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Whilst very much agree with general principles of buying doodads and expensive cars on the other hand we only buy new cars. Number of reasons: 1. we negotiate very hard to get best deal. Last car, we drove ALL over Brisbane for two whole days to get best deal - saved about $7k and got...

James, Try pushing them lower. Tell 'em that NAB and WestPac can do 6.52%. If you don't ask, you don't get! Ian

Beevers at Kelvin Grove Road are good.

We bought a new small hatch about a year back. Compared & researched - shortlist was the toyota echo, honda jazz and mistubishi colt. In the end, went for the colt for a number of reasons: 1. 5 & 10 year warrenty compared with 3yrs on others 2. much higher specs e.g. auto, ABS brakes...

Mark, Re private and State schools (I try to avoid public as public means private in the UK where I was brought up). I was the product of a State school. In many ways, it has to cater for the bulk of kids who are "average". With limited resources the bright kids and not so bright kids...

Hi Lily House, Very interested in your saving system for your 5 yr old. i.e. getting 50c for completing a number of tasks. Can I ask you at what age you started and how did you associate the tasks with the reward? I've got a 3 1/2 year old and want him started ASAP. Any tips? I think...

Hi Guys, Thanks for all the info here. Just got 6.52% variable from WBC just for ringing up and asking. A whole 0.3% from previous rate! Ian

Hi all, Would advise against HomePath (can't comment on other low rate lenders) as they have been nothing but trouble. Totally inflexible and I nearly came to grief several times with them and had to be rescued by Rolf. Now I see the light. Worth paying an extra 0.1% or 0.2% for much...

Rolf, Where do you get sayings like this? "Carrots arent oranges even though they are the same colour." I think their great! Ian

some advice . . . If you want to have a family, don't hang around for too long. From my days running an IVF lab, everday we saw many, many successful people in their 30s trying to have kids with no luck. Many became so obsessed & desperate to have the greatest asset of all - kids - that...

Following from Rolfs post. If you did delete the particular clause and the loan was processed then there would be implicit acceptance of the deletion even if the lender didn't sign it. What would they do then? Ian

Rolf, "Might be worth asking the wife, often you will get a different view...................." I'd virtually guarentee it - no matter what you ask! Ian

Sounds seriously dodgy to me. I'd be taking the view that unless unlimited reasonable inspections are permitted then the contract to purchase will fail. Thats it, be ready to walk . . . Might teach the vendor/agent a lesson, Ian

We had one go from $170 to $220 in one hit. We wanted to put it upt to $180 but tenant thought that it was excessive (after 3 years at $170) so they moved out (they ended up paying $210) and our place went fdor $220 within days! Just goes to show . . Ian

As always there are good guys and bad guys in the industry. Personally I know: 1 excellent broker (RL) 4 were useless, I knew more than they did 1 was downright dangerous, all his clients got low docs because it was less trouble and better commission for him! My advice - use a broker...

Of course I meant get commission in their trust account rather than their pockets. Agents would like to maximise deposit, whereas my point was that its very possible to purchase IPs WITHOUT having to give 10% deposit. On a 300k Ip, I'd rather the $30k 10% deposit sits in my bank account...

How about just giving 'em just $50 deposit rather than the usual 5-10% they ask for. With rest of deposit being paid at settlement. See the agents squirm but worked every time for us. Even had 1 agent saything no way but after I asked what the owners response was they went away and found to...

But you gte what you pay for with these el-cheapo loans. We have a couple with Homepath and they have been an absolute pain anytime we try to do something even very slightly different. Even had them pull an "unconditional" loan 2 weeks before settlement - ended up having to be rescued by...

BIG meetings Any BIG meetings in North Brisbane? Ian

Must disagree here with Rolf re Homepath. Sorry Rolf!! I'd suggest Homepath only for "mum and dad" loans not investors. They are far too rigid and far too painful to deal with anything thats slightly outside the square. They only have phone support and thats pretty appalling. Homepath also...