"Unbridled greed"? Does your mate know you are accusing him of...

"Unbridled greed"? Does your mate know you are accusing him of unbridled greed? I can see that 40 properties is a lot but he was probably simply trying to invest his money in a tax effective way. What is wrong with that? As far as I am concerned those that should be accused of unbridled greed are the investment bankers who concocted the complex financial instruments that led to the GFC and then went on to claim massive bonuses.

I myself have three investment properties here in Aus and they were prurchased with no deposit using interest only loans. I don't have 40 properties but if I had have applied myself 8 or 9 years ago I could have come close, I guess, if it had have been a priority for me. I also had an unrelated financial disaster along the way which put paid to that.

Anyway, I'm sure your mate is probably licking his wounds right now. By the way, you don't really need to have any real estate experience to do well in real estate, you just need to be smart and use common sense. Plus avoid buying during a bubble.