Hi Everyone,
At the moment I'm 18.5yo, from WA, and moving to Cairns in July for uni. I've been researching house prices and they are so much cheaper than in Perth, so I've been thinking about buying an apartment/unit/townhouse to live in while I'm there, and later rent out as an investment property.
I have a few problems though.....
#1 I don't have a lot of idea about property investment!
#2 Body Corporate fees....: I don't fully understand these, but from what I can gather it's a fee that is charged to the owners for the upkeep of the building and it's facilities as a whole. They seem fairly high, though, so would it make more sense to buy a house, and avoid paying these fees?
#3 By the beginning of next year, I hope to have saved $30K (I have $7K in bank so far, have a high paying summer job each year, will be working full time till July, and part-time while at uni, and will be selling my $15K car, too) so I'd be able to get a loan (hopefully) for $150K. So I could get an apartment worth what I'm able to loan, OR I could get a cheap apartment (I've seen them as low as $40K, but would more likely go for the ones worth minimum of $70K) that I could comfortably pay off in about 3 years. Would it be better to have the smaller asset paid off sooner, or a bigger asset that I'd be paying off for around 15 years? Another benefit of a cheaper property may be that I could lend the money from my parents, and pay it off in bigger chunks/lump sums when I'm earning larger amounts during the summer, rather than it being a big tight making weekly payments sometimes during uni and part-time work.
#4 As I'm only fresh into adulthood, I have no credit history. What would be the best/most effective way of getting a credit history in 12months that a bank would look upon favourably?
#5 Last, but not least....Is Cairns a good place to buy property? Are there any other things I should know about buying property in Cairns?
Sorry for so many questions...I appreciate all advice anyone can give! Look forward to learning from you all.
At the moment I'm 18.5yo, from WA, and moving to Cairns in July for uni. I've been researching house prices and they are so much cheaper than in Perth, so I've been thinking about buying an apartment/unit/townhouse to live in while I'm there, and later rent out as an investment property.
I have a few problems though.....
#1 I don't have a lot of idea about property investment!
#2 Body Corporate fees....: I don't fully understand these, but from what I can gather it's a fee that is charged to the owners for the upkeep of the building and it's facilities as a whole. They seem fairly high, though, so would it make more sense to buy a house, and avoid paying these fees?
#3 By the beginning of next year, I hope to have saved $30K (I have $7K in bank so far, have a high paying summer job each year, will be working full time till July, and part-time while at uni, and will be selling my $15K car, too) so I'd be able to get a loan (hopefully) for $150K. So I could get an apartment worth what I'm able to loan, OR I could get a cheap apartment (I've seen them as low as $40K, but would more likely go for the ones worth minimum of $70K) that I could comfortably pay off in about 3 years. Would it be better to have the smaller asset paid off sooner, or a bigger asset that I'd be paying off for around 15 years? Another benefit of a cheaper property may be that I could lend the money from my parents, and pay it off in bigger chunks/lump sums when I'm earning larger amounts during the summer, rather than it being a big tight making weekly payments sometimes during uni and part-time work.
#4 As I'm only fresh into adulthood, I have no credit history. What would be the best/most effective way of getting a credit history in 12months that a bank would look upon favourably?
#5 Last, but not least....Is Cairns a good place to buy property? Are there any other things I should know about buying property in Cairns?
Sorry for so many questions...I appreciate all advice anyone can give! Look forward to learning from you all.