As with most asset portfolios, everything grows from the first successful investment. With residential property portfolios, the trick is to buy one property and use the increase in value of that property to buy your next property. And so it goes on. Let’s consider that you buy an investment property for say, $500,000. In the first year, the probable net return (before interest) on that investment would be approximately $20,000. After paying interest and claiming tax deductions, the net cost of ...