Is this normal?

Congratulations in holding on so long !

Property goes through a property clock cycle. Sometimes its good to purchase and you'll make quick profits depending on what you paid.

Other times you sit through an extended period first of all waiting for your initial price to return .. and finally look for a profit.

It depends on when you bought in .. how much you paid .. what interest rate you paid and what economic circumstances affect your investment climate itself.

What were you doing wrong? If you wanted an investment that wasnt going to go anywhere much .. you probably did everything right !

So to answer the failiure question, I'll prime it with a couple of honest questions designed to invoke the right response.

(1) Did you do your investigation into the property in the first place or did you just rush in getting SOMETHING in the market?

(2) Did you purchase on what you could afford or what you thought was going to be actual value?

(3) Did you assess where your property is likely to sit in the market within 5 years time?

(4) Did you purchase on the demand of the property, the scarcity of the property or the inherant ongoing value of the property?

(5) Are you assessing RIGHT NOW where your investment property sits in the current market .. and where on the property clock we are in relation to market mood?

(6) Are you assessing where your property sits in YOUR existing market portfolio?

Any or all of these questions should be asked every time you even approach the investment property.

The answers will give you a better insight for yourself how you want to work on creating value in your property portfolio.

The only person who will make the right or wrong judgement calls on your property .. is you.

Sounds like you are relying on luck. Probably the wrong property in the wrong area. Is it regional?

You would have actually lost money on this property considering the interest and other payments and inflation.

What sort of rent return?

That why were you buy is so important.

In my view it means you need to do a lot of due diligence. The first thing is to research what has been the average growth over the late 10 years. 

What is the infrastructure like, is it near shops and public transport. 

These things are important. We are building a 17 unit apartment building in Melbourne across the road from a Coles Supermarket. and coffee shops a park at the end of the street and a tram stop to the city and its just a 5 minute drive to the freeway entrance to the city and airport. Because of this we know that will be easy to sell and rent

When you are buying an investment you must consider why a tenant would rent the property and have a check list with things such as shops and public transport at the top

Hi Craig

I live in the area and my local general operating area is between Newcastle through to Rutherford, so I know Thornton well.  Please feel free to PM me or give me a call.

Cheers, Paul

granny flat would cost your closer to 60-80k then 10-20k

but if you imagine the rent on a 2 bed granny flat to be 200 bucks a week then your getting a gross return of 13% a year on your granny flat.