This month is the 23rd anniversary of my first property purchase in Birmingham back in 1995.

There are 3 lessons that I would like to share with you about this.

1) This was a no money down purchase for me because I had no money at the time. What I did have, was a job offer to start at Cadbury as a graduate trainee, and with that I was able to get a first time buyers mortgage of 95% of the purchase price. But I had no money for the 5% deposit, the legal costs, or furniture etc. I had to borrow that money for a family member. It was a loan, not a gift. I had to pay it back with interest and they made more money that they would have if the money was left in the bank, so a win win for everyone involved. So please don’t think that you need to have a lot of money to get started in property. Of course if you have money that makes it easier but with the low interest rates, that we have had for the last 8 years, there will be people you know, who would love to help you and get a better return on their money.

2) If you had told me back in 1995, how much that property would be worth today, I would have you were crazy. You may have heard that on average property prices double every 10 years. This is an average.  It is important to remember that this does not happen every ten years, and prices go up as well as down. However, over the last 23 years, I can say that this has certainly happened. I purchased my first property for £48,500 which was a lot of money to me then. Now 23 years later it is worth approx. £230,000, having doubled in value, then more double again in that time period. Will it happen again? Well we live on an island with a limited supply of accommodation and an increasing population, so yes I expect prices will double again but probably not before they have dipped again in the next year or so. The best time to get into property is a s soon as you can, as long as you know what you are doing. Which leads me on to my third lesson.

3) When I purchased my first property, I really did not know what I was doing. I made lots of mistakes and yet despite that, over time I did quite well. At the time there was no education about how to be a successful investor. However, now there is so much information available, you have no excuse for not knowing what to do. Before you invest in property, I recommend you invest in yourself and gain the necessary knowledge to avoid the expensive mistake that most people make. I do hope that at some point on your property journey I will be able to help you. Please comment below and share this post if you have found it useful.

Invest with knowledge. Invest with skill.

Simon Zutshi

Author of Amazon Best Seller ‘Property Magic’

Founder property investors network