Hi Young,
I’m possibly in the same boat as you. I bought a unit as place of permanent residence at the start of last year. For most of last year my partner and I have been saving for our wedding (which happens next weekend). After that I’ve resolved myself to paying off my consumer debt (which was costing approx 600 a month in minimum payments (not including the mortgage in that)).

Once the loans are paid I’m going to start saving again for an investment property, but I’ll probably be saving into a managed fund (possibly Navra’s blue chip fund) to accelerate saving, and further down the track I plan to use managed fund dividends to assist with any holding costs of investment properties.

I’d like to have positive cash flow properties, but I’d prefer to have capitol growth, and regularly draw down equity for more managed funds and more properties.

So right now (starting from next pay) I’m in clearing all debt except for the mortgage for where I live. Then I’ll have more cash flow for investing.

Make yourself a budget and start saving

what are the monthly (or fortnightly or weekly) repayments on the loan?

seems a fair thing to do. When I bought my unit it started at 178000. They then asked for 180,000.

I signed on 180,000 but said thats my walk away price, if they go higher, I’ll look elsewhere, as its not the only unit on the market…

replying only to the subject topic… cash flow properties are everywhere….most of them are negative

get a budget happening. Excell is a good tool to use. I get payed monthly, every month has a column of income and expenses. I leave some money in the budget for contingencies (eg partner wants to go out for dinner, unexpected bills etc). In general I know the expenses from month to month eg internet bill, phone bills, minimum loan repayments, groceries, petrol….

There are two schools of thought…

1 pay off highest interest debt first with the extra money in your budget, then the next hightest interest debt when that first one is paid off and so on. As each debt is payed off use the money you were paying off the first debt onto the next debt(this will guarantee you pay the least amount of interest for the money you put in)

2 pay off the smallest debts first, then use that money to pay off the next smallest debt… this way you see the changes quicker (but dont save quite as much money in interest)

If you have any questions about this, or would like an example spread sheet (complete with how much I spend on woodstock bourbon and cola) just pm me

Congrats! I wish I was thinking about investments when I was 18.
I’m 39 and have only just bought my first house to live in as a place of primary residence. I dont have the deposit monies together yet to look at further investing.
You are doing well, just thinking about it! [thumbsupanim]

I’ll add to crusher suggestions:

make good friends with (or marry) a real estate agent or a person who works in a real estate agents office and get access to the prices of similar houses in the location you are interested in.

And a slighty less useful answer. The market value of a house is the price for which the house sells for. (ie you dont know until its sold)

I would put 4k in ING (towards wedding costs next year)
the other 3 would go towards my existing (consumer) debt

One thought… how does one afford it unless its part of a large CF+ portfolio.. I mean, the holding costs while you wait for the demand to raise the land value… it would be ok if you could pay cash I guess.