Journal

WARNING - rant alert. Stop designing and building (or buying) your home for the rare occurrences that happen in your life. And start designing ONLY for how you live your life in a typical week, month or even year.

It's the end of the year and the end of a decade, and time to reflect on everything we've achieved in the past year and the past decade. Whilst it feels to us (and probably everyone else too) like we're still just getting going, we've actually been developing and renovating property since 2011! We've come a long way since we started out and wanted to reflect on some of those achievements.

I often see people around me rushing to buy their first investment property without thinking it through. It baffles me that someone could spend $400k, $500k or $600k on something without thoroughly thinking it through first. Here are some tips I would share with anyone looking to buy their first investment.

Are you thinking about building your own home? Not sure how to explain what you want to your designer or architect? This article is NOT telling you to do away with your designer, but instead outlines why it's so important to really work out exactly what you want and what you can afford before you starting giving them your money. Your designer isn't a mind reader, and they certainly aren't going to be the ones paying for the home and living in it, so don't leave it up to them to decide what's in it!

Having renovated multiple homes in the past ten years including character homes, I've noticed that we, in Australia, have a bit of an obsession with character homes, especially when it comes time to sell them; they've always attracted the most attention and excitement. Coming from England originally, it all seemed a bit nuts to me but years later I've fallen in love myself. However, it does come with its own BUYER BEWARE.

Character homes can be complex potential money pits and you have to be careful to get it right and not overcapitalise! Here are my Top 10 Tips from experience on what you should be thinking about before you buy a character home to renovate.

Lately I’ve been re-reading the Rich Dad Poor Dad series of books by Robert Kiyosaki. I read them a good seven years ago, so it’s been really refreshing to go through Rich Dad’s principals of investing again, especially as my mindset has been completely re-written from seven years ago when I was just starting out. Even if you don’t call yourself a property investor (yet!), I really recommend the first two books at a minimum – Rich Dad Poor Dad and The Cashflow Quadrant. It talks about the importance of understanding financial statements and what the differences between Employees, Self-employees, Business owners and Investors are.

In the third book, Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing, he talks about some really fundamental points that totally should have made it into the first book, and I wanted to just outline how I have interpreted them here.

Nestled just north of the Adelaide CBD is the well-established and much loved suburb of Prospect. Putting a finger on exactly why people enjoy living in Prospect is difficult, because there are so many possible reasons!

Apartment living is constantly evolving; changing the way we live, making it not only more affordable but convenient. Downsizing can be a great option for many reasons.

A little piece of magic can be found in the small pocket of land that Hyde Park occupies just south of the CBD. There is a vibrant energy sustained by fashionable boutiques, edgy cafes and well-renown restaurants that attracts an elite group of residents. The neighbourhood retains a strong sense of community and its residents take great pride in maintaining that. Tree lined streets and many public green spaces encourage a balanced lifestyle.