Rentvesting Archives - Page 3 of 5

153 | The Do’s and Don’ts: The Discoveries We’ve Learnt in Property Investing (PART 1)

By The Property Couch January 4, 2018 in Podcast

Subscribe On Itunes Subscribe On Android

Happy New Year, folks!!! We hope you celebrated this new beginning in style — and also gave yourself a pat on the back for the great things you made happen in 2017!!

Indeed, 2018 is now with us……. and we are SO excited to share this new chapter with you. We also have a few surprises up our sleeve this year, with more than a handful of epic guests lined up!!

** If you’re super keen on hearing from someone in particular, or about a topic you’ve been dying to learn about, simply head to our Contact Us page or feel free to drop us a line at [email protected]**

And remember: $5 is all you need to become a PICA Member!

But back to today’s episode…. The Summer Series (Part 1 of 2) on the Foundational Principles of Property Investing, featuring THE best bits of gold from our guests.

In plain English, please?

You’ll hear The Do’s and The Absolutely-Don’ts of Property Investing from the people who have been there, done that, and have an enviable property portfolio to prove it.

(In a nutshell: all of the gold, snipped and trimmed, to fit into 2 episodes).

Featuring in today’s episode include the following guests:

Peter Koulizos – from Episode 30
Carolyn Wright – from Episode 31
Steve Waters – from Episode 42
Paul Baker – from Episode 45
Chris Gray – from Episode 60

Filling in the gold mine includes:

The Five Golden Rules of Property Investment
What is Gentrification and what signs do you need to look for?
Why type of car (yep) can influence the future price of a market?
The Checklist to getting a great Property Manager
If you’re a first time investor, what things MUST you know?
What do you need to be aware of when getting advice?
What property type is most risky? Why?
What role does the media play?
How to determine if you need a building inspection for the particular property?
What can go wrong?
How can you build a portfolio through rentvesting?
Asset selection tips and why is location research crucial?

Resources mentioned in the podcast:

Get your Break Even Calculator here

Become a PICA Member here

See the infographics Ben was talking about here

102 | Do We Have A Housing Affordability Issue?

By The Property Couch February 9, 2017 in Podcast

Subscribe On Itunes Subscribe On Android

Finally, back in the studio again this week and as mentioned in Ben’s latest RBA’s cash rate announcement video, this episode of the podcast has Bryce and Ben talking about the all time hot debate topic: The Housing Affordability Issue. But before that, we just want to highlight that the podcast has reached another one of our milestone!

1,027,000 DOWNLOADS!

A big thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in! We wouldn’t have been able to achieve this without your support, reviews, feedbacks and all the amazing questions that you’ve sent in! Our next milestone target is 5,000,000 downloads so if you think we are a good bunch of people and the contents are helpful, just let someone else know. 😉

Anyway, back to today’s podcast. Today’s topic is clearly one that Bryce and Ben are both passionate about, as you will hear in this episode. From questioning the ‘affordability’ issue that we are facing, suggestions to help improve this, infrastructure developments that would benefit Australians, the political aspects of urban development and negative gearing, the importance of controlled immigration and population growth, to talking about Money SMARTS and discussing different household configurations; it will be particularly interesting for you all to listen to the different reasons and situations that could affect affordability for anyone, in any part of Australia.

Make sure you don’t miss this episode!

And the other stuff mentioned in this episode are:

Is your portfolio build on sand or stone? : Watch Here
The Weekly | Make Australia Second : Watch Here
Free tickets to the Melbourne Property Buyer Expo 2017 (Discount code: TPC2017) : Click here to get the tickets

And as always, if you like this episode (Do We Have A Housing Affordability Issue?), don’t forget to rate us on our iTunes channel (The Property Couch Podcast) and our Facebook page. Any questions or ideas? Feel free to drop us your thoughts here: http://tpcaustralia.wpengine.com/topics/

099 | Q&A – Tips For Investing Late In Life, Selling Your Home, Fixing A Downward Portfolio Spiral and more

