Investment property expert recommendation

Bit of general advice that may help. This is just opinion from experience and I don’t profess to be a lawyer, tax agent, estate agent or any other kind of agent:
– Have a professional depreciation company draw up a depreciation schedule for you. There’s a lot that you can legitimately claim and there’s different depreciation methods to use.
– If possible, manage the property yourself. The real estate agent doesn’t do much to earn that 10% of rent. Sometimes agents neglect things that you may notice and there’s this belief that the agent sorts things out if it all goes pear shaped with the tenant. This is also not always the case. All the paperwork you need for self managing is available online.
– Owning a rental property is unlikely to earn you quick bucks. You usually have to be in it for the long run – even then you can lose out. Have spare money ready as all sorts of expenses pop up during the year and before you can claim any on tax.
– Look after the tenant and they will hopefully look after you. Karma and all that.
– Choose the right tenant. Consider a couple with an older dog is often a good call as finding a rental property is hard for dog owners and they might stick with your rental longer term.
– Getting a bad tenant can be hell. You’ve got a lot more to lose than they do and the law is often on their side.
– Make sure there is a clear understanding on all aspects of the lease – particularly who pays water excess and other bills etc. Spell it all out up front in writing.
– Be meticulous with your condition schedule and take photos.
– Often you don’t make money from the rental and the only area of profit is appreciation of the property. If this isn’t happening, then it may not be worth maintaining that investment.
– Get appropriate landlord’s insurance..
– Be aware of how much land tax is. It’s usually a large cost.
– There’s an interesting thing with stamp duty in ACT. If you have purchased the property as an investment property, because ACT is leasehold, you may be able claim stamp duty on your tax return.

Hope this helps.

My suggestion to the OP is to start reading widely about housing in Australia. You might start with the macrobusiness blog where you could, if you wish, educate yourself about things like the ratio of housing ‘values’ in Australia relative to GDP, and then compare that to other countries:

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2012/03/housing-swallows-economy-leith-van-onselen/

You can find all kinds of interesting stuff like, for example, the jaw-dropping statistic that Aussie housing is on average around 3 times more expensive than the US. I take the view that if the same commodity costs 3 x more in one jurisdiction than another, then I wouldn’t be putting all my eggs in the basket of buying the commodity in the more expensive jurisdiction. But hey, that’s just me, and who am I to stand in the way of Australians setting world’s best practice in greater fooldom?

Thanks guys – great advice!

+1 I totally agree

Make sure that whoever your choose, they have plenty of professional indemnity insurance so if they give you bad advice you can ask on this blog for the name of a good solicitor and then sue them.

Hi Kate
I think sometimes if you need a investment property advice it is better to see someone who is specialised in that field. I highly recommend Sumer singh from loan market. He is really good. Someone recommeded him to us few years back and we haven’t looked back since. I reckon he is the best in this field.He is located in phillip. Hope this helps

Back your own judgement – it’s not rocket science.

+1 for somersoft, forget about the financial planner/accountant.

A good finance broker can give you advice. Before considering another property you need to make sure all your loans structures are sorted. A good broker can set up your loans properly and make sure your bases are covered. I have 8 investment properties and from my experience this is the best advice. Financial planners and accountants are very risk adverse and tend to only peddle their own products.

And no, I’m not a broker.

Hadrill Accounting is great – ask for Jane. We go to her for financial stuff but manage our own investment.