Domain Article - How a 20-year-old bought three investment properties

Absolutely. And if my parents had the money to give me $60k at 20 years old when I was only just starting to learn/write about property, I'm not sure I would have done the same things as him nor had the confidence to use it as productively.

Interestingly, a lot of my 20-something friends are very upset with the article. Most people 35+, or who have a property investment background, see what he has done as admirable. A very interesting split!

 

At 20, I had a causal/part time job and milking my Austudy allowance...flunking my uni exams chasing Emma...wait... or was it Stacy?..

This dude is not your average 20 year old. He will go places, esp a family to keep him on track..

 

Interesting point. Maybe the 35 year olds know the value of money, and the 20 somethings just think that they could buy a car with the money, or worse, go on some fancy holiday!!

Are your 20 something friends interested in property or investing at all? I don't think I know a single person my age that is!

However I just turned 23 and I fully support what the kid is doing. He doesn't need to be discouraged by know it alls who just whinge, complain and criticise.

 

When I was younger, I was going to be an accountant. Then I found out that I had a personality .

Maybe, this guy realised he had a personality.

 

A bit pricey for Elisabeth!

 

Its funny, this same story and thread was posted on Whirlpool and its a very different general reaction, with all the anti property "specufestor" haters ragging on him and saying he will be bankrupt soon etc.

While 99% of his peers were moaning on facebook and news.com.au comments about how housing is out of their reach, at least he did something with his money besides buy iphones and put bigger rims on a buzzbox car.

 

Some of them are! But I think that's by default of socialising with people with similar interests (I'm 26 and my partner is a bit older). A few of my cousins work in real estate and my siblings are interested in investing (24yo brother and 28yo sister) but they're mature for their ages I'd say.

I agree re: support. I might not know whether his investment choices are wise in terms of property, but I'm all for giving things a go!

 

When I was 20... nah won't go there. He's put handwork before rewards. He'll reap the harvest if he keeps at it. He invests in things he understands, not those get rich quick schemes.

 

Roberts 7 steps to get started:

Family assistance A helping hand can be a simple way to jump-start a property portfolio from a young age.

• A “savings” attitude Work hard and save as much as you can to fund your property aspirations.

• Not being scared of Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) LMI can allow you to buy sooner and is often tax-deductible on investment properties.

• Seeking out trusted advice Find a seasoned investor to give you guidance, but don’t be scared to trust your own research.

• Consider markets outside your backyard Australia is more than just a few capital cities. Explore the real estate options across the whole country.

• Look at the “worst-case scenarios” In every aspect of your portfolio, plan and insure yourself for what could go wrong.

• Get creative to push your portfolio further Rent properties out by the room, think about development possibilities and look where others don’t.

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He's a champion for a 20 year old in my book, regardless if he had to beg, borrow or steal for it. Many 45 year olds still don't understand/implement some of his points above.

 

Many 60 years old don't either.

At 45, you still have a chance of getting on the property merry-go-round, surviving a couple of cycles and funding a reasonable retirement in 20 years time.

The 60 years have got no chance.

 

I agree @kierank. There is only so close you can get to Niagara Falls in a paddle boat with one oar before the point of return is long gone, and you have to accept the inevitable.

 

When I was 20, i was working my arse off for studies. I started investing at 23 years but with support from my parents. However, that was in India. I have been a miser all my life.
After 10 years those investments have grown 250 times but they are still peanuts as compared to australian dollar.

I started in Australia at 32, lets see where I go in next 10 years.

Coming back to the guy, I think he is lucky to get a start but he utlised that start well.

Even his investments could have been dud.
Based on his income, he could not have afforded a 3.5% or 4 % yield property in major capitals. He had to qualify for serviceability as well. Based on the resources he had or has, he had made a wise decision IMHO.

I plan to give my children a good start in life. I will leave no stone unturned to make their life an ease as compared to what I have seen. I am sure others on this forum have seen much worse but kudos to the boy and his parents/ mum.

This was another inspirational story to me. Thanks @Jennifer Duke

Regards

 

Well said @Leo2413

 

Hey everyone, how are you?
Yes this is the Robert Petty that the article is written about and I woke up today to have a message in my inbox with the link to this forum. And so Ive decided to join.

