Graeme Holm Helps Young Couple To Go From Broke To Owning 6 Homes In 3 Years.

For many young couples and millennials, the notion of owning their own homes seems nearly impossible. It certainly seemed that way for Megan Andrews, 32, and Jeremy Craig, 37 of Perinth. They returned from a round-the-world trip and overseas wedding three years ago, completely broke and buried under debts. Just a few years later, Megan and Jeremy not only bought a house, but they built a property portfolio with 6 houses worth over $1.5 million.

How did they do it? A meeting with Graeme Holm at the Infinity Group Australia that started them on the path. They took an unconventional approach to buying property. Rather than searching for their “dream home” they searched for places where they could earn rental income. As Graeme advises, young buyers need to have realistic expectations, “If you aspire to live in Bondi by the water, you might feel pushed out of a home but you’re better off starting with what you can afford.”

What Megan and Jeremy had to do first, however, was get out of debt and stop wasteful spending. They set up a strict savings plan, which is one of the most valuable items in the strategy used by the Infinity Group to help their clients take control of their finances. “All it takes is old fashioned budgeting. You’ve got to go back to basics, save hard, and delay gratification a bit,” says Graeme.

With their savings plan set up, Megan and Jeremy then used his parents’ mortgage for equity on a loan for the deposit on their first property. They bought a small home in Ipswich in Southeast Queensland, and another in Toowoomba shortly after. Both of the homes were about $420,000, but they were dual occupancy, so it was the same as buying four homes for the price of two, and now they had four sources of rental income.

They were also able to build a small apartment on the Craigs’ property, where they lived briefly, to save money faster. They recently purchased another dual occupancy home in Redbank, which they rent for additional $600 each week.

With their six homes, they earn an average of $80,000 per year in rental income.

Megan and Jeremy are like most young couples, and they are proving what Graeme says, that anyone can live debt-free and build their own wealth. “A lot of people struggle with that today because we live in a society of instant gratification and no one wants to put money aside.” When meeting with clients, Graeme says that many of them live outside their monthly income, and are using credit cards, racking up costly interest charges. He pushes ‘tough love’ on his clients, to empower them to break their spending cycles, make every dollar count, and pay off their mortgages faster.

This story was originally published on https://www.realestate.com.au/news/couple-go-from-broke-to-owning-six-homes-with-aggressive-savings-plan-and-help-from-parents/.