Empower Blog Property & Financial Investment

RBA Rate Decision – September 2016

The Reserve Board met today, and they've kept interest rates on hold. That's after dropping the cash rate by 25 basis points last month. Now they are looking for a lead in terms of where they go next, and most people are predicting that it is going to go down. In fact, before this announcement, 38 economists were surveyed, and they all anticipated ...

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What happens when the property passes in to you?

So if you are interested in buying particularly in the bigger cities of Melbourne and Sydney, chances are for the good properties you are going to have to go to auctions to purchase them. And for a lot of people, they really don't like the auction process. It's scary and it's in that public speaking environment but what happens if the property pass...

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How well protected is your business?

If you’re like many business owners you have already insured the physical assets of your business from theft, fire and damage. But have you considered the importance of insuring yourself - and other key people in your business - against the possibility of death, disability and illness. Not being adequately insured can be a very risky oversight, a...

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What is The Practicality Test?

Hi, Ben Kingsley here. In this Expert How to Video, I want to talk to you about or introduce another concept which flows on from The Buyers Decision Quadrant. Now you can check out the Buyers Decision Quadrant video in this area of the expert session under our How to Videos but I want to basically bring that further. I want to talk about the Practi...

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Are Off Market Properties the Holy Grail?

There is a lot of talks around off market properties and whether or not that's the holy grail that a property investor should aspire to on their next purchase. So it does beg the question on what exactly is an off market property? As the name suggests, it's a property that is sold, it transacted. It changes the name from one person to the next with...

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RBA Rate Decision – August 2016

As I anticipated last month, the Reserve Bank has moved on the cash rate by dropping the cash rate lower. We are now in a stage where we are effectively in an uncharted territory with the cash rate as low as what we've got. It's an interesting time. So on balance, what they've looked at is the inflation data. Now, usually what they like to see is i...

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Relocate or Renovate?

A household's need for space changes at different stages in life. When there is only two of you, you would probably only need a 2 bedroom unit. As your family grow, potentially up to 3 kids, you might need a bigger home to cater for your household's need. Then, when the kids grow up and move out, you probably won't be needing those extra bedrooms. ...

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Pathways to Profit

Have you bought a copy of the Armchair Guide to Property Investing yet? If you have, you can ignore this page because in this Money Magazine's June 2016 Edition, we share an extract of the six of 18 strategies mentioned in the book. The strategies mentioned in this article are: Changing places, Changing faces The Wave Rider The Ugly Duckling...

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Which Loan is Right for you?

For those who are not familiar with the finance side of things, this might be a tricky question. We've previously written about the different types of property loans out there but how do you know which loan is right for you? Especially when there are more discussions these days surrounding principal and interest and interest-only lending options an...

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What to know about property promoters’ investment returns claims

Hi Ben Kingsley here and in this How to Session I want to focus in on being careful about some property promoters and the way in which they exaggerate or potentially mislead you around the investment returns they've got for previous clients. Now, I'm talking about some of these claims where they are quoting in excess of 30% returns in a 12-month pe...

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Are women better at property investing?

When it comes to property investing, the question is who actually makes for the better property investor? Is it the men or is it the women? Now, I'm probably not the most balanced person to answer that question because clearly I have an agenda out of that but I was recently chatting with Veronica Morgan who is my co-host on Location Location Locati...

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The Rewards of Understanding Scarcity in Property

NOTE: If you like this How to Video, you might also want to check out The Property Couch's Episode 37 where Bryce and Ben talk about the Scarcity Scale and how Location and Property Type plays a part in a property's value. Hi Ben Kingsley here and today in our How To Session we are going to talk about the rewards of understanding scarcity. So ...

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Counting the cost of a curve ball

Here’s a confronting question: what would you do if the main breadwinner in your household could no longer bring in an income? Do you have a Plan B? Most people don’t. That’s where insurance comes in. Curve balls. They’re unexpected, often deceptive and it’s impossible to predict their trajectory. That’s why they’re so devastating �...

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