Hi all,
I’ve been an avid reader of these forums for a few years now and I’ve found them a wealth of good knowledge and experience. It’s great to see like minded property fanatics so willing to give advice and share with others.
Through a fair bit of effort and luck I’ve managed to reach the milestone of owning my own PPOR outright and I am now preparing to embark on the next phase of building an investment property portfolio and I was hoping I could get some advice.
But before getting into it I’ll take the opportunity to give a brief background on where I am in the scheme of things.
...
I’m in the IT industry in Sydney CBD and have always has a passion for wealth building – particularly through property. About 18 years ago when I was in my early 20’s I purchased my first investment unit in the Eastern Suburbs of NSW ... it was a huge stretch for me as I was working part time and in the middle of a uni degree at UNSW but by having it tenanted out for a few years I managed to keep up the repayments and eventually I married and moved into it (with a fairly hefty mortgage).
I lived in the unit for about 5 years working hard to reduce the mortgage but I realised very quickly that if I wanted to realise my dream of owning a house in the area I was going to have to have to change my strategy as it was going to take me forever to make a significant dent in the mortgage and I was constantly living lean.
So in early 2000 at around the age of 30 we stretched ourselves to the absolute limit and purchased a run down dilapidated house on a relatively large block of land in the Eastern Suburbs of NSW. As soon as I saw the federation house on the large block of land I fell in love with it’s size and immediately thought of the potential of subdividing and selling off a piece of the land to help me pay for the house.
My wife and I spent the first 4y as an owner builders doubling the size of the original house and getting it into a liveable condition. We hired architects, and organised contractors and even dug and laid the new foundations whilst at the same time having our first 2 children. We quickly started to accumulate a fair bit of debt again but we knew the area was good and the value of the house would increase easily to justify.
In about 2006 once we finished work on the house we then commenced the second half of the plan and started with the subdivision of the land (cost about 80k to subdivide) and also borrowed heavily to build another new house on the back lane ($350k). It took us about 2y to subdivide and build the house on the back and cashflow was really difficult. We went through plenty of tough times but fortunately family was always nearby to help out and see us through.
I’ve always had a knack for pushing myself a little bit too hard and at about this time we also decided to purchase an additional high end investment unit in Coogee Beach 80m from the beach (about $800k) the place was in poor condition but we spent 30kish and rented it out asap. I always saw this as a bit of a sleeper .. it’s a good long term capital growth investment and I rarely worry about it .. although capital growth over the last few years hasn’t been great and in hindsight I was a little naive and didn’t buy as well as I should have.
A couple of years ago we moved into the new house we built and rented out the original one – it was a great experience to live in a new high end house with all the mod cons but ultimately we decided we liked the classic federation style and decided to move back into the original.
At this point interest rates started to increase and I was holding on to about $3.4m valued property (including my PPOR) with debts of about $1.9m ... and cashflow started getting really tough! Fortunately the GFC came about and I just managed to ride out the worst before interest rates plummeted and life became easier (I had cancelled all expenses that were not essential to living only ... ). I almost went under.
After this lucky save I promised myself never to go without a significant cash buffer ($80k+)
... I decided to consolidate and sell the new house and sold it for about $1.25m early this year. After all of this I have managed to pay off my current house which is worth about $1.3m and have some cash to spare to invest... my unit in Coogee is fully mortgaged.
Now I’m about to embark on the second stage to wealth building and borrow against my PPOR to fund the purchase of a few IP’s. I’ve probably done most things the hard way over the last few years and I’m keen on learning from more experienced investors to do things properly from the beginning. As usual the property doom sayers are out in force at
The moment warning of an imminent collapse but I’ve always thought that property over the long term is a no brainer. I’m a strong believer that you make most of your profit when you buy and time in the market is everything so I’m ready to jump in again.
I was hoping that some forum members could provide me on advice to find ...
1. An experienced professional property investment mentor – that can review my current situation and help me review my plans strategies and structures.
2. A fantastic buyer’s agent that works in the Sydney/NSW area
3. A good broker that is well experienced with property investors.
Once again thanks to all of you who make this forum what it is. I am fairly reserved by nature but keen on starting to participate a lot more in the forums.
thanks for any advice in advance,
mim
I’ve been an avid reader of these forums for a few years now and I’ve found them a wealth of good knowledge and experience. It’s great to see like minded property fanatics so willing to give advice and share with others.
