Hi Joe,

Lots more information required; is your brother's property an investment or their new home?, how old are you? family plans for yourself?

Why don't you want to sell the house?
Is your brother/gf employed in stable positions?
Possibility of career/job change?

I strongly recomment you make a decision to unentangle the property with which you are half share with your brother. Being co-owners exposes you to his financial frailities (and vice versa too btw) and being tangled means each of your financial positions will be complicated for as long as you are co-owners.

Give me a bit more and I'll endeavour to give you a better answer.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the additional detail - before proceeding any further I have no financial planning type qualifications so don't hesitate to 'run the ruler' over anything I say.

It is highly likely you will continue to benefit from a significant CGT free asset. It sounds as if this property was your mothers own home without being an investment ptoperty sometimes during her period of ownership. As you have continued tolive there then I expect it remains CGT free. But check this out with an accountant.

At some stage it is highly likely you will buy a home to live in and by your other comments it would appear as if you are pretty happy where you are. I can understand that. On this basis I would seriously look at buying your brother's half share out and removing his name from the title entirely. As I said in my earlier post getting unentangled from each other as soon as you can is best for all. THis most likely involve you taking out a mortgage but just remember you are, in effect, getting a house for half price.

It sounds as if you haven't taken on a 'big' debt at any stage of your life and I can assure you the first mortgage (and any subsequent increases) are hard to stomach in the beginning. Provided you don't over extend yourself then there is really nothing to fear.

I would recommend you speak to a broker about the financial implications of borrowing the money, how much you can borrow, what the repayments are etc. I suggest a broker only because you may have plans in teh future to become a property investor and setting up your loan structure correctly from the beginning is to your advantage. There are a couple who hang around here who could do the job for you - I also have a couple of brokers I know and am happy to recommend in Sydney too.

If you are daunted by the thought of having a mortgage then you may wish to take in a boarder to help with some expenses. If this is something you pursue make sure you speak with your accountant about the positives and negatives of such an arrangement.

At some stage you will need to establish a value for the property - the best person to use is a licensed valuer who undertake valuations for tax, deceased estates, mortgage purposes all of the time. They are requirred by their code of conduct to give you a figure which is realistic and justifiable. A real estate agent may 'colour' the value in the belief he/she may attract a listing and possible sale.

In short - buy your brother out, unentangle yourselves and move on with your lives.

Hi Joe,

There are three brokers who post here. IN no particular order (alphabetical maybe) they are Jamie, Michael and Shanoon (smartline Cheswick). I suggest you read their comments and you can probably make a judgement from those.

I must admit I don't know specifically where their office are other Jamie works out of Canberra. Having said that I do all of my loan business with my broker who is 400km away.

The other two I am happy to refer are based in Harris Park and the other in Baulkham Hills.

All are property investors themselves as far as I know and both of the ones I know are also a qualified financial advisor/planner, or have access to one.

If you want their details send me an email (details below)