It’s not a lie, I just changed my position Your Honour

We started from scratch after we were first married with me on a pittance as a junior journo, and a wife who fell pregnant after just three months having to quit her nursing job (no parental leave back then).

Anyway we have experienced the lot, from a dodgy solicitor, to dodgy real estate agents, dodgy builders, dodgy buyers, termite infestations, land subsidence causing damage not covered by insurance - you name it, we've seen it and dealt with it.

But somehow through good luck and minor miracles and maybe the old mantra of position, position, position, we've always come out on top, paid our share of capital gains where appropriate on investment properties purchased after 1985 and with no reliance on negative gearing.

We sold our last investment property before we moved to the beautiful Sunshine Coast more than a decade ago and, based on our experiences, I think property investors deserve a medal, not a kick in the backside, as it can all go downhill in a flash.

Our first home was a dilapidated one-bedroom fibro beach shack on a big block at Bargara, which we renovated, added a bedroom and then subdivided the allotment before selling. We planned to build our dream home in Rum City so we bought an allotment there, but rather than renting while waiting on a builder, we bought another home and sold that after making a few improvements.

We then moved in with my in-laws who lived nearby and I saved part of the contract cost by working as the on-site painter with early morning starts before ducking back for a feed and a shower before heading off for the night shift as a reporter with the Bundaberg News-Mail. Whew! Paint brush and sander replaced by notebook and typewriter.

Some years later we sold the house (which my wife had designed) and moved away when I obtained my first promotion as a regional newspaper editor. But even after the buyers had moved in, weeks dragged by without any settlement cash reaching our account.

Frequent calls to the solicitor who handled the sale were met with "Sorry, he's out of the office, I will get him to return your call.." He never did.

Finally I jumped in our car, drove a few hundred km and knocked on the door of our former home one Friday evening.

A mid-level public servant and a decent bloke, he was surprised to see me and was even more surprised when I asked why we hadn't received his settlement for the house.

"We paid that before we moved in! Don't worry I'll go and see the solicitor on Monday and get it sorted).

The money arrived in our account early the next week and the solicitor made some half-hearted excuse for the "oversight" while the cash obviously had sat undisturbed in his interest bearing account, but we were a bit older and wiser after that.