Starting Out in IP’s at 28

Hi,

I’m new to IPs and am looking for some guidance from people who have done it successfully and to try and give advice to those that are even younger in their investment life.

I’ve been reading as much as I can on this forum and a number of other property websites to absorb as much as possible. I’m fortunate in that my father introduced me to investing from an early age. I’ve attended a number of seminars on shares and options etc and hold a small portfolio of self managed shares. My wife and I bought our first home 2 years ago at $276K in Rochedale QLD and we now have at least $50K in equity (assuming no capital growth in the last 2 years). Between us we have an above average income and no kids. Our mortgage broker has given us a preliminary expectation that we could loan an additional $660K.

For the last 6 months we’ve been looking at various areas on and off to educate ourselves on what is happening where from a property perspective. For our first IP, we want something thats relatively local, ie SE QLD. We’ve looked up the sunshine coast at units and townhouses, around where we live currently (20Km south of Brisbane CDB) and are currently investigating houses or townhouses within 10Km of the CBD. It seems that the real hard part is working out the initial strategy. Our strategy with our first home wasn’t to get the biggest and best and max our borrowing capacity, which has worked well as it’s meant we could pour more into our home loan to reduce the interest. We want relatively low risk in our first IP. Our plan is to have at least 2 IPs before we start a family and want to retire early. I’m of the opinion that while interest rates are still relatively low, I want to avoid selling anything we buy and use the equity to aquire more.

I guess my question is, where should we start. Do we look at buying a townhouse or unit within walking distance to the beach on the sunshine coast, where there’s a glut in rental properties due to the high number of IPs though benefit from the potential of long term capital growth due to closeness to the beach. Or do we look at the gold coast, with a strong growing population and a solid business presence. Or do we buy something near home (20 KM within CBD). Or do we get something (unit or house) older but closer to the city (10KM).

If there’s someone who has some suggestions, who knows SE QLD, it would be much appreciated. We want to narrow our search to an area before focussing our time and efforts building relationships with local REs and getting to know the area’s SWOTs.

Thanks for any assistance.