VENTURENT, 

Welcome and thank you for explaining in excellent detail your experiences. The position of property marketing companies in the investment marketplace is misunderstood by investors. We talk to clients everyday who are shocked at what goes on within the marketing industry, and even more shocked at how little they actually knew. This is after they have spent years researching the purchase of a property, which is why there needs to be a change in the way they are allowed to present what they do.  

ASIC could start with requiring "WE DON'T WORK FOR YOU, WE ONLY CARE ABOUT OURSELVES" being written across the front of all marketing company communications. 

WAG, here is an answer on another thread, posted by my partner Dave Ward, this covers why property research is not as easy as it seems.

+1

Week One

Strip wallpaper

Strip skirting

Strip architraves

Strip old doors

Strip kitchen

Strip bathroom

Strip carpets

Clear gardens and site rubbish

Rough-in new plumbing

Rough-in new electrical

Week Two

Patch walls

Patch ceilings

Prime patching

Undercoat ceilings

Undercoat walls

Start painting inside and out

First coarse sand of floors (Some floor sanders wont want to do this, find one that will)

Start bathroom plumbing and tile prep

Start kitchen plumbing and electrical (depending on how much you move things around)

Kitchen cupboards (measure & order)

Kitchen bench tops (measure & order)

Kitchen splash backs (measure & order)

Week Three

Replacing skirting boards

Replace architraves

Hang doors

Second coat walls

Finish coat ceilings

Week four

Prime new woodwork

Undercoat woodwork

Top coat walls

Tile bathroom

Install kitchen cupboards

Install bench tops

Fitted wardrobes

Week five

Finish plumb bathrooms

Finish kitchen splash backs or tile

Finish plumb kitchen

Finish electrical kitchen

Finish top coating woodwork (second to last trade)

Site Clean (so there is less dust & grit to mess up your newly polished floors)

LAST

Finish floor sand and polish (last trade)

Touch up paint work after floor sanders (marks on skirting etc)

Clean (dust only this time)

I would start on the gardening and the driveway at the start, wait until the painters have finished and then plant up the gardens. That way there is someone on site every day to water your new planting.

Fitted wardrobes in week four, at the same time as the kitchen cupboards and before the final paint.

Shahin is right. The first purchase is a portfolio maker or a portfolio breaker. Most investors don't get past their Home + 1 investment property, and 90% don't get past Home + 2 investment properties for that reason. We see stalled investors, up to their necks in strife, investments that need to be untangled, refinanced and tidied up.

As a Property Investment Advisors and Buyer's Agents we see this all the time, and we start out with each client, by getting them onto our "on-boarding" process, the first part of this lets us see how the existing assets are setup, so we don't make things worst. We don't charge to give you our opinion, or to point you to some good professional advice. 

Some here will say teach yourself and do you own research, I just don't agree.

It's a bit like saying: teach yourself and set up your own finance, teach yourself and set up your own trust structure. You don't know what you don't know. When you started your career, your employer didn't say "sit down there and teach yourself, then go out and borrow 1/2 a million dollars over 30 years, and then we will see how good you are". No they (or someone else) trained you, apprenticed you, or you started in the mailroom. The mailroom is how you learn on the job, where the worst you can do wrong is put the stamps on upside down. Some people don't ever leave the mailroom, while others go on to run the company. 

In my opinion; Property investment is at it's most risky when you only have 1-2 properties. Once you have 3 or more, your income (rents) is coming off a broader base, your capital growth is coming of a wider geographical area, and with a bit of good planning you will have a few months mortgage payments sitting in your off set account, waiting for a rainy day. 

A buyer's agent will sit down with you, create an investment plan that is tailored to you, then work with you as your advocate all the way through.

Let me know if I can help.

I am not sure what you mean by 10-20% market discount?

Do you mean you want to buy the property for 10-20% less than the asking price or you want to find a property in poor condition where the asking price is 10-20 less than the market price for same property in good condition?

There is a saying my mother used to use about wanting too much, too soon in real estate: 

"Chickens lay eggs, Pigs get slaughtered for bacon" and she would know, she had a habit of getting caught, being both a pig as well as a chicken!

That said I would not recommend this strategy to my clients and would not do this myself unless I was a cash buyer.

Here goes; in a rising market you can buy 10 properties in 12 months if you are careful with the method and manage your risks. The method I would suggest would be to buy a number of off-the-plan apartments in high growth areas using 10% cash deposits. Spreading the purchases between a few locations (5)and spreading the expected completion dates between 6-18 months. 

Risks being your ability to on-sell the required number (5), settle on the contracts you need to(5), the market heading south, your ability to borrow being reduced because of internal or external factors. 

To make is easier you would need to start with at least 25% of the total contract values as cash in the bank that you plan to use to fund this exercise. Add to that maintain excellent serviceability. 

I have used a very flexible definition of "Buy"  and "12 Months"

You are right!  (Edited accordingly)

While I agree with your statement to a degree, I have to say; by buying in mining towns you have lost most of what little control a property investor has over the product he or she invests in; TIMING

Mining towns are one of those special places that live in a "virtual reality". By that I mean one company (or the person running it) or the government (or the person running it) can wipe the land values over night without warning.

Playing that game will work perfectly right up to the moment it doesn't and if you are like most investors, who like to play double up, you will get burnt. Getting burnt with $10,000 worth of apples and no one to buy them is one thing, but getting stuck with $???,000 capital loss and mortgage is deal breaker. Doing it once did take some nerve (+1), doing it twice would be somewhat unwise (-100). 

Another thing: most people do do research. They just don't know how to do the right research. 

The older I get, the more I know how much I don't know.

Michael Bladen, Oxley Partners, Bong Bong Street, Bowral. 02 4861 6914. 

We do a lot of work for Michael's clients and send our clients to Michael. The feedback we get is always good. 

Here is a link to the Tax Checklist we give out to clients, just help them to double check they are not missing anything.