u/Hefty_Pressure_

Hi everyone,

We’re looking at buying a place in Sydney (FHB) and trying to work out the best location.

The situation is office is in Macquarie Park and the school is in Hurstville. So ideally we’d like to live somewhere that is reasonably convenient for both, rather than being too far towards one side. School commute will be in bus/train and will be taking car to office.

We’re looking to buy rather than rent, so things like family-friendly suburb, transport, amenities, safety and long-term value also matter.

Would love to hear from people who actually live around this corridor — where would you buy if you were in our situation or which suburb would you prioritise? Budget around 1.3M

Any suggestions or suburbs we should be looking at (or avoiding) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Is the strata fees so cooked in Aus that 4M properties are being sold for 1M? Who would even want to buy an apartment or townhouse with strata then?

Hi all. 48M here. 10+ years working as a Business Analyst but never enjoyed being a BA. Tried my hand in few domains to see if the issue was with a specific industry but realised shortly I am not meant to work as a BA. Unemployed since last 2.5 years now. Was wondering if it would make sense to upskill myself and pivot to Data Centre related roles as I have some networking experience and a degree in Computer Science? Plan is to complete Network+, Server+ and AWS Cloud Practitioner certifications in quick succession and leverage the PM/BA skills to apply for the DC roles.

Would this plan pass a pub test?

Hi all. FHB here. If you would like to purchase a $1.3M property and it only requires a $125k cash contribution for a 95% LVR (contribution includes 5% deposit, stamp duty, misc cost, LMI not applicable), I was wondering what would be the impact if you have a 200k saving in the bank instead?

Would the bank ask you to go for a 10% deposit instead of 5% (ask in the sense you have to) or you can just decide to go ahead with 5% deposit and put the leftover cash in the offset account (as it will help to reduce the interest)?

What I am trying to figure out is, will it hurt to have more savings in the bank account if you plan to go for a 5% deposit? Will the broker will be able to help to explain the bank in this scenario why you want to opt for 5% depo? If no, would it be advisable to move the funds to another account and when should it be done before buying the property (for eg at least 3 months before you apply for the mortgage)?

Thanks for your help!

Hi all. Would it be possible to transfer shares from Betashares to Vanguard? As VG, does not allow to buy fractional shares, plan is to accumulate them in Betashares and transfer them to Vanguard (for eg once it reaches 20 shares) so that all the dividends are paid in one place and for ease of tracking them in future. If anyone has done it, would love to hear their experience. Tks!

Hi all. I just wanted to know how many VAS/VGS shares (quantity) are required before DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Plan) finally starts working so that the cash dividends can automatically buy more shares on its own? I am going for 20/80 VAS/VGS. Tks!

Hi all.

Would we require to take a printout of the pre approval while going for inspection to purchase a property in case the REA would like to know your formal borrowing capacity or would it be based on a loose conversation in the beginning? Thanks for your input!

FHB here. Currently we are planning to apply for a pre approval based on a single income only as one of us is unemployed at the moment. Was wondering if we can still put both our names in the deed later while purchasing or if the loan is taken on a single name, only his/her name can be put in the deed?

Furthermore, is the LVR mentioned in the pre approval letter? We can go for a 95% LVR with no LMI needed but was wondering is there any downside or less advantage to us if there are 2 buyers one with 90%LVR and another with 95%LVR and the seller decides to go with a lesser LVR?

If we get a pre-approval letter with 95%LVR, would we need to get another pre approval letter if we think we can afford 90%?

Thanks for the help! pretty layman questions but would appreciate some answers