“It often appears that rather than applauding those who are changing things for the better in others lives, they are being mocked for something others don’t understand.”

Yeah, I agree with this.

With the few crumbs of inside info into the MAP program we’ve had here, it seems it’s alive and well! some have already made it, some still will (they have four months left) and some dropped by the wayside.

There will be a book which Steve is writing, coming out about the whole thing, which he obviously won’t be able to finish until the full year has come to an end, which will give more info than even a one-hour special could. I CAN’T WAIT!!!!

I was one of the 20,000 who applied for the today tonight challenge. In a way I’m glad I didn’t get it, because I know it would have taken over my whole year, and I had other committments which are more important to me than property and possibly always will be. Much as I love property as a hobby, a sideline, and a way to store and grow my wealth, I don’t want to do it full-time.

But then again, that is just me making excuses as to why I didn’t get to a million dollars worth of property in the last year? Yes!!

Do I think I could have done it with Steve’s mentoring and motivation, homework,. challenges, deadlines, and the fear of public humiliation if I failed?

Yes!!!

But am I OK with knowing that realistically, I wasn’t prepared to make the sacrifices required??

Yes!

The fact that I have been able to – thereabouts- double my wealth in a year at the same time as getting income equivalent to the price of living for free in Paddington, Sydney just on three measly properties 90 percent of people told me I was crazy to buy makes me think how much I could have increased that further if I’d put the time and energy into growing it faster. Like the mappers did. If i’d for example actively looked for deals where the vendor was prepared to take a second mortgage of 20 percent, allowing me to purchase properties with no money down. If I’d done 5 renovations that year instead of the two I did. If I’d renovated expensive properties that I could only afford to hold as long as I renovated, and then flicked them for profit. If I’d bothered to set up structures. If I’d bothered to team up with people to do deals i couldn’t do on my own. if I’d bothered to look into deals I may have felt scared of, but knew you could do well out of, such as buying a block, strata titling it, and selling of the apartments individually.

it was my choice to go as fast or slow as I wanted. I wasn’t on the MAP, I had nothing to prove to anyone, and I cruised along pretty much as I wanted. but is that how an olympic athlete wins? No, of course not.

what am I trying to say? hmmm…. ok….try this….That ‘ordinary australians’ win the olympic games. but are they ordinary? They might be ordinary as far as their backgound, schooling, hobbies, etc go, but they make an extraordinary effort and sacrifice to get where they are. Some of them make all that effort and don’t ‘win’. but even coming last in an olympic heat means you can probably outswim 99 percent of the population!

i see parallels with this in the MAP. Yes, ‘you’ –yes you reading this – can do it. And ordinary Australians are doing it. but that doesn’t mean ‘ordinary’ as get up, have weetbix, a pie for lunch, watch the news, homework with your kids, sex and the city.

it means all of the above, plus I rang 10 agents in my lunchtime, analysed 10 deals after my kids went to bed, put 10 offers in writing to fax off tomorrow from work in my lunchtime. Stayed up until 3am looking at deals on the net and making notes of who to call tomorrow. Repeat formula! weekends let’s drive 300K and look at 16 properties then drive 300K back so we can make our son’s footie game tomorrow. That kind of thing.

Re the MAP, man, I am glad I was ‘let off the hook’ so to speak. Can’t imagine being one of the people who slogged their guts out doing as many deals as they could, as above, getting ever closer to their goal, only to have the Kay Henry’s of this world tell them it doesn’t count because it’s not being a millionaire, that’s not good enough. Imagining I’m on the MAP and going for it hard, but the world is potentially watching me, I’m accountable to the TT audience – who are (let’s face it) waiting for me to fail, waiting to evaluate me as one of the ones who didn’t make it, when others did. waiting to validate their own failed couch potato lives….

