A big win is something that moves you towards your financial goal in a big step. This can be gaining a large chunk of money quickly or instantly minimising how much you think you have to save.
This is Day 15 of the 30 Day Property Journey where over the next 30 days I am giving you a bunch of different activities that you can do to improve your chances of buying your property. We are half way through.
Today we are talking about finding a big win. I’ll show you some ways that you can achieve a big win in your life that can quickly move you towards saving or minimizing your deposit.
Even if you don’t actually end up going ahead and taking action with these big wins it can help you take a leap forward.
So rather than incremental weekly or monthly growth, it’s something that can really shoot you ahead and get you a big chunk of money all at one time.
The most common way to get a big win is to get a big chunk of savings. However I am first going to show you how to get a big win by lowering the amount of money that you need to save for your deposit.
Here are my three recommended ways to lower the amount of money you need to save.
#1: Lower the Property Price
One of the ways you can minimize the amount of money that you need to save is to actually lower the price of the property you are planning on purchasing. Your goal is probably financial freedom and so it doesn’t necessarily have to be a super expensive property that you start out with.
A lot of people think I want to buy a dream home and I want to save a 20% deposit. Well when you want to by a million dollar home a 20% deposit is $200,000. Then you’ll have to pay stamp duty on top of that which adds up to a significant amount of money that you are going to need to save.
I like to use what I call the 2-hour rule. If you live in a capital city then chances are property is pretty expensive. But with this rule if you go 2 hours in either direction you can generally find property at reasonable prices below $300,000.
Take Sydney for example. If you go 2 hours north you are on the north of the central coast where there is actually smaller property there. You could buy a 2-bedroom house for about $250,000 to $300,000.
Go south 2 hours and you could buy a house for around $300,000. If you go west 2 hours you are somewhere around Lithgow and again we are looking at paying around that $300,000 mark.
If you go two hours east–well you are going to be in the pacific ocean so I don’t recommend that. But going two hours out of where you are and finding a property that’s a lower price property can give you a big win because the amount of the deposit you need to save has been significantly lowered since the price is lowered.
#2: Lower Your Percentage Saving Target
Another way you can lower your deposit is lower your percentage saving target. Maybe you want to save 20% to not have to pay that lender’s mortgage insurance.
But why not consider actually only saving 10% or 5%. It’s a good idea to go into Google and type in “lenders mortgage insurance calculator” and actually work out how much the lenders mortgage insurance is going to cost you.
Some people say never pay lender’s mortgage insurance because it’s a waste of money. People therefore get so fearful of lender’s mortgage insurance as they think they have to save this massive deposit. This means that it will take them years to save the money and they may never get to buy a property.
However if you find out how much it is going to cost, you might find out (like one of my readers did the other week) that it is actually significantly less than what you thought.
You might already have a deposit now. Maybe you’ve got 5% and you are trying to save 20%. It would be possible to buy a property now and it could turn out to be a good step to take.
#3: Consider Government Grants
The other thing you can do to lower the amount of money you need is to look at getting access to government grants. This might be a first home buyer grant that some states still offer. Or it could be a grant for new buildings which I know Queensland and New South Wales offer at this point in time.
They change all the time so check with your state government to see what’s available. I have seen grants where you could get a boost like a bonus amount of money to put towards your deposit and towards the property. Or they might your waive stamp duties so you don’t actually have to pay any stamp duties on the property.
Stamp duty is generally something you have to save for (which we have covered when talking about working out how much of a deposit you need to save) but if you can get rid of stamp duty because you are accessing one of these grants or concessions then that’s going to save a large chunk of money and give you a big win.
Getting a big win.
Now how can we get a big chunk of cash towards our deposit?
Sell a Car
The easiest big win that you can get is to actually sell a car. Maybe you’ve got two cars and you could sell one and just live with one. Or maybe you have a really expensive car that you could sell and then downgrade it.
You could also possibly sell your car and go with public transport for the short term. This will allow you to buy a house and then you can buy a car at a later date.
Generally we have a lot of money wrapped up in our car. So to be able to sell our car can give us a big chunk of cash.
