How To Buy More Than One Investment Property

The majority of Australians who invest in property only own one investment property…just one. So how can you buy more than one investment property? (additional version here)

Firstly let’s look at:

Why would I want more than one investment property?

Instead of asking this question I would be more inclined to ask you “What would ever make you only want to own one property?”

Greater Passive Income

Owning more than one property means greater passive income from the extra rents and also greater increased income over time as you have multiple rents increasing your monthly cash flow (instead of just one rental income).

It would be extremely hard to retire of the income of just a single property (unless it is a multimillion dollar property). A house may generate you $300/week once the mortgage is paid off and after paying your expenses. But then you have to pay for your own accommodation, food, health insurance, entertainment, travel etc. One property just isn’t going to provide enough income.

Owning more than one property means that you may be able to generate enough passive income so that you could become financially free and leave your job or retire in style.

Greater Capital Growth And Ability To Buy More Properties

Owning more than one property means you have the ability to access the capital growth on multiple properties instead of just one property.

Let me ask you this simple question; would it be better to own?
One property that earned 10% capital growth per year
Ten properties that generated 2% capital growth per year

Assuming the properties are all prices the same, owning ten properties even if they performed badly would still generate you more capital growth than a single property.

This capital growth can be borrowed against to buy more property or to fund your lifestyle. Or it can be accessed by selling your property. You could then live off this money, use it to buy a car, use it for a holiday or do whatever you want with the money.

Wider Spread of Risk

By owning multiple properties you don’t have all your eggs in one basket, so if you happen to have one property go bad you won’t lose 100% of your investments.

Also if you own multiple properties then you aren’t as reliant on the rental income of one property to service your loans. You won’t have sleepless nights when one property becomes vacant for a period of time because your other properties will be able to service that loan until you get someone to rent it.

Easier Serviceability (If Done Properly)

If you positive gear your properties (have the income greater than the expenses) then the more properties you own the easier it will become to service your loans. Because your not reliant on just one rental income, as mentioned above, them you don’t have to stress if one property becomes vacant for a period of time.

Many people who own just one property are scared to raise the rent when they find a good tenant, because they don’t want to lose that tenant. This means they rent their property under the market value and they make it harder for themselves to service the loan (because they are getting less income.)

When you own multiple properties you can raise your rents frequently because you don’t have to be scared to lose that one rental income from a good tenant. This means over time all of your properties rents will be going up in value and your serviceability will get easier and easier as time goes on. You can get a much greater return on investment because you can take the risk to lose a tenant, by raising rents, that someone with one property wouldn’t be able to do.

5 Requirements for owning more than one investment property

Obviously there are some major benefits to owning more than one property. I bet that if you read the benefits above you will be thinking to yourself “I would love to own more than one property”.  So I want to talk about the 5 things you need if you want to invest in more than one property. You can also read my post on how many investment properties can I own?

Serviceability

Serviceability is a big factor to owning multiple investment properties. If your properties are all costing you $100/week to own, then pretty soon you are going to be unable to service your loans because you can only afford to pay so much of your regular income towards supporting your properties.

However, if you focus on buying properties that service themselves (positive cash flow properties) then you can afford to service a lot more loans.

Let me ask you this simple question:
How many properties could you afford to service if each one of them MADE you $100/week.

The answer is “As many as I can get my hands on!”

It is worth spending the time to find and invest in positive cash flow properties, because even if you can’t find many of them you will be able to afford to service more of the ones you do buy. The more of these properties you own the easier it will be to service all of your loans.

Deposits

Houses don’t buy themselves for you and banks don’t lend you 100% of the costs of buying a property. This means that you have to come up with deposits for each of the properties you wish to buy.

Buying your first property will likely require you to scrimp and save, but after that it gets easier. If your properties go up in value over time (and I hope they do) then you can borrow against that value to purchase your next property.

In many cases you can get an equity loan that completely covers the 20% deposit and the buying costs of purchasing a new property. The bank will then lend you the remaining 80% to purchase that property. The more properties you buy the easier it gets to come up with deposits using the increased capital gains.

Serviceability will always remain an issue when borrowing money to buy new properties. Because the more you borrow the higher your interest repayments will be. This can make a positive cash flow property a negative cash flow property. So make sure rents are being raised to be able to service the increase in mortgage repayments and never borrow more than you can afford to service.

The Time

You need to be willing to dedicate the time to finding the right properties that fit in with your investment plan and you need to invest the time to look at the properties, buy them and do the little things required to keep them running.

At the beginning this is hard, because you spend a lot of time and get very little results. But over time you get smarter and you become a better looker and analyzer. You begin using tools like our property calculators and you get quicker and quicker at analyzing the figures. So don’t be disheartened in the beginning, the more experience you have the easier it becomes.

The Bravery

It takes bravery to buy your first property, and it takes balls to go out there like a maverick and buy more than one property.

Luckily your balls don’t need to be too big. Over time experience and education will make investing less scary, easier and less risky.

Donald Trump says something that I think is an amazing way to think. He says that everyday we think, our mind ticks over. He says that seeing as we are going to be spending time thinking anyway we may as well spend that time thinking big.

If you want to invest in multiple properties then you can’t just spend your time thinking about anything, you need to have to balls to think big and to start acting on your thinking by acting big.

The Education

A doctor can have all the courage and confidence in the world but without the proper education he is going to fall flat on his face as a doctor or surgeon.

The same goes for investing in property. You could have all the courage in the world and you could even have a lot of money, but without the proper education you are going to fall flat on your face and make expensive mistakes.

I am a firm believer in getting a solid investment education before you begin investing. People usually don’t want to pay for advice, but the most expensive advice is the advice they don’t pay for.

People take the free advice of their friends and families that tells them they shouldn’t invest, thus they lose years of income and potential growth. That advice is extremely costly.

Luckily, because of the Internet and widespread publishing education doesn’t have to be expensive. I suggest you join our email newsletter by going the the Get the free eBook or have a look at my review of the Top 10 Positive Cash Flow Investment Books. A book might cost $30 to buy but it could save you thousands of dollars on mistakes you would have made and it can help you to make thousands of dollars you would have never been able to make had you not been educated.

It is possible to buy more than one property and buying more than one properties has the ability to make you completely rich and completely financially free. Don’t waste the opportunity that positive cash flow could give you. Grow some balls, get some education and get out there and start investing wisely.