Now let me start with the obvious. Yes my mom did give me a very large sum of money to start investing with. Im not at all saying that that is the way to go or that anyone should just expect handouts from their parents. I took the money though and I used it to start investing in property.

A lot of people are saying that its easy for me because of the gift I received, and well in comparison it was I guess. But for anyone who has any doubts on how hard I work I do on average 55 hours a week, every week, in a hot sweltering kitchen. Thats about 11 hours a day before my break is taken into account, five days a week. I have two days off during the week so that I can deal with anything regarding my properties. Its good this way because all the offices, banks, tenants will always be available to contact during the week. I also have to deal with up to three hour time differences and anyone who has ever worked in hospitality would understand that working on the weekends is almost compulsory.

Now to answer some of your questions or statements that I believe are inaccurate. (Im sorry I don't know how to tag the relevant people so I hope you're all still reading the thread)

1. I haven't gone for capital gains so much yet. Ive been focusing on cash flow in my portfolio. Ive got a lot of time on my side and my capital gains will eventuate. Its kinda like music, theres no such thing as a bad taste in music, just your own taste.

2. Yes I probably would've bought a nice car with that kinda money. I was only allowed to use the money for property though and well.. I still wasn't gonna let that kind of opportunity slide. If it weren't for that I would probably be sitting on a couch playing Xbox all day. If it weren't from the entail push from my mom I wouldn't be interested in property the way I am now. But once I had the obligation of a property on my shoulders I had to wrap my head around how it worked and once I saw how easy it really was it only made sense for me to keep at it.

3. 'If you take away the property still to settle then he has got $59,300 which is less than his starting position.'

The above line is a quote from @Big Will . So have you taken into account the solicitors fees, stamp duty and other expenses? You seem to know what you're talking about so you would know that the equation doesn't go, e.g. - guy has $50,000 deposit, buys $500,000 house. Guy should have mortgage of $450,000. Because after the expenses involved in buying a house his mortgage would probably end up somewhere around say $470,000 (very rough figure, I've just woke up, but you get the point). You seem to be doing well though, so congratulations.

4. @Joynz - I haven't decided yet but the two options I've given my self for the second half of next year are to either go back and get the accounting degree, or start making my way into working in real-estate.

5. @bob shovel , haha no I'm not broke yet, I'll let you know when I am though. Thanks for your concern.

6. @ashish1137 , people like you are the parents the article was meant to encourage to help get your kids into it, if you can then why not. And to encourage kids who aren't in a position to have parental help it was to encourage them to start saving now, the car they were just about to buy, go use that money for a deposit. And if they read it past the point where I got the $60k they would have learnt about LMI, which will help them get in now with a low deposit but even though it will make their loan amount higher it doesn't matter because by the time they save up enough to get the house they want its probably already gone up in price and maybe even more than what you would've paid on LMI. And the beauty of it, its a tax deduction.

Anyway Ive gotta go and get ready for work so I probably won't be able to reply to anyone till tonight. But ill me more than happy to read any comments before I go to sleep. I had more than 200 people hating me yesterday and I've never had a better sleep.

Till next time. Rob

 

Rob, don't worry about what other people think because if we cared about every single thing that people said or talked about us we would be no different to the skipping King Richard II who cared so much about what other people thought about him.

My hats off to you for not resting on your laurels and striving towards your next purchase and goals. I was like that in my younger years by working full time/ 7 days per week whilst studying full time but still doing it now. I value education and learning to be important to increase your ability to earn more, but that's just my views only.

 

I'm not concerned about you gong broke .. a little concerned about your reading though. ... i was asking if you're a broker yet

Who tipped you off everyone was talking about you?

Have you jumped on Facebook and told the oxygen theives to suck on it!

 

Good on ya @Robert Petty and welcome to the forums, you will go far with an attitude like that!

For what it's worth, I think it would be good to finish the accounting degree even if you are moving in to real estate. It's a good foundation for any kind of property career.

What areas of working in real-estate interest you?

 

@bob shovel I told him he should take a look at the forum and that he'd enjoy the info on here .

 

Come on - go buy something in sunshine or the west you're 3 years behind this guy now.

 

@Jennifer Duke, I would have thought that would have to be one of the conditions of your interviews, become a PC member (if they aren't already) .