At twenty-years old I was one half of a committed pair. So
committed - that we were engaged with a wedding venue booked, and legally-bound
to a mortgage. *Cue cynicism from most, here. Shortly after, we realised that
the romance had left our relationship and a death in my family lead me into a
temporary mania. When this happened we dissolved our engagement, sold our
property, and when we were done, what remained was a new lease on our
friendship. I enlisted the services of financial advisers that were recommended
by my mentors, and from there they told me what I needed to do to
buy my own place within twelve months. That’s where my investment adventure
starts, as a young person on a mission to reach financial freedom, without the
help of anyone else.
In May last year, everything seemed to just line up. A
chance to travel Australia and save some serious cash came my way. To take up
this job offer, I had to post-pone my degree, socially isolate myself, and be
away from home for weeks, sometimes months at a time. It wasn't easy seeing
photos of birthdays, engagement parties, and graduation celebrations on
Facebook every other week. It was heart-breaking to come home and have friends
unwilling to support my change in lifestyle. It was worse when a romantic
relationship failed because he couldn't handle the FIFO schedule. Despite these
temporary sacrifices, I stuck it out for ten months before I decided to stay
put in Brisbane and get back to my degree. I’d accomplished my goal of saving
up a serious deposit to buy my own place, I had strong work experience under my
belt, and I was ready to reconnect with everything familiar to home.
Fast forward a few months, and that brings us up to the end
of the financial year, June 2015. I requested a meeting with my accountant, my
mortgage broker, and a real estate agent friend who held no properties that I
was interested in. My income appeased most major banks, and I was pre-approved
with an amount that scared me. After months of hard work, I was finally given
this green-light to go shopping for my own place, and armed with research and
advice from different people I have huge respect for, I decided on ‘the one’.
Admittedly, it was difficult to separate emotion from my decisions, as I’m
somewhat shallow and enjoy pretty things. The prospective property luckily
appealed to both my heart and head, and I made an offer on it after viewing
several other similar properties.
My criterion was simple, and an approach I adapted after
reading a success story in an API issue. Usually I
am impulse-driven and quick to make decisions, but my first solo purchase had
to be a safe one. I decided that I wanted a two-bed, two-bath apartment,
between 2km and 14km of Brisbane city. In the heart of the city, I’d be
constantly competing with new developments and exorbitant body corporate rates.
Too far from the city, I’d lose the interest of my target market for renters:
young professionals who would be reliable tenants, few or no dependants, and a
steady income. Next, the location had to be central to public transport, have
easy access into the city, and have shopping centres within a 5 minute drive. That’s
when I decided on Macgregor!
Negotiations are currently under-way for this property, and fingers crossed it proves to be the perfect little investment egg that I suspect it will be. Will photo-blog in the upcoming weeks when it's officially in my name - very excited!
