How to start? Age 20

Hi Steven,

I agree with Jamie's comments – educating yourself first.  However decide why you wish to purchase firstly ? Is it to make money? Is it have somewhere to live? Is it for independence reasons or Is it a combination of factors? And if a combination then  prioritise the importance as a percentage ratio of your final decision making process. This will help you to clearly identify your needs and why you are buying. From there you will make a better informed decision and will decide whether  to buy emotionally  ie you intend to personally enjoy the property , or whether it is purely a commercial transaction . If your decision is purely to make money then EMOTION has to be left behind., and this is not easy to do. Talk to as many people you can who have bought property as an investment,  consider a buyers agent who you pay a fee to who may act on your behalf and when and if  you do proceed to make an offer ask for a full  due diligence addendum incase their is something you are unaware of. The due diligence can cover the trickier aspects and pitfalls that arent so obvious such as council regs and building compliance. issues. Due diligence can also involve a second opinion such as a sworn valuation or getting a respected person such as a parent , uncle, builder, accountant  etc to look over the property after the offer has been made  to check in case there is something you have'

nt considered. . Being  a younger person, a thorough 10 to 14 day due diligence addendum can almost act in a similar way as a cooling off clause does. In my experience l have used due diligence addendums for  very young buyers as a matter of course with the sellers consent and whilst no young buyer has exited an offer because of due diligence escape clauses, they have acted more as reassurance for the buyer that : A what the selling agent has disclosed is true and reasonable and B to deflect other family members from shock horror pancking that their young relative has been taken advantage of. Once family members are assured you have make a good financial decision and that you havent been tied up in an immediate and binding way and that you have done your homework prior to the purchase then all parties to the transaction rest easy and are not defensive. Hope this info helps.  

I would certainly read some of Steve McKnights books will give you insight to what is possible.

When you say you have sufficient funds for a deposit have you calculated all of the purchase costs ?

Cheers

Yours in Finance

Hi Aaron

Do you care to elaborate?

There's no right or wrong answer with whether someone should opt for a positively geared investment over a negatively geared one.

I'd rather purchase an investment that was going to achieve some capital growth in the  next 10 years but cost a little to hold onto rather than a regional property that puts $10 into my pocket each week but doesn't move in value for a decade.

Cheers

Jamie

Maybe start with your end goal and then work backwards

E.g. if you want $50,000 in passive income, and can 8% yielding assets, you would need $625,000 by the date you want to retire whether that be 10, 20, 30, 40 years from now

You can then determine what strategy would suit you best based on your circumstances and preferences