Catalyst for Investing
- Thread starter Harro
- Start date
My parents bought a casket shop when I was 12, sold it when I was 15 and used the profit (Mum built the business up) to buy their first IP. When I was 17 they went on a ten week Europe holiday. I remember very well their panic when they got back because they told a couple from Scotland their house value would buy two houses in Brisbane, one to live in, one to rent.
In the nearly three months they were away (1976) the property market jumped and they had to phone this couple and say "don't sell until we send you some property booklets" and they had to explain that they no longer could buy two houses. The house my mother and her sisters sold (was their family home) for $29K just before they went overseas would have sold for about $50K within a three month timeframe. The market moved that quickly.
I just wanted to get into my first house. I'd watched Mum and Dad do it, and helped them paint that first IP aged 15. I reckon I've had a hand in painting and/or renovating (small and large) 40 houses (some several times since purchase).
I love it.
We've just spent the weekend ripping out old carpets on a house our son and his partner are purchasing. They have their current house on the market after renovating it. It looks amazing, and they will move into a dump, but a dump with huge potential.
Second son's first house settles in three weeks and first job is new bathroom and kitchen and a paint through. I'm looking forward to that too, though I'll whinge and complain whilst it is happening because everything else stops. We tend to push on until we drop
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Our sons have learned at the knee, just like I did.
In the nearly three months they were away (1976) the property market jumped and they had to phone this couple and say "don't sell until we send you some property booklets" and they had to explain that they no longer could buy two houses. The house my mother and her sisters sold (was their family home) for $29K just before they went overseas would have sold for about $50K within a three month timeframe. The market moved that quickly.
I just wanted to get into my first house. I'd watched Mum and Dad do it, and helped them paint that first IP aged 15. I reckon I've had a hand in painting and/or renovating (small and large) 40 houses (some several times since purchase).
I love it.
We've just spent the weekend ripping out old carpets on a house our son and his partner are purchasing. They have their current house on the market after renovating it. It looks amazing, and they will move into a dump, but a dump with huge potential.
Second son's first house settles in three weeks and first job is new bathroom and kitchen and a paint through. I'm looking forward to that too, though I'll whinge and complain whilst it is happening because everything else stops. We tend to push on until we drop
.Our sons have learned at the knee, just like I did.
One episode of Southpark - 'the underpants gnomes'. Reminded me of many investors - lack of business plan/plan for success.
I've recalled this story a few times, but here it is again for the newbies.
I saw an ad in the local paper for a Mortgage Reduction Company. We had endured sheer torture during the time when interest rates hit 17.5% & Hubby had been retrenched, so our main aim was to get rid of the mortgage as soon as possible because we never wanted to be in that situation again. That meeting was to change out lives.
The strategy that Company was using was merely to refinance your home into a LOC, use your credit card & pay it off each month from the LOC. Same thing you hear a lot these days, but it was new back then. They would also monitor it for you, to make sure you didn?t get off track (for a price, of course).
Next he mentioned that we would also be able to use the equity in our PPOR to help purchase an IP. Something we hadn?t even thought about & quite frankly believed that ordinary people like us didn?t do those sorts of things. We were also Self Employed at that time & on an extremely low income as a result of the ?Recession we had to have? as that was the only way we could get any income in.
We were extremely excited about how all this would help our situation & thought long & hard about that meeting. Although we liked the concept, there was no way we would (or could, for that matter) pay the exorbitant prices this Company was going to charge to put this in place for us. I did quite a bit of research & discovered that the same product the Mortgage Reduction Company was promoting was available through some of the Banks.
Next step was to find out if it was possible that we could really own a second house. Houses in our area were expensive, & the rents received wouldn?t cover the costs & we couldn?t afford another house if we couldn?t cover costs. We were living in Wollongong at the time & the only homes that came close to being affordable were in areas we really didn?t like. So we went for a drive to Campbelltown......And so it went from there.
I saw an ad in the local paper for a Mortgage Reduction Company. We had endured sheer torture during the time when interest rates hit 17.5% & Hubby had been retrenched, so our main aim was to get rid of the mortgage as soon as possible because we never wanted to be in that situation again. That meeting was to change out lives.
The strategy that Company was using was merely to refinance your home into a LOC, use your credit card & pay it off each month from the LOC. Same thing you hear a lot these days, but it was new back then. They would also monitor it for you, to make sure you didn?t get off track (for a price, of course).
Next he mentioned that we would also be able to use the equity in our PPOR to help purchase an IP. Something we hadn?t even thought about & quite frankly believed that ordinary people like us didn?t do those sorts of things. We were also Self Employed at that time & on an extremely low income as a result of the ?Recession we had to have? as that was the only way we could get any income in.
We were extremely excited about how all this would help our situation & thought long & hard about that meeting. Although we liked the concept, there was no way we would (or could, for that matter) pay the exorbitant prices this Company was going to charge to put this in place for us. I did quite a bit of research & discovered that the same product the Mortgage Reduction Company was promoting was available through some of the Banks.
