Tania Collins is a business manager at an IT company. Her husband Craig is a sales director at a publishing group. For the past decade, Craig has spent three hours a day commuting, an hour and a half each way. This had become so routine that it stopped registering as a problem and started feeling like the terms of their life.
They were not struggling. They were earning well, living well, and moving through their forties with the quiet awareness that none of it was building toward anything in particular.
“We were literally in the rat race, just going around the hamster wheel. We don’t wanna be working forever.”
Dual income investing should have been within reach for a household like theirs. Combined, they had the borrowing capacity and the cashflow that most property investors spend years trying to accumulate. What they did not have was a clear idea of where to start or the time to figure it out between two full-time careers.
“Before Positive Property, we didn’t have a strategy. We probably didn’t understand the best way to do it.”
The Cost of Having No Plan
The barrier for Tania and Craig was not fear of property. It was the friction of trying to pursue it seriously while both running demanding professional lives. Research, due diligence, finance structuring, contract management — each of those tasks requires time and expertise that neither of them had available in the margins of a working week.
“Feeling quite alone in the journey was a big thing before joining Positive Property. Not knowing what we didn’t know, and not believing in ourselves that perhaps we could do what we’d always wanted to do.”
When they found George Markoski’s approach, what convinced them was comprehensiveness of the support structure. The Markoski Method is built around a coordinated professional network covering every stage of acquisition, from property research and finance strategy through to legal, taxation, and ongoing management. For two professionals with no available bandwidth, having that network already assembled was what made moving possible.
“Whatever the steps are, we have literally just followed those. Trust the process and the rest will happen.”
Three Properties While Both Still Working
Tania and Craig have bought three investment properties across South Australia and Queensland within 18 months of joining Positive Property. Neither had completed a structured investment acquisition before, and both of them kept working full time throughout every purchase.
Their story reflects what dual income investing can achieve when borrowing capacity is properly understood from the outset and each location is selected through a research process rather than personal preference or proximity. Properties identified through Positive Property are chosen for population growth, infrastructure investment, and rental demand fundamentals, not because they are familiar or convenient to the buyer.
Their fourth property is also underway, this time through their superannuation structure.
What They Are Building
Tania and Craig talk about their portfolio and what it had made possible from them. The mindset shift, they say, came before the results did.
“It’s changed our entire mindset. There’s belief now that we can actually live the life we want to on our terms.”
The goal is not early retirement in the conventional sense. It is optionality: the point at which Craig’s commute is a choice rather than a requirement, and work is something they do because they want to rather than because the alternative is unaffordable. Tania and Craig are now building something their children will be able to inherit and extend.
“The world is hard out there. It was hard for our parents, it’s harder for us, it’s only going to get harder for our kids. If we can help them to understand how they can live a life on their terms, and they instil that into their kids — that’s pretty cool.”
Three properties into an 18-month window, with a fourth in planning, the exit Craig has been commuting toward for a decade is starting to take shape.
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All figures are based on information provided at the time of Tania and Craig’s interview. Current values may differ. Tania and Craig’s results reflect their specific circumstances, portfolio decisions, and market conditions at the time of each purchase. Individual outcomes will vary.
If you recognise your own situation in Tania and Craig’s story, here are four ways to take the next step:
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Grab George’s Free Book: The roadmap 3,500+ Australians have used to start building wealth through property. Get your free copy
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Watch the Positive Property Show: Live every Thursday with real market data, member wins, and the strategies that drive them. Watch on YouTube
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Join 9,000+ Australian Property Investors: Connect with smart investors sharing tips, wins, and strategies in Australia’s most active property community. Join the group
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Watch the Free Training: The exact strategy Tania and Craig and thousands of other members use to build portfolios of 5 to 10 properties and create money for life. Watch the free training