You can negotiate basically anything and do it a number of ways. You could put down as special conditions all of these and if they come back with problems then you can say you will pull out because of XXX and that is when you can start going backwards and forwards negotiating on price etc. Put finance in there too.

or you could put in a special condition that the vendor repair/replace xx before settlement of $xxx will come off the price. This may be a bit tricky as you will need to arrange finance etc based on the price.

or you could do it all before agreeing on a contract.

Make sure you only let a solicitor draft the special conditions – don't do it yourself or let an agent do it.

stamp duty and other capital costs are deductible against capital gains. You would also be able, usually, to borrow to pay the stamp duty and deduct the interest on this loan if it is for an investment property

banks usually don't have an issue – it is the non bank lenders with restrictive policies and products that muck things up. Its not really just cross collateralising that should be avoided but all the tax problems that will come with increasing a loan – you will essentially be throwing money away by ending up paying more in tax.

A trust investing in property is generally the same as a person investing.

Not unless that accountant is a licenced valuer!

Hi Nightelves

Yes you would need someone to set it up and advise you. But it is a bit of a difficult question to answer – "do I need a trust?" Everyone needs a trust, ideally, and no investment should be purchased outside of a trust.

But it is going to cost you, especially in the early stages, and you have to work out if you are willing to wear these extra costs – such as not saving tax, paying more land tax etc.

This is really only something you can answer once you know how trusts work etc.

Hybrid trusts can get around the loss issue, partially, but allowing an individual to borrow to buy the units in the trust. But to do this you will need the property owned by the trustee and the units owned by a different person which means the title is in one name, but the borrowings must be in another. Very few banks will do this sort of loan – lending to 3rd parties. So you will have trouble finding finance – something a lawyer may not realise. Also since your trust will be operating as a unit trust you will have no tax flexibility. Profits and Capital gains must go to the unit holder. The units would also be classed as property under the bankruptcy act and therefore little asset protection.

I would suggest you try to work through as much info as you can prior to seeing the lawyer. Otherwise most of it will go over your head and you may not tell the lawyer enough necessary information – because you don't know what you don't know sort of thing. And do some calculations on different scenarios. If you ask them to do all this it is going to take time and if they charge $500 per hour it is going to cost you a lot of money – with the end result you may decide not to use a trust.

Good luck.

but it is unlikely the bank will give it to you.

A real estate appraisal is not a valuation and would not be acceptable too.

let me know how it goes and good luck

What are you hoping the lawyer can tell you?

Try to work out for yourself different scenarios – cash flows for purchasing in a trust and in your own name. Both longer term and short term.

Also make a list of the pros and cons of using a trust or your own name. I've been through this hundreds of times on the forums so you should be able to find a lot of info on this here.