Is it in a building of serviced apartments, with a tenant such as Quest Apartments?

Have you thought about rolling your existing super into your own smsf (self managed super fund) and using it to buy property?  Banks will loan up to 80% for such a purchase, so your smsf would just need 20% deposit, stamp duty, legal fees and a couple of extra thousand for incidentals…

Hi there,first thing to do is ring council and ask for some guidance.  next stop would be a surveyor.jac

exactly!maybe build yourself a little spreadsheet that makes sense to you…. and which helps you figure out costs you definitely know a property will incur in a reno.  and then of course expect the costs to be higher for all the stuff you don't know about the thing about a reno is, once you start, you kind of have to finish.  so you don't want t…[Read more]

One decision you probably need to make is, "are we planning to have kids, and when?".  Once they are of schooling age, it'd be a nuisance to be renting because where you reside dictates the school the kids can go to.  Many schools only let the child attend if you live within a certain radius of the school itself.  So if you landlord kicks you ou…[Read more]

Another smart thing for you to do if you are a first time renovator is; spend some time understanding how much things cost.Spend time in Bunnings understanding the cost of plants.  The cost of paint.  How much you need to buy to cover the area you are dealing with.  1 litre of paint covers 1 coat of 12 square metres (eg an area of wall that is 4m…[Read more]

few things to say.firstly, it'll be under fifty square metres and as such will be difficult to get a bank loan.secondly, always check on the demand of such dwellings by talking to multiple letting agents (the rental management arm of a few real estate agencies), and also watching how quickly similar properties disappear from http://www.realestate.com.au/r…[Read more]

Hi ChrisWhy not get someone who really understands all this to help you and lodge a mortgage application for you.  Richard's a great operator and will sort you out.  Why not give him a call…jac

Land is the thing that goes up in value.  Houses tend to have more land.  On the other hand some tenants like low maintenance properties, which units tend to be.  It really depends on your strategy.  If you are not keen on development (eg building another dwelling in the backyard), then is buying a house with a large backyard that doesn't fet…[Read more]

I start with exactly what you said – the rear pages of the real estate mags.  I look for the trifecta:  good capital growth, good rental yield and low vacancy rate.  Of the suburbs that come up trumps, I ignore the new suburbs whose capital growth figure is somewhat skewed by the fact they have no existed for a decade yet.  I ignore things tha…[Read more]

Hi oceansIt'd be a good idea to ge a really knowledgable mortgage broker to hold your hand on this purchase.  They will be able to talk to you about your living costs, and therefore work out how much you will be able to afford to sink into a property.  They also see every day which banks/lenders are accepting/rejecting applications by different ki…[Read more]

Nobody knows for certain if there will or will not be a property crash.  If there is such a person then they must also know the numbers that will be coming up in this Saturday's tattslotto.

The thing you need to be careful about with high density is this:There will be heaps of apartments just like yours.  This increases the chance that a few of them will be on either the rental market or the resale market at once.  Either way, all it takes is just one landlord or owner to reduce their price and bam, everyone else will have to.  Ad…[Read more]

Hehehe all good Richard, we have loads of time courtesy of the long time allowance on the finance clause on the contract of sale.  I'm excited about finalising my first smsf purchase, but not stressed.  I'd be stressed if I tried to arrange it all directly with the bank – it's so complicated I would have messed it up!  Much nicer having you ha…[Read more]

Hi AshDo you have a mortgage broker as yet, and if not, you ought to be giving Richard a call and ask him to be you broker.  Doesn't matter where you are located or where the property you intend to buy is located, all this stuff is done on the emails and phone calls these days anyhow.  Richard really knows his stuff.  If you do already have a br…[Read more]

The problem is the tenant.  Quest Apartments.  You can expect you capital growth to be… zero.   Search the forum for serviced apartments and you'll see plenty of discussion on the topic.

Glad to hear it is all sorted – and now the information is here on the forum for others to learn from too

Corio is a solid fifteen to twenty mins drive from Geelong.  Might be worth considering whether you want to keep the property management in Corio itself so your tenant can get there without a car if they lock themselves out and need to wander in and borrow the spare keys or something like that. 

I just spoke to GIO and asked them to look at MY policy as an example and explained how yours is essentially the same, except you have 2 dwellings rather than 4.  You generally have to kick up a fuss and speak to the teamleader, be clear that it is two separately tenanted dwellings on one title, and that there is no strata and that you could not s…[Read more]

The rent you can charge for student accommodation is no doubt closely linked to the Austudy Living Away from Home Allowance.  If that does not go up each year, then perhaps student rents stay kind of flat.More concerning is the capital growth factor.  It is known that capital growth is not great in student accommodation.  Perhaps it is due to th…[Read more]