Are you dreaming of quitting your 9-5 job and gaining financial freedom? This guide will show you step-by-step how to make that dream a reality through real estate investing. From setting clear goals to building a reliable team and understanding cash flow, you'll learn how to create a portfolio that supports your lifestyle. With this strategy, you’ll be ready to take charge and work towards a future free from the daily grind.
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I'm going to show you exactly what you need to be doing to use real estate to quit your 9-to-5 job.
Now, that may be to replace your entire income, or it might be to replace part of it so you can work part-time.
I'll break down exactly what the strategy looks like and share with you a formula that we use in the buyers agency right now.
So if you're interested, then definitely keep reading!
Before we jump into what type of property to buy and what the numbers look like, we need to understand why you want to retire, and ask yourself: is it more than just "Hey, I don't like my job"?
This is where you need to dig into what your actual goal looks like.
Sure, you want to quit your 9-to-5 job because you don't like it.
Okay, great! That is a starting point, and it's ironic because this is actually the end point. You need to do the following:
Most people find themselves investing by accident—someone on YouTube told them they should, and they don’t really have a plan.
I want you to be razor-sharp focused when you're buying property because there’s no point in getting shiny-object syndrome, where you're thinking: Hey, that looks better. Let me go do that, then flipping onto someone else’s channel and trying something else.
What you want to do is focus, figure out your strategy, and execute the boring stuff.
I talk about getting the foundational properties—set and forget—and not worrying about flipping properties, developments, or all the extras. Just keep it simple. These things can come later if you really have a passion for them and want to go down the path of development, renovations, or flipping.
For now, you just want to get started.
So, we need to figure out what our goal is and why that’s the goal. I want you to take some time away to actually think about it.
You may want to read this article all the way through because, at the end, I share a formula to help you figure out how much you need, how many properties you need, and make it super simple.
However, the beauty of this content is that you can go back with your partner or by yourself and figure out, step-by-step, what you need to do to reach financial freedom.
We have this idea of fantasising about retiring and just being at home, not having to go to work on a Monday.
However, so many people haven't thought beyond that. You think: Oh, okay, if I were actually to sit at home, what would I be doing?
These are the kinds of things you need to figure out. The reason to figure this out now rather than later is because it will continue to develop, and your "why" becomes so much stronger.
You start to feel all the emotions that come with not having to go to work, not having to answer to anybody, going on a holiday whenever you like. These are the things you really need to focus on because they will allow you to stay the course.
There is going to be a lot of turbulence over the next 20 years when it comes to investing, full stop.
When you think about real estate, so many things can change:
This is why you need to have a razor-sharp focus on how you want this to play out.
Now, what does retirement actually look like? I've got a few points here that can help you get started:
These are all really important questions—especially that last one—because you may not actually know what you want in 20 or 30 years, but you should have a bit of a plan.
For instance, if you decide:
Well, actually, I don’t mind living in Bali and raising my kids or No, I really want to live in Sydney or Melbourne or Perth or Brisbane, and this is how much it's going to cost me in today's dollars, this helps set the foundation. Then, you can reverse-engineer your goals.
You could say: Yes, I can replace my income, but am I going to get my dream house?
Decide what matters more to you, and this should lead you to ask yourself: “How much is this actually going to cost me?
You need to put a dollar figure on it. Really visualise what it feels like, manifest what this life looks like, and then we can get to the practical part: how much money do you actually need?
There may be an upfront payment to buy the house, boats, and cars, but there will also be ongoing fees—the cash flow you need, the income you need to maintain this lifestyle.
The other part is that you may decide: I want to just reduce my hours, or I want my partner to stop working, versus completely quitting a 9-to-5 job.
I would say one often leads to the other; you probably start with reducing your hours first, and then you figure out what to do with all the extra time.
Now, I've read about people who retired early and found themselves with nothing to do.
Others have retired only to discover a passion business that they run.
In my case, I can’t say I’ve fully retired; I've come out of retirement, if you like. I used to work 20 hours a week and loved life, but I realised I wanted to give back. That phase lasted for a short time—I went on a couple of holidays and figured out it was boring. I needed to focus on what brings me value.
