Have you ever said, “If only I’d bought there 20 years ago, I’d be a millionaire by now”?
Most people understand that owning real estate is a great way to grow your wealth, however they feel they are limited by 3 significant barriers.
- Not enough money
- Not enough knowledge
- Too much risk
Sound familiar?
I know a lot of people get stuck on the first one saying “House prices are rising faster than I can save a deposit so it’s impossible to get into the market!”
I also know plenty of people who have enough money, but they don’t know it. They don’t know of a strategy to get into the market with what they already have.
And then there are people who know of a strategy, but they lack experience and so fear is holding them back.
You can use any of the 3 reasons above to NOT move forward, however, if you want to succeed badly enough, nothing will stand in your way.
Here are some ways that people I know of have begun in property when they had good excuses not to.
- Take on a second job to accelerate saving a deposit. Ask parents to help by lending you any deposit shortfall. Boost your deposit with government grant(s).
- Create a trust with a group of like-minded people to combine resources and purchase an investment property as a team.
- Learn to identify profitable deals and then offer them to time-poor, cash-rich, professionals who do not trust you yet, but who would be happy to pay you a spotter’s fee.
- Ask a time-poor, cash-rich, professional to be a potential money partner and prove to them that you can find profitable deals.
- Put a property on Lay-by… Pay a small deposit as an option fee to temporarily tie up a potential development site at an agreed price.
An option to purchase allows you to control a property without purchasing it. Done correctly you can then submit a development application to council and when approved, you can sell the ‘option to purchase’ to someone who can afford to develop the property.
- Offer to work for free on weekends for a local property developer/investor or offer to buy them lunch once a fortnight in exchange for coaching (lunch = coaching meeting).
There are so many ways to get into the property market. If you think it’s just too hard then it’s time to look in the mirror. You need to break through your limiting beliefs to see the possibilities. If you are excited enough you will find a way.
Just keep asking yourself the following two questions
- How did other successful investors get started?
- What else is possible?
Here is my suggestion for you to get started…
Choose a suburb that you can study closely and get to know every property thoroughly.
Start a scrapbook and list all of the ways you can think of to make a profit from each property in that suburb.
Keep a record of all sales so you get to know market value and can recognise a bargain in an instant.
Question… When do you make your money on a property deal?
By David Wright
David Wright is the founder of the Spending Planners Institute. He is an international speaker and popular personal finance writer. He is passionate about seeing people become successful with money.
