From delivering property investment finance strategies to trusted property partner.

We welcome you to Portfolios. When it comes to property investment and finance you can rely on us as a great source of knowledge, real life wisdom, cutting edge information as well as a sound community base of active property people to help you grow your property portfolio.

With Portfolios - Property... Make it Happen

Renovating For Profit
You’ve watched the lifestyle shows, dreamed of buying the do-upable dump and making a good return out of it.
All over the world people take on projects to renovate and make money from property. It is contagious, both challenging and rewarding.
But what happened to making the dream a reality?
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Portfolios is proud to be associated with Cherie Barber and Stephen Tolle and the Renovating For Profit team. It is a unique community of people that buy houses, do them up and sell them – for a living. The amazing thing about this community is it is made up of ordinary Australians like you and me. There are some who wouldn’t dare put a lick of paint on a wall or pretend to be the carpet layer, tiler, sparky and plumber all in one.
In fact most of these people are simply great project managers, I will come back to that later.
Renovating property is a rewarding experience that, given the right tools, structure, strategy and financial platform, will give you a very fulfilling career or some extra income.
I personally complete 2 -3 projects per year, look after the Portfolios group businesses and along with meeting our wonderful clients that is my plan. Business will give you a lifestyle, your deals will give you your financial wealth.
(sub headline) So how can I help?
When looking into renovation project there are plenty of aspects to consider.
The main 3 are: Structure, Strategy and Finance, other fine print considerations for you could be:
1. What is your exit strategy?
Are you going to renovate and hold or renovate and sell?
Always be prepared when you have to hang onto the property that you have the capacity to hold via income or equity.
2. What is your costs and profit margin?
Understand the kind of gains you can make and manage your improvements accordingly. Knowing your numbers for buy, renovation and end sales price are critical to success.
4. What improvements/ works do you need to make?
Are you just making cosmetic changes or major structrual or even extending the property?
Firstly make sure you can make the changes you want to – check with council and look at similar properties.
Your due diligence is your chosen area will make sure you know what is desired and the end sale price for delivering that to the market.
As you make more an more deals this job will get easier because you will be able to estimate better yourself. But in the mean time surround yourself with professionals. Dont be afraid you will be helping their businesses too.
5. What is your contingency?
I see too many developers, renovators and property investors that come in with a conservative estimate on improvement works and do not consider an contingencies.
Lets face it there are many and varied factors to property projects, allow in your plan to cater for these.
6. Become A Project Manager
Project management 101 – manage your project closely – watch your progress, scope and budgets.
Timing is also critical so use a program to manage day to day activities who is where when – what needs to be completed to allow other works to take place on site. And like your contingency build buffers into your program – rain delays, holidays, slack contractors.
7.  With each deal it gets easier
When I started out – like all of us – I made mistakes but in each case I have learnt far more from them,now I have the privilege of helping people avoid the mistakes I made, saving them valuable time and money.
There are aspects of this business that you will always rely on others to solve for you but increasingly you will be able to take on aspects of the deal yourself based on your growing knowledge – you will become more astute and will see potential everywhere.
(sub headline) Financing The Deal
So the deal looks good and you have done your due diligence, what now.
Make the time to work with the Portfolios Team on your plan, whats possible, the project, structure, strategy and then we can work on finance options.
We can even show you strategies how to finance the deal using other people’s money and time.
First things first complete our Portfolio Review and we will work with you through the steps to becoming that Professional Property person.
Make It Happen – you’ll love it.
Paul Pritchett

You’ve watched the lifestyle shows, dreamed of buying the do-upable dump and making a good return out of it.

All over the world people take on projects to renovate and make money from property. It is contagious, both challenging and rewarding.

But what happened to making the dream a reality?

Property Investment Continues To Grow – Despite Mortgage Downturn
Property investors are continuing to grow in numbers despite an overall mortgages decline across Australia on the back of successive interest rate rises.
We look at why this is the case…
Portfolios is part of Australia’s largest independent brokerage network Australian Finance Group (AFG).
Throughout March, April, and likely to continue in May, AFG confirms the emergence of a two tier mortgage market, with the proportion of investors surging as sales to owner occupiers decline.
Property investors accounted for 36.9% of all mortgages arranged in April, the highest such figure AFG has ever recorded.  This compares with 10.2% for first home buyers and 16.3% for up-graders.
The remaining mortgages in April, 36.6%, were for refinancing purposes.
(Sub Headline) Why The Confidence in the Investment Property Market?
In our opinion there are a number of reasons to be confident in the Australian property market, we offer some below and welcome your comments:
* The volatility in the share markets always serves as a reminder of the stability and strength offered through a property portfolio.
* When company profits fall dividends stop – amongst all of this property investors continue to take in rental income experience changes on an anualised basis not day by day.
* Property investors – buy and hold particularly – are long term investors – minor fluctuations in the market – and they tend to be minor in Australia – do not pose a threat to long term investors
* The Australian population continues to grow at rates outstripping the supply of housing
* Australian lenders continue to operate on the conservative side of the market meaning there is confidence in the capacity for Australians to repay their debt – unlike the scenarios witnessed in the American sub-prime market collapse. See the comment by Paul Braddick below.
* Rents are continuing to climb across most markets regional and metropolitan meaning investors can get in and hang on for longer.
(Sub Headline) Property Investors Still Making Money
Property investors are continuing to see potential in the Australian property market, particularly in key market areas such as rural mining communities, growth cities such as SE Qld and Brisbane. Major growth centres, or smaller towns receiving substantial financial and infrastructure investment are good bets.
This is not so obvious as in the resource rich state of Queensland where property prices in the mining communities are still reasonable and rentals are beginning to climb even on the back of the existing investment.
(Sub Headline) Confidence Amongst Bankers
Paul Braddick, Head of Property and Financial System Research is upbeat about the state of the housing market and is cautious when discussing the need for deleveraging of debt in the market place.
Braddick says “Economy wide debt to income ratios, gearing ratios and even debt service ratios tell us little about the underlying sustainability of household debt. The distribution of debt across the household sector, lending criteria applied and the strength of the labour markets are far more telling for debt sustainability.”
“Relative to offshore  experience, lending into the Australian household sector has remained very conservative.  This is reflected in the virtual absence of a sub-prime mortgage market and extremely low delinquency and default rates.”
Braddick’s sentiments are echoed across the banking sector.
What Next?
Braddick sums it up well:
“In the near term, Australia’s growth prospects are bright and much will depend on the RBA and government’s ability to effectively manage the expansion. Higher household debt means the RBA has considerable leverage over the household sector and their actions during the GFC should instill confidence that the present upswing in growth will be handled well”
Source AFG Mortgage Index April 2010.
Source ANZ Australian Housing Update April 21 2010

