What's your BST (blood, sweat,tears) story for getting your very first property?

Yes, not me. I spent my late teens and a little into my 20s partying and travelling. Fit a bit of uni in there somewhere too. Gotta live life! Well to be honest the partying and travelling continued until my early 30s

 

Agree, gotta enjoy life too. It's short enough as it is. I will say though, the parties and events I go to now ( well precovid) are way better than the ones in my early 20s

 

I started at age 19. I used my savings to pay off my (then) fiancé's car loan and put a deposit on a 2 bedroom fibro post-war house on a main road. It had a bath and a brand new indoor toilet but no shower. The laundry was an old garden shed in the back yard and my twin tub washing machine died when mice ate through the wiring. The asking price was about 60% of a typical new FHB property in the estates at the back of this same suburb. This was the Brisbane housing boom of 1980, and I wasn't waiting around to save a larger deposit for a bigger or better house as they were increasing in price faster than our pay cheques were coming in. I was frantic to escape from my crazy parents and Hubby was happy to move out of his family's three bedroom house with six people living in it.

It was paid in full within eight years, and by then I was seriously over living on a main road with a brand new HC estate 100mts up the road. We sold it for more than double what we had paid, so we had a comfortable deposit for the "new" home. We have been in our new home for 32 years now and have collected too much stuff to be bothered moving again. The real blood sweat and tears went into building this house and repairing the initial drainage problems, but I wont bore you all. Mark was either 22 or 23 when we bought our first home. We will celebrate our 40th anniversary next month, and are pretty stoked at how well life has turned out.

 

@Angel
That's a massive achievement!

These days, folks can barely last 40 weeks before it's over red rover.


Congrats. Any plans for your 40th anniversary?

 

Yeah, we just booked the weekend at a beach front resort on the Sunny Coast. We first met at Caloundra when I was sweet 16. Haven't told the kids yet. I've got plenty of hand bling already, so an experience is better than anything material.

 

I was thinking about asking if this was the unintended benefit before i read your second post. So many people still dont realise that often all people want is someone else to show that they care or are thinking about them, and often you get more bang for your buck by being there than making a token gesture. Great story and life lesson

 

Hi all, long time lurker - thought i would add mine

My blood, sweat and tears story actually isn’t really my blood, sweat and tears!!!

When looking for a house we took a six-month lease at a standard two bedroom and one bathroom. The place had been refurbished very poorly before we moved in and although it was seen to be “new” there was a LOT of problems.

Constant maintenance requests culminated in the hot water system needing a replacement (only had small amounts of hot water), the water pipes needing to be replaced and changes to the bathroom and kitchen. In the interim there were holes in the bathroom and kitchen (liveable but slightly dangerous).

As the landlord seemed to be dragging his feet and the property manager was as useless as a one legged cat trying to bury a turd on a frozen lake, the property wasn’t fixed for a long period of time. Also the timing of the work done was constantly delayed.

We used this to our benefits to receive around 4 months of free rent, as the promises of a rent free period when the work was being completed quickly ballooned out in time!

As soon as the work was getting completed, we gave our 28 days because we had bought our new place! Somehow the property manager thought we should have some kind of loyalty to the property, or disclosed that we were going to leave. LOL

The rent we didn’t pay went into a new 82 inch tv with all the bells and whistles! Every time I watch TV, I feel like I should send a thank you note to the landlord and property manager!

After we moved out the place stood on the market until the landlord had to sell it for a pretty substantial loss! Was a genuine money pit!

All in all, I guess you can say the best sacrifices are the ones you don’t have to make! My advice to millennials is to make sure you exploit any opportunity you can!

 

Geez mate! You sound like a tenant from paradise! Glad you really took advantage of the system, the poor landlord and the tenant-favouring laws to get that free-ride and enjoyed your 82" TV whilst the '' damned" landlord had to keep spending to update it further after what sounds like a dodgy renovation by a dodgy tradie. On top he didn't get any rent either. And at the end, you packed up and left as a thank-you reward to the loyalty and service shown by landlord/ prop mgr and the system. I wonder who wins the title of the 'one-legged-cat' trying to hide the turd in the snow - if its you or the prop mgr!

Great advice to millennials too.

Reading your rants (on the other thread) around the 'dodgy' system that favours landlords, this post is as rich as it comes these days! 'Oxymoronic' doesn't do justice - and this is the problem with most closet-socialists that post nonstop on various threads i.e "Rort & game" the system wherever possible, take every single handout and keep wanting more but god forbid, if the 'scumbag' investors whilst playing within the rules did that, they become the cause of unaffordable housing and rorters of the highest order!

 

I agree that you should have taken him for a ride for all the crap they caused you.

However with this comment, let's not pretend like you didn't go in with a massive chip on your shoulder. You would have been trouble regardless of whether the LL was good or not. I can almost taste the bitterness emanating through those words.

 

Exactly, the millennials who exploited their income and savings by buying lots of properties before the recent boom are laughing all the way to the bank.

