First investment advice

Hi everyone!

Awesome to be a part of this forum, I hope to give back throughout my experience in looking for my first property.

I am currently looking for a suburb to invest in:

• Budget 550K;
• House only;
• I initially was looking at the St Marys area, but it is pretty dry, if anything, for 550K there; and
• I am also looking at the central coast area - have I missed the ship?

As for strategy, I would like tenants then at the right time, sell the property.


Another question - I am open to renovating properties and adding value to them, but is it still viable to jump into a house that does not need renovations?

Thank you once again guys.

Kind regards

 

then what? Retire? Buy again elsewhere? Buy other asset classes? Taxes, refinancing, etc?

 

Looking to build a portfolio, and sell the properties depending on market value etc.

 

A quick look on REA, 750k-900k+, might be hard to get in 550k. is the budget fixed? and whats your borrowing capacity?

 

Borrowing capacity is 530K,

I can push budget to 560-570K.

 

I've always liked coastal regions if possible. But Central coast has gone gangbusters (like a lot of parts of Sydney), will be hard to find anything decent for that budget. Obviously if you have time/expertise/cash for renovation, that could be a strategy- however is cash on hand limited?

 

Thanks for the recommendation Danz!

Cash on hand is limited, but my family comes from a tradie background, so I do have access to that.

I have seen a few in Central Coast, what is it like?

I just saw this property: https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-warragamba-137326866?sourcePage=rea:buy:srp-map&sourceElement=listing-tile

However, the agent just informed me they accepted an offer.

On another note, would it be worthwhile looking at Queensland for my first property?

 

Wow listed yesterday, sold today!

I havent purchased personally in Central Coast, but strongly considered back in 2018-wish I did haha. ended up buying Brisbane at that time (which still has done well)
I like how central coast is close to 2 employment centres- sydney and newcastle, but has lifestyle drawcard also.
Brisbane also has good fundamentals, also has gone up heaps in recent times.

 

At the moment for my price point, it is looking more and more like Queensland.

But is this wise considering it is my first property?

 

I guess harder to inspect, especially with border lockdowns etc. When I bought interstate, I identified which area I was interested, watched market for a while to form relationships with some agents, then lined up quite a few properties to inspect over a few days when I flew up.
Where in QLD you thinking?

 

St Mary is out of your budget. If you don’t want to buy interstate, consider regional NSW too (like Orange, Armidale).

 

I have seen a lot of talk about Logan and the increase in growth around there.

Did you have any QLD recommendations?

 

Thanks Rolf!

I also need to check whether the FHB scheme does not apply to QLD properties, which seems likely.

 

Yeah it is out of my budget.. I have not considered Armidale or Orange.

 

At the moment its really looking like Central Coast / Newcastle.

Considering NSW is hopefully opening up at 70% vaccination, which is supposedly 10 October? (I think) I am happy to wait.

 

With your budget you cant buy anything in Sydney. Nada!

And IF and that's a big IF anything around that price its going to be small house, small land, needs a tonne of work or uninhabitable or something seriously wrong with the house. And even then there will be another 1000 ppl looking for the same deal as you so it will fetch $100k over asking anyway.

For your Budget I'd move to Brisbane ASAP. Still "some" decent places in Brisbane/Moreton Bay/Logan/Redlands for that price. In another 6 months your $550k wont get you anything either.

 

Or you can look at Perth and buy within 10km of CBD for that budget.
Bragging rights as Perth touts ‘bargain’ inner-city suburbs

 

hard to predict, I reckon snap lockdown still going to happen after. 70% of adults is something like 55% of the population.

A quick REA search for your budget central coast and this came up- https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-house-nsw-budgewoi-136697842
so maybe central coast.
moreton bay area Brisbane would be worth considering also.

 

Thank you Kevbo, I will check it out