When did the penny drop for you?

This warrants its own thread...

When did the penny drop for you when it comes to property investing?

For us it did at 23 years of age when one of our entire (almost) teams was retrenched from a large project.

There had to be a better way.

Though going back further, do think it dropped at 15 years of age when we were 3 months into our new home, Australia and didn't have much to fall back on other than a shabby unit where our South Asian landlord showed up with his own family and mum and dad (who were visiting from overseas) for an excursion.

When did you have the realisation?

Cheers
Property Twins

 

@Nattl3s -

 

I'm still waiting for my penny to drop...

I must have been 21 or 22 at uni and for some reason all I wanted to read about was real estate tycoons and how they had done it.

It took a while for me to get into gear but now that I'm in real estate I'll never look back.

 

2001 when I was renting and thought "I bet I can buy a property and rent it out too"

 

In 2012 we were renting in the middle of a HUGE (unsustainable) boom. Rent started at $380, the next year it was $500. I vowed if this boom ever went away, I would buy something nice for my family so we would never, ever have to go through that again.

The boom went away.

I decided to buy but knew I had to be very careful in a tanking market so I hit the books. Whilst I was doing my research I discovered this forum...then the penny dropped.

My mortgage is now less than $400 a week and I'm gearing up for the next property. Game. on.

 

1999. It was around about my 17th birthday when my dad and uncle pointed out to me (quite strongly and unequivocally)what will be if I do X in life and what can be if I do Y. It just made sense immediately. It was a no brainer. Thank god I had half a brain to listen.

 

I don't think the penny dropped for me until I had to go through divorce but retained the family home in my name, to then work out that I couldn't afford the mortgage but that my house was an amazing asset (house in Coogee NSW, 1 1/2 blocks from the beach). I still remember having literally hundreds of conversations with my accountant, broker, friends and family about whether to sell. This was in 2013. I decided to move out, rent a smaller place and put tenants in my house short term for some breathing space. The first year it was $9000 positive even after the huge loan and depreciation!

The CG was incredible in Coogee so I was able to purchase 3 IPs without using a cent of my own money by using the equity. And now I look at property every day and can't wait to buy the next one!

 

When Steve McKnight's first books came out and it just seemed so easy.

 

Copied from SS Forum, because it would take too long to type, & I've not got a lot of time today. The point is, that it was something that NEVER came across our minds until this day. It was something rich people did, not ordinary people like us.

If it wasn't for that meeting....or that first purchase, I don't think we would have ever bought even one IP.

 

I had a scholarship at uni. Once I got a job, I knew I wanted to buy property with my scholarship saved as a deposit. Just for something to do. Even though it was later that the penny dropped, I was glad I got in early

 

Chatting to fund managers trying to sell them ad space in fin planner trade newspapers in 2008.

Either buy shares or property was their advice to fresh-out-of-uni me.

Looking back its probably the best start I couldve had, even if the environment for an ad sales job was... Unique.

 

Wow! Amazing responses here. @Pat... OMG .. so glad you did not sell Coogee in 2013 and instead rented it out and moved to a more affordable rental. You would be kicking yourself!

@skater.... love your stories. So inspiring! Shows anybody can do it if they take action!

@Zoolander & @Leo2413 .. right place.... so glad you listened!

Me... reading Rich Dad Poor Dad. Own assets, not liabilities!!! Then going to seminars (not buying anything) and hearing in one of thise seminars about how you could leverage to buy property, borrow 80 or 90%, giving you exposure to the growth on the whole asset....

Penny dropped.

 

The penny half dropped after I bought my second negative geared property around 8-9 years ago. Then after getting into the forums and educating myself more seriously I think it then really dropped around 4-5 years ago but hasn't actually hit the ground yet.

My non inspiring accountant at the time was exactly that. I told him what and where I bought and he would say 'oh that's a nice suburb' and that was end of that discussion. Early reminder I was with the wrong accountant.

 

About 10 minutes after I started working when I was 14 and 9 months. Thought to myself "there has to be a better way!"

20 years later though still here going at it. Committed (addicted?) to the grind. At least I work for myself now though.

 

Phew you didn't sell! What a disastrous decision it would have been if you sold. Well done holding out. I'm sure it added a nice mega chunk to your wealth

I distinctively remember in 2013 some friends of mine were looking to buy a 2 bed unit in Bondi but were very hesitant and felt the market was going to slide back or stagnate further. Financially they would have easily afforded to buy 2 units in the area. Only because they were good friends, I literally begged them to buy but they were mega fearful. They kept talking about US crash and Ireland markets tanking in the past. Fear won out and they didn't buy. To this day they have massive regrets.

 

i did finally sell coogee last year - bought late 2012, sold oct 2016, doubled my money....
i am still in shock about it!! it was zoned medium density residential so sold it myself off market by having developers trying to out bid each other.

but can't believe how close i came to selling in 2013/2014.

 

2015 When I got sick, Won't detail here because there are plenty of posts on it already but short version is, thought I was going to die and all it would have left my wife was a mortgage to pay on a single income. Not a very nice thing to leave someone you love .

Now everything I do financially is in the interest of us retiring as soon as possible with a passive income so however long we are alive we spend as many days as possible together and walking on the beach hand in hand .

Don't need to be a rich man, just a happy, healthy and comfortable man.

 

Great posts everyone.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing.......both for those who took action and those who didn't!

Looking forward to more posts..

@See Change @Jacque @RetireRich101 @neK @Michael_X @Travelbug @Bargain Hunter @Player
@Taku Ekanayake @David Shih @Jack Chen @datto

 

When I turned 40...(2001).

We owned our PPoR, and I was assessing my life at that point, had realised that $50k or so per year working in a golf club Pro Shop and teaching golf was not the answer any more, and I wanted to find something else that might allow me to escape it....

Around that time I got a Henry Kaye promo in the mailbox, talking about using equity to buy IP's....

Did the H.K course (and thought it was fabulous!), then found out about Jan Somers, Steve McNight, Marg Lomas, Rob Kiyosaki and others.

 

When Henry Kaye was spruiking OTP back around 2002.