Hi!As a general rule, I'd probably put a rug on the floor in the bedrooms and a picture on the wall.  Makes the bedrooms look lovely and restful.  That said, I'm not sure whether it is better to market QLD property without rugs on the floors, simply due to the temperatures in QLD.

You will generally have to wait till it settles.  You could ask your solicitor to request that the vendor's solicitor release the deposit to you early, which would require the vendor to sign a document agreeing to this.  It's probably unlikely they'll bother with this, when there is such a short settlement period.

Nice one Blair!  Having an unmade decision hanging over your head is annoying.  Decision made!  Have fun with your purchase!!

Pleasure

No you are not obliged to enter into ANY agreement to see the section32.  Just ask for it.  Sometimes the vendor's solicitor is slow in preparing it, and the realestate agent starts advertising before he/she has the section32 in hand, but if that is the case, you can ask them to email it to you when it becomes available.Further to this, it IS p…[Read more]

I think the situation can change dramatically if you have kids.  The reason is because quite often, the schools they are permitted to attend are related to the postcode catchment of where you live.  So.  If you are renting and get into a situation where landlords evict you every 6 months, you might also have to shift your kids to a new school, wh…[Read more]

About the electricity question.. I know that you have to provide electricity to the top of the driveway crossover (ie the concrete on what would otherwise be the naturestrip).  If for some reasons the electricity company decides that a new electricity pit has to go in (which wouldn't necessarily be on your side of the road.. so diggingunder hte…[Read more]

Of course the thing you want to be careful of is, why are they prepared to do this (ie pay a year in advance)?  If it is simply because there is so much demand they feel they've no choice, then all cool.  On the other hand, you could say that if someone had a year's rent in advance, they are probably in a position to consider buying their own p…[Read more]

Don't be afraid!  I reckon you need to be more afraid of NOT investing.  If you retire on your superannuation as your only source of income, you could be in for a rude shock.  Best to take control of at least a portion of your retirement income.Where are you located?  People might be able to help point you to some suitable suburbs or dwelling typ…[Read more]

By the way, when Jamie mentioned that the tax man helps you make the payments, here is what he meant:- Let's say the INCOME (ie rent) on the property is say, $10k a year and the COSTS (ie bank interest, council rates, insurance etc) are say, £13k a year.  That's a difference of $3k that you have to fork out until the rents eventually go up to th…[Read more]

To get the homebuyers grant, you have to live in the property for a bit before you rent it.  6months I believe.Back to the matter of getting financially independant… forget about this business of living off the rent in the first year of ownership.  Think more like this:  – Hold onto the asset until you've paid it off, at which point the rent ca…[Read more]

Regardless of whether a property is cf positive or negative, you really want to look at the performance on similar properties in the same suburb over the last decade.  You really want the thing to double in value every decade.  Refer to the back pages of the Australian Property Investor magazine for the stats.  It is said that in general, cf po…[Read more]

This is a regional city (Geelong).  Target market: 1 bedder dwelling customers.  Yep, more advertising is the go.

Totally agree with that.  The two I've narrowed it down to have only one block between them.  One is on the main street, and the other on the street that runs parallel.  Happy to pay a little more for the right one, as long as I am comfortable that the extra money is buying extra services, a better more motivated PM, or more effective ad…[Read more]

good point

Hi AlisterYour solicitor will be able to help you out with most of the answers you're after.Why not mention the suburb, state, price, house details here on this website…. you never know, you might find a buyer!

I agree.  She is squatting.  Why should you pay bills for her out of the kindness of your heart? 

Hi Want2Invest….Richard himself is a mortgage broker… and is held in very high regard

I've heard that Elders in Geelong is very sloppy with putting the rent up each year.One company you may not have heard of is ReLease – they are rentals only – they don't do sales.I'd suggest starting your hunt for a PM by ringing around to ask to speak to someone in the property management department of each respective realestate agency and see…[Read more]

Yep Tarneit went mental.  Why?  Well a major contributor would be:  new train line+station going in.  Also it is close to the forthcoming Williams Landing train station.  There has also been a massive price jump in Wyndhamvale due to a new train line+station going in.  Just goes to show… it pays to follow the infrastructure.