How I Became A Property Investor

It all started in the late 1990s when I saw a colleague of mine buying a development site and building 3 units on it and he made an absolute killing. That was the trigger that got me started. I thought well if he can do it, so can I.  We were both in our mid to late 20s at that time.

After doing a bit of research, I made an appointment with my accountant to work out the best strategy for me to start my journey in property development. Setting up the correct structure is essential from the outset. Once this was organised, it was now up to me to find a suitable development site.  So I started looking around an area that I was familiar with, which was within the City of Belmont locality.

I must have looked at every property available for sale at the time and narrowed my search down to a couple of properties. In the end one property stuck out for me as the best value development site. It was very well priced and it was a vacant block of land; which was perfect for me as I didn’t need to pay for demolition costs and all the services were in the right locations. After speaking with a couple of local real estate agents, I worked out that the most suitable type of development to build on this lot were 2 single storey units. They both had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms plus a lounge area and a double lock up garage. This type of unit suited the area perfectly and in the end we made a very healthy profit.  Importantly, I was now on the road to becoming a regular property investor and developer.

The most important factor in getting started in property investment was to have the motivation and also a mentor in the industry who had ‘been there, done that’ successfully.  From there, it is about doing your due diligence to find the right property that suits your goals. As Dolf De Roos once said at the very first property investment seminar I ever attended … the opportunity of a lifetime comes along once a week.  You just have to be ready for it!