By Gerald Tay (guest contributor)

I recently came across two investors who made money in property investing in the property boom during the last three years (i.e. from mid-2009 to end 2012), albeit in very different ways. I have taken the liberty to simplify and change some numbers as well as ignore all expenses so that we can compare apples with apples. Also, I used residential properties for this article as it’s very much a familiar arena to most readers.

Calculating your investment returns

There are many different ways to calculate a property investment returns but the Internal Rate of Return (I.R.R) is by far one of the most accurate methods of calculating the cumulative property investment returns over a specific holding period.

Inexperienced property investors and home owners who only look at capital gains as a measure of investment success are always surprised by the difference ...