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Investing your money shouldn’t be viewed as a strategy to accumulate wealth just for the sake of being wealthy. In fact, we know that overall happiness doesn’t come from having a large sum in the bank, but instead from the options and freedom that comes from the result of it.

In saying that, if we know that freedom of choice – or at the very least our perception that we do in fact have options and choices available to us-  directly affects how fulfilled we are in life, then we can start to view wealth as less of a security blanket or status symbol and more of a resource.

Our money should give us more options to do what we want to do, not restrict our options by tying up every spare penny that we have waiting for a day long in the distance when it all might just be worth it.

So how can we accumulate wealth without sacrificing lifestyle?

It makes sense that we not only start choosing investments that are cashflow positive (generate income) in the short term, but also those that accelerate the overall timeline for generating decent passive income in the long term.

Ideally what we want is an investment that doesn’t take ten, twenty, thirty years to offer real ROI, but at the same time not all of us are comfortable with throwing large sums of cash into high risk investments that could offer great and quick returns, or just the opposite.

So where is the balance? It must just be from a type of investment property that thus far has been slipping under the radar, but that is perfectly suited to those investors that prefer a lower risk investment strategy through the property market, a sixth sense for avoiding overcapitalisation, and are willing to act quickly to secure their investment when it becomes available.

A clever little investment

As a savvy potential investor maybe you already understand the benefits of a dual key (otherwise known as a dual occupancy) home, in that it allows you to accelerate the timeline of the whole process through offering two rental income streams per property instead of one.

This combined with pricing that is often equivalent to the price of building a single occupancy residence (prices for the most recent location on offer starting at $483, 180 for a 3 + 2 bedroom turn key home and land package), and only one set of council rates payable, it’s obvious why dual occupancy investments in QLD are becoming so popular with investors.

Assuming that you have acquired dual occupancy home designs optimised for use as rentals, you know the right suburbs in Queensland deemed as “investment hotspots” that offer not only capital growth but also strong rental demand, and you’ve hunted down a dual key builder with a proven track record and guarantee for both price and build timeline, the only thing that’s missing is the land… which is where you can run into trouble.

There are council regulations for how many dual key homes allowed in an area- bunch too many together and there are issues with roads, parking, and generally just too many people too close together and all the issues that can result. Secondly, because the competition is so fierce for blocks of land where dual occupancy homes are allowed to be built, you often need to be ready to jump in with your finance ready to go in a short space of time or risk losing out.

You might need a hand

But you also don’t want to risk paying tens of thousands of dollars extra by choosing the wrong people. The formula to choosing the right home is really quite logical- do your research, find out who is offering dual key homes in a great suburb, make sure the builder they work with is reputable, compare prices- what is included, what is the land size, home size, outdoor area sizes- and how do they all compare on price?

If the properties look comparable, it’s really just down to that dollar amount.