By The Property Couch January 19, 2017 in Podcast, Q&A

Subscribe On Itunes Subscribe On Android

As Bryce puts it today, we’ve made it to “99, not out!” and with just 1 episode to go before the big 1-0-0, we’re back to provide you with another Q&A Session. In today’s episode, Bryce and Ben give advice on whether to sell your home, tips for investing later on in life, what to do when your property portfolio is falling into a downward spiral, and more. Today’s questions are from the following listeners:

Fernando on whether or not to sell his home: My wife and I moved from SYD to MELB four years ago without not even knowing where its north was. We rented an apartment in the beautiful East Melbourne for a year as we wanted to enjoy this beautiful city life style but also knowing that we needed to buy a property after that time so we were not building someone else’s future. So we bought “with our hearts” a 3 beds, 2 bath, studio + man cave OLD house out in Donvale with the “vision” of slowly renovate it while starting a family, be surrounded by green, live the Australian dream and on top of that, generate a good growth on the property in a medium term. We love the area BUT… Now, after 2 kids, our cash flow is quite dry and we need to do something about it (classic isn’t it).

Our first bet is to sell as Donvale is not a good suburb from a rent perspective (Yield), put whatever money we can make from the sell – We bought at 520K, the median is 650K and we’ve been slowly renovating a few things, but again, without enough cash to finish it, we are not expecting making a huge profit – into an investment property and then became “Rentvestors”, we wouldn’t mind to sacrifice moving out to a suburb where rent is half what our current mortgage is. In our raw calculations, in 3 – 5 years we could be saving enough to buy the second investment property.

I believe the best things Australia has to offer are for free (parks, security, culture, etc.), so for now, not living in the suburb we’d prefer is not such a big deal when thinking on our medium-long term goals which are given to our kids the best that we possible can and start a passive income strategy for our future ASAP. On the other hand, if we keep the property, we’d need to put a considerable amount of cash on top of the rent in order to pay the mortgage, so our savings wouldn’t be enough to think in buying a good investment property any soon. We will regret not keeping this property… I can guarantee you that but we don’t see any other immediate solution.

Monique on whether or not to sell her home: Taken your advice, but what now? Given the projected apartment oversupply, should we sell our inner suburbs 1bdr flat to put towards our next home? Or is it still a good investment worth holding on to?

James on interest only loans:Part 1: 2 years ago my wife and I purchased a property 5km from the Brisbane CBD for $530,000. Unfortunately we only spoke to 1 bank, didn’t seek advice and fixed the whole loan for 3 years at 5.05% so have no offset and no way of paying more off the loan than prescribed fortnightly payment amount. After listening to your podcasts and just starting to read your book just this week, we have since found a decent mortgage broker and are considering refinancing and setting up the money smarts structure. We are considering an interest only loan, as discussed in your podcast, to give us the flexibility to purchase another property over the next 2-3 years, but currently we are getting conflicting advice from our financial planner who is against interest only and our mortgage broker who is telling us ‘cash is king’ in your offset account and we should consider it. The idea is to pay the same amount as we are paying now with our P&I loan but go onto interest only 100% variable (4.3% int rate) and let the cash stack up in the offset. What are your thoughts on this?

Ronie on investing late in life: Hi Guys, Loving the podcasts. Only started a month ago and am devouring them. Ben, I don’t know if you’ve been told this before, but when I’m listening to you, I can’t help but associate your voice to radio celeb Fitzy. Anyway, my question is, how to start in the property investment after 40. We are self employed, and although have a few savings, is not near enough the 20% asked for a deposit. We don’t even have our own house. Should we work towards that first? Thank you guys!

Lyell on the next steps to take in fixing his property portfolio: : I bought my first property at 22 in Kalgoorlie WA. I know i know, mining towns are dangerous. We bought that property is 2010 and have see no capital growth what so ever. Property was bought in 2005 for $197k and we purchased it for $340k in 2010. Not a bad profit for the previous owners. As soon as we bought it, growth stopped. We are however getting 7% gross yield (leased at $460pw). We then bought a house on a big block in Ballajura in the north eastern suburbs of Perth. We bought that for $450k in 2014. Unfortunately that house has dropped by around 7%. We now love in this home. But we leased it at $435pw. We are now at 90% LVR. Both properties are 3 x 2’s with the Perth property on 760sqm. This house was bought for $128K in 1998 prior to us. Very disheartening for a young couple. Could i get a rough idea on what you would do in the situation (in a completely general sense)?
Also, could you guys discuss ways to get yourselves out of sticky situations like this? I think a lot of people will be feeling this kind of pinch right now (especially WA).

