How an ‘expensive mistake’ taught this investor about capital gains
Positive Real Estate’s Sam Saggers got involved in real estate right after he left school, but that did not exempt him from making mistakes during the first few years of his property investment journey.
During his early 20s, the investor bought his first property in an area he knew very well, in the suburb he grew up in. While this might be an obvious choice for some first-time property investors, many of the successful ones would advise to look further beyond familiar areas and do research based on growth cycles and other relevant factors for building wealth.
Aside from that, Sam also failed to be clear about his goals and strategies when he started out and refused to surround himself with a good financial team to help him navigate his way through the marketplace.
“For me, I bought based on emotion. I thought the property just looked so good. Didn't do any research into where the property market was at,” he shared.
“I had this fear of missing out. A few of my friends had bought two years before and actually watched them make some money in the market. I wanted to do the same, so the logical thing for me was to buy in my own neighbourhood. I actually went door knocking to find my property. I didn't use an agent because I was a real estate agent myself.”
The property investor bought a 40-year-old property in Putney at the peak of the market and watched it lose value as time passed by. He ended up selling the property without making money out of it—a mistake that many budding property investors often make due to lack of education.
Smart Property Investment’s Phil Tarrant explained: “I think a lot of people get that wrong. They might hold a property for two years and sell it at a hundred grand more than what they pay for it and think that they're an absolute genius, but then when they get back and calculate what the mortgage cost them and all the other stuff… [they will realize they actually lost a lot of money].”
Years after what Sam refers to as an “expensive mistake,” he started to realize the importance of a good preparation in property investment whether you’re on your way to buying your first property or on to building your portfolio.
“The reality is [that] time in real estate is a beautiful thing, and if I had my time again, I would have held it. I also value the lesson of buying that property, not really feeling comfortable with what I had done and selling it, because it taught me some valuable lessons along the way of like, ‘I need to look at bit deeper into the research behind what real estate is,’” Sam said.
While he did not make money out of selling the property, the experience became a catalyst for him to actually reflect on his goals as a property investor and start educating himself on how to succeed in the business of creating wealth through property. “It was a great lesson. [My] First property, [was] best lesson I ever had,” he said.
Tune in to Sam Saggers' episode on The Smart Property Investment Show to know more about the impact of aircraft noise on property prices, as well as the relevance of so-called "property bubbles" investors' journey.
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