 

Yep! Bought at 18 as well, this was in 2008 in New Zealand right in the middle of the GFC from memory (I remember everyone around me trying to talk me out of it)

i worked 3 jobs. My 40hr day job Mon-Friday, a nightclub security job Thur-Sat night on the weekend often until 2-3am, and then got up at 5am and drove to a dairy farm and milked cows.

I remember once falling asleep driving to the farm job after a few months and deciding to can that one haha. Its funny to think back as it wasn't all that long ago and the desire i had to succeed was more important than my own sleep, 12 years later not all that much has changed to be honest.

 

Was it all worth it?

 

Look I think the trajectory or path it put me on certainly was. The property did not change my life as it was eventually sold and i moved over to Australia (that was worth it)

However, by pursuing or achieving something difficult, it gives you confidence and learning things along the way sets you up for the next thing, and the next, and the next.

Its that whole never try to eat and elephant in one bite or the saying "you don't know what you don't know"

To answer you Q, yes it was worth it.

 

Can I adopt you? My kids barely have the drive to get them to KFC and it's only across the road from where they live.

 

We have such similar stories. I bought in my hometown when I was 18. Went on to sell the property 7 years later for no profit. But it’s what gave me a glimpse into he opportunities available. At 22 we moved to a regional town in South Australia with a 5 year goal of buying 3 investment properties and then move to the Sunshine Coast and buy a PPOR. Knowing the accumulation phase would then be done and we could live more presently and start a family knowing we are set up down the track. Knowing we could do nothing else and we would have the choice to do anything we want from potentially our early 40’s.

Fast forward 3 years and we had achieved our goal. Partner worked as a radiographer and took every minute of overtime possible. Had so much on call work that it doubled her salary. I had periods working 3 jobs. On-site manager of a hotel 7-3:30pm, I’d drive straight to a school to clean it from 4-6pm, I’d go home for dinner and then stack shelves at woolies from 7-midnight. I intentionally chose jobs where I could listen to audiobooks and podcasts all day. I used to hide in the rooms at the hotel and do workouts to stay fit. We had such strict budgets, every dollar tracked on whiteboards. While still giving myself weekends to enjoy time with friends and time in nature. I loved those years.

It’s fully achievable for millennials. I had the desire so didn’t find it challenging at all. I honestly loved the process so much. All we needed was a long term vision, from there it was always just the one next step.

We’ve now just moved into new PPOR on the Sunshine Coast, plus still have the 3 investments in Brisbane which are all doing well. I’m 26 and ready for our modest portfolio to hopefully go through its first boom! Bloody exciting for someone like myself that’s never had any sort of net worth.

We’ve never had special jobs or done anything overly fancy. To be where we are make me feel very proud of the choices we’ve made. So excited for the next decade.

 

That Hayden is nothing short of bloody awesome! Well done on starting so young, on going at it like a dog with a bone and achieving a path towards financial independence at such a young age! I bet, both of you could fully retire by the time you hit 40 with this level of commitment.

A must-read for some of our resident-millennials!

 

Wow, this is awesome. Such an inspiring story.

 

That’s legendary. Isn’t it amazing what you can achieve when you don’t make excuses and just put your head down.

I often wonder where does this “desire” or passion come from that allows some people to push and push until you get what you want. It seems to be a lot to do with our own childhoods and how our experiences as a kid moulded or shaped our thought process.

 

Nice story and well done. How and what did you buy at 18? And the subsequent 1 property a year for the next three years - are these smaller units on IO? High LVR? I'm just curious as to how you managed to leverage these/service the debt. Cheers

 

18 was a house in a small country town for 120k. Man at the time I felt like I was on the way to taking over the world. The beauty of hindsight..
All purchases were 90% LVR and IO, I’m a believer of this in the accumulation phase. Buy quality houses in established areas as soon when you can afford to. Two of my loans are now principal and interest. LVR is edging towards 80%. We worked with a gun broker from the start who new our plan and worked backwards. The last couple purchases were stretching the borrowing capacity. Saved 10% deposit plus costs for all of them. We saved fast, probably around 75% of our net income at the time which ended up being around 100k a year of savings. Lived in a share house for $75 a week rent, didn’t eat out or go on holidays.

It’s really only two Brisbane properties, my ego counts the granny flat as a property sometimes.
First home was 570k in Everton Hills, 3 bed 2 bath 618m2. Next was 400k out on the Redcliffe peninsula, 3 bed 1 bath 607m2. Then we added a 130k granny flat on that one. Lastly we purchased in Currimundi on the Sunshine Coast, 1km to the beach for 670k. 3 bed 1 bath 635m2. Having a balanced portfolio that didn’t eat up our cashflow over the next 10-15 years was important to us as we plan to start a family soon. Overall I’m really happy with the purchases. Yes it would have been nice to be closer to the city but it’s the best locations we could afford at the time with the deposit and borrowing capacity we had.