Not sure where to start — Advice needed

Hi All,

Firstly, I'm sure you get plenty of these type of posts, so I apologise for the proliferation of them.

I need some advice on a good first move into the world of property investing.

At the moment my wife and I are renting, feeling completely priced out of the market on any property we would possibly want to live in. I work in the CBD and buying an hour out is not an option (we've both traveled an hour each way before and it's not something we're going back to).

We'd like to use PI as a vehicle to achieve: in the mid term (1-5 years) enabling us to buy our own home and long term, create wealth whether passive or otherwise.

Currently we're on a single (reasonably ok) income, with about 10K to spend, with some other investments I'm willing to liquidate if the returns can beat my current investments.

I've read a number of books on PI, including Steve's, Margaret Lomas, and some Kiyosaki books, but rather than helping me to decide on one path, I feel more confused.

We still qualify for the FHOG, so buying an IP, living in it for 6 months then moving out could be an option.

Another thought is we might buy in a regional centre that has good infrastructure, schools, hospitals, uni's etc and hold it for 5 years or so. The question then is do we try and make it CF+ or just accept the fact that that's pretty difficult in today's market.

I know there's some intelligent and experienced people here, so I'm interested to hear thoughts on what you would do given my situation.

Many thanks,

zers