Make money, sans mortgage

The great Australian dream is to own a home, and make a bit of money out of it as the market inevitably rises. But for those who don’t have a property in their name, there’s still plenty of ways to earn a buck.

From fractional investment to filming auctions or even hitting up social media, here’s how to make a motza in real estate without the debt.

INVESTING

Being a landlord is hard and expensive, but what if you could throw some spare cash at a property and let someone else handle the maintenance and paperwork?

Welcome to the world of fractional investing and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).

The latter has been investing in Australian properties since the 1970s and is a publicly listed trust in which an investment manager uses funds from backers to buy entire office towers, shopping centres and industrial sites.

The investors get paid dividends and can sell their stake in the trust (hopefully for a profit) much like a regular share portfolio.

Fractional investment sees a group of funders combined to purchase a single asset, typically a house or apartment. They then get a proportion of the capital growth when it is sold, and rental returns in the interim, based on how much of the initial investment they put up.

BrickX chief executive Joe Galvez has been running his fractional investment group since 2014 and said while investors were also responsible for “their proportionate share of expenses”, with a manager in place they didn’t have to handle day-to-day dealings with tenants.

He noted many similar groups had a $2500 or even $25,000 minimum investment, but some like BrickX would let investors open accounts with just $250 and then to invest in a specific property for as little as $32.

“This form of investment is helpful to a whole range of investors ranging from minors, where family wish to gift fractions of property in lieu of presents, through to young adults seeking to educate themselves,” Mr Galvez said.

“Our aim is to be the bridge between the dream and the reality of home ownership one day,” he said.

Some people also use it as part of their self-managed super fund.

BECOME AN AGENT

If you’re obsessed with your local property market, there’s a very obvious way to make a living out of it — become a real estate agent.

However, Real Estate Institute of Australia president Hayden Groves warned against entering the field without due diligence.

“Real estate is a tremendously rewarding career, but it is difficult to get a start given most agencies are required to pay a retainer for new sales employees,” Mr Groves said. “The attrition rate remains high with only about 10 per cent of newcomers still in the industry after the first twelve months.”

Testing the water as a sales assistant for an agent so you can learn the trade is advisable, and could help you become established in a particular area — something that takes “hard work and tenacity”.

“And it only suits people that can handle rejection,” he warned. “Many will be surprised the average earnings of a sales agent in Australia are about $60,000 per annum, but the job does come with a great degree of flexibility.”

WORK THE FRINGES

If being an agent isn’t for you and you don’t have the money to invest, there are plenty of ways to make some money on the fringes of the industry.

Online auction group Gavl’s chief executive Joel Smith estimated a quarter of sales under the hammer were now streamed live online. While that might mean a fairly limited number in Brisbane and Adelaide, in Melbourne and Sydney that could be about 200-300 a week.

“And I think over time that will grow,” Mr Smith said.

While organisations like Gavl had hired large numbers of video staff before the pandemic, today real estate agencies typically organise their own camera person.

“It’s usually not a full timer, it’s a uni student looking for a bit of Saturday work on the side,” Mr Smith said.

The key requirements are a smart phone with a reliable internet connection and a tripod.

It’s not just camera work, Mr Groves said there are plenty of people paid to clean short-stay rentals, while tradies and anyone who is handy could often get a gig dealing with minor issues at rental homes or for homes being prepared for sale.

“And certainly many, especially younger people, are attracted to the idea of being involved in real estate businesses by doing such tasks as letterbox dropping, dealing with signboards, ordering marketing materials and the like,” he said.