Property investing while earning $90k or less per year: Single mum Anissa Cavallo reveals how she bought 15 homes
Single mum Anissa Cavallo, who has a 15-property portfolio, says it is possible for people earning $90,000 a year or less to acquire a property. FIND OUT HOW.
Property advisory agency founder Anissa Cavallo says that people earning less than $90,000 a year often believe they cannot afford an investment property – but the opposite is true.
The single mother-of-two said she lost everything in her divorce but now has a 15-property portfolio consisting of homes and land across Victoria.
Ms Cavallo studied law at university however never practised, instead going into financial services.
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At age 23, she purchased a St Kilda apartment and later bought another home with her brother.
However when her marriage ended, Ms Cavallo and her children moved in with her parents after “losing everything” including the properties.
“When I divorced I ended up starting again,” Ms Cavallo said.
In 2018, while living with her parents and earning about $50,000 per year, she invested in a “really well-priced” regional property.
Three years later, she was able to move out of her parents’ house after starting to earn more than $90,000 and continued to expand her property portfolio.
Being unable to find a real estate advisory group that suited her needs spurred Ms Cavallo to establish Eda Property, a property agency which provides selection and consulting services.
“I do think not everyone is capable of buying 15 to 20 properties but if you’re willing to get a job you can have one or two,” she said.
Ms Cavallo said she sometimes worked with clients for two years before they could buy an investment property, as they started a savings plan to put together a deposit.
She said that for clients earning less than $90,000 per year, buying an investment property could cost less than living in their rental home, in a strategy dubbed “rent-vesting”.
Ms Cavallo said rental yield and tax benefits could sometimes cover part of an investment property’s costs.
“As a rent-vestor, you have to go and buy the right sort of property,” Ms Cavallo added.
Among the most important factors when selecting where to buy is considering how the area’s population is expanding, how quickly people were moving there and how fast their wealth was growing, she said.
“I say: ‘Don’t buy 5ha of land in Timbuktu where people don’t want to live,” Ms Cavallo said.
She said homes with a land component, such as a house, tended to increase more in value than properties without land, which was another factor worth considering when investing.
Her own properties, several which still have a mortgage, cost her between $300,000-$750,000.
One of Ms Cavallo’s clients, Amanda Beh earns less than $90,000 a year.
Ms Beh owns her apartment outright and has an investment property, a Werribee townhouse.
She is now looking to purchase another investment home, hopefully a house.
Ms Beh said she felt a bit worried about buying her first investment property, which she acquired two to three years before Covid hit Australia.
Her advice for anyone looking to buy an investment home was to make sure they did not get emotionally involved in selecting the property, but rather consider its value and future growth potential.
Ms Beh said she decided to buy investment properties to assist in her future retirement.
“I think it’s best to do something rather than nothing,” she said.
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Originally published as Property investing while earning $90k or less per year: Single mum Anissa Cavallo reveals how she bought 15 homes
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