From Blink-182 to brick and mortar: how a rock musician played his own property encores

From playing guitar live on stage at the 1997 Big Day Out and supporting international rock behemoths Blink-182, Adelaide musician Steven Smith, together with wife Angela, has switched from musical to financial instruments.

Life as an artist unfortunately failed to deliver the monetary gains that came when property investment took centre stage.

Steven grew up in a housing trust area in Ingle Farm, while Angela, whom he met later in life, was from South Australian regional town Renmark near the tri-border with New South Wales and Victoria.

“My career aspiration was to be a musician and playing guitar I got very close to fulfilling this goal in the mid to late 90s, writing songs for, and managing, our band that achieved some solid popularity in Adelaide.

“We played some big gigs and got to the point of getting record label interest but it never quite transpired.

“My main goal at that stage was to be in a touring band and I would have been happy to maybe get a unit in Adelaide paid off.”

But the instruments were packed as another rite of passage was ticked off. After a few months of backpacking around Asia, it was a trip back to see family in remote Nhulunbuy, in East Arnhem Land, that was the seemingly unlikely location for a career and lifestyle epiphany.

Property portfolio from humble beginnings

Steven and Angela currently have six properties in their portfolio.

Their dream home is in Dernancourt near the River Torrens that runs right into Adelaide city.

“This is our dream home, with the house built around a pool with everything we wanted including a music room where I keep all my instruments,” Steven said.

The five investment properties comprise one at Munno Para West – an old National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) home finished in 2011 – and four townhouses in Modbury.

At its peak, the couple’s property portfolio was out to 13 dwellings.

Eighteen properties have been purchased overall, with nine sold and three others knocked down for development purposes.

It’s all long way from working in a video rental store.

“I moved up to NT to work and try and get a deposit on my first home, as any help from parents was never on the cards,” he told API Magazine.

“I was up there for two years and I had three jobs going for quite a while, working for the local IGA Supermarket, the video store and I had my first cover band also that was bringing in some decent cash and delivering fun times.”

With a small nest egg put away, the realisation sunk in that home ownership was finally within reach.

“I had seen a good mate that I lived with and rented from who was of buying multiple properties and I just thought I’d like to do that one day, so I rang around in SA for a mortgage broker and found a great one and he hooked me up with a loan right before I came back to Adelaide.”

That property was a three-bedroom mid-1960s home on a semi main road in Modbury for $127,000 in 2001.

“Looking at it now, it wasn’t the best decision but I needed to get a house ASAP and it worked out ok as I eventually moved out and rented it to a best friend for 12 years and sold it for $305,000 in 2017 with no outlay on any renovations.”

That first purchase may not have been perfect, but it gave Steven a foothold in the market and, before long, property ownership started to snowball.

“At the start I didn’t really have a strategy,” he admitted.

A year after returning to Adelaide, Steven and his then-partner decided to relocate to Kalgoorlie in the Western Australia goldfields after he secured work in the mining industry.

“We bought a house there in 2003, basically online,” he said.

“Luckily we had friends in Kalgoorlie who could look at it for us. It was a new build, suited our needs and wasn’t overly expensive, so we felt comfortable moving ahead.”

Almost overnight, he had become the owner of two properties.

The following years were not without challenges. The relationship ended and Steven went through a separation, although he managed to retain both homes before eventually returning to South Australia.

Back in Adelaide, he moved into the Modbury property with a mate while working as a store manager for an electrical retailer. It was also during this period that he met Angela, who already owned a home in the suburb of Tranmere.

Property remained firmly on Steven’s radar and in 2007 he purchased an older home on a 780sqm corner allotment in Hope Valley for $244,000.

“By that stage I was thinking longer term,” he said.

“I wanted to buy and hold for a few years, then eventually knock down and rebuild.”

After moving into Angela’s home and renting out both investment properties, Steven shifted his focus to building his career, eventually moving into television advertising sales. Property investing took a temporary back seat until the couple married in 2010.

As a slightly older newlywed couple, Steven and Angela spent time considering their future plans before deciding to focus their energy on building wealth through property.

After selling Angela’s Tranmere home, they purchased a new family residence in Paradise and resumed investing.

From buy and hold to development

Sticking with a buy-and-hold approach, they acquired two newly built homes at Munno Para West through the NRAS, taking their portfolio to five properties by 2011.

The next major step came in 2016 when Steven turned his attention back to the Hope Valley site.

Several major builders told him the corner allotment was only suitable for two villa-style dwellings, with construction costs estimated at around $370,000 per home.

Steven wasn’t convinced.

“I thought we could do better than that,” he said.

That search led him to a development consultancy that managed the entire process from design and council approvals through to builder tendering.

“The best move we ever made,” Steven said.

Instead of two villas, the project ultimately delivered four two-storey executive townhouses, with construction costs of about $260,000 per dwelling.

For Steven and Angela, it marked the point where their property journey evolved from straightforward buy-and-hold investing into value-adding development, a strategy that would help shape the growth of their portfolio in the years ahead.

Retirement planning

For Steven and Angela, the ultimate goal was never to build the biggest portfolio possible.

Instead, it was about creating enough wealth and income to gain control of their time.

“Our goal was to retire at 50,” Steven said.

Remarkably, they achieved it.

After moving into their dream home in Dernancourt and spending several months travelling, each discovered retirement was not quite what they had imagined.

“You get bored very quickly,” Steven laughed.

“After having a few months off, both of us ended up getting part-time jobs.”

The difference, he said, was that work had become a choice rather than a necessity.

“We’re no longer in those stressful sales roles where you have to hit targets and budgets every month.”

Today, the couple’s portfolio is structured around long-term wealth preservation rather than aggressive expansion.

Steven plans to sell the final NRAS property at Munno Para West around 2028, while holding the four newer townhouses in Modbury for at least another six to 10 years.

Combined with their superannuation and savings, he believes the strategy will provide the comfortable retirement they set out to achieve all those years ago.

Looking back, Steven said the greatest lesson from his property journey is that wealth creation is rarely the result of one perfect purchase or a single brilliant decision.

“It takes time and patience,” he said.

“We didn’t come from money and there were definitely challenges along the way, but we just kept moving forward.

“If you buy well, hold quality property and stay focused on the long term, amazing things can happen.”

For a former musician who once dreamed of making a living touring with his guitar, property ultimately delivered something even more valuable: the freedom to choose how he spends his time.