Hi micheal and welcome

If you do a search for SA in the ‘Heads Up’ (I think) forum, you should find a group that meets up already that you could join.

Cheers
Mel

dragon, that subscription is probably for 12 issues – ie 2 years worth. That’s what I just paid when I resubscribed for 2 years.

Cheers
Mel

By the way, I don’t want to ‘own’ my houses – I just want to ‘control’ them. I’m more than happy to have mortgages on every house I own, just so long as they still give me some money after the bank has been paid for their ‘interest’ in my property.[]

Cheers
Mel

Matt

In a P&I loan, over a long term, there is not all that much principal paid off anyway. As we are talking about making houses more ‘affordable’ and discussing 40 year loan terms (which are US only at the moment), I suggested an IO loan, which is the lowest payments that the bank requires for you to own the house.

Perhaps you really want to…[Read more]

Dolf de Roos quotes that if you can up your rent by $10 per week, ie $520 per year, that the capital value of your property (based on a rental of 10%) will go up by $5200. That’s the theory.

Ian, air con may or may not add value to your place, but for such a small amount it may not be worth it to refinance. I would ask a couple of RE Agents to…[Read more]

quote:my question is how do I know if I have enough equity in my home and investmant property to purchase a new investment property.

As Jester said, you subtract mortgages from value. However, to work out your ‘available’ equity, which is what the banks will lend, you need to subtract your mortgages from 80% of the value. Banks are generally…[Read more]

quote:The second i bought more than 12 months ago with the view of renting. I have nearly finished renovating this one and due to a massive CG i am thinking of cashing in to finance more IP’s.

Rabbit, I’m guessing you lived in this one while renoing? If you lived in it, you can definitely sell it CGT exempt. If you sell it within 6 months of…[Read more]

As Simon said ([]), an LOC can last an awful long time – and can be paid interest only if that’s what you want to do. It would cut the payments down, and you pay more as and when you can.

He’s also mentioned somewhere that age doesn’t seem to affect the granting of long term loans to ‘older’ people.

Cheers
Mel

Spider

I think to know how Steve did it, you probably have to go and see his seminars, and take notes, and still probably say ‘Oh’, but that won’t quite work for me, so I’ll have to add/subtract this, and see how I go.

I have found that some banks (managers) will not order a valuation if you are putting a 20% deposit and paying closing costs.…[Read more]

Crocco, I think Aus privacy laws are a ‘tad’ more stringent than the US, so there’s no way like they have to find out about impending foreclosures.

The best you could do would be to talk to your network (accountant/banker/solicitor/real estate agent etc) and tell them that you could be ready for a quick settlement if they know of anybody that…[Read more]

Bassla, yes, I guess it does go against the +ve cashflow ideal – but who said that that was the only way to invest?

It is Steve’s way, and this is a forum set up by him, but I’m sure that a lot of people who log on here do not ONLY subscribe to that view.

If you can, you could always try to find some +ve cashflow properties that would help to…[Read more]

spider, why would you want to retire to Sydney!?![]

Canberra is much much better!![]

A suggestion:

Find an area you like in Sydney. Rents are much cheaper than buying. 3-5% yields. Find a rental you like, and ask to sign a 5 year lease (or pick a number). Get some clause agreed to by the landlord that at any time, with 60-90 days notice,…[Read more]

Lisa, you could do that. Do you really want to move out of your house? Could you instead rent out the one you’re looking at buying the 1/4 share in?

BE CAREFUL how you set the deal up with friends – it’s great when you are friends, but not so great if something ‘unexpected’ happens and suddenly you are not friends.

If you do move into the…[Read more]

I think westan has. If you have a search for Homepath you may come up with something?

Cheers
Mel

Alexander, in a company there is no Capital Gains Tax. It is basically added straight as income tax, and taxed at 30%. there is no exemption for holding greater than 12 months – a big disadvantage to holding growth assets in companies.

Cheers
Mel

Bassla, have you bought another PPOR since?

If you have owned it for more than a year, you can sell at anytime. You can also claim exemption for that year you lived in it.

If you have not got a PPOR now (or even if you have, you can choose which one is your ppor for the time you have owned the other one) you could sell the place, and pay no…[Read more]

Some problems will be highly geared investors, who cannot cope with the massive -ve cashflow they are getting, and need to stem the tide by selling – hopefully to realise enough to pay off the debt, but it depends how much they are losing per month. They might sell at any price to get rid of it.

This could open up ‘bargains’ for you – you could…[Read more]

SIS, I can’t tell you which ones cos I don’t remember, but know that I’ve seen at least a few. They were at 7.5% about 2 years ago when I first saw them.

Ask a broker.

Cheers
Mel

Hey Tools. it looks like you must be registered twice!! They both have different member numbers, so to make your first post you must have logged in as the ‘other’ Tools. []

Cheers
Mel

Kev

From the top of my head, closing fees will consist of

Stamp Duty (avaliable from state revenue, or many websites will calc it for you if you input value – check out links on this site)
Solicitors Fees $500-1000
Mortgage Stamp Duty (not sure, ask a broker)
Loan App fees
Adjustments for rates etc at settlement

Can’t think of any more at the…[Read more]