Hi BigAJ,

Welcome to the forum.  We can definately relate to your situation. My husband and I had been itching to invest for quite a few years now.  We purchased our PPOR 4.5 years ago and as much as we would have liked to start investing sooner but we didn't really know where to begin.  We started reading investment magazines and books and we started religiously looking through the forums to obtain information from those who have a wealth of experience to share.  We both work full time and I am also completing a degree part-time so doing the hard yards ourselves seemed like a very daunting task. Like yourself, we thought the simplest solution would be to find a company that would do the work for you.

Before we even looked into narrowing down the areas of interest, we sat down and made a list of what we were aiming to achieve and how we were going to do it based on our personal situation.  Then we made a list of criterias that would hopefully lead us to where to look.  We originally set out to pick up something local, in Melb and also looked at 2 regional areas in Vic because we felt that it would be easier especially when you're starting out.  After doing further research, our interest was diverted to Brisbane.  4 months went by and we got to a point where it felt like it was consuming too much of our time.  So we decided to meet with an investment group in Melb because we thought they would have the answers for us.  How wrong I was.  

The first meeting with the group consisted of them telling us how they will do everything for us from picking the location, the property to organising the finance and arranging the accountant.  They kept emphasing how little it was going to costs us and that their current clients have come back for the second, third etc property.  Not once did they ever ask us about what we thought, their whole sales pitch was all about how people fail because they do it on their own and they don't have the experience that this type of company can provide.  They few a threw options on the table in regards to the areas we should be investing in and then followed up by saying that they only offer brand new houses through their direct developer because they receive generous discounts because they buy so many properties for their clients.  

We left the meeting knowing that we weren't any closer to where we wanted to be and we felt very uncomfortable about the whole process.  We kept receiving calls in the days that followed whereby the company urged us to act as quickly as possible as they had received word that the developer was about to increase the price.

After that meeting, we decided that the best option for us was to do it on our own, even if it was going to require more time and energy.  We made quite a few express trips from Melb to Brisbane and as exhausting as it was, when we found the house we had been looking for, it was worth all the hours it took to find it.  We are now 17 days away from settlement, which we are absolutely thrilled and excited about.  

We are by no means experienced investors and we have so much more to learn but we relate to your situation because when you haven't done it before, you always worried about what can go wrong.  It seems easier for someone to give you the answers but they might not be the right answers for you.  If you decide to go through an investment company, ensure that what they are offering is in line with your requirements and always question what their motives are.  Otherwise, if you decide to do it on your own, find yourselves a good broker (they are worth their weight in gold and we would gladly recommend you someone who is a regular on this forum), a good accountant and the people on this forum have a wealth of information which you don't pay a cent for  

Wishing you all the best.

Mezma3        

Hi Richard,

Would really appreciate it if you could email me your article [email protected].  Really looking forward to settlement on our first IP, which you played a very big part in organising the finance for us  We found your knowledge astounding and you were so helpful throughout the entire process

Thanks a million once again.

Mery