How Sydney dad owns 13 properties despite period of joblessness

Despite losing his job in the pandemic, Mahesh Kumar has a property portfolio worth $4.5 million which he's grown over the last two years. Photo / Supplied

An ordinary Australian family has accrued 13 properties to their name spanning across three different states.

Mahesh Kumar and his wife Uma, 41, have amassed more than a dozen houses in their portfolio, the majority of those over the last three years.

The Kumar family, from western Sydney, managed to do so despite the main breadwinner losing one of their jobs in that period of time and having to sell their car to make up the deposit money.

Mr Kumar credits part of the family's success on his morning jogs, where he listens to investing podcasts and was able to launch his property journey with just $54,000 in his pocket.

"I followed YouTube videos, I jog in the morning and I just listen to podcasts," he told news.com.au.

The family bought their first property in 2015. Photo / Supplied

The dad-of-two says the family now makes more than $5000 a week, which covers their mortgages and then some from the cashflow positive properties.

His 13 properties are worth $4.5 million in total, according to the latest valuations.

Mr Kumar started with the intention of buying a home for the family but now rents while reaping the rewards from his positively geared properties.

He works in IT while his wife is in the community services industry. Between them, they pooled their cash and snapped up a three-bedroom house in 2016 in the Sydney outer west suburb Liverpool.

Mr Kumar at his property in country NSW. Photo / Supplied

The house cost $546,000 and they put forward a 10 per cent deposit as well as lender's mortgage insurance to cover the rest.

For the next three years the family lived there, but Mr Kumar wanted to expand his horizons and jumped back into the property game in 2019.

Between then and now, he has bought a further 12 properties.

In November 2019, the Kumars purchased a house in Southport, Queensland, for $220,000 and the next month, they also snapped up another Queensland property in Kallangur, north of Brisbane, for $160,000.

The Covid-19 pandemic hit several months later and like many people, the Kumar couple took a break from the market, but then they had a lightbulb moment.

The family want to hit 25 investment properties. Photo / Supplied

"When everyone is scared, that is the moment (to buy)," he explained.

He ended up buying four properties in 2020, in regional NSW, Queensland and Western Australia, and their market values have gone up considerably after the boom the following year.

But a year later, the Kumar family hit a roadblock when Mr Kumar lost his job.

The place where Mr Kumar worked was suffering as the Covid-19 pandemic progressed and he was let go from his role in 2021.

"For a year I was having some gap (in my finances) because I lost my job," he said.

Despite that, the couple pressed on with their property purchases. They ended up adding another two houses to their collection.

However, it did become stressful for the cash-strapped couple.

He ended up having to sell the family car to make up the house deposit.

Luckily, after six months of unemployment, he found a new job.

Since then, they've bought new cars, but have sold them twice over as they needed liquid cash quickly for a property transaction about to go through.

So far this year, they've bought four more properties.

In all, the family owns 13 properties in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia.

They don't plan to stop investing until they have 25 properties in their portfolio.

Mr Kumar said he would also like to buy a permanent place of residence, so that he doesn't have to rent and he and his family can have a forever home.