Bruce Brammall - Property Investing for Dummies - Australia

Property Investing For Dummies, 2nd Australian Edition

by Bruce Brammall

Eric Tyson

Robert S Griswold

Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd

Property Investing For Dummies

2nd Australian Edition Published by
Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd
42 McDougall Street
Milton, Qld 4064

www.dummies.com

Copyright 2013 Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd

First edition published as Investing in Real Estate For Dummies, Australian Edition 2008 Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd.

The moral rights of the authors have been asserted.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Author:Brammall, Bruce.

Title:Property Investing For Dummies/Bruce Brammall, Eric Tyson, Robert S. Griswold.

Edition:2nd Australian ed.

ISBN:9781118396704 (pbk.)

Series:For Dummies.

Notes:Includes index.

Subjects:Real estate investment Australia.Real property Australia.

Other authors/contributors:Tyson, Eric (Eric Kevin).Griswold, Robert S.

Dewey Number:332.63240994

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Cover image: Alex Slobodkin / iStock

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About the Authors

Here are some good reasons we Bruce Brammall, Eric Tyson and Robert Griswold believe were an experienced team of successful real estate investors who have the knowledge to lead you through the property-investment maze:

Bruce Brammall is a licensed financial adviser and mortgage broker, experienced business journalist and finance columnist, bestselling author and successful property investor. As a finance reporter and deputy business editor during his 15 years with Australias largest selling daily newspaper, the Herald Sun where he got to marry his head for numbers (somewhat rare for a journalist) with writing Bruce covered the gamut when it came to business and economic issues. He continues to write extensively on property, superannuation, self-managed super funds, shares and the grease that oils property (mortgages and lending) for major media outlets including News Limiteds Australian newspapers (including the Herald Sun , the Daily Telegraph , The Courier-Mail , The Advertiser , the Sunday Times and The Mercury) , Alan Kohlers Eureka Report and The West Australian .

In 2008, he wrote Debt Man Walking: a 10-Step Investment and Gearing Guide for Generation X (Wrightbooks). The book launched Castellan Financial Consulting ( www.castellanfinancial.com.au ), his financial advice business, and, later, Castellan Lending ( www.castellanlending.com.au ), his mortgage broking business. Prior to that he wrote The Power of Property: Securing Your Future Through Real Estate . They were both bestselling titles.

His interest in property began in 1999 when, after reading his first real estate investment book, he decided he wanted to buy his own home. He was talked into delaying that ambition by his now wife, Genevieve, who instead let him buy an investment property. She then let him buy more, and more, one or two of which were homes.

Bruce has a Bachelor of Arts (Communication) with a journalism major (University of Canberra), an Advanced Diploma in Financial Services (Financial Planning) and a Certificate IV in Mortgage Broking. He works in Melbourne as the principal adviser and mortgage broker with, respectively, Castellan Financial Consulting and Castellan Lending.

Bruce and Genevieve live in Melbourne, in an Edwardian work-in-progress, with their children, Ned and Millie.

This book has been adapted by Bruce from the original US edition of Real Estate Investing For Dummies , written by Robert Griswold and Eric Tyson. Although the basic principles of property investment are similar the world over, fundamental differences exist between Australia and the United States that affect investment strategies, the seeds of which are sown in the vastly different tax treatments meted out to property investments in each country. Those tax differentials have a cascading effect as they work through the property-investment process.

Eric Tyson is a financial counsellor, lecturer and co-author of the US bestseller Home Buying For Dummies (Wiley), as well as the author of four other bestselling US For Dummies titles: Personal Finance , Investing , Mutual Funds and Taxes (co-author). Eric is a devoted financial counsellor and has helped thousands of clients through personal finance, investment and real estate quandaries over the years.

Eric earned his Bachelors degree in economics at Yale and an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Despite these handicaps to clear thinking, he had the good sense to start his own company, which took an innovative approach to teaching people of all economic means about investing and money.

His work has been featured and quoted in dozens of national and local publications, including Newsweek , The Wall Street Journal , Forbes , Kiplingers Personal Finance Magazine , the Los Angeles Times and Bottom Line/Personal , and on NBCs Today Show , ABC, CNBC, PBSs Nightly Business Report , CNN, CBS national radio, Bloomberg Business Radio and Business Radio Network. Hes also been a featured speaker at a White House conference on retirement planning.

Robert S. Griswold has extensive hands-on experience as a real estate investor working with properties of all types and sizes. He is also the author of the US edition of Property Management For Dummies (Wiley) and is a leading columnist and on-air TV and radio presenter in his home state of California.