G'day Mate! Newbie from South Australia

[Shawn Donaldson]

Hi Guys,
No... sorry, we don't always start a conversation with "G'day Mate" as much as Crocodile Dundee might have you think we do, but we are real friendly.
My name is Shawn and I'm new to the forum and real estate investing. My family consisting of myself, my wife and 2 ankle biters live in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. I run an IT consulting firm and a martial arts school.

I've been looking into investing for quite some time. I love audio books so that has been my main method of study, including The Book On Rental Property Investing, which is how I came to this forum. I'm now at a point I'm analysing deals and looking to buy my first investment property. My strategy is to look at a very small/cheap place to start as I figure I'll make mistakes on the first one. I'm currently looking at 2 bedroom units (apartments) and 3 bedroom semi-detached (duplex) and utilising the BRRRR strategy on something that has medium to minor repair requirements. I have the skills to do pretty much any renovations myself (having sold my last home which I renovated throughout myself), but will look to use contractors for most of it.

I've had some challenges in moving forward, which I'll post in the relevant forum areas.

Why I'm doing this.... well, it's really about building wealth long-term for myself and my kids. I'm now in my mid-30's and I don't think there will be pensions by the time I retire, so I need to make sure we are financially free by then. Ideally, I'm aiming to do that a lot sooner though. Other than that, I would love to tour and I would love to spend more time giving to others such as charity work and coaching.

Well, hopefully that paints a good picture about me... I look foward to chatting with some of you.
Cheers,
Shawn :)