How this 'anti-investor' learned to enjoy his own investment journey
Blake Roeleven has successfully built a three property-portfolio, but unlike most investors who have been determined to succeed from the get-go, he was not immediately taken by the idea of investing in real estate.
According to Blake, he used to be an "anti-investor"—buying fancy cars and basically living the life any young adult wanted. Years later, right after he moved out from his parents' home, he was "forced to invest" in a property after he came across some major defect issues in his first unit in Sydney.
"I wanted to move out, [to] get into property. When I bought a property, my first unit in Sydney, I had some major defect issues appear six months into it and that forced me to invest in a property to get the tax write-offs while they did the massive repairs and the special [levies] and everything," he shared with Smart Property Investment.
Fortunately, things aligned for Blake after that. He decided to hold on to the property as investment and went on to live with his parents again to save some cash.
"I refinanced and there was equity in the property. Things aligned and I was like, 'All right, hold on, I can probably use this for something else.' Got [myself] a buyer's agent, [and I] just went straight into the deep end and bought a property in Brisbane and then the equity continued to build through the initial property stacking away a lot of cash, [and] a lot of savings," Blake said.
He eventually sold off his fancy cars and other stuff to make way for diverting his money into building an asset base. Now, Blake self-identifies as a determined property investor. He has grown to learn from his mistakes and enjoy every bit of his investment journey—from goal-setting to renovation and all things in between.
"For me personally, I've really got to enjoy the journey. So, I might not be as aggressive as some other investors. I might look back in time and think, 'Damn I wish I was,' but right now, [with] what I'm doing, I'm comfortable. I'm progressing at a pace that I'm happy with and I'm able to live life on my terms and try and get that magical balance," he said.
Smart Property Investment's Phil Tarrant believes that going at the right speed is essential to find success in property investment. After all, investing in real estate is not a race nor a competition of any kind.
"I'd look back and go, 'I probably could have gone at twice the speed or three times the speed as I did,' but there were reasons why I didn't. It's quite easy to look back saying, 'Yeah, I could have easily done that financially,' but when you look at it in the context of what you do, something else would have to [be] give[n] in order to have gone at that speed... It's [a] compromise. You've got to go at the right speed," he concluded.
Tune in to Blake Roeleven's episode in The Smart Property Investment Show to find out how he overcame the challenges of dealing with "shonky" tradesmen, as well as the steps he's taking to keep himself on track to achieve his goals.
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