If you like this Q&A episode (Tips For Investing Late In Life, Selling Your Home, Fixing A Downward Portfolio Spiral and more), don’t forget to rate us on our iTunes channel (The Property Couch Podcast) and our Facebook page. Any questions or ideas? Feel free to drop us your thoughts here: http://tpcaustralia.wpengine.com/topics/

097 | Q&A – Mechanics of LMI, Purchasing Foreclosed Property, Stretching Your Investing Budget and more

By The Property Couch January 5, 2017 in Podcast, Q&A

Subscribe On Itunes Subscribe On Android

First thing’s first, Happy New Year everyone! And what an exciting new year we have for you all here on The Property Couch. We’ll let Bryce and Ben fill you in on what’s to come, but for now we thought we’d kick the new year off with a fresh Q&A session. In today’s episode, Bryce and Ben answer the following 7 questions which are:

Volks on Mechanics of Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI): I have a quick question, how would you tackle this situation. I’m 33 yo and married with 2 young kids with plans for #3 in the future. I’m currently rent vesting (I have subsidised housing thanks to my career) with one investment property in Warner north of Brisbane. (I bought this before I started to listed to your podcast) I have bought off the plan and in hindsight now, armed with the information provided by your podcast and other books on investment property, I would have steered away from that investment and bought based on location. Hopefully this property will do some heavy lifting in the future.

My question is in reference to LMI and loan to value ratio (LVR). Is the LMI attached to a loan dissipate over time as our LVR approaches the 80% sweet spot or does it remain until the whole loan is paid off? And, given I’ve saved up a good cash reserve, would it make sense to pay just enough to make my LVR 80%?

Jamie on Purchasing foreclosed property direct from banks: Hi Guys, I’m a long time listener of the podcast and have currently just completed your book. I have a question regarding whether you have previously ever purchased foreclosed property direct from the banks. I have located numerous websites regarding this with some requesting membership’s fees to access the information. Are there ways to retrieve this information yourself and can you expect to purchase this property for under market value and if so how much can this process differ from a typical purchase.

Bohdi on whether to buy comfortably within budget or stretching to the end of your limit: Hey Guys, Came across the podcast a few weeks ago and have binged a year and a half worth of episodes in 3 weeks. Addictive stuff! My now wife and I recently got married and are now looking to get ourselves into property.

We live in Manly in Sydney, have a good double income and a considerable deposit saved and are now trying to decide the best property approach for us. The maternity leave at my wife’s work is fantastic so we are not expecting any dip in salary income as begin to have children. In the long term our goal is to have a few investment properties wherever it makes sense to buy in Australia and then a PPOR in or around Manly.

My question to you: With our income we could probably get a loan of up to $1.5M and still be able to comfortably live. But in your experience, should we start by purchasing an investment property that’s well within our means – e.g. something for around the $700,000 – $900,000 mark and continue to rent in Manly OR should we try to stretch ourselves and buy a property at out upper limit that we live in for now and then think about additional investment properties later on? If we were to buy something a bit cheaper in an area that made sense, I’d imagine we’d be able to continue renting and then buy a second more affordable investment property as equity grows in the property and we continue to save. In other words, are we better to aim for a number of cheaper properties that we gain a small amount of capital growth or one more expensive property that might achieve large capital growth as it’s off a larger base?

Any thoughts/words of advice would be much appreciated as we’re undecided what to do next?

Mike on offset accounts: Love the podcast! Got on board at Episode 69, been back to the start and nearly caught up again. I get excited about driving anywhere now because of your podcast. My question is: do you attach an offset account to each loan, or can you have one offset account attached to multiple investment loans? What makes more sense?

