Best loan structure for me?

I recently bought my first property – OFT property which I hope will be settling within the next 2 months.

I am tossing up between the following;

80% LVR (no LMI)

or

anywhere between 83% – 89% (+LMI)

The property will be my PPOR for now but in future (depending on situation) could turn into an IP (how far in the future, I don’t know).

Unfortunately it’s not the best investment I could have made (I only started researching investment property after I bought it – clever I know!) and I think it will hardly see any capital growth for the next few years (not sure if this should be taken into consideration with deposit amount).

So here are some figures;

$345,000 (purchase price) + $20,000 (additional costs) = $360,000

I have approximately $117,000 in savings so I have enough to put down a 20% deposit and still have cash in my offset account.

My loan (Homeside HomePlus) will be variable rate (IO) and will have a 100% offset account, so any money I don’t use on the deposit will go straight into my offset account (with no temptations to spend it – other than on property!)

So questions is, should I put a minimum amount of deposit and incur LMI so that I can have a lump sum of cash sitting in my offset account so that it’s readily available should I want to go off and purchase an IP? Or put down 20% deposit and not incur LMI. It could be anywhere between 8 months to 18 months before I purchase a second property!

I want to be in a favourable position for a future purchase and want to know whether LVR has a impact on serviceability.

I know some people love LMI and others say don’t incur it if you don’t need to!

I also know that the final valuation of the property will play a big part in what LVR I go with.

Let’s assume (pray for me) that the property valuation will come in at the purchase price.

Thanks for your time!!!