Just went and saw these people. They were very upfront that they were the marketing arm of a property development group and disclosed where their income comes from. A rather hefty fee (about $10,000) as well as a commission if they sell a property that isn’t from their group. The fee and type of property they offered me didn’t suit so we didn’t go with them. I did find the day useful though and don’t feel that I wasted my time. As a result of speaking to them I’m now more confident as to what I need to do and the type of professionals I need to search out.
There was pressure to sign on the dotted line on the day and they were going to get an “independent” solicitor come in and go over the paper work with us.
The financing of the loan they were offering was not cross collateralised.

Now I’ve made the first step to seriously looking into property investment I’d like to do some more research and combine that with what I learnt from today (I don’t think it was all rubbish but am aware that it may have been tailored to suit their product).

From my understanding of today I think I need to find an accountant who has a good understanding of property investment and a real estate agent that also specialises in investment properties. Any idea how to go about finding good credible ones of these.

I also found this thread full of both useful and rather rude people. I’m not someone that is highly familiar in this field and don’t appreciate un constructive sarcasm and the wink wink nudge nudge attitude of some of the posters. If your comment is going to go down this line please just ignore this post please. If you’re generally interested in helping then please do post.