29 May 2004
Investor Case Study
Him: |
Sales representative for an IT company. |
| $75,000 per annum – 35. |
Her: |
Solicitor for one of the large city solicitors. |
| $135,000 per annum – 33. |
We are what you would probably call aggressive property investors.
We bought our first property about seven years ago and, like most people, went to our local bank. A year and a half later we had two investment properties and we were on our way.
We had never thought about using the services of a broker until we went looking for our third property. We were told by our bank manager that “we were at our limit”.
Our broker explained that the most important thing for us was flexibility to move in and out of a loan if needed without huge costs. It also meant flexibility in the lenders. If one couldn’t help us, look for another that can. We also learnt that a lender who served us well in the past may not be any good the next time.
This learning was fundamental. With some of the properties we bought our broker saved us thousands (in upfront costs and interest) on what we may have gone with. If we had stayed with our existing bank we may have just stayed with the two properties. By working with our broker we now have seven properties and are just looking at the eighth.