Next step was to find out if it was possible that we could really own a second house. Houses in our area were expensive, & the rents received wouldn?t cover the costs & we couldn?t afford another house if we couldn?t cover costs. We were living in Wollongong at the time & the only homes that came close to being affordable were in areas we really didn?t like. So we went for a drive to Campbelltown......And so it went from there.
My grandfather built an electrician business in NZ and invested in factories ( a large tyre manufacturer was his tenant for 10 plus years i believe), he would come to Aust and try and get mum to purchase property but she would not. He let me count his change at the end of the day, and taught me lessons about $ and its value (not just financial).
At time when i grew up tomato sauce was a luxury item! My Mum was not good at finance and still is not.
These lessons from my grandfather helped me decide that IP was the path for me.
At time when i grew up tomato sauce was a luxury item! My Mum was not good at finance and still is not.
These lessons from my grandfather helped me decide that IP was the path for me.
I went through a period of depression and hated my life. I sat and thought about what would make me like my life and most things on it required either money or time (which is money indirectly as it means not working). To that end, I conjured the idea of studying to get into finance or accounting industry figuring that I could use some of their tricks on myself. I went to the library to visit the finance section and there was books on American property investing there. I read and enjoyed them but wasn't sure if it was possible in Australia so went searching for australian authored books and found some which just made me hungrier for more.
It made me realise I could do this some day. Then something clicked and I thought I could do this now. I was in a Telstra call centre earning 27k a year full time and did as much over time as they'd give me so I could save up 20k deposit and buy a 200k property in Clarkson a couple months short of age 22.
It made me realise I could do this some day. Then something clicked and I thought I could do this now. I was in a Telstra call centre earning 27k a year full time and did as much over time as they'd give me so I could save up 20k deposit and buy a 200k property in Clarkson a couple months short of age 22.
I understood how money works, budgeting etc quite early. My dad was into share market (not in Australia) And I bought shares once as well but never considered myself an investor.
When we came to Australia, we could not rent a house through real estate agents as we didn't have jobs or rental history and had to get houses through contacts and the rents were expensive. So we wanted to buy a house as it was obvious that rent money was dead money for us at that time. So I began to read property magazines.
Property magazines got us into property investing. (At that time we couldn't even afford to buy them. A newsagent used to give them to me at month ends after removing the covers to return) The more I read, the more fascinating! And we ended up buying one under market value, costing us less than the rent we were paying and made instant equity as well. That equity gain and more reading enabled further investing.
So unable to rent a house and reading property magazines pushed us into property investing. It is funny to think that we couldn't even rent a house just four years ago! But bought seven and sold three in the last couple of years.
When we came to Australia, we could not rent a house through real estate agents as we didn't have jobs or rental history and had to get houses through contacts and the rents were expensive. So we wanted to buy a house as it was obvious that rent money was dead money for us at that time. So I began to read property magazines.
Property magazines got us into property investing. (At that time we couldn't even afford to buy them. A newsagent used to give them to me at month ends after removing the covers to return) The more I read, the more fascinating! And we ended up buying one under market value, costing us less than the rent we were paying and made instant equity as well. That equity gain and more reading enabled further investing.
So unable to rent a house and reading property magazines pushed us into property investing. It is funny to think that we couldn't even rent a house just four years ago! But bought seven and sold three in the last couple of years.
For a long time I wasn't interested in property at all. I didn't buy my first (and second) IP until I was 27 and then didn't buy anything else for 5 years when we moved to Perth for a new job.
In the 2 and a bit years since we've gone madly purchasing as many as we can get finance for. The catalyst was that I finally worked out that I hate being an employee. I used to think the sense of imprisonment in a job was particular to whatever job I had at the time. So I went to uni to get a "good" job, which I got... but it didn't fix anything. I still hate having to turn up when the boss says to, I hate taking holidays only when I'm allowed to etc... Every day off feels like day release from jail.
So I used the "good" job to buy as much property as possible, and avoiding negative gearing like the plague now since it extends my sentence.
Also, like someone said earlier, all the things I want to do take either time or money (and time IS money). A job gives me money but robs me of time, so I see property as a way to get both.
In the 2 and a bit years since we've gone madly purchasing as many as we can get finance for. The catalyst was that I finally worked out that I hate being an employee. I used to think the sense of imprisonment in a job was particular to whatever job I had at the time. So I went to uni to get a "good" job, which I got... but it didn't fix anything. I still hate having to turn up when the boss says to, I hate taking holidays only when I'm allowed to etc... Every day off feels like day release from jail.
So I used the "good" job to buy as much property as possible, and avoiding negative gearing like the plague now since it extends my sentence.
Also, like someone said earlier, all the things I want to do take either time or money (and time IS money). A job gives me money but robs me of time, so I see property as a way to get both.
Growing up in a below average single parent family, watched my mom worked hard all her life with minimal returns, this made me realize that something more had to be done in my lifetime to achieve where I want to be.
Stumbled crossed property after my first purchase of PPOR at the age of 23 made me realize that this is a nice path to financial freedom if done right..
So, here I am today, still learning, doing and living to reach my goal
Stumbled crossed property after my first purchase of PPOR at the age of 23 made me realize that this is a nice path to financial freedom if done right..
So, here I am today, still learning, doing and living to reach my goal
