Hi JD

It's a personal choice.

If it were me, I would have forgone the expensive car early on and put the cash towards an asset that appreciates rather than depreciates.

Don't get me wrong – I love cars, but there's a time for them and spending half your salary on one when you want to purchase a property doesn't sound like the right time.

Each to their own though.

Cheers

Jamie

This is quite an old school way of thinking.

Personally I don't have an issue with LMI – it's certainly enabled myself and a lot of my clients to build their portfolios.

Have a read of this article on LMI.

Cheers

Jamie

Hi there

Which country are you looking in? These websites don't sound familiar.

Cheers

Jamie

Hiya

I'm based in Canberra but the majority of my clients aren't. Looking at the last five loans I submitted, the clients were based in East Melb, West Syd, FNQ, Canberra and Perth.

Everything can be done over phone/email. I won't be able to pop around for a coffee and tim tams in west syd after hours though

Cheers

Jamie

Hiya

No – it's just 25% of the rent received which is a nice round number to cover PM fees and other holding costs.

Cheers

Jamie

I have a preference for interest only on all loans – including PPOR with an offset linked to it.

It provides maximum flexibility for the future in terms of turning a PPOR into an IP and can also help with cashflow and borrowing capacity.

Cheers

Jamie

This spreadsheet should do the trick (it hasn't been updated for a little while though) – http://www.passgo.com.au/investment-property-analysis-tool.html

Cheers

Jamie

Hi PDimi

No worries at all.

Your goal sounds good – now you need to execute your plan.

To be honest, I wouldn't be overly concerned about the HECs debt right now. You need to consider the opportunity cost of getting rid of the HECs debt now – it means forgoing property investing for longer.

Any reason why you want to save $50k before starting? Depending on your risk profile, you could leverage more of the banks money and use less of your own. Here's an article I wrote about using smaller deposits and utilising LMI.

p.s – I'd swap the financial advisor for a decent mortgage broker.

Cheers

Jamie

Hi Pdimi

Welcome aboard.

It can be very confusing when starting out. You try and absorb as much information as possible and there's a thousand different experts with a thousand different ways of doing things.

Let's take it a step back.

What are you wanting to invest in property? What are you aiming to achieve?

Cheers

Jamie

Hi there

Welcome aboard.

There's a difference between useable equity (what the bank will let you access) and actual equity.

For instance, just say you owned a property worth $100k and you had a $50k loan and the bank your with will let you access equity up to 80% of the properties value.

In this instance, you have $50k in actual equity ($100k minus $50k) and $30k in useable equity (80% of $100k = $80k. You then take the $80k and minus the current loan of $50k and you're left with $30k that you can access).

How much is your current IP worth and how much is the loan against it?

How much are you wanting to spend on the next property?

It doesn't sound like your bank is being overly helpful. They will no doubt also try to cross collaterise your IP with your next purchase as well.

Cheers

Jamie

the bank let you access equity up to 80% of its value