Bricks and Mortar

Bricks and Mortar property investment can have its rewards.

Bricks and mortar have been a big investment winner for Debra and Kelvin Soper, who have built a portfolio of residential properties since buying their first seven years ago.

Their success in property investment has given them the financial muscle to buy a convertible sports car.

What was your first investment? How did it go?

Our first investment was in 1999. It was a villa home with Defence Homes at Greenwith. It is a beautiful home, and is always well maintained by Defence Homes.

What is the best investment advice you have received and from whom?

Mainly from people we know who have investment properties themselves, who more or less said put your money where you can see it in bricks and mortar.

How do you approach investment risk?

We are very careful, and put a lot of thought into buying any property to make sure we can get a good return.

What is/was your best-performing investment?

Our first investment property.

And the worst?

A VC commodore car.

Where do you get your investment information?

Newspapers, other media and researching on the internet.

How would you invest $25,000 if you were given it tomorrow?

Probably in another property now that the market has slowed down. Or we could place it in a super fund.

How do you feel about managed funds?

We really haven't looked into that sort of investment.

How do you feel about investing overseas?

We like to be able to keep an eye on our investment so we buy in our local area. Overseas investments are probably not an option.

Do you have a financial planner?

We have talked to various financial planners over the years to get different ideas on what we should do, but we mainly stick with advice from our accountant.

Our Mortgage Choice broker, Andrew Flynn, helps us with our loans.

Do you make extra repayments off your home mortgage?

Only our own personal home loan, which is on a variable interest rate. All our other loans are fixed.

How do you treat your credit card?

We use our credit card all the time and pay it off at the end of the month. So we live off the bank's money and never pay any interest on our credit card.

What's the most extravagant purchase you have made?

A convertible sports car, funded by our investment growth.

Source: The Advertiser, Debra and Kevin Soper.