Help regarding property investing

Well done for starting with Steve’s books and actually asking before jumping in.

A couple of clarifications first :

• Positive gearing: rental income exceeds interest and property expenses (tax concept)
• Positive cash flow: rental income exceeds all cash costs, including principal repayments (real-world money concept)

These days, achieving either usually requires buying in cash or with very little debt—unless you’re manufacturing the outcome through strategy.

From your post, you’re missing some key concepts before you even decide on strategy. There are steps you need to take before contemplating subdivisions or value-add strategies.

Subdivision can absolutely be a good strategy to unlock value and then use that value to reduce debt—but the bigger questions are :

Is doing that once with one property enough for your goals?
How much income are you aiming for?
By when?
What does “success” actually look like for you?

Those answers come before the deal.

I’d strongly encourage more structured training. STEPS is an excellent training course, and Property Summit 2025 is also very worthwhile. Have a look under Courses and Seminars on propertyinvesting.com. You’ve started with Steve’s books—which is great—and there’s a lot more to consider, and supplementing that knowledge will help you avoid costly mistakes.

You are, however, in a strong starting position: no lifestyle debt and solid savings.

Next practical step: speak with a good mortgage broker to understand your true borrowing capacity. That alone will guide many of your next decisions.

And only an accountant can advise you properly on structures (trusts, etc). More study will allow you to have those conversations at a more sophisticated level—with your advisors and with yourself—so you can make the right next step… or in this case, the right first step.

You’re asking the right questions, please consider investing in further study. Good luck!