The “Getting on the Property Ladder” Story

The next story I want to share with you is around getting on the property ladder. So, this particular person, a single person in their early 20s, based here in Melbourne is again not listening to the noise, not trying to worry about overcoming the challenges. They have done an excellent job in saving, likely having forgone a few late night memories, drinking memories, to put a bit of money away. And they did a Plan through Joel, our QPIA. They’ve done their lending through Thomas our Mortgage Broker here in the team in Melbourne. And Nicole our Buyer’s Agent was also part of the process.

We pivoted a little bit on this brief.

Originally, this one was going to be a rentvesting property, but with the incentives that are on offer for first home buyers here in Melbourne, we decided, in terms of what that brief look like, that it may be better to buy the first home, take advantage of the first home owners grant, leaving the property. But down the track, maybe move out of that property when they find their future partner and be able to get that more significant home and that future place of residence. So, I like this story.

We had a good budget of $600,000 – $660,000.  Which is right in that sweet spot for first home buyers. Originally we were happy to be borderless investors, but because we are going to live in it now and take advantage of those concessions and those incentives, we stayed put and bought in Melbourne. It was certainly a great collaboration between the team members. Everyone was on the same page. So ultimately, what we were able to buy was a free-standing house on 600sqm of dirt in Frankston Central.

What can I say about this one? It was one of the best pockets of that area — a quality buy because of the opportunity to rent it out. And it already had tenants in place; it was rented. So, what happens for this particular client because they have to move into it, remember? And if it’s your first home, you have to move into it within the first 12 months — but this is rented out until April.

So, he’s getting a little bit of extra rent. He’s saving up a little bit of extra money. So, by the time he gets in there, there’s going to be more money in the offset account, in his primary account, as we call it under the Money SMARTS system. So, I just can’t speak highly enough of this opportunity. He ended up only paying $8,000 in stamp duty, instead of what he would have paid as an investor… $25,000.

That’s money in the bank, and alone pays for the majority of the professional advice he’s got! And the block is big enough to add value down the track. There’s real value-add here, and the second property in his Plan could actually be on the block of land that he already owns! If you think about then how much that’s going to be yielding, then it’s going to be well and truly positive cash flow, and there will be some good depreciation that he’s going to be able to enjoy. So, he’s adding value to be able to enjoy that. So, terrific result for Nicole and for our first home buyer here in Melbourne! Another great story I’m very, very happy to tell.

 

So , it’s been a busy couple of months in October and November here in the property division of Empower Wealth, as you can see by the activity from both our Property Wealth Planning team and also our Buyers Agents, who are getting out in the field and finding those gems.

I’m looking forward to telling you about the December and January Story Behind The Numbers, which will come out very soon. So, watch this space for those stories!

If you want to check out more of our Story Behind The Number real life client stories, click here. They’re all there. We want to make sure that you can relate to these types of stories. So hence, we’re putting some ideas and some themes around them — this way you can watch the ones that are most important to you 🙂

Ultimately, this is all about giving you the confidence to take that next step forward and take the opportunity in what will be a very, very good buyer’s market this year in 2019.

Thanks for watching.