Through a fair bit of effort and luck I’ve managed to reach the milestone of owning my own PPOR outright and I am now preparing to embark on the next phase of building an investment property portfolio and I was hoping I could get some advice.
But before getting into it I’ll take the opportunity to give a brief background on where I am in the scheme of things.
...
I’m in the IT industry in Sydney CBD and have always has a passion for wealth building – particularly through property. About 18 years ago when I was in my early 20’s I purchased my first investment unit in the Eastern Suburbs of NSW ... it was a huge stretch for me as I was working part time and in the middle of a uni degree at UNSW but by having it tenanted out for a few years I managed to keep up the repayments and eventually I married and moved into it (with a fairly hefty mortgage).
I lived in the unit for about 5 years working hard to reduce the mortgage but I realised very quickly that if I wanted to realise my dream of owning a house in the area I was going to have to have to change my strategy as it was going to take me forever to make a significant dent in the mortgage and I was constantly living lean.
So in early 2000 at around the age of 30 we stretched ourselves to the absolute limit and purchased a run down dilapidated house on a relatively large block of land in the Eastern Suburbs of NSW. As soon as I saw the federation house on the large block of land I fell in love with it’s size and immediately thought of the potential of subdividing and selling off a piece of the land to help me pay for the house.
My wife and I spent the first 4y as an owner builders doubling the size of the original house and getting it into a liveable condition. We hired architects, and organised contractors and even dug and laid the new foundations whilst at the same time having our first 2 children. We quickly started to accumulate a fair bit of debt again but we knew the area was good and the value of the house would increase easily to justify.
In about 2006 once we finished work on the house we then commenced the second half of the plan and started with the subdivision of the land (cost about 80k to subdivide) and also borrowed heavily to build another new house on the back lane ($350k). It took us about 2y to subdivide and build the house on the back and cashflow was really difficult. We went through plenty of tough times but fortunately family was always nearby to help out and see us through.
I’ve always had a knack for pushing myself a little bit too hard and at about this time we also decided to purchase an additional high end investment unit in Coogee Beach 80m from the beach (about $800k) the place was in poor condition but we spent 30kish and rented it out asap. I always saw this as a bit of a sleeper .. it’s a good long term capital growth investment and I rarely worry about it .. although capital growth over the last few years hasn’t been great and in hindsight I was a little naive and didn’t buy as well as I should have.
A couple of years ago we moved into the new house we built and rented out the original one – it was a great experience to live in a new high end house with all the mod cons but ultimately we decided we liked the classic federation style and decided to move back into the original.
At this point interest rates started to increase and I was holding on to about $3.4m valued property (including my PPOR) with debts of about $1.9m ... and cashflow started getting really tough! Fortunately the GFC came about and I just managed to ride out the worst before interest rates plummeted and life became easier (I had cancelled all expenses that were not essential to living only ... ). I almost went under.
After this lucky save I promised myself never to go without a significant cash buffer ($80k+)
... I decided to consolidate and sell the new house and sold it for about $1.25m early this year. After all of this I have managed to pay off my current house which is worth about $1.3m and have some cash to spare to invest... my unit in Coogee is fully mortgaged.Now I’m about to embark on the second stage to wealth building and borrow against my PPOR to fund the purchase of a few IP’s. I’ve probably done most things the hard way over the last few years and I’m keen on learning from more experienced investors to do things properly from the beginning. As usual the property doom sayers are out in force at
The moment warning of an imminent collapse but I’ve always thought that property over the long term is a no brainer. I’m a strong believer that you make most of your profit when you buy and time in the market is everything so I’m ready to jump in again.
I was hoping that some forum members could provide me on advice to find ...
1. An experienced professional property investment mentor – that can review my current situation and help me review my plans strategies and structures.
2. A fantastic buyer’s agent that works in the Sydney/NSW area
3. A good broker that is well experienced with property investors.
Once again thanks to all of you who make this forum what it is. I am fairly reserved by nature but keen on starting to participate a lot more in the forums.
thanks for any advice in advance,
mim
