First Time Buying- Brisbane Region

1) Will tell you in five years time Plenty will pretend they know now however!
2) This is personal financial and structuring advice and shouldn't be answered here
3) Depends
4) If you can make money from property trading then why not? Do it, make money, repeat!  Can mix this in with appropriate holding of longer term properties. Well done value adding has continued to work well like it pretty much always does, buy and forget capital growth has been much harder to come by over the last five years in Brisbane.
5) Plenty. Do some reading and networking and you will find the quality of your questions will improve quickly.

You are young and thinking about these things so that already places you in the top few % of the population, congratulations!

Samuel you also might want to start building your network and connections, that will be powerful for your future.

http://www.meetup.com/brisbanepropertygroup/

First night is free to attend and then it's approx $30/night, mostly DIY investors are attending these evenings and a good way to learn at little cost.

Hi Samuel,

Maybe you should think about buying something for a bit less – maybe an apartment? Have you thought about living in the property for a while so you don't have to pay stamp duty – you could also rent rooms to your friends to help with the repayments.

Also, I think you should start whenever you're ready – I bought my first at 19 and now I'm 21 and have nearly purchased my 3rd. It is good to take advise from people, especially those on this forum, however without taking risks you will get no where. At this age you really have nothing to lose so go for it!

Kate

Hey Samuel,

From one young aspiring property investor to another – I say good work on setting yourself an awesome goal of buying an investment property.

I am slightly older than you at 21 years of age and have just bought my first property, here are my thoughts on your situation.

1. No, you are definitely not in the ideal situation to buy an investment property. But with a bit of luck and thinking outside the box it may be possible. Otherwise you may have to wait a couple of years and boost your deposit. In my opinion the property market may take a couple of years to really see some significant capital growth so you can afford to save hard for a year or two and look to buy then.

2. I think this is definitely something that you should consider. If you feel you have a close and trustworthy relationship with your brother than why not. This is where you may have an option of really sitting down and discussing the pros and cons of buying a investment property together. To be fair I think if you are going to have a partner for your first venture than family is probably the best option and if your brother is driven to succeed and has an interest in property than this could be a really good partnership. Why not get together with your brother and write up a business plan of what you want to spend, yield to achieve, predicted capital growth, minor renovation, etc. and then approach your parents. My parents had to guarantor my loan and helped me fork out the deposit together, there would be absolutely no way I would have been approved without it. Would it be possible to go thirds with your brother and parents. Perhaps your parents would be really impressed that you and your brother wanted to make a positive financial decision and start investing and be willing to work with you to achieve your goal.

3. This question is a post entirely in itself. But I do think that Brisbane is definitely a market with a lot of potential to rebound over the medium to long term. You really need to research and identify some goals. Are you looking for a cheap 2 bedroom unit close to a train station with cosmetic renovation potential to boost rental yield and hopefully unlock equity in the coming years to purchase another? Or are you looking at picking up a cheaper house in salisbury, indooroopilly, with land component as Brisbane is still relatively cheap for land close to the CBD etc.? Do lots of reading on forums, magazines, websites, books and work out what you want to focus on.

4. Not meaning to be condescending, but you are only 18 – how much experience can you really have? In the past 3 years since I was 18 I have learnt so much and see myself as a different person with greater experiences, no doubt I will be saying this when I am 25, 30, 35,etc. I am 21 and I consider myself to be an absolute rookie but I am looking to learn as much as I can so that in the next 5-10 years I have a really solid understanding in all property investing. Remember one of those cheesy lines you can never stop learning. I think you would be getting in over your head if you were expecting to buy and flip with such a small deposit and no experience due to being first investment property – much better chance looking at something much simpler like a small 2 bed unit.

5. There are literally thousands of questions you could ask – and your at the perfect place to ask them. You need to ask them – because if your buy a dud first up it could set you back years and deter you from property. Conversely if you buy smart within an outlined strategy you could be one of the lucky few who have the opportunity to start investing in property at such a young age. How often have you heard others saying they wish they had started earlier – you are really giving yourself a head start and being financially smart rather than going out and wasting your money on a new car, etc.

Anyways, I wish you all the best man

Let us know if your lucky enough for anything to happen

Ask as many questions as you can think of on forums like this – its the quickest way to learn I have found.

Cheers,
Damo

Wow, young investor.