Moving to FNQ and our property Journey

Hi all I hope all is well.

I guess I have been very inspired by all the stories from other investors and people on this forum over the last 2 years and figured I'd share our Journey since we became interested in property.

Some backstory, I grew up in a somewhat dysfunctional house hold where money was tight.. real tight. Owning a house was not something people in my family did, nor did any of my friends parents. I was a highschool drop out at 14 and coasted through various jobs and to this day have nothing but a cert 4 behind me.

My partner is of similiar background, raised by a single mother of 4 who couldn't speak a word of english. Her mother worked incredibly hard as a cleaner (and still is today after 30 years) using every cent she could to buy a family home for them. This has had a very profound effect on my partner.

When my partner and I first moved out of home 3 years ago I was very reckless with my money and despite being in the workforce for 11 years at this point had never had more than 3k in my bank account (Tax returns).

I was content with renting for the rest of my life with no real ambitions for wealth. I worked (and still do) in the youth work industry and at the time was on 70k a year (had to work 70+ hours a week for this) I didn't and still don't do this job for the money, I do this because I truly enjoy the work and helping these young people succeed. My partner is also a youth worker.

It wasn't until my partner and I begun planning for our futures that she had drawn on lessons learned from her mother that it is silly to rent because you are only putting money in someone elses pockets. This is something she continued to pressure me with until I finally agreed to look at buying a house together.

We lived in Sydney at the time and looking at the prices of properties was a real eye opener, not only did saving up the deposit seem daunting but I couldn't fathom paying the monthly repayments (especially if we had kids). I wanted to ensure that if I did have kids they would have more than myself or my partner had growing up and never wanted them to worry about where they would live or if they would have dinner that night.

I have an obssesive mind and like many stumbled across rich dad poor dad, it opened my mind and I began consuming information around property like wildfire. Things started to make sense and we began developing a plan for our future.

It was at this time that I had come across Cairns, property seemed very affordable and based on the 20 year property cycle rule we decided to take a punt amd utilize the first home buyers to secure a property in Cairns that we could turn into an IP.

Problem was we had a collective of 2k between us. It was at this point that we moved in with my mother to save money ( A hard thing to do once we had been out of home together and even harder if you knew my relationship with my mother) but we made it work.

We saved up exactly enough to move to Cairns and within 4 months we were flying up to Cairns for job interviews. I remember we got changed in the public toilets before our interviews that we had 2 hours after our flights landed. We secured the jobs before we even left the interview room and paid for our furniture and cats to be sent up to us in Cairns. We intially floated around Airbnbs as securing a rental with cats was a nightmare.

I remember for 6 months I worked 5-6 shifts a week (24 hour shifts) and my partner worked many sleepovers and weekend shifts. We barley saw eachother. We lived off rice and mince or chicken and rice for every meal and skimped on everything we could to secure a deposit.

We bought a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom Villa in a complex of 4 in Mooroobool for 165k. The Villa next door renovated sold for 220k the year before and the other Villa next to us sold at 185k months before and being this was the largest villa of the 4 we decided it was what we could afford and did have potential to add value in the future. This purchase will be a long term hold.

Again it was nothing flash but it is what we could afford and was a milestone for both of us to own our own house (something I would never of dreamed of doing). Friends and family back home are convinced we are rich which as flattering as it may be does upset me knowing their financial goals were similiar to mine not so long ago.

After this purchase I moved into senior mangement and am now on 85k a year. My partner is on around 65k a year so we are by no means big earners.

We have decided to begin trying for a family and figured we would buy a place to raise this family in together. We had always dreamed of living in the rainforest (even before we knew eachother) and after living in Cairns for awhile now figured that this is home for us, we could never go back to Sydney.

Again we began looking for places but wanted to buy something we could afford (on my single wage for when we do have kids) yet still have a surplus of money left over after paying all bills to ensure we have the lifestyle and security we have grown up craving.

We then stumbled across Babinda which is a 35-40 minute drive to Cairns where we found a property that I believe has a huge add value potential with renovations and was very under valued sitting 60k lower than listed comparables purley due to needing a cosmetic renovation.

The property sits on a 2.5k sqm land (comparables 900-1500 sqm) with beautiful views of the mountains and cane fields, walking distance to the town and with the rainforest amd mountain literally in our backyard.

We have just gone unconditional yesterday and settled at 228k. We plan to renovate and move in with a long term hold again.

I believe in the fundamentals of FNQ and feel quite confident in the market up here and do not think sub 300k properties around a regional hub like Cairns will last for much longer so this is where we will be investing over the next few purchases.

Our stratedgy now is to continue purchasing in FNQ in properties in the sub 300k range with good proximity to shops, schools hospital etc. 3 bedroom 1 bathroom on a land size of minimum 600sqm. I understand our first purchase was a Villa but it is what we could afford.

The why for us has always been to leave our future kids more than what we had growing up.

Maybe we have made some mistakes, maybe we haven't? Time will tell but what I do know is the minute that my partner kicked my ass into gear is the minute my life changed for the better, I am becoming the man I've always wanted to be.

Neither of us have had hand outs, we work hard and ethically for everything we have in life. We have made countless sacrifices and hold ourselves accountable at all times.

It's been a crazy past year moving to Cairns I hope this thread can keep me accountable and focused on moving forwards to continue to build our portfolio.

I will provide photo's of our renovations and updates on any future purchases and hope maybe this inspires someone in a way like many of you on here have inspired me.

If two foolish kids can follow their dreams then surley anyone can.

As I always say when times are tough "Just make it happen".

Warm regards

 

Thanks Rolf, still wanting to catch up for that coffee!

 

Great work - inspirational & well done so far & good luck going forward.
If planning on buying more, don’t forget @Terry_w ’S tips on structures for multiple considerations such as land tax, passing to next generation etc.
Best wishes

 

Thanks Craig, I'll have to brush up on these as I do know land tax will increase the more we buy in 1 state.

 

Congrats and well done, all the best for your future

 

This is very inspiring - you are very wise @The Grinch and will be such an inspiration to both other readers here as well as your clients and colleagues. I didn't realise you are so young. Congratulations!

 

Thanks so much Angel, Yes I am 29 and my partner is 26, plenty of time ahead of us I hope.

 

I must admit it has been hard Yakka. And based off what I've read on here I'll have many many more years of grafting ahead. Hopefully it will pay off for us one day