dubs!!!

Ever the procrastinator, I have decided to remove the tennis ball, and reduce to 1 pair of socks instead of 2, and reduce to one pair of undergarments instead of 2…. in order to make way for a pair of thongs (flipflops – footwear). 

@Catalyst – nice one matie.  You've inspired me.  I think I'll get a few shoeboxes and fill them throughout the…[Read more]

Joejif wrote:
There all good points, but something I forgot to mention is that my property is only cash flow positive because I have an interest only loan, if i was paying the principal as well I would be losing about 60 bucks a week, but I do recieve around 7000 in depreciation, does this change any of your views, wouldn't It b better off…[Read more]

Gasp!  My dear Freckle, are you endorsing property investment? (in East TImor?)

Indeed.  Poor financial advisor had to sit there and hold a straight face while he asked me if I understood that I would have to make repayments on the loan.  Apparently some people think it to be optional ehheheheheh

I got my SMSF set up AND a corporate trustee setup for $1600 total.  The bare trust, needed for the St George bank loan, cost $1000 extra.  St George bank had a requirement I speak to a financial advisor who had to sign a document saying I understood I had to make mortgage repayments bla bla bla…. the financial advisor provided this service for…

I invest in suburbs that have proven track records in terms of capital growth, rental yield and also have low vacancy rates.  If you have all three, and you also know you can put the rent up each year, you almost can't go wrong.  Even if you buy them slightly negatively geared or neutrally geared, after a rental increase they'll be in positive…[Read more]

Ah ok so you're referring to areas where the value pretty much doesn't go up at all.  Cheers for the clarification Terry.

And so begins a very excellent and interesting debate.  Hey Terry what's your stance on this one.  As you say if interest rates go up, it eats into your rental yield which of course happens in both positive and negative geared properties.  I suppose the only solution is to have a slush fund of money or pay some debt down to reduce risk exposure. …[Read more]

While it is true you can leverage the equity to use as a salary (and as you say, pay interest accordingly), yes you can do that, or if not comfortable with that approach, you could instead aim to live off the rental income.  The more property you own, the bigger the rental roll.  Buy carefully and your portfolio will have plenty of cashflow…[Read more]

Be sure that the remote is itemized in the inventory list, and is still there when the tenant leaves. For some reason, replacement remotes are quite pricey.

PS very kind of you to clarify I'm a decent person Wolfey

For the record, when I take over a property, I immediately send in the plumber and sparky to health check the place, service all the taps, re-silicone things, check the toilet works well, check on stormwater drainage, check integrity of the electrics, install powerpoints in locations…[Read more]

DWolfe has a fair point – the tenant can ask for whatever they like.  It is up to the landlord to decide which requests to agree to, and under what circumstances.

I make no apology for my opinion on this.  The tenant rented the place knowing its condition and now wants a free upgrade.  While the question has not been asked "is the tenant willing to pay more rent" I doubt they are offering to do so.  Being a landlord is not supposed to involve conducting oneself as a charity.  Being a landlord is a…[Read more]

I have not replaced box gutters, but I know that regular colourbond gutters would cost around $1500 to replace all the gutters and downpipes on a 3br house.  $14k seems beyond ridiculous to me.  I would absolutely getting at least 3 quotes for something with that kind of pricetag.

If it is a genuine price, I wonder if it is because scaffolding is…[Read more]