Hi Blackhole
Your assumption that you will have no disposable income left after 1 -ve geared property is wrong. What you dont realise is that you can be -ve geared by only a small amount all of ours are less than $50/week 2 are now +ve geared after 4 years 4 by $10-15/week and 1 @ 50. As we save 30% of our wage this more than covers the repayments we could still buy more. -ve gearing doesnt have to mean $100s/week just like +ve you look for ones that will only cost a small amount but are in good locations to get the capital growth.

Hi Steve
Thanks for repying I dont actually want to be mentored my hubby and I feel we are well on our way to acheiving our goals. It was just a small go at all the people wanting you to mentor them. What they dont realise is that you made it without mentoring it was within you to go out and make a different life for yourself.Having said that you are only just starting on your next stage in life with kids. My 5 year old is sitting on the floor trying to distract me and if I thought that I lost a lot of sleep because of them it was nothing compared to now. But when they say to you not another property cant we just go home ( I have 3 10,7& 5) you realise that life is a balance and I do wish that I woke up to property investment before they were born.
Sure they will learn about investing but it has to fit in between school and sport, so if people say that they find it a bit more difficult than you I hope you can see that they really do have more people to rely on them you only had youself.
Dont get me wrong I am not saying it is impossible we Do what we can relying on the help of family who live 1000kms away. Thank God for family.
What I am most interested in is talking to people who are changing their lives for the better and this forum gives me that chance
Erika

Hi All
I own both houses and units and the units we own we have both body corporate done by a company as well as by the owners. The owner one is a small complex of 4 and we all talk regularly to keep things going the units with a company is in a large complex and would be nearly impossible to manage with just owners.
It is true that the land has the value but sometimes you cant get the location without buying a unit. 2 of our units in Brissie are on the river and have uninterupted veiws to the city they have experienced v.good cap. growth because of this location which we would not have been able to afford as a house.
Look at why you are buying for cap.growth or + gearing. For positve gearing you dont need the best location just good tenants. If you can get both more the better.
For holiday rentals just check how much the banks will lend first sometimes they are not as keen on these.
My best bit of advise is if your family are not investing in property dont listen to them My mother in law used to have sleepless nights because of the debt we are in she was soooo negative we simply dont talk to her about it now saves the stress.
Do your homework have a look at what people like to rent in the area do they want one br units or are they after 3 br houses sit in the realestate agents for a while and see how many people come in for rentals. Talk to more than one realestate agent.
But eventually you have to start to beleive in yourself and take action.

I must say I agree with what is being written. I fear for a lot of people they have the herd mentality and at the moment it is positvely geared property. I am grateful to Steve that he set up this forum but we must also remember that he has his own agenda in life and this forum gives him a good audience to sell his seminars to. We are always warned with managed funds that past peformance does not garantee future performance this applies to all areas of investing. I wish everyone well in their investing but beware a rapidly rising market that everyone just has to get into.

Why are you buying this house? If for personal use then $8000 may be justified but if for investment adding another 8k into the equation does it still add up. There are plenty more fish in the sea does this one matter that much.

HI PeterP
Its great if you can get by without really knowing how much you spend on everyday things. The problem that most people seem to have is that they can’t seem to save money, like you we save about 30% of my husbands wage, all investment income gets reinvested into investments.But it is really easy to work out bills and such. Take a look at last years bills longer if you ahve them work out how much they add up to for the year divide by the number of times you get paid and that is how much you need to put aside for them.Beats waiting for them to come in and hoping you have enough.
Like lozzza we also save for xmas and B’days and xmas is a much happier time Knowing that the money is there, The first year is the hardest because you may be paying of some of last years excesses but if you can make it thru that year it gets easier.
You need to look at what you earn and what you spend to really get a good grasp of your financial position for most people they are too afraid of what they will see.

What a great topic I have always loved arguements between 2 passionate people who think their way is the only right way.
Just for the arguement we have property and shares and we use our shares to generate our income as well as some buy and hold ones and our property to increase our asset base ie capital gain.We generate our income using options which return at present about 3% a month.It used to be as high as 6-7%/mth.
One more thing you say that property is always worth something but I remember seeing things on today tonight and ACA about being able to get land in some small towns for free because the owners couldnt sell it and they didnt want to pay rates anymore. Isnt the main thingis to do your due diligence in relation to any thing you buy. I am sure some people who bought into inner city appartments are sitting on a loss.

The other thing about most millionaires being property think of all the rich people who come to mind like rupert M. and kerry P. they own shares
who is the most prominent property ower in Aust?
Keep up the aurgument its great reading

Erika[]

Hi Jarvis
You are obviously not from Brissie as the three suburbs you talk about are on the east side of Brissie not the west.

Erika

Hi All
We have had no problems with insurers paying for damage. Our realestate agent has a good history with the insurer so all goes fairly smooth.

Erika