Tim on what to ask a Property Advisor: Apologies if you’ve already covered these and I haven’t got to it yet but I’d love to hear more about the following:
- If looking at a suburb/property that’s historically gone up 10% per annum vs a suburb that’s gone up 7% per annum, you could either conclude that the first is a better performing suburb and assume it will continue to be, or that the second is good value and has room for capital growth. I would love to get your thoughts on how to think about these two very different conclusions that you could draw from the same data. I’ve heard you mention the term regression analysis before and am curious if you’ve done any research into this.
- It’s common to see managed bond/stock funds apply their strategy to historic data to demonstrate what it would have done had you invested 3 years ago, do you guys or other property advisors do the same thing with the principles that you apply and what kind of questions should people be asking their property advisor to validate that their approach is likely to be a successful one?

Mitch on Strategy and Building out a Portfolio: I am currently in the early stages of talking to your mortgage brokers and buyers agent team about my next investment property early next year. My question to you revolves around strategy and building out a portfolio. I am 25 and bought my first investment property with little/no knowledge just over 2 years ago. Luckily I bought a 2 bedroom 1970’s unit (1 of 12) in Hove, Adelaide and so far it has done really well. Historically its capital growth has been 8.5% and yield 5.4%. I understand that this probably won’t continue into the future but feel we did well.

When designing plans and giving the buyers agent team a clear brief my partner and I are beginning to assess whether we chase capital gains property, a cash cow or a mix. Currently our cash flow is strong (minimum 2k surplus per month) but this could deteriorate slightly as circumstances change. I’m curious to know again the rough numbers you guys work off when considering these options ie. What capital gains % do you chase and what yield % do you chase for both types of property.

We are leaning towards a more capital gains focused property as with age on our side rental yields can catch up later, but we want to make sure we can easily manage the repayments so we don’t want to get stuck not being able to live life.

Amber on realistic estimates of holding costs for Investment Properties: I wonder whether holding costs for an investment property after tax of 2% of purchase price is still realistic estimate in the current market? I read your article which was written in 2014 on how to invest without affecting family budget where you used this value.

If you like this Q&A episode (Mechanics of LMI, Purchasing Foreclosed Property, Stretching Your Investing Budget and more), don’t forget to rate us on our iTunes channel (The Property Couch Podcast) and our Facebook page. Any questions or ideas? Feel free to drop us your thoughts here: http://tpcaustralia.wpengine.com/topics/

095 | Q&A – Investing in a Financial Planner, Upgrading your PPOR, Loan Strategy to Build your Portfolio and more

By The Property Couch December 22, 2016 in Podcast

Subscribe On Itunes Subscribe On Android

As Christmas is a time for giving, we thought today’s special Christmas episode should be none other than a Q&A session! Topics covered today include debt-retirement and refinancing loans, how to go about upgrading your PPOR (Principle Place of Residence), whether it’s worth paying for a financial planner and more. (And click here for your free The Property Couch Christmas Pack!) Today’s questions are from the following listeners:

Chris on debt-retirement and refinancing loans: Hi there, was hoping you could ‘unpack’ the ‘reality of’ the following finance-related scenario for me. I understand there is an “accumulation phase” where the investor actively accumulates as many quality, appreciating assets as required/wanted before transitioning to a “debt-reduction” or debt-retirement phase in the property investment journey. I was hoping you could spend some time describing what this debt-retirement phase actually looks like, assuming the investor has between 3-5 investment properties all on interest-only terms.

Changing all of these to principal & interest at the same time would probably be too strenuous on the budget, so is it a case of paying off the largest investment loan on principal & interest terms while refinancing the remaining loans as interest-only for another 3-5 years and start knocking off the balance of the largest loan? Or is it a case of building up the offset account of each loan evenly so that you end up paying less interest across all of the loans until you are in a position to pay the loan back in full?

But in this scenario the banks will eventually put you on a principal & interest payment unless you refinance again to an interest only loan, so how do you juggle at least 5 investment loans potentially all coming off their interest-only terms within 12-18 months of each other, while you’re trying to retire the debt without blowing the family budget? ($150+ principal payment across 5 loans = $750 a week which would destroy most family budgets).

