Like a virgin

Hiya,
This is my first time on this site, you all sound very friendly and experienced so I thought I’d introduce myself, have a chat and ask for some advice while I’m at it.

I am a novice investor, My husband and I bought our first and only investment property in dec 2005 prior to reading Steve’s book or doing any homework about property what so ever.

I had been obsessed for many years about owning my own home in Sydney. But by the time we’d saved a deposit, it just didn’t make sense to us to be chained to a monster mortgage for 30 years in a small flat in a crappy area.

That’s when we had the bright idea of buying a property in another less inflated state in order to get a rung on the property ladder.

I am currently reading Steve’s “$1 million in property in one year” book (I’m about a third of the way through) and now realise that there are other alternatives to just buying a property and crossing my fingers and toes.

I’m really excited by this knowledge but at the same time, it’s taken the wind out of my sails a bit.

I’m more your artsy interior designer type who is mathmatically challenged, and I was hoping … (dreaming, you’re thinking?)
to profit on my ability to recognise a diamond in the rough and use my talents to spruce it up and make it a nice home for good tenants and eventually sell for a tidy profit. Or better still just buy any old property and make a profit, somehow without really doing much!

This is my current formula:
step 1. Buy property
step 2. ?
step 3. profit

Do you get my drift

So Now I have found myself stuck in a rut. I’m passionate about searching for potential cash flow positive properties. In fact all I do most nights and weekends is spend hours on real estate.com searching every state for anything that falls into the 11 second solution category.

As you are no doubt aware, there isn’t much, if anything at all that passes that first test. (not by passively browsing the website every night and only seeing the deals that no one else wants) And I’m starting to think that my real estate site surfing is a massive waste of time unless I really know what I’m doing.

So I guess the advice i’m looking for is:
Has anyone else found themselves in this sort of mental rut or experienced a similar obstacle and if so, how did you overcome it, and where should I start beginning to educate myself so I can make informed decisions about the next property I buy instead of a stab in the dark.

thanks for listening,
Sally
[smiling]