What I needed to focus on was how to bring positivity into this world, what value I could contribute.
That’s why I started blogging and my YouTube channel, and since then, we’ve grown the team at Search Property to over 40 full-time staff, enabling us to help more people like you.
That's why I make articles like this—to show you the nuts and bolts of what goes into achieving this kind of lifestyle. This is the 1% life, and if you want a solution and you want to move at speed, you can always reach out.
Now that we've understood the big picture, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty, the nuts and bolts. These are some questions you really need to answer, and you need to put them down on paper.
Look at your pay slips, because it blows my mind how many people think they’re making one amount but are actually making something different.
We have an in-house mortgage broking team, and when they come to us and say: Ravi, your consulting team told us they were making this much, but they’re actually making this much, you see why it’s so important to be accurate with the information you provide.
The best way to do this is by looking at your last three months of statements and going through them to see where you’re spending money and where you’re saving. This will give you the true picture.
You can always change it moving forward, but you need to know the starting point.
You also need to consider if you can increase your income or reduce your expenses.
A combination of both will help you move faster and grow your portfolio more effectively.
If you’re thinking about increasing your income, it might involve overtime, working a second job, or finding a completely new job.
When it comes to expenses, this is where you have to start tightening the belt. It often depends on where you are in life—if you’re in your early 20s, you might want to go aggressive because you don’t have as many commitments.
You also might want to take my approach: I could invest, but I also wanted to enjoy my life in my 20s. I wanted to travel and have those experiences, so I took up a second and third job to make that possible.
If you’re starting this journey a little later, say in your 40s, 50s, or 60s, you may not have as much time to build a substantial portfolio, but it’s still possible. We still have clients reaching out to us in their 50s, preparing for retirement, and that’s something we can certainly assist with—especially for clients wanting to buy in their SMSF, their self-managed super fund.
Now, when we're looking at buying a property, we need two things: cash flow or equity, and borrowing capacity.
For the purpose of this exercise, with the strategy I’ve personally used over the last 11 years and applied for clients over the past four years, I generally look for a minimum borrowing capacity of about $400,000 and a cash balance or equity of around $90,000.
These numbers can fluctuate depending on what areas we want to buy in and what the overall strategy looks like, but this is a good starting point.
Next, we need to figure out how to actually execute. So, if you think about it, we've got the big picture and the nuts and bolts; now we need to go and execute the property purchases. Then, I’ll share the formula with you so you’ll have the entire timeline of how you can achieve financial freedom and quit your 9-to-5 job.
The reality is that if you want to buy, you have a couple of options.
You could go do it yourself, and on average, it’s probably taking people 3 to 6 months. Three months if you’re lucky; six months is still being optimistic.
I know people who have done this for 12 to 18 months, and then they reach out to us saying: “Hey, I watched your videos, Ravi. I didn’t do anything. I decided to do it myself, found it quite difficult, or bought the wrong property. Now I’ve come to you because I want your help.”
This is why if you want to get somewhere, wouldn’t you want to get there faster? That’s something you’ve got to ask yourself. If you’re going to outsource something and you really want to get there with speed, then you definitely need to think outside the box.
In this case, I would say you need a team. It also depends on who’s in your team—anyone from the broker or accountant setting up your SMSF to assisting with borrowing.
I used to think all brokers were the same, but a common misconception is that: people assume all buyer’s agents, mortgage brokers, conveyancers, and accountants are the same.
From my experience of buying over a thousand properties for clients in recent years, I can tell you they’re not the same. I can even reflect on our own service. Where it was two years ago is definitely not where it is now. I’d even say that where it was six months ago compared to now is substantially different.
So, you need to figure out who is in your team—who is your “Dream Team”?
Think of it like sports: are you going out to get the best players for your team, or are you saying: “I could go further by myself”?
If you go solo, you not only move slower but also have less information to make quick decisions, which takes so much time.
Here at Search Property, on average, we find properties for clients within 2 to 4 weeks.
By the time you come on board and have your pre-approval, it’s 2 to 4 weeks until you find the property. That’s because we have solid relationships, which is why we purchase so many properties.
