Admit it, you’ve been thinking about investing in property.

You’ve read the books, magazines and reports. You’ve been religiously checking realestate.com.au for properties.

Yet when push comes to shove, you get stopped. You’re not alone. In fact less than 6% of Australians, or roughly 1.3 million people, own an investment property, even though property is a national past-time. It’s not surprising. A lot of people get overwhelmed by the process and quit before they even begin. But it doesn’t have to confound. Reality is, property investing is relatively straightforward. To help you begin your journey,  here’s eight steps to starting a property portfolio on a solid ground, without losing your mind.

1. Check your finances

This can be as simple as listing all your assets, including incomes and work out your expenses. This will give you an idea how much cash you have available to invest. Don’t immediately assume that you can’t afford to invest. As long as you have a stable and reasonably good paying job with solid employment history, you shouldn’t have a problem getting a loan.

2. Get a pre-approval

You can get pre-approval through your lender directly or through your trusted mortgage broker. Going through a broker before applying for a pre-approval can be beneficial if you’re not sure you’re financially ready to invest. Applying for multiple pre-approvals is not a good idea. Each time you apply, the lender will check your credit record. If there are multiple inquiries, this sends a red flag to the lender and may refuse your application.
Top tips

• Find out if you qualify for a loan
• Check your credit rating
• Consider reducing your debt or credit card limit

3. Set your goals

What are you looking to achieve? What does success look like to you? Property investors generally invest in property to secure their financial future or to be free to do what they want, when they want it. In order for you to achieve your goals, you must first articulate what your goals are. More importantly, you need to set a deadline as to when you want to achieve these. Then you can work backwards. For example, if you’re looking to replace your income and retire on your investments within 10 years, you can start by creating a 10-year plan, broken down further to 5-yearly, yearly, bi-annual all the way down to weekly timeline. This way you don’t get overwhelmed by the enormity of the task.