As Scott says, you'll need advice on that.  Richard Taylor (userid Qlds007) on this forum would know.  I believe you will find you definitely cannot "borrow" to do the build. If you can't work as an individual together with your super fund, you might be able to get around it by something like this:  Super fund owns land, and a company owned by yo…[Read more]

Umm…. you probably want to ask yourself why they are suddenly deciding to settle early?  it sounds like "#### … eject eject!" to me.  Remember your solicitor looks at lots of property deals every day and is therefore very equipped to see danger when they see it.  Give them a call.  It might cost you a few hundred dollars to rescue yourself fro…[Read more]

You can convert ordinary deals in residential property into amazing deals.  For instance, what about buying a house that has a large backyard, renovate the house, and subdivide and sell the backyard.  That turn it into an amazing yield for not such a massive outlay.  If you expect it to be handed to you on a silver platter, you'll probably be di…[Read more]

Hi layingplans,Everyone has a different strategy.  At the moment part of mine is to only buy stuff that I can drive to after work if necessary to get a personal visual on any issues.Can you help us understand something of your lives?  Where you live, what industry you work in, where your family is located… this will help us understand what t…[Read more]

I think it depends on a few things such as how much savings you have, your current life circumstance (eg married / co-habitating or not , kids or not), where your employment is, what kind of dwelling you would like to live in, within reason, and the amount if income you have to put into a mortgage each month.  Can you help us with some more…[Read more]

You will build equity at the same rate regardless of whether you are on a P&I loan or an I/O loan with offset.  So longer as you pour the same amount of money in, it is the same.  eg if you normally pay $700 a month towards a P&I loan, of which $400 is the interest component, then on an I/O loan, you'd pay your $400 interest, and you'd whack the r…[Read more]

Hi JamesHave either of you benefited from the FHOG (first home owners grant) before?  If not, you'd be wanting to get your hands on that and would therefore need to ensure you comply with the rules about living in the house for the first 6 or 12 months or whatever the ruling is now.I'm not understanding why you would want to get yourself a PPOR…[Read more]

The penalties for not playing by the rules within SMSFs are very very harsh.  Do yourself a favour and be absolutely one million percent sure you are playing by the rules.

History has shown that property goes up in value.  It kind of has to anyway.  Everything goes up in price.  Groceries, petrol, houses…  Wages increase each year as well.  The trouble is that wages seem to be increasing at a slower rate than the rate that houses are increasing in price.  The price of property tends to go up at a faster pace than…[Read more]

Ahh then you have four years to refine your saving skills, and also to identify stellar properties.  Here are few suggestions:You could spend some of your weekends educating yourselves on things like:- What kind of properties offer you more for less?  For instance, is there a massive loungeroom that could have a piece sliced off it to create a…[Read more]

yes it is true that if you hold an investment property for over a year before selling, you get the 50% cgt discounti'd be checking that the value you will add to this property far exceeds one month of salary.  otherwise, it's probably a bit risky.

Hi MirandaIf you intend on doing a lot of the reno work yourself, then you are going to have to be within a reasonable commute of the reno property.  Otherwise you'll spend heaps of money on petrol, and you'll get very very tired.When looking for a feasible property to renovate, you need to look at the cold hard numbers.  If buy the time you pay f…[Read more]

Hi HawkWhat you are really talking about is becoming a joint owner of a property as an individual, or under a company structure.  Remember that either way, there will be increased accountancy costs and legal costs because each respective part-owner will require his/her own legal representation.Personally I don't do sharing (I don't do sharing…[Read more]

Hi StephenWelcome!Just to clarify:  you are wanting to buy a place to live in?  Or an investment property that tenants will reside in?If it's a place you'll live in, I presume you guys are eligible for the First Home Owner Grant?If you can tell us what state you are in, and what approximate area you are hoping to buy in, it will help us u…[Read more]

If you don't sell, you won't pay cgt.  For example, you could enjoy the increase in value of your property by using the equity as a deposit to buy an additional property.  This can be done by means of taking out a second mortgage against the property.

here is an example of roughly what you ought to negotiate next time you get the chance:7% of rent inclusive of gst, or thereaboutsOne week's rent to sign a new tenant$55 re-letting fee (resigning existing tenant) inclusive of gstDO NOT pay an agent by the hour, nor at all, to attend VCAT hearings.  If you agree to pay such things there is…[Read more]

i wouldn't try to self manage if i were you.  it's great so long as everything is perfect with the tenant, but if something goes wrong, it becomes a huge mess if you are self managing.  if nothing else, your local property manager is handy key storage for when the tenant locks themself out of the house and needs to borrow the spare set, and sort o…[Read more]

If I were you, I'd look in the Blacktown through Seven Hills district for a house on a big block of land.  You can fix up the house, and build another dwelling in the backyard later, or just subdivide the backyard off and sell it.

$200 is ridiculous.  It sounds like you've been charged a re-letting fee as well as a re-advertising fee.  That said, a re-letting fee can be negotiated to zero when originally recruiting your Property Manager.It is true that when a 12month contract expires, the tenant can stay on a "periodical lease" which means they can stay on a m…[Read more]

Price guides can be found in the rear pages of the Australian Property Investor Magazine.As for its potential growth and will it increase more in value than Corio, …. it's kind of like asking if we know which numbers will come up in the Tattslotto this weekend.  You need to research the area to understand what new infrastructure will come to…[Read more]