Hi all, Thought I'd throw up a brief intro and share my story on how I ended up here. So my name is Dan, I'm currently 28 and live in the Newcastle area. My property investment path started in 2005 when I moved to Newcastle to study at Newcastle Uni. I moved into a share house with my cousins and so my journey started off with being a tenant. First time out of home at 18 in a new city and was responsible for myself. The share house thing stuck with me, I'll get to that later... I had always had an interest in maths, particularly finance and interest rates. It was in year 11 at school in a maths class that 'I got it' and understood what I had to do to be successful, how money makes you money if you put it in the right places. 3 years at uni and then graduating with a degree I needed a break before launching into a career and high responsibility job. Decided to move back to my home town and back in with the parents, picked up a casual job that allowed a great lifestyle and ended up sticking with it for quite a while. So on to the first purchase, 2009 at age of 22 purchased 1BR Apartment in my home town as a PPOR. The reasons for this purchase were I was ready to buy and the FHOG was really good at that time (24k and no stamp duty). Now before I continue I will say that I had some help in saving for the deposit on this property. My grandfather had left me money for education expenses (HECS and weekly allowance) when I was studying at uni, being the frugal person I was at that stage of my life I saved a fair bit of it with good habits. So this along with working about 1.5 years in casual job netted me a decent deposit. With FHOG was nudging 6 figures, however bank still needed more to get me over the line so parents went guarantor. Didn't have the knowledge I do now and just had loan set up as P/I with an offset. As this is now an IP I wish I had it set up as IO loan. Anyway, paid down loan a fair bit over the years and after 12 months I started using it as a partial IP. I would move back to parents for 5 weeks of summer holidays and rent out as a furnished holiday apartment. The return on this was excellent, the 5 weeks rent would cover my mortgage payments for a year After 3.5 years I moved back in to parents to convert my apartment to a permanent IP, and also save really quickly. A trip to the USA in 2012 changed me. It pulled me out of my comfort zone and opened my eyes to a bigger world. After arriving back in August, 8 weeks later I had moved back to Newcastle. Scored PPT job and found a room on Gumtree and moved in with the owner. I was a subscriber to API and knew that I would build up a portfolio when funds allowed. The stories and case studies in the mag got me motivated. It is also how I heard of SS and now PC. 2013 Purchased an IP in Newcastle suburb of Waratah West, an old weatherboard place from a deceased estate. Place was neat but stuck in the 50's. Intention was to renovate and then keep as IP. A 6 month reno turned out to be an 18 month reno. Mostly due to time, I had purchased at a time where my work was picking up and I just didn't have the time to get it all done. I tried and burnt out so decided to push it back and take my time. Renovating to build equity is my thing, I do near all the work myself with the occasional help from family who are in the building business. Rented out rooms as a share house while I was living there which covered mortgage costs. Did well on this one, a 35k reno along with climbing market netted me around 200k equity gain in those 18 months. Getting tenants happened by word of mouth and it is returning well being near the uni and hospital. With the gain I was in a position to purchase again so got pre approval going and started searching. 2015 moved into GF's place for a few months after leasing out IP. Many inspections and offers later picked up another IP in Newcastle suburb of Birmingham Gardens, vendors were starting to stress as they had moved into their new PPOR and were wanting to sell asap, which resulted in a 50k discount on original asking price. Settled in May this year and is timed much better than the last one. Work has cooled off and I have just finished a contract so can renovate full-time for next couple of months. Plan for this one is to reno a build equity as before. With the lessons learnt from the last reno and less work required on this place the bulk of it will be finished by September. The future. I would love to acquire a property per year from now on, however I feel I have hit a serviceability wall as I'm on what is considered a low income (40-50k). My strategy is to buy, renovate and hold. I'd just like to shout out to all the gen Y's and say you can buy a house and build a portfolio in todays market on a low income, just set your expectations to a realistic level. That's me so I look forward to chatting on here and improving my knowledge, hopefully helping others too.
Thanks @bob shovel. My work is Duty manager/Supervisor role at aquatic and gym facilities, hence why work is based around the warmer months and I have winter off for renovating.
