What to do when you accept that you are know nothing about property investment?

Thanks for the reply.

I agree I am over-thinking, but it is more about the lack of direction where to go to find out what the relevant information is and how to get it.

Your last comment is very helpful regarding over analysis and lack of trust being my problems.
I will make a plan to start contacting advisers and see if I can get some advice. At the very least it will provide some food for thought and broaden my understanding of what others look for when they explain something to me (and I can check on here to see if what I have been told makes sense or not).

Yeah that is a problem for me since I am abroad.
I would have thought that all that information would be available online.

I would love to piggyback on the success of others and would be happy to pay for it if I only knew where to find it.
Good advice on checking on here before using a BA or mentor.
Though if it a person from PC it might be a bit weird if I ask around and maybe people would feel a uncomfortable to criticise someone who is also reading the forums.

 

This is good advice. Thank you.

 

Appreciate the candidness that everyone is pretty much guessing where we are in a particular cycle.
Also thank you for the specifics of what to look for (income, availability of credit, infrastructure, etc)
Last point - yes I have heard that also to just do it, and I would be paying it off to become positively geared quickly, but there are a gazillion people saying don't buy in Sydney and I don't know enough about anywhere else to be able to know where to look and how to analyse if it is decent or a dud.

I do have a questions regarding #7.
Do you mean as soon as you have more equity (either from paying it off or from higher market price), you should take that equity and purchase something else a.s.a.p ?

 

Hi Gockie, I live abroad now, but I lived in Sydney all my life and I feel a lot more comfortable with an area I have more than no information about.

Thanks for the encouraging words. Yea I don't need to get my second property urgently and I was planning to start looking in about 2 months because my first one took me so long that it really cost me and was hoping to avoid that by planing early, but I guess being near the top of the Sydney cycle means that waiting is less likely to cost me in the same way as it did last time.

 

Thanks for the response.

I hear ya, but what you call "back of the envelope calcs" is likely something you have learned subconsciously and seems obvious and intuitive to you which you may not realise others have not learned and it is a big blank abyss for us. Just imagine that blank look if you said that to Homer Simpson. I feel like that.

 

We're all just winging it mate. No one know what is going to happen in the future, although there are people on here who have done a good job convincing themselves they do.

My best advice is just show up and have a crack and then keep having a crack. You'll win some and you'll lose some but if you keep plugging away persistently, stay positive and keep learning the wins will come.

 

Re: Q7 - No, don't feel pressure to buy anything right away. When you think your property/ies have gone up in value, contact your broker and setup a Line of Credit (or smaller multiple LOCs) if you're not ready to purchase something else. That way you'll have the $ ready to go when you do want to use it.

As for picking a suburb, re-read point 6. Major city markets that are showing positive signs of growth outside of Sydney are Adelaide, Hobart, Brisbane/Gold Coast. I'd be nervous about buying in Sydney now, I'm not sure about Melb, the outer 'burbs still seem to be having a decent run.

Location features to avoid (unless the property is waaay undervalued) are:
a) busy roads and railway lines
b) backing onto or directly across from (schools, commercial, industrial property)

 

Hi. People will pm you with feedback if you do a post asking about a specific BA. Also, you could search. There are a few threads recommending a few BAs.

End of the day there are many ways to make money so as long as you follow the basic rules around size of pop, demand vs supply then you'll do well. No one can tell you where to buy as no one can predict the future. Just set some parameters for yourself; budget, yield etc, check in on here before you buy (maybe pm someone whose strategy makes sense to you). Then VOILA jump in and buy

 

I like it.

I believe the best skill one can have is a solid grasp on the understandings of probability to predict the outcome of events.
I spent endless hours in my teenage years studying and gambling on horse racing, counting cards at blackjack, etc, when I should have been at school.
These days, I'm happy with what I spent my time on as it pays off with every day instinctive decisions now, short and long term.
Some people have absolutely no idea of the likely outcomes of relatively predictable events and I believe this is a key fundamental skill to possess and often overlooked by most.

 

Unless you are buying commercial ...then you want the lot incl the railway siding

 

Where are you currently?

 

Getting a little off topic but I'm in Thailand. Foreigners can't own land here though if that was what you were thinking about.

 

Nobody knows anything. Just invest and learn along the way. That's what the rest of us do.

 

I'm never in the right place to study a market from the ground, and never will be. I'm usually overseas or if I'm here I'm somewhere remote. Basically always rural or remote so strategies such as renos on purchase and trades are pretty much out for me. I use BAs for this reason. If your're overseas this is your best strategy. Agood BA will tell you why they like a particular suburb as opposed to other and the criteria they use to rule properties they've looked at as suitable for you to purchase or not. If you move here down the track you can still add value with a reno or subdivide but the priority if you're overseas is to buy low maintenance I would think.

 

One of the best posts I have read on this forum for what it's worth.

And

I know nothing compared to many of the posters here.

Two things
1. You don't have to buy real estate, there are other wealth creation options. Can even be found on this property forum.
2. The best advice I ever got was to buy a median priced dwelling where working families choose to live.

 

Steve McKnight's Property Apprenticeship | Steve McKnight's Property Apprenticeship Excellent course to learn the fundamentals, then build on it.