We’ve been interviewing a lot of people lately as we’ve been growing the team, and from what I’ve gathered from other buyer’s agencies that are of a similar size or slightly smaller, they say it’s taking anywhere from 8 to 14 weeks.
To put that into context, that’s 2 to 3 months you’re on the sidelines. I’d even go so far as to say, if it’s taking you that long, you may as well do it yourself and hope for the best. If you want speed, you need to get the right people on your team.
If you need any of these people on your team, definitely reach out. You can contact me at ravi@searchproperty.com.au, and I’ll point you in the right direction with who you need.
Now comes the fun part—knowing that speed is the key.
However, we need to know what we’re buying, so what’s the formula?
I’m going to make this super simple: My biggest passion is real estate and financial education, and the only thing I’m more passionate about is trying to provide that as simply as possible and communicate it concisely.
The formula is that we want to buy something for about $450,000. It’s a house or a townhouse, and I only want to buy existing stock.
I’m looking for minimum yields of around 5% and a high-growth area with at least 7% growth.
The average at Search Property is around 13%, and my average over a longer period—11 years—is just over 11% compounded annually across multiple states, covering units, houses, and townhouses.
Again, there’s a formula when you’re researching property. Every market is different, and you need to know what to look for and how to look for it.
Now, from a cash flow perspective, in the current climate with interest rates as they are, you’re probably going to have negative cash flow for about one to two years, roughly $150 per week. Think of it like forced savings. A lot of it you’ll get back in tax, but it’s not a huge amount. You’ll likely be positive by year three.
Here are the numbers you need to know: by year five, you’ll probably have a positive cash flow of $5,000; by year ten, it’s around $10,000; and by year 20, it’s $20,000.
I’ve simplified this, but these numbers are conservative.
If you look at them, in five years it’s $5,000, in ten years it’s $10,000, and in 20 years it’s $220,000—that’s just for one property.
If we follow this strategy, we’re going interest-only without paying down the debt. You could choose to do that, but here I’m breaking it down without any changes, such as going interest-only for five years and then switching to P&I.
We’re not looking at scenarios where you might buy a property, sell one, keep one, and pay down the debt.
If we want to replace $40,000 of income, we’ll need two properties to reach that number in 20 years or four properties over ten years. That might reduce your hours, but it doesn’t allow you to quit 9-to-5 completely.
Therefore, if you want to replace $100,000, how would you do it?
You’d need five properties within 20 years or ten properties in ten years.
These numbers might sound large, and the truth is, if you don’t have a formula and a solid team around you, this will be nearly impossible.
I’m not saying that as a personal opinion—it’s actually backed by statistics from the ABS, which suggest that less than 1% of the entire population will get past five or six properties in their portfolio. Therefore, what you’re aiming for is the “1% life,” and you need to act accordingly.
Now, is it possible? Yes, it is. It’s not easy, but it’s definitely possible.
Just this week, we had one client sign up for his fifth property within 20 months, and another client signed up for his seventh property in less than three years. I’m not just talking about one-bedroom units costing $100,000; I’m talking about substantial real estate portfolios worth between $2 and $3 million at this point.
Keep in mind, when they were buying two to three years ago, they were purchasing properties for about $350,000, and now they’re buying in the $500,000 to $550,000 range. Just remember, time in the market is your friend—it gives you access to different markets at different cycles.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this extensive article. My hope is that you take something positive away from this, that you realise it’s not the media’s fault, not immigration’s fault, not anyone else’s fault—you have the accountability to do this for yourself.
Now is the time to figure out what your plans actually look like.
If you need help with this kind of planning, reach out to our team by booking a FREE discovery call.
Remember, you’ll want to look at that minimum borrowing capacity and minimum income, and then we can take over and build the plan with you.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this article, and I’ll catch you in the next one.
Thanks, everyone!
Disclaimer: Search Property Pty Ltd (SP) does not provide financial or investment advice and does not hold a financial services license as defined in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). Any advice given by SP is general in nature and does not take into account your personal circumstances or objectives, financial situation or needs.
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