Sunny investment outlook

TELEVISION and radio personality and one-time Gold Coast Bulletin reporter Tim Bailey has a no-frills philosophy towards real estate investing.

``Buy as much as you can,'' he told Eynas Brodie, editor of Australian Property Investor magazine which features a full-length interview with the media maverick in its December edition.

``Bricks and mortar by the sea.''

The effervescent, energetic, self-confessed surf and snow bum moved to Sydney as a 30-year-old with virtually no assets.

Today he has five properties, including a Chevron Island holiday let.

The 40-something Network 10 NSW weatherman and morning breakfast show personality lives one block back from the beach at Narrabeen and his portfolio also contains an absolute beachfront spot at Manly (bought for $147,500 in the mid 1990s) and properties at The Entrance and North Sydney.

``I'm just really comfortable with apartment buying,'' he said.

``I'm lucky that most of my purchases have been well and truly done six, seven, eight years ago, so I'm in a position to power forward.

``And I think the buying's good, I really do.

``God isn't making any more beaches, so that's why I love stuff with an ocean view.

``He's finished it, so if you can get your hands on a bit of it, or even with a view of it, have a crack.''

His success story is one that should bring a sensation of pleasure not just to erstwhile Gold Coast Bulletin types, but to investment hopefuls everywhere.

As a youthful reporter on the Hobart Mercury and later the Gold Coast Bulletin, to be candid, he earned little and saved less, preferring the blandishments of the surf and world travel, as you do.

But obviously he learned something along the way.

``I came back to the Gold Coast at 29 with absolutely zero,'' he said.

Then radio, and soon afterwards television came calling and with a few dollars in his pocket, the talking machine decided to get in to some serious property action.

``I was earning more money and so I thought `right, there has got to be something I can do with this dough','' he said.

``The one of my friends said to me `you know, you really should look at getting into property'.

``I did a bit of research and bought a book called Building Wealth Through Investment Property by Jan Somers.

``I read it and I read it again and put its basic principles into practice.

``I only wish that I had started earlier.

``All my properties have been negatively geared but now 50 or 60 per cent of them are positively geared, because of time obviously.

``I definitely will continue purchasing property. I'm in the market to buy another one.

``I think I'll probably go lakeside this time. I think it's under-valued where I live at the moment.

``Either that or maybe I will buy another apartment in Queensland. Long-term though, I have no real strategy.''

That said, the outlook for Tim Bailey looks sunny and very bright.

``That's because he only invests in properties that stand an excellent chance of weathering the market's ups and downs,'' said Mrs Brodie.

You can read Eynas Brodie's full interview with Tim Bailey in the December issue of the Australian Property Investor.

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source: goldcoast.com