Part of the problem for me, and others, I suspect, is there are too many choices and options!

Personally, I would buy own home first, pay off ASAP, then invest, purely cos CGT exemption on PPoR is use it or lose it. Also if given choice, I…[Read more]

Have you checked with lenders whether you can get the $50k loan with just Austudy as income? How are you paying for stamp duty?
or are you getting the $50k from a non bank source?
Just askin’, cos without finance the other questions don’t matter.

Cheers

swampy

Why are you investing? Long term capital gain? Short term cash flow? The answers to these questions will determine the type of property you invest in.

You don’t have to invest where you live. Where does a home of your own fit in – principal place of…[Read more]

The cracks are at least 5mm wide. Oh well, scratch potential property number 2. I wonder what the average number of houses people reject before buying?

Below from NSW (strata schemes)

http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/Tenants_and_home_owners/Strata_schemes/Common_property_and_the_lot.html

“Other responsibilities under Section 116 and 117
You must not interfere with any support or…[Read more]

As an investor (in any asset), you are taking a risk. Yes, there is a risk that in the short term, some property prices might slide.
So if you’re sure property is the way to go, you pick the right property, you make sure you can ride out all the bumps along the way – like renovation costs, interest rate rises, vacancies, tax, even…[Read more]

What’s the current annual limit to contribute to super?

Swampy

It’s a nice “problem” for your parents to have!

What would they be trying to achieve, apart from tax minimisation? As you seem to be aware, transferring properties into a trust would trigger CGT, so that would be a big price to pay.

Do they want to develop their land? How many years until they want to retire?

I’m sure someone more…[Read more]

Although “crash” is an emotive word. 5 to 10% declines, worst case scenario, possible.

Each state looks only at the land owned by you with it’s own borders e.g. Qld does not care that I pay land tax in
NSW, only that I own land less than the threshold for Qld

Re q3, do not confuse capital gains tax exemption with land tax exemption, they are 2 different taxes with their own separate rules
If you are not living in…[Read more]

In answer to your questions;

1) thresholds are per individual
2) tax free thresholds vary per state – and the Northern Territory has NO land tax
3) you can check with the relevant state revenue office; and you prove your PPoR status by proving utility bills in your name at the relevant address

Check out http://www.land tax.com.au…[Read more]

Well, if one uses the lower price of your current estimated price, the property has increased in value from $32K to $460K, roughly 40% in about 5 years. At about 8% per year, I’d say that wasn’t too shabby.

Gross rental of $375 per week is 4% – again, not too bad.

Be very careful about selling and re buying. If you sell, you’ll be up…[Read more]

I think dual key apartments are meant to appeal to owners who want convenient city living, with control over additional income. If I was a dual apartment owner living in Sydney CBD, I would have no problem letting out a studio to a student or executive. (Did you see that story about a foreign student who paid $140 per week to live on…[Read more]

A dual key apartment is one which (usually) has a self contained studio accessed by a door, inside the main apartment. There is a common hallway, but separate lockable doors to each section. So the title belongs to one owner, but they can let the each portion separately, or live in one and let the other.

The advantage is higher yield…[Read more]

A dual key apartment is one which (usually) has a self contained studio accessed by a door, inside the main apartment. There is a common hallway, but separate lockable doors to each section. So the title belongs to one owner, but they can let the each portion separately, or live in one and let the other.

The advantage is higher yield…[Read more]

“Is it better to use cash as a deposit or save it for reno costs?”

Save it for reno costs, in my opinion. And also, speaking as an experienced property investor, I’d highly recommend that you have a decent additional, cash buffer for contingencies – minimum 3 months mortgage/expenses.

“Can you include the reno budget in the…[Read more]

Approx 70% of individual investors use NG to fund their purchase. Around 1.6 million taxpayers used NG year ending 2010, generating a net rental loss of $6.5 billion. In my opinion, not a huge cost compared to providing about one third of the…[Read more]

Scott No Mates wrote:
Whilst you've got the income, you should still consider salary sacrifice as this is taxed at only 15% not your marginal rate. Why lose an additional 30%+?

I dont know ONE single "property investor/ stock investor" that pays the "normal" rate- i personally have ever only pay tax rate below 28-35%…and im…[Read more]

(Like the name!)

Wow, the world is your father’s oyster here.

No-one can tell you what the best way to invest is, but would like to put forward some points for you to consider

If your father does go for the 10 properties option, would he be able to get finance? He’s close to retirement age, some banks might knock him back

What kind…[Read more]

I don’t think you are classed as a resident if you are not in Australia for more than six months. Non residents do not have to file tax returns. Anyway you are operating this property at a loss so you can’t pay tax on a loss.

But check out the ATO…[Read more]

I like your formula – even quicker than 11 seconds!

I would be the last person to knock CG or negative gearing, as it’s how I’ve gained my equity. Capital growth can be very important, and let’s face it, CG is what the majority of people think of when talking about property.

However I have personally come to appreciate that capital gains…[Read more]

You mean apart from this site? [smiling]

You want websites or actual seminars?

I like to surf on over to Somersoft too, which also has a strong property theme.

Cheers

Thanks for sharing. Positive stories like yours are good to hear.

Do you have another project lined up?

Best regards

Are you planning to finance 80% of the purchase price? If you’re financing 80%, the weekly (interest only) borrowing costs would be about 145 per week before holding costs.

Over a year, that would be less than $800 cash flow – not nearly enough to cover holding costs of rates, repairs, management fees etc.

If you left a 20%…[Read more]

I find the most fun thing to is searching for a property – the world is your oyster! Where do you want to buy?

Play with figures – look for a property you’re interested in, then calculate the mortgage payments, find out how much the council and water rates are, rental price for the property, likely repairs costs, yield etc – best case…[Read more]

Interesting you should ask, I’ve been thinking about negotiation strategies myself lately. The negotiation process is not transparent – hence why owners/REA’s can make money out of property by getting someone to pay more than the going rate if buyer doesn’t do due diligence/falls in love with property etc.

Without being able to see…[Read more]

I’d really like to see strategies for building wealth in this environment of rising rates and falling prices.
Possible strategies
– Build equity by paying more off loans
– Let time increase the value of property
– Carry out realistic analysis of holdings
– Investigate what we can expect by looking at previous economic cycles

etc

Why do you think it’s not worth the asking price? Did you mean to write 25,000? That’s very cheap?

No matter what the asking price, you can get info on house prices a number of ways. Some websites have limited info on recent sales/auctions. So if there have been recent sales in that area, you might get the info for free.

If no…[Read more]

If you’re asking, does everyone think that you’ll make money by buying now, that depends on so many things, including future events like when prices in that area will rise, and also your personal circumstances, and goals. What is your…[Read more]