Firstly I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone here who is so generous with sharing their knowledge, I have learned an immense amount by reading page after page on this forum!
My husband and I have been lurking and reading for weeks now and I thought it was about time we got active and introduced ourselves. My husband is 42, I'm 40 (as of yesterday!) and the time is right for us to start investing in property. The first house we bought 13 years ago was rental and we did very well from it, good tenants and made a good profit when we sold it after a couple of years, yes, we should have kept it but it did help us get a leg up and contributed to where we are today. We nearly own our house, value $530k, mortgage of only $18,000, we both work but we live off my husband's income with my part time wages going straight to the mortgage, we will be debt free in a few months. We have a small share portfolio which we would like to grow as well, once we are debt free we plan to continue to live off the one income and divert that extra $750-$1000 a week into property/shares.
I do wish we had got into property investment years earlier but 5 years ago we had 4 year old twins and a newborn, it just wasn't the right time for us. Now is the right time though, our plan is to buy and hold, we are looking at a long term plan so we are very comfortable in 15 to 20 years time.
At this stage we are keen to get started but kind of hung up on the 'what is the best thing to do' phase. We have been looking at properties around where we live, we are getting a feel for different areas etc but we feel kind of stuck - wanting to do the right thing, buy in the right area - opportunity for good capital growth, yet yields don't stack up so well. Knowing we have the ability to pour money in is reassuring but we don't know if this is the best use of our money??
Now for the question... and I have done a lot of reading about it and I guess the answer should be obvious to me seeing as there seems to be an overwhelming negative response! Leasehold properties, is this something we really should avoid? Near to where we live there is a town that has a reasonable amount of leasehold property, prices are low for them, yields are fantastic as you would expect. Some of these properties have just renewed their leases, up for renewal in 2033. This town has a river, beach and is slowly developing into a nice area. What I want to get feedback on is say we bought one - $120,000. Rates $2000, lease $2000 pa. If that property pays itself off in say 10 years, if we sold it for even the purchase cost, we have $120,000 and it has cost us nothing or little, are we being naive here???
It is only a scenario we have considered and we are more keen for freehold property to buy and hold, but thought if this was a viable option we could do a bit of both.
Wisdom and opinions shared will be gratefully received!
My husband and I have been lurking and reading for weeks now and I thought it was about time we got active and introduced ourselves. My husband is 42, I'm 40 (as of yesterday!) and the time is right for us to start investing in property. The first house we bought 13 years ago was rental and we did very well from it, good tenants and made a good profit when we sold it after a couple of years, yes, we should have kept it but it did help us get a leg up and contributed to where we are today. We nearly own our house, value $530k, mortgage of only $18,000, we both work but we live off my husband's income with my part time wages going straight to the mortgage, we will be debt free in a few months. We have a small share portfolio which we would like to grow as well, once we are debt free we plan to continue to live off the one income and divert that extra $750-$1000 a week into property/shares.
I do wish we had got into property investment years earlier but 5 years ago we had 4 year old twins and a newborn, it just wasn't the right time for us. Now is the right time though, our plan is to buy and hold, we are looking at a long term plan so we are very comfortable in 15 to 20 years time.
At this stage we are keen to get started but kind of hung up on the 'what is the best thing to do' phase. We have been looking at properties around where we live, we are getting a feel for different areas etc but we feel kind of stuck - wanting to do the right thing, buy in the right area - opportunity for good capital growth, yet yields don't stack up so well. Knowing we have the ability to pour money in is reassuring but we don't know if this is the best use of our money??
Now for the question... and I have done a lot of reading about it and I guess the answer should be obvious to me seeing as there seems to be an overwhelming negative response! Leasehold properties, is this something we really should avoid? Near to where we live there is a town that has a reasonable amount of leasehold property, prices are low for them, yields are fantastic as you would expect. Some of these properties have just renewed their leases, up for renewal in 2033. This town has a river, beach and is slowly developing into a nice area. What I want to get feedback on is say we bought one - $120,000. Rates $2000, lease $2000 pa. If that property pays itself off in say 10 years, if we sold it for even the purchase cost, we have $120,000 and it has cost us nothing or little, are we being naive here???
It is only a scenario we have considered and we are more keen for freehold property to buy and hold, but thought if this was a viable option we could do a bit of both.
Wisdom and opinions shared will be gratefully received!
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