Case Study: Mardy
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We sat down with Mardy and asked him a few questions on his experience, challenges, and how he overcame them.
Background
I am passionate about investment across different asset classes including property and shares. I always wanted to own my house when I can afford it. Whilst studying at university, I have been working and saving for the downpayment of my first home. Soon after I successfully secured my first full-time job, I bought my first home when I was 27 years old in 2018. This is when I first did my research about loans provided by different banks.
After evaluating the loan offers and terms offered by a number of banks, I decided to proceed with loans.com.au. Since then, I have purchased two additional investment properties in 2019 and 2021. I bought vacant lands for these two investments and built houses using the Construction Loan package of loans.com.au.
Challenges
Researching the market:
- Buying the first property is a difficult decision and I believe behavioural factors significantly affect the mindset of many first-time inexperienced buyers including me. On one hand, there is this fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) as I am not sure whether housing prices will keep increasing further making the housing market unaffordable for first-home buyers. On the other hand, I was afraid that I would overpay for the property. Ultimately, I feel that it is difficult to time the housing market precisely so I decided not to do that and purchase the first house that I am happy with, comparable with other similar properties and could afford to.
Researching suburbs:
- When researching suburbs, I first get an overall view on property websites such as Real Estate or Domain to understand how much a typical house cost in a suburb. Then I would go further and research how much does properties in a similar estate or same street sold over the last year or so. After that, I would still drive around the suburbs I am interested to invest in to even though property hunting can be conducted through Google Maps now. I feel that it is important to get a good feeling about a suburb before investing. What is seen on Google Maps may not be how it looks currently. I have done this for all the house/land I purchased. Once I am fairly confident that I am not paying a price that is excessively high compared to the prior sold houses, despite what the agent may indicate contrarily, I would then proceed to make an offer.
Given that I bought vacant lands and engage builders to build houses on them, I believe that many would be afraid of this because of the huge uncertainty. I was quite stressed as well during my first construction having to dealt with finding builders and the various handyman/tradies. It is important to get a number of quotes and do research to make sure that the prices are reasonable. These include landscaping, driveway, fences, air conditioning, and so on. However, once the contacts are established, it gets a lot easier as I know the right people to do these jobs.
“I feel that I am not just a number”
Solutions
- I am open to further investing across asset classes including properties. I would keep an open eye on houses and suburbs that are available, knowing that I could speak with loans.com.au about financing if I wish to.
- Always important to do research before committing. I am still learning new things in my investment journey.
How was your loans.com.au experience?
Helpful approval and support from loans.com.au just made the process a lot easier. Even though I speak with loans.com.au online mostly, I feel that I am not just a number. I know who my lending specialist is and she is very up-to-date with my circumstances and offers good advice on financing.
loans.com.au customer?
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"My loans.com.au experience was amazing. They were able to get back to me quickly, give me quick approvals and help me meet my deadlines for settlement."
"loans.com.au were fast and efficient. Nothing was ever too hard for them. The application process was easy, and the staff were very friendly."
"Initially I asked around with the major banks but I found out that, with self-managed super, it is quite a specialised area and most of the banks don’t offer SMSF loans. So somebody suggested to look it up online. That’s how I found loans.com.au."
"loans.com.au has been excellent all the way through. Everyone has been so helpful and friendly that I felt treated like family."