My car is probably worth about $3,000. Now that amount might not give me a massive win but it is $3,000 and that is a decent chunk of money.
However it’s not something I am really looking to do especially with a third kid on the way. But it could definitely be something for you especially if you got a $100,000 BMW or an expensive car in general because you could downsize and then drive something much cheaper.
So selling a car can be a great way to get a big win towards your goal of buying a property.
Do Extra Work
Another way you can get a big win is to do some extra work or consulting.
I am not a massive fan of getting a second job and working yourself to the bone because I have experienced burnout in my life where I have just worked too hard. I have burnt out emotionally and spiritually and had to regain my fervor by realizing that it just wasn’t worth it for me.
However I am a fan of doing extra work or consulting on the side for a set period of time to save a set amount of money. Maybe you’ve got a goal of saving $1,000 or $2,000. But how many hours of work would that actually be? Or how many hours of consulting would it actually be?
You could even do something by offering services on the side like mowing lawns, walking dogs or baby-sitting. Do it for a short amount of time, save all of that money and then when the time is up you can stop doing it so you don’t burn yourself out.
Therefore doing some extra work, having that savings target and putting it all towards that target can be a way to get a big win.
Rent Something Out
Another way to get a big win could be to rent something out. Maybe you could rent out a room or two in your property or you could even rent out your entire garage or a car spot. But of course make sure you check your lease and to see if subletting is okay and that you can actually do it.
Or if you own a house and you are trying to buy an investment property then you could rent out your house and move somewhere cheaper. It’s also possible that you could rent out rooms in your house or rent out a granny flat in the back if you have something like that.
What can you rent out in order to get a big win towards your investment goal?
Do a Big Flip
Another thing that you could do is what I call big flip. A big flip is buying something, doing it up to increase its value and then flipping it for a profit. You could either do multiple small items or you could do one big item.
A friend of mine bought a Volvo at an auction and because his family knows a lot about Volvo cars he was able to improve the car and sell it. In the end I think he ended up making about $20,000 in the process because it was a very expensive car and he was able to improve it up to a great standard and make a good profit out of it.
So to be able to make a significant profit like that by putting in some hard work could be very interesting. For me a big flip would be buying a website, improving it in order to make it more profitable and then selling it.
The guy across the road from me is currently doing up a Volkswagen Beetle. He has been working on it ever since I moved here about six months ago and I think he has been doing it long before that. He is not fixing it up to sell it but I can tell you that when he is finished it is going to be worth a lot of money because it will be done to such a high quality for that type of car.
Maybe you could do the same thing with antiques or you could do it with furniture. You could even do it with something like bicycles or skate boards or whatever it is that you are into.
Ask yourself if you can you buy something, improve its quality and then sell it for a profit.
Move to a Cheaper Area
The last big win that you can get would be to move to a lower-cost area. Rather than paying whatever it is you are paying for rent or mortgage maybe you could move somewhere that was cheaper.
This is something that my parents did when they were trying to buy a house. They moved from Cronulla where they were right on the beach in Sydney out to a place called Ramsgate. It was a little dodgy house in a not-so-great area but they saved a significant amount of money in order to buy a house.
They hated living in Ramsgate but it helped them to buy a family home which we ended up living in for over 20 years. So moving to a lower-cost area is something to keep in mind in order to get a big win.
So there are some big wins where you could lower your deposit or save a chunk of cash. Even if you don’t go ahead and do any of those things it’s good to know that you have options like selling your car or working on the side to save up a money that you can put towards your deposit.
Knowing that those options are there even if you don’t necessarily use them can be very useful to keep you motivated towards your goal of saving your deposit.
Tomorrow we are going to be talking about mortgage brokers, meeting up with a mortgage broker and going over what questions you can ask them. That is going to be great activity that you can do to really move you forward towards buying your next investment property.
If you want to get access to The Essential Guide To Buying Your First Property and understand the steps that it take to buy a property and be confident then go to www.onproperty.com.au/buy and grab your copy today.
Until tomorrow remember to stay positive.