Did you start investing on your own? or use a mentor/education?

Hey guys, this is my first post, and im happy to become part of the somersoft family!

A little introduction of myself..

Im 23, Live in Sydney, Finished a business degree and now doing a carpentry apprenticeship (and loving it as a career). I have always been interested in property investing and in the last year ive become serious about it. My goal for 2012 is to buy my first I.P; I have a small deposit saved up (30k) and have been doing PLENTY of research/reading up.

how did you first get into it? did you enter the game by yourself, or did you use a mentoring type service to help you get into it?

Im considering paying for a property investing education course to help myself get into it. Im considering using 'Destiny financial services' (have read some of Margret Lomas' books and been to a seminar- really like her work) or 'Empower wealth' (after reading an article by them in YIP magazine). My only concern though, is that they charge about 6K for there services, and this would eat into my deposit condsiderabl)

Any words of advice/recommendations?

Alex
 
Welcome.

Both business and carpentry will potentially earn you mega bucks. I think that no mentor can really help you that much. Ultimately, you must read as much as you can and talk to as many investors as possible and make your own decisions. Being a carpenter helps as you will be able to add value to your own properties without relying on too many others who inevitably will eat a slice of your cake.
 
We used a mentoring type service and got burned big time on our first property.

Jan Somer's books were good though.

We also went later on to Peter Spann's seminars and that really helped us in our big growth phase for property.

The Y-man
 
Just wanted to post saying good on you for getting into a trade at your age, I too started an plumbing apprenticeship when I was 22 and never looked back. It helped me greatly on my first property, allowing me to add a second bathroom with minimal costs :)

Sometimes I think it would be great to have the skills/knowledge of a carpenter under my belt as well :rolleyes:
 
Mentor/education helps by pulling everything together in an easy to first format.

Also good in giving you the confidence to her put there.

As you point out, there are loads of options. Which one you choose will depend on where your preferred strategy lies. Any thoughts on this?
 
I consider the Somersoft forum community as my mentor. Plenty of 'light bulb' moments where your discussions opened my eyes to concepts and options I was previously ignorant of after reading thousands of threads. I then read a few of the popular investment books that are out there which helped reinforce the strategies I had developed.

Thank you Somersoft.
 
Welcome.

Both business and carpentry will potentially earn you mega bucks. I think that no mentor can really help you that much. Ultimately, you must read as much as you can and talk to as many investors as possible and make your own decisions. Being a carpenter helps as you will be able to add value to your own properties without relying on too many others who inevitably will eat a slice of your cake.

would have to disagree pretty strongly here

ive got a couple of unofficial mentors, one in particular is a guy who has been developing since the 80s

aaron sice can vouch for it, every single time i catch up with this developer i leave having learnt something i never knew before, something i have never heard on somersoft (not knocking this site btw as i think it is brilliant).
 
I started doing it all by myself.

Started with one NGed property and moved on from there.

Read a lot of books (wife finally got me to read RDPD back in 2002) and attended plenty of free seminars. Not willing to fork out $5000+ for mentoring, but happy to learn along the way by making mistakes and adjusting.

SS forums is better value than attending any seminar.

Questions can be asked and answered by people who actually walk the walk, not people who might be good talking in front of an audience with consultants ready to sign you up for their master course.
 
Also started out on my own.

Made a number of mistakes over the past 7 years, but you will get better at this.

If I have to do this all over again, I would read as many books as I can, talk to as many investors as I can [read and ask as many questions] on this forum and other Investment websites.

Paying for a specific property investment education course could assist you on your path, but as with any type of education, it will not give you all the answers and strategy you need, as you'd learn and adopt and change along the way.

Helps if you have some sort of mentor(s), but what works for them may/may not work for you.

Thumbs up for at least having your deposit ready to get started.:eek:
 
Started out on my own, read lots of books to get different points of view/stories/strategies. Talked to a lot of people who I considered successful. Went to a lot of the free introductory spruiker seminars but you will find that most of the "secret" strategies taught are freely available for those willing to do a bit of digging about.

This forum has been a treasure trove, a lot of warts-and-all, nitty gritty covering the non-glamorous side that spruikers don't mention when they're busy flogging their generally overpriced or just plain wrong education.
 
would have to disagree pretty strongly here

ive got a couple of unofficial mentors, one in particular is a guy who has been developing since the 80s

aaron sice can vouch for it, every single time i catch up with this developer i leave having learnt something i never knew before, something i have never heard on somersoft (not knocking this site btw as i think it is brilliant).

Agreed that mentorship can be very valuable.

Its not just the mentor that's good or bad.

Ones own capacity to not have to be right is an important consideration.

Ta

Rolf
 
Just wanted to post saying good on you for getting into a trade at your age, I too started an plumbing apprenticeship when I was 22 and never looked back. It helped me greatly on my first property, allowing me to add a second bathroom with minimal costs :)

Sometimes I think it would be great to have the skills/knowledge of a carpenter under my belt as well :rolleyes:

Great! I absolutely cannot wait until I can do some work myself on an I.P. Do you still carry out any work on your properties yourself?

Mentor/education helps by pulling everything together in an easy to first format.

Also good in giving you the confidence to her put there.

As you point out, there are loads of options. Which one you choose will depend on where your preferred strategy lies. Any thoughts on this?

Well, Ideally, I would like to earn a passive income (who doesnt?) and spend less time working for a wage, or working in general!. I guess I need to work on my own strategy/game plan a little at the moment, but a rough version would be: purchase I.Ps with good growth prospects to build up equity (obviously they would need to be near CF neutral/positive since im on a low income At the moment), then start buying CF positive properties


Great to hear everyones advice/stories!!!
 
Great! I absolutely cannot wait until I can do some work myself on an I.P. Do you still carry out any work on your properties yourself?

Well we are actually looking for our 2nd property as we speak. Hoping we can find something that needs renovating, under market value - so when it's done it will be cashflow neutral/slightly negative and have enough equity to move onto the next :)

So yes, I will continue to carry out work. Saves me alot of money, especially when I have access to tools, equipment and even machinery.
 
Just wanted to post saying good on you for getting into a trade at your age, I too started an plumbing apprenticeship when I was 22 and never looked back. It helped me greatly on my first property, allowing me to add a second bathroom with minimal costs :)

Sometimes I think it would be great to have the skills/knowledge of a carpenter under my belt as well :rolleyes:

I have always felt that the property investment game was much more suited to tradies and builders. What is your advice for someone who is a white collar worker whose idea of plumbing is calling the plumber if they want to be involved in property development for profit? Is it better that they leave the actual manual labour well alone and try to co-ordinate tradies or should they go to TAFE and then actually try out some skills? I have always thought that if you are not a tradie by profession and you are a weekend warrior, you must be quite inefficient and wasting time/resources.
 
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