Hands-on property investment

26/09/2017

When it comes to property investing, there’s a good chance that Dee Van Tienen of Smartline Personal Mortgage Advisers has seen it all.

She and her husband began their investment journey in their 20s, investing both personally and through trusts and companies.

“We would spend most of our weekends either property hunting or renovating, including painting, cleaning gutters and repairing fences,” Dee recalls.

“We treated it like a business rather than just investing; we spent a lot of time doing research.”

This initiative paid off, as the Van Tienens were able to capitalise on the Brisbane housing price boom in the early 2000s through their buy-and-hold strategy.

It was during this period that Dee found her favourite investment.

“It was our first property in Arana Hills. We bought it for $270,000 in 2004, and it was recently valued at over $480,000, although we don’t intend to sell it.”

Throughout her journey, Dee has been leveraging the equity from her portfolio to work towards her end goal as an investor.

“Ultimately, we want to build wealth, be debt-free and have a comfortable retirement. We are well on our way!”