Good on you for developing this Im sure it could be useful for someone. My feedback is I tried searching in NSW it only appears to search VIC. When I tried to find houses in Kew near Kew Public School I only found one and the link was dead. Keep testing and improving. SAS and search tools are hard work but the traffic might be there if you nail it.

@paulpetherbridgehotmail-com any thoughts?

Cool @world-changer ta for the link. Do you know if they are ok with acid sulfate soils?

Howdy @elileon welcome. First up the journey of investing is fun, long, and yes it is great to open your eyes to the possibilities.

The mortgage brokers lawyers and accountants can speak with more detail about structuring solutions etc. I will keep it brief, to answer your question, yes, in the short term you have impacted your borrowing capacity by buying that home. BUT – if it is your home, and you enjoy living in it, then that is worth a lot. So be happy. The great thing is it is not a million dollar home, but something affordable. And you have great income to support the mortgage payments and family plus investing assuming you keep cashflow under control.

The most pressing need I see is deposits. You need some. So in the short term, save hard. If you have access to another source of deposits, these can be found at low risk great. But if nothing else, keep reading, and learning, and save for 6 months and you will have your first good deposit. Voila! Not sexy but a plan, and yes, saving is how I and most other investors started. The more drastic approach would be to sell your home and rent and save faster, but with no real equity gains it is kinda pointless to sell it, given you will just end up paying someone else’s mortgage off instead of yours.

tumfrombrisbane wrote:

I’m definitely much keener to educate myself further about Brisbane as a whole and the areas of potential boom whilst building a portfolio, I really just want to know of people who have used an agent and what their story is, Did it pay off, Or was it work that can be done yourself with a little dedication to your portfolio building?
Cheers
Tim

This says a lot about you and is a good indicator that a BA is probably not a fit for your personality type and investing style. Which is totally fine by the way. People who have done enough work to get success 3 or more times and enjoy the time spent plus the process of research, due diligence and negotiation may need a BA less than others. The folks that enjoy success with BA’s tend to want their lives back so spend less time on forums. A big part of why I do what I do is because I hate hearing stories of people being fleeced and ripped off in the market. For some people the process itself is daunting, and their lack of knowledge, confidence, or time means they will struggle to outperform the market or be sure of getting good value quality properties. Others don’t even know what they should buy as they haven’t been able to clarify their goals and set a plan that will get them there. It ends up being about trust, and working together. Protecting the interest of my client is what drives me.

If we think about other skill sets, I have seen good solicitors being worth their weight in gold in nasty property transactions so I would trust one completely every time, even though technically I could do my own conveyancing. Its it good value to me to pay a solicitor? Yes. Is it good value to pay a surgeon when I need an operation? Yes. It is good value to pay someone to mow my lawns? Yes. They do certain things faster, better, and I would rather be doing what I love and am best at. Are all those things good value to someone else? I don’t know that is up to them.

If I can find a team I enjoy working with who do a good job and make my life easier, I will do that every time because I love that way of working. Some people want to do everything themselves and never trust others, they have a different set of values and drivers. Which parts should you do yourselves and which parts should you get help with? That is different for every person.

…or meet with Terryw he is wisdom personified!

Good to know about that one Benny. This mob are also excellent for property structuring etc. Also the wrong part of town for @bungee, sorry.
http://wscgroup.com.au/home?subSiteId=1

@originalsinner I doubt a mine could take values from where are currently in Kingaroy LOWER given they are already low. In almost ALL cases new mines increase rents and values, and the rest of the economy. The only scenario I could see values falling was if a proposed mine was:
1 right on the edge of town,
2 in a really high price trendy latte drinking town who would actually leave because of the mine.

In practice this would be really rare.

If locals are fighting its because they don’t like it for a lot of other reasons, this has been added in to try and strengthen the argument, but is unlikely to be true. Of course mines have environmental impacts that are real, and whether a new coal mine will do well in the current climate is questionable anyway given current low prices (will probably rise eventually) but yeah its more an emotional NIMBY thing (not in my backyard) than a financial thing.

Wow @lukoot well done and congrats for the fantastic progress to get this far by 30. There are a few threads currently discussing strategy options and decision making. I would suggest start reading this one…
https://www.propertyinvesting.com/topic/5019312-the-importance-of-having-a-strategy/
…and then do some work on your long term goals, plus think about the kind of investor you want to become. This will help with the “what to buy next” question. It really should fit into a bigger picture of what you want to achieve.
To answer the 2nd half of your Q re renos, subdivisions, and blocks of units, yes all of these are possible and affordable outside of Sydney. (I have a block of 3 under contract with a client currently, plus a small subdivision and dual occ etc) I would suggest don’t rush out to really distant rural at first, look for major regional and coastal markets whithin 3 hrs of Sydney for safety and to catch the natural ripple effect of capital gain that often happens at the tail end of the Sydney run, or else you could even consider SEQ as an alternate market. But again, you should work out what you want first, then pick the market to suit that.

Hi @specha good question.

Short answer, yes it matters and it helps to have one. There are lots of little decisions along the investing path, which all get easier if you can check in on your direction.

Here is how I think it can work (at least how I am trying to run my own life etc)

1 Start with why – watch this video from Simon Sinek, go find your own reason, your driving force for taking action. https://youtu.be/u4ZoJKF_VuA
2 In line with your why, set some long term goals. Ask yourself if they fit with who you want to be along the journey and at the destination. The goals are more than just “I want to be rich” they are like “I want to own 4m worth of units generating 200k net cash flow” or “I want to be actively developing 8-10 properties per year with 400k net profit” etc etc. Thing about the process of owning and improving property and which parts you warm to as these are the things that will consume your time when you get further along.
3 Once you have the above, then set the short and medium term goals to break it down into baby steps.
4 Once you have all the above, then clearly write down the strategies you will be using to achieve them. It becomes obvious. IE if you like owning new low maintenance units, you will either buy them that way or build them. If you love renovating, you will buy ugly ducklings. Etc.
5 Once you have 1yr goals and strategies written down, develop a 3 month action plan so you actually do something right away. Such as “apply for that equity refinance this month to prepare for my next IP purchase next month”

Continually check in with your deeper feelings about life and purpose as if you find your plans drifting chances are you will find you created something out of alignment with who you actually are. We don’t get energised when we try and do things we don’t believe in.

Hope this makes sense.