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Learn, learn, and learn. That’s how I got started, there’s so much reading material out there and it’s free (if you go to the library) or a very small outlay if you buy the books etc yourself. I prefer to buy books so they’re on hand if I ever want to reference something on the spot.
In my opinion, you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars at the very beginning to get started. Read books to learn the fundamentals of property investing, combine that with forums like this for more “real-time” info and peoples’ personal experiences, and that should be plenty to get your foot in the door. Because there’s different strategies to property investment, you need to know what strategy is best going to suit you. The last thing you’d want to do is fork out $10k only to find out that particular strategy isn’t for you.
I started investing in property 15 years ago without having educated myself at all on the subject. After a couple of years I decided that if I wanted to grow my portfolio I’d need to educate myself so bought a few books. One of the books focused on buying cash flow positive properties, while the other focused on gearing/borrowing using equity to keep purchasing properties. Both strategies had pros and cons, I liked the idea of cash flow positive properties but was too time poor to spend the time sourcing them.
It’s only now years later that I’m at a point where I myself and thinking how can I take my investing up a notch. This is the point where I believe a mentorship can be worth spending $10k on. I know what I want to achieve, am comfortable with large amounts of debt (which I believe is VERY important) and I have capital behind me so to fork out $10k is not going to hurt me financially.
The buying cash flow positive properties book that I read was Steve McKnights’ 0-130 properties in 3.5 years, definitely worth a read. This is all just my opinion but I hope I was able to help.
Pete
Thanks for the info Corey, I’ll keep it in mind while I’m deciding what to do.
Pete
Pete – good points but you have mixed a few things up. Gifts can be attacked even if they are made before death. This is especially the case with elderly. There are many ways to attack such a gift under the laws of equity. There is also the NSW law of notional estate orders under the Family Provision section of the Succession act. Any undermarket value transfer could be attacked if the transfer occured within 3 years of death. NSW law can apply to people living in other states if they have a connection to NSW.
A gift also doesn’t necesarily mean a life interest. These are 2 separate things. A person can give another person a right to reside in a property until their death (life interest), but they are not directly connected (to the gifting).
Nothing much is iron clad unless you sell the property and spend the money.
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Thanks for the insight on that Terrryw. My barrister didn’t go into any great detail about giving away assets pre-death, given that my mother was already deceased it was pointless, but you’ve given me food for thought regarding the issues likely to arise when my father and stepmother pass on. You can’t pick your family as they say!
I know the laws in each state may be different (I’m in South Australia), but speaking from my own experience when my mother passed away and one of my siblings contested the estate, giving away an asset to a beneficiary before you die is the only way to make that gift “set in concrete”. Who’s left what in a will can be disregarded by a judge if a legitimate party contests the will. My barrister explained that the only way to make your will “iron-clad”, as in the beneficiaries get what the deceased wants them to, is to give your assets away before you die, while retaining a “vested life interest” in the assets.
So for example, if an elderly parent gives the family home to one particular child before they die, said child can’t turf the parent out before their death because even though the child would technically own the property, the parent has retained a “vested life interest”.
Other than this reason, I can’t see any advantage to either party for giving away an asset before death.
