Real estate is the cornerstone of the world’s great fortunes. It has created more billionaires than any other asset class. In the recent Forbes Billionaire’s List, it reported that a total of 135 property tycoons now make up the world’s wealthiest list.

As we said earlier there are 2 important lessons to making money:

1. Never lose money
2. Never forget Lesson 1

Some Gold Coast areas have had periods that have seen many home owners with properties that have, in some cases doubled in value over a short period of time.

While there is no guarantee your property will gain in value over any given period, and capital growth largely depends on where and what you buy, historically real estate experiences steady growth over the long term. Demand overrides everything, if large number of keen buyers are fighting over limited property, then prices get driven up and the Gold Coast continues to grow in population and if development struggles to keep up with demand, then prices will continue to go up and up, following the huge demand of inner city Sydney property.

History has shown that property located within 2 to 10 km’s of the CBD should follow the pattern of around 10 to 11% capital growth over the long term.

If your property grows quicker than this, it’s more likely to be for the short term only due to some major changes in the area such as an improvement to the local amenities or infrastructure and in some cases opening of mines or large industry.

You can maximise your return on your investment by structuring your finances in the best possible way and ensuring that you pay fair market value in an area within our investment property guidelines.

We find, deliver and negotiate property that will achieve good capital growth over the long term after researching the historical data of the chosen area.

To protect yourself make sure your purchase is under $500,000 as this entry level price appeals to the entire buying market and is easy to sell, in fact even easier to sell in poor economic times as more buyers move back into this entry level backet.

There never seems to be enough money left over to really enjoy. It seems like wealth generally doesn’t come from blood, sweat and tears like we were all told growing up.

It seems like real wealth in generated in the background and is a bit more of a slower process. I mean, even if you are paying off your own home, the forced savings are far better than dead rent, because when you sell it you get your invested money and, in most cases way more back, but when you move out of a rented property after 3 years the $75,000 has gone down the drain. Obviously investment property works even better whereby the tenant reduces the debt while the property value goes up by capital growth, it’s a win-win.

I do a lot of in home consultations and get to meet some great people, but doing this has giving me a very clear insight into how important having a clear property investment strategy or plan really is. Firstly, when customers tell me they want to buy an investment property I explain the process and steps and also let them know important points for consideration as well as the risk and reward. Generally I explain to them they will need to be assessed by a mortgage broker to confirm a suitable purchase budget to get things underway and tell them what their most likely purchase deposit will be. Most time customers tell me they don’t have much deposit as they hadn’t really decided to buy until recently so they hadn’t really been saving for anything. If they had planned to buy they would have been focused more on saving money.

Secondly, I ask them what type of property they would like to purchase and in what area. I also ask them about their planned tax benefits and also how they intend to rent it and how much for, their desired returns and also the type of capital growth they are planning for and even ask them what type of loan they plan to get. Every time the answer is the same… ‘we have no idea’.

From here I generally back track and start to create a plan with the customer. This does 2 things 1; it shows them the process and educates them on what they need to do and how best to do it and 2; it gives them complete confidence that they are buying the right property for their circumstances.

I have a heap of information that we walk through step by step and the clients really enjoy learning the ‘ins and outs’ of investing in property and it sets them on a path of financial success.

Once they understand how to buy the right investment property it is simply a matter of sitting back enjoying life and letting the property accumulate capital growth.

Don’t forget…buying an investment property should be a fun and exciting process.