my housing price rant , page-19

In answer to when I got into property.

I made my money from late 80's to mid 90's. Bought properties in Villawood, Easthills, Bankstown suburbs generally. Then bought properties down south, east coast just before that area boomed. Some of the properties went up $5,000 a week for several years.

Borrowed the lot - lived on the smell of an oil-rag and had a supporting wife who not only did half the renovating but could see the big picture. We were either going to be bankrupt or wealthy.

It was the system - even though I felt it was wrong that homes could be traded like shares, it was the way of the world. I hated being a landlord. I always rented under market value. In fact when members of my family fell on hard times they ended up in one of my places paying pepper-corn rent.

As soon as the maths suggested I had enough to live on for the rest of our lives I sold everything and retired to fish, golf, and spend quality time with my family and grandkids.

I did this on a basic tradesman's wage, but I also had the right wife. Had a friend at the bank who used to help me fiddle my income figures a bit to get the loans.