Maccas to property tycoon: How I bought 75 homes by 31

A millennial who single-mindedly saved his way out of housing commission, starting with a job at Maccas, now owns 75 homes using a twin funding approach that’s paid off. HERE’S HOW

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A millennial who single-mindedly saved his way out of housing commission, starting with a job at Maccas, now owns 75 homes using a twin funding approach that’s paid off.

Eddie Dilleen, 31, who now runs a buyers agency Dilleen Property helping others get into the property market, said it was hard but not impossible for his situation to be repeated by others.

“When I first started, I thought I was going to just buy one or two and stop, but then I aimed for five and then 10, then 20, 30, and so forth. It’s basically just the constant need to do something, have a goal and aim for something. It drives me.”

Growing up in housing commission to a single mother helped deliver a lesson that’s stuck with him ever since.

Eddie Dilleen has amassed 75 investment properties. Picture: David Swift

“When I would speak to people older than me and say I wanted to buy property they said I wish I bought a property when I was your age. They all had that regret. I remember hearing it in their voices and seeing in their eyes. They realise they should have done something sooner. That’s the best piece of advice I was given.”

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One of Eddie Dilleen’s 75 homes, located at Collingwood.

Mr Dilleen saved for over two years, putting away about $200 a week of his $400-500 earnings to get his first property, amassing about $20,000 which went towards an almost $14,000 deposit on a $138,000 home.

“It was extremely difficult. I was working at McDonald’s at the time, prior to that, I was working at KFC. The savings started when I was probably 16.

“I bought the first one when I was 18 years old. I lived very frugally. I drove around a very rundown old car that I paid $680 for even when I had six properties.”

Equity in his first property plus a second – bought off a saved deposit for $130,000 in Adelaide – helped Mr Dilleen buy his third and fourth investments in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

A house Eddie Dilleen bought in Perth.

Mr Dilleen’s portfolio now includes eight properties in Adelaide, eight in Sydney, 14 in Perth and over 40 spread across six Queensland local government areas - Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Logan, Ipswich, Moreton Bay and Townsville.

It’s a twin funding pattern that he’s used ever since: “Every year I was able to save a deposit and a half. Five, six and seven I used savings and when 12 months went by, I refinanced those and bought another two with equity.”

“It was a pattern. Property five would buy seven, six would buy eight, seven would buy nine, so they would leapfrog and loop around each other and I would draw little diagrams showing I would use this one to buy that one and that one to buy the next one, all while saving genuine deposits.”

This Creastmead property is one of 75 owned by Eddie Dillen.

He said the housing commission life drove his desire to do better for himself and his mother.

“It’s not your house,” he said. “Growing up it was really ingrained, I don’t want to be in this position in the future.”

He said generally it was better to make a start as early as possible than wait around to amass a large deposit for a million dollar home.

“A lot of people now will buy a couple of small properties. Someone that’s just working their way up likely will not be able to afford a $2.5m property right from the get go. That’s where you’ve got a choice: You can either say it’s too expensive, I’m never going to own a property and then not do anything; or you can have the other approach of I can’t buy right now where I live, but what can I do? Maybe I’ll invest elsewhere a little bit further out and buy an investment property to rent out as a stepping stone. That property in time will go up and it will give me equity and you’re in the market that way. So you’re not looking back in 10 years and regretting not doing anything.”

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Originally published as Maccas to property tycoon: How I bought 75 homes by 31