As Australia’s leading association representing independent buyer’s agents, it’s our role to warn first home buyers and budding investors of ‘get rich quick’ property schemes.
Slogans promising investors they can “retire richer sooner”, make “instant equity” and “become a millionaire in five years” could turn the great Australian dream of home ownership and property investing into a living nightmare.
Expecting any “investment strategy” to quickly turn you into a millionaire is simply unrealistic.
There are a wide range of strategies that can work for property investors such as long-term buy and hold, capital growth, positive cash flow and building strategies but there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
Assess the risks
Investors need to understand they must assess the risks and rewards of each strategy to fit their personal circumstances and income.
Too often naïve property investors are lured by the dream of creating wealth by attending one course and then buying the first property they were offered without doing adequate due diligence.
The problem is magnified when investors don’t adequately consider the risks associated with buying property and when they try to buy too many, too fast.
Wise property investors know they need to do it slowly and they are careful to manage their debt levels.
They don’t mind paying a bit out of their own pocket every month as long as they have bought a really good property in an area that will deliver medium to long-term capital growth.
Remember it’s not the number of properties that an investor owns, but the overall value and quality of properties in their portfolio that counts.