Despite Mortgage Downturn

Property investors are continuing to grow in numbers despite an overall decline in the number of mortgages across Australia on the back of successive interest rate rises.

We look at why this is the case…

Property Of The Month – Chinchilla

A Never to be repeated bargain! Contract has crashed, and YOU are the winner!!

One Only House/Land package in town of Chinchilla for just $375K with Ducted Aircon.

Call Keiran at Portfolios Property for details on 0447 255550

$1000 *refundable EOI, will secure this for you TODAY! This wont last!!

Find out more about this deal…

Your Own Investment Property From $32 per Week
What if you could own your own investment property from just $32 per week? You could be realising return on invesmtent in excess of 700%
Portfolios investment property of the month is Chinchilla.
Chinchilla, located in the Surat basin Region is undergoing a massive build up of workers and their families, with a strong capital growth over the last 3 years and with the newly signed LNG deal with China this is a place to buy.
Chinchilla is located about 200km west of Brisbane with ever increasing job opportunities. Tightening rental availability has driven up rents sharply and will continue to do so.
The region has hospitals, schools and many amenities of normally much larger towns. Over $10 Billion being spent on Coal mines, a gas pipe line, rail links, gas exploration and waste water purification projects.
The government is also investing in rail in the Darling Downs, linking this region and its rich, diverse production with export ports such Gladstone.
According to investment sources the region around Chinchilla enjoys a 98% employment rate and a rental vacancy rate around 1%.
If you earn over $80,000 per anum we’d love to talk to you about this deal. We have turn key, brand new, four bedroom homes ready to be tenanted today.
If you earn under $80,000 then you might find this deal to be worth while with low property price entry, expected capital gains and expected rental hikes in the coming 12-24 months.
Chinchilla presents a great opportunity. You can view this and other properties in this region at www.portfoliosproperty.com.au or just go to Featured Properties.

What if you could own your own investment property from just $32 per week? *

You could be realising return on invesmtent in excess of 700%.

Understand Your Strategy, Then Check Your Loan Exit Costs
With the average loan for an investment property being refinanced every three years it is little wonder the banks have introduced fees to make you think twice about moving away from them.
Loan exit fees have become common place in the mortgage market. Today very few banks provide loans without them. But it hasn’t always been the case.
Lenders exit fees serve to discourage people from refinancing to other banks – or even with the same bank. They are designed to keep customers as long as the bank can.
The challenge for banks is that most home loans do not make as much profitability in the first few years as they do in the ensuing years. Banks need to recoup profit if the customer chooses to exit early.
Fees can range from $400, an average of major lenders around the $750-$1000 mark with non-bank lenders charging a percentage to exit of around up to 2.5%.
Whilst we dont necessarily agree with these exit fees it is something we have work with developing your strategy.
What you need to understand is your strategy affects the loan options and it is far more than just the interest rate.
At Portfolios we understand all consideration of your deal and the associated loan/s which is why we aim to offer up to three loan options into your strategy each with its own profile and considerations. Make sure you take the time to review and discuss.
For example if you are purchasing to renovate and sell  quickly  then we will offer up to 3 loans that typically would have  lower exit fees for great profitability in your deal.
However if your strategy is to buy and hold the property then the early exit fees are not so much of a consideration.
Portfolios will work with you to develop the right strategy that includes Structure, Strategy, the Property and Finance.
If you wish to look at your options and get started complete our FREE Portfolio Review and we will be in contact with you shortly.
Portfolios looks forward to working with you to …Make it Happen.

With the average loan for an investment property being refinanced every three years it is little wonder the banks have introduced fees to make you think twice about moving away from them.

Loan exit fees have become common place in the mortgage market. Today very few banks provide loans without them. But it hasn’t always been the case.