How 27yo casual Woolworths employee has a five-property portfolio

A NSW man has managed to buy $1.5 million worth of property and travel to 132 countries despite working casually at the local grocery store.

A casual Woolworths employee has shared how he owns five homes by the age of 27 worth more than $1.5 million altogether while also travelling to 132 countries.

Douglas Lazickirk, from NSW’s Central Coast, managed to travel the world and also become a multi-property owner before his 28th birthday.

“I started with nothing,” he told news.com.au.

“I have purchased two properties in the past three months and I’m a casual employee.”

Mr Lazickirk’s property journey began when he was a high-schooler and landed his first job at his local Woolworths.

“I got the job on my 15th birthday. It was $7.80 an hour,” he recalled. “I still have my first pay slip. I did an eight-hour shift and I got like $64.”

Little did he know it, but that job was what would enable him to buy his first property at the age of 22.

From his first property, he was able to leverage his way to his second all the way to his fifth home, which he settled last week.

Douglas Lazickirk managed to buy $1.5 million worth of property and travel to 132 countries despite working casually at the local grocery store.

Mr Lazickirk studied a bachelor of teaching and arts and was gunning to get a full-time job at a high school after he finished his degree in 2015.

He’d been working at Woolworths that entire time, for seven years since he’d first started, as well as travelling.

Around the same time, his neighbour’s home in Erina went on the market.

He described it as a “game changer” because his dad wanted to buy the place “but he was retiring” so couldn’t get a home loan.

Father and son went to the bank to try to secure a loan for Mr Lazickirk.

He has travelled the world.

To live this lifestyle, he still lives at home with his parents.

The loan officer had some unusual advice for the uni graduate. “He told me, ‘Don’t quit your job at Woolworths, get a full time job there’,” he explained.

“So I went full-time there, worked full-time for 10 weeks, got over the line to [get a loan to] buy the house, then went casual again.”

The two bedroom, one bedroom house went for $280,000, with Mr Lazickirk paying a 10 per cent deposit of $28,000 and his dad acting as guarantor on the loan.

“Straight away” he got a renter into the place. It is neutrally geared, so he isn’t out of pocket for the mortgage repayments.

He then decided to work casually as a teacher and also at Woolworths to make more money to save up for his next place.

Douglas Lazickirk’s first home when he was 22.

Two years later, at age 24, Mr Lazickirk decided it was time to get another home to expand his property portfolio.

“I tried to get a loan on my own, tried every avenue possible, every bank, every broker,” he said. “My first property had doubled in two years but still no one would give me a loan.”

In the end, the only way was to pair up with his older sister to split the costs down the middle.

His sister used the first homebuyer’s grant to nab a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house with a granny flat out the back in the Central Coast suburb of Tumbi Umbi.

It cost $435,000, with the sibling duo putting down 10 per cent of that each. Their stamp duty fees were halved thanks to the government help.

He has managed to save more during the pandemic because he is unable to spend his cash travelling.

The property was originally negatively geared but they upped the rent, allowing them to continue with their lives without having to stress about paying off the mortgage.

Two years later, Mr Lazickirk decided to renovate his first property to bring in twice as much revenue from renters.

“I cut the Erina property in half, put a two-bedroom, one bathroom granny flat in for a third stream of income,” he explained.

“I get a $460 week return on that. That’s positively geared.”

He is from NSW’s Central Coast.

One of the joys of being a casual worker, Mr Lazickirk said, is that he’s been able to travel the world because he has endless holidays.

He says he has been to 132 different countries including more unusual places like Svalbard in Norway, São Tomé in Africa, East Timor, Kazakhstan, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Lebanon — all while buying multiple properties back home.

“I’ve always prioritised travel, that’s been number one,” he said.

As a result, when borders slammed shut, Mr Lazickirk raced back to Australia from Africa. Unable to go jetsetting around the world, he really knuckled down with working and saving.

As a result, in the last three months, he’s added two properties to his portfolio, bringing the total number to five.

Wanting to diversify his stock, Mr Lazickirk looked further afield, to Grafton, a town in NSW’s Northern Rivers region.

Using equity from his previous purchases, he secured a loan for a $300,000 four-bedroom, one-bathroom home in the town’s south. As before, he got renters in as quickly as possible and now the place is positively geared.

The Grafton home.

Mr Lazickirk then went even further and bought a property in an entirely different state.

He had been wanting to get a house in Tasmania’s capital, Hobart, for a while, but was constantly missing out.

“Hobart is killing it, Hobart is absolutely killing it,” he said.

“I wanted to buy in the market, but I could not get in. I’m calling so many people it’s ridiculous.”

Keeping a weather eye on the property in the southern state, he found the perfect place and snapped it up after it had only been on the market for eight hours.

Again, he used equity on his other homes to get the $380,000 three-bedroom, one-bathroom Hobart property.

The home he purchased in Hobart.

“I combined everything together, that equals about $70,000 a year,” he said.

“No matter what happens I have to pay $70,000 in bills.

“In income, I make $96,000. So I‘m making $26,000 extra.”

Mr Lazickirk had a word of advice for other aspiring homeowners.

“I still live at home now, in my dad’s garage. That’s the key to wealth building, until I get that passive income,” he admitted.

“I find it devastating to think people are ‘complaining’ how difficult it is to buy into today’s market. For young people out there, anything is possible.”