Read the story of how a hardworking couple stepped out of the comforts of their regular jobs and into the complex world of property investment.
WHAT STARTED IT ALL
My wife and I sat down a few years ago and discussed our future. We have both worked really hard in our lives and agreed that we didn’t want to have to work into our 60s. We set a goal that we would retire comfortably in our mid 50s.
This plan meant that we needed to find a way to make this happen as we were well aware that our regular jobs were not going to give us the financial gains to achieve this goal no matter how hard we saved.
MAKING A WRONG MOVE
I had some experience in property investing from some time ago when my brother and I bought an apartment in Sydney. We went into the purchase without knowledge of current property market conditions, prices or any other information that may have helped us make a better decision, so in the end we bought a property for which we paid too much and didn’t make the capital gains we had hoped for.
THE TURNING POINT
To increase my knowledge of investing I started reading an Australian property investor magazine and in one of the magazines I came across the advertisement for Property Wizards. This sounded like a great opportunity; I didn’t think twice about calling them to speak about their services. This time around I wanted to do it right and felt more comfortable working with an expert rather than buying a property on my own without any knowledge of the market, I had the added benefits of being able to learn along the w
ENTER THE BUYER’S AGENT
After speaking with Trevor on the phone, my wife and I flew to WA to meet with him and inspect some of the properties he had found that might give us the capital gains we were looking for. We didn’t settle on a property while in Perth, but Trevor called us shortly after we got back to Sydney with some options. The options were too good to pass on, so rather than just buying one property, we ended up buying two.
Both properties were in our budget and were perfect match for our “buy and leave” and capital gains criteria.
BEST DECISION EVER
The properties could not have been more for our purposes. We had them valued after two years and were very satisfied with the gain in value. My wife and I used the equity of both properties to buy two more properties in Brisbane, which with the knowledge we gained through Property Wizards we were able to manage on our own.
Once we have built up further equity in our current properties we are looking at getting two or three more to really bolster our retirement fund. In the long run we will look to sell some to pay off any remaining debt and keeping the others for their steady rental income and capital growth. By the time we reach our mid 50s we will be able to borrow against our equity and cruise around the world for 12-months. This is something we are really looking forward to.
So in 5 years we have been able to accumulate a property portfolio of 5 properties across three states worth around $1.5 – 2 millions.
By only putting our money into savings and just continuing to work, we would never have been able to achieve this, not even by the time we retire.
