A property investor shares how he used a Home Owners Grant at 19 to buy a house, lived there six months, then rented it out to boost his borrowing power for more deals. The real choice: put your money in a home or income-producing assets. Run the numbers, but factor in what you actually want your life to look like.
And so when we start talking about, do we use our capital to go buy a home if you don't have one right now, or do we use it to build an investment portfolio? The only place I've owned was when I got the first Home Owners Grant when I was 19 years old and got the 7 grand. I had to live in that property for 6 months. As soon as that 6 months was up, I was out and it became an investment asset. Now for me, in my life, that made a lot of sense because of my travel and because of my need for adventure and because of my need for variety and things like that. That was a great thing for me and it allowed me to go use the income that was being generated from that to be able to increase my serviceability, be able to move forward and do more and more deals. So when we start talking about do we buy a home or do we build an investment portfolio, you sit there and ask what's the highest, best use of my capital? And that's when we got to do our numbers. And when we're making these decisions, that one is a financial decision, but one is a very personal decision at the same time. And we have to take consideration of both those. There's no right or wrong answer, it's just what's right for you.
