Buying an investment property gets all the attention. Knowing when to let one go is the harder skill and it's the one Megan and Jeremy Craig have just put to work.
Nine years ago, the couple were forklift drivers living in Jeremy's parents' garage, broke by the end of most weeks. This year, they sold three of their twelve rental homes and used the proceeds to clear the mortgage on their own place.
The rule they stuck to
They didn't sell on a hunch. Working with strategy firm Infinity Group, the Craigs bought into growth corridors like Ipswich and Toowoomba and set themselves a simple discipline: hold until the property has effectively doubled — through rental income and resale price combined — then reassess.
It took patience. One property, Jeremy recalls, had cows grazing in the back paddock when they bought it. They assumed it would be their dud. It became their best performer. A dual-income home in Redbank, purchased for $499,900 in 2019, sold in 2026 for $949,000.
Infinity CEO Graeme Holm says the trigger point is usually the same: sell when the profit is enough to meaningfully wipe out the debt on your own home. From there, investors can either sit debt-free or redeploy into the next purchase.
The wider picture
The Craigs are part of a bigger shift. FoundIt data shows Queensland shed 12,929 rental bedrooms between 2024 and 2026, with landlords exiting faster than new ones arrive, 993 leaving in May against just 661 replacing them.
The Craigs, for their part, aren't leaving. They've simply traded debt for breathing room and kept the other nine.