Is it a case of focusing on one property at a time until the rent covers the principal + interest payments, before moving onto the next property or is it a case of continually refinancing to interest-only loans and building up the offset accounts? Is it better to focus on the largest loan first or distribute funds evenly across all loans? How do you actually go about entering the ‘debt-retirement’ phase on a portfolio of 5 investment properties (assuming all currently interest-only repayments with separate offset accounts but the interest-only period is expiring for all 5 loans over the next couple of years). This does not take into account the PPOR but we can ignore that part of the equation for the above scenario.

Bill on upgrading PPOR: My question is…I have paid off PPOR (home loan account closed) and would like to upgrade PPOR. What advice/suggestions do you have regarding using ex-PPOR as investment or sell off ex-PPOR to pay down new PPOR debt and then buying an investment property?

Anonymous on investing in a Financial Planner: G’day, I have a question that I think a lot of listeners would relate to and something you guys have not covered thus far.Firstly about me. I am 32 and have recently developed a passion to enhance my knowledge of residential property investment. I am in the Army and have a young family on my income alone. I earn 106k per annum gross. I bought my PPR in 2012 in Sydney which is valued at circa $8800k currently. Since I started my learning, using you guys as my guides, I have done the following.
- Analysed our cash flows for a month to understand where our money is going.
- Gotten rid of all non-deductible debt i.e. credit cards, pers loans etc.
- Bought our first investment. A two Bedroom apartment near Penrith. It’s walking distance to the station and five minutes from the train station, Nepean hospital and UWS. I also rolled our car loans into the investment. The place is currently leased with a 4.2 % yield.
- Manage our money to allocate spendings for myself and my wife similar to your model you advise with regards to offset and spendings accounts.

I also have a broker and accountant and also use a buyer agent. So my question:
I recently sought advice from a financial planner. After an interview, he sent me a proposal and plan which also outlines his fees. His fees were $500 per month with monthly payments that would be ongoing for a period of a few years. If cash flow management is essential and using surplus cash flows to reinvest is a key step, then how is 500 per month going out enabling this? Isn’t this counter to one of your pillars of mastery? If I had a large income and a large portfolio, then this would be manageable. But I don’t. Are all financial planners this expensive? I can see the value of buyers agent’s fees but I can’t see the value in planners for myself.

Andrew on when would be the best time to invest in property: I’m 26, my wife is 25 (DINKS), we live in Brisbane and our combined income is $150k. We’ve almost finished paying off our wedding (ouch) but are now planning for the future and want to get ahead before kids come along. We don’t own a house (currently renting), however we’re strong savers and would be in a position to buy in approximately 12 months. The issue is, our plan is to move to Adelaide in 2018 to allow my wife to study Dental Hygiene (limited college options in Qld). Would we be best to buy a house/IP right before we move to SA and rentvest? (and drop to a single income of $100k), or wait until she graduates (2 year degree) and look to invest then? Neither of us want to sit still for 2 years, but we’re reluctant to buy right before dropping to a single income.

Julia on Buying a home: I have only recently discovered your podcast and it’s awesome. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. I know your advice is ‘location first’ – I’m torn between two properties. A run down 1970s one bed room unit in Neutral Bay (ground floor) vs 10 year old amazing one bed room unit in Marrickville (top floor). Both similar price with similar strata. Neutral bay property needs everything renovated but has structural limitations. Marrickville unit has an amazing balcony that has a green leafy view and makes you feel like you’re at a holiday resort. I know Neutral Bay is blue chip suburb but would you consider Marrickville as a suburb with a potential high growth over next 5 years? This is my first property and I’m planning to live there for next 2 years then potentially rent it out. Any advice?

If you like this Q&A episode (Investing in a Financial Planner, Upgrading your PPOR, Loan Strategy to Build your Portfolio and more ), don’t forget to rate us on our iTunes channel (The Property Couch Podcast) and our Facebook page. Any questions or ideas? Feel free to drop us your thoughts here: http://tpcaustralia.wpengine.com/topics/

1,027,000 DOWNLOADS!

Instagram

Free Resources

Footer

MONEY SMARTS SYSTEM