The purchase, renovate and hold strategy for beginners

Mr and Ms Jackson have purchased three investment properties in the Victorian suburbs of Frankston, Ormond and on the Mornington Peninsula, all of which they made the conscious decision to renovate before renting out in order to boost their value on the market.

“I think once we stepped into our first investment, we completely renovated. We bought an ugly duckling. We redid it and then found some really great gains off that, and that really inspired us to keep going on that journey,” Ms Jackson said.

“We’re currently looking for our fourth property at the moment. And again, to find the ugly duckling, renovate it.”

The investor duo are currently looking for their fourth property, also in the Melbourne area.

According to Mr and Ms Jackson, purchasing property investments that are nearby to where they live is crucial to “manage renovations and the works … and keep a tight and close eye on tradies”.

It is often necessary to buy properties under market value, renovate and then hold in order to maximise gains – or ensure no losses are incurred from the renovations performed on an investment property.

“We do a lot of the renovation ourselves, so it cuts a lot of the costs,” Mr Jackson said.

“I was in construction for the last 10 years, so I’ve got all the tools and ready to go.”

The couple explained that their ultimate goal is to secure enough gains from a handful of investment properties to ensure they can sustain the lifestyle they want sooner, rather than later.

“I guess it’s also about being realistic with our portfolio as well … [and] I think you have to acquire property intelligently and also acquire it in a way that you can mitigate the risk not only financially, but also as far as the stress mitigation is concerned,” Ms Jackson said.

“If we’re renovating things, we have to ask ourselves: ‘We’ve just completed a project six weeks ago. Do we really need to jump into another one in another six weeks or can we wait and see if a better opportunity comes along?’.

“I think realistically having a number [of investment properties] which you aspire to in life, and then all of a sudden everything stops at this number and then you retire.”