The countdown to Christmas has begun and the pressure is on to organise the gifts, the lunchtime feast and holidays away. While it’s important to have fun and enjoy the break, don’t get too carried away and blow your budget – particularly if you’re saving a deposit for a home or investment property...

A. With any property or other investment purchase you’re taking a risk. If you want to increase that risk then buy in an area that you’re not familiar with - and if you really want to take your risk to the extreme then buy in another country...

Here’s a question I was recently asked that I thought was a good topic to share with my blog readers.

When deciding between buying an investment property or a home you really need to look at your short, medium and long term goals. From a financial, wealth accumulation perspective, in 99% of cases you are going to be better off buying an investment property...

The Reserve Bank announced another rate rise of 25 basis points this week with official interest rates now at 3.5%. There seems to be wide spread agreement that rates will continue to rise over the next year or two until more ‘normal’ levels are reached.

It’s important to keep this information in perspective and not panic. Let’s remember that the interest rate levels that we’ve enjoyed this year were deliberately set at record low levels designed to stimulate the economy. They were never going to remain at these levels for the long term...

Yes there are some negatives to showing your cards early in a negotiation that you need to consider. Firstly you will be breaking the golden rule of being the first to name a price and secondly you run the risk of your pre-auction offer (if rejected as they often are) becoming the benchmark of the vendors expectations e.g. "the reserve"...

Make sure your investment property will work for you by knowing all the costs upfront. A cost that is often overlooked is the strata fees...

Prospective home buyers often get so excited about buying their own piece of paradise that they forget about evaluating the future. They base their home loan on their current financial circumstances and don’t take into account their future plans...

Following is a copy of my letter to the editor at the Sun-Herald:

I’m writing with reference to the article titled “Pest plan to put bite on vendors” which appeared on August 16. In it, NSW MP Matt Brown called for the NSW Government to make it mandatory for auction vendors to provide pest and building reports to prospective buyers. I believe this suggestion has some merit and should be explored further....

I have been warning people about rental guarantees for over a decade in articles, books, and media interviews however it appears that prospective buyers continue to be fooled by the slick marketing.

I regularly speak with people who have had a negative experience when buying a property with a rental guarantee and I am yet to find one who tells me "we purchased the property at a great price, the company honoured the rental guarantee and the property rented for more once the rental guarantee period finished"...

Media reports this week say that the ACCC will be bringing in very heavy fines – not only for the selling agents but also for the vendors who engage in underquoting.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) already has fines and guidelines in place to deter selling agents from underquoting which has certainly reduced the practice since 2003 but failed to stamp it out. Now it looks like the ACCC is prepared to take it one step further and include home sellers as well in a bid (excuse the pun) to stamp out the unethical practice...