“I feel better that they didn’t make it. I would have been jealous if they’d made it, because i didn’t. Why should they get all the money? I work as hard as anyone! I spend all the money on my kids! I deserve a million more than they do!! If they HAD made it, that would have hurt – because I didn’t! Anyway, if they’d made it, they probably just ripped someone off!! Anyway money isn’t the be all and end all’….. and all the other justifications the ones that might like to but didn’t use.!!!

Imagining how I would feel if I gave my every spare hour to investing, trying to achieve the challenge, getting halfway but not all the way, to realise that people were saying ‘she didn’t get to a million, she only grew her 80K starting capital into 500K in a year, FAILURE!! And hauling me up on TT as proof that Steve was a ‘scammer’. I mean, sheesh!! I couldn’t imagine anything worse. And so I totally and utterly respect those that took up the challenge and all that went with it, to be in the public eye (possibly) whether they succeeded or failed.

But also having met a couple recently, nothing to do with the MAP, though they did credit seminars and ongoing weekly mentoring as their starting education foundation and motivation, who went from owning their own house and having some equity 3.5 years ago, to controlling 8 million of it today, with about 4.5 million of that debt, today.

I know how they did it, and I know how hard they worked. And how much time was of the essence, how much scrambling around they did to close some deals, knowing that a few weeks delay could cost them tens of thousands in capital gain. Yes, it was at the last 3.5 years of the boom, and everyone made money pretty much, but how many made 4 million of equity? And yes, they did work on it very very hard on it. Meaning, full time.

And yes, they did only ever purchase properties with 7.5 percent returns which meant (at that time, and for them) they were always CF+ve.

Anyway, Kay, and the others, we all could have done it. Really and truly.
But some of us didn’t. I can live with that. I’ll still get to owning multi million dollars worth of property one day, but it all depends on how much effort I put into it. And that in turn depends on how much i want it. The word passion comes to mind, and I remember Steve writing about that in the newsletter.

The last thing I want to say is that the other day I remembered some of Steve’s words at the first seminar I ever went to, which was ‘if it’s meant to be it’s up to me!’ i won’t bore you any more with the details of what this meant to me, but suffice it to say it was the key sentence which helped me decide what to do next with this project. The next day I really felt that the whole world had changed and me with it.

I didn’t watch it.
Sounds all very sob story, poor little battlers even better if they’re ‘low status’ i.e. little old lady battlers, crying, makes great television.

Like with all ‘advertised’ investments, a la property investing expo, darling harbour.

‘We take the guess-work out of investing!”

‘sleep well tonight, knowing your money is in safe hands!’

‘financial advisor with 8 years and 60 million dollars experience!’

‘guaranteed returns for 6 years!’

blah blah, designed to appeal to people who don’t have time, inclination, or brains to figure out a good deal from a bad.

target of VO by the sounds of things.

In the end you have a businessman inventing a ‘service’ which he makes money on when he sells it. Not a crime? He can mark it up as far as he wants. If there’s a buyer who wants to pay that.

Like how much is a cup of coffee? And then there’s starbucks. But people will pay it. good marketing, perception, vibe. maybe VO had all of those things.

And you have consenting adults who aren’t being coerced into anything signing up to buy, I don’t get what the big deal is. Yes, someone bought something over-valued. But every time I buy designer ‘anything’ you could say that is true.

These people weren’t probably buying an ‘investment’, they were buying a dream. They didn’t care about numbers I don’t think and couldn’t have told a good investment from their a**hole.

Just as buying a car hire-purchase isn’t that good a deal, people who ‘should’ know better still go for it.

what am I trying to say here? That sob stories make great television. but really, victims, or stupid? Scammer, or smart businessman?
Ethical? What does that mean and what are you allowed to do and be ‘ethical’ and what aren’t you allowed to do?

Is someone who bought rip-off fake Louis Vuitton bags in Bali for $20 bucks each and sells them for $100 in paddo ethical or unethical? What about the person who sold the bali bags? What about the person who copied the design off the original $5000 Louis bag and had them manufactured, ethical or not?

What about the fact that the bag seller in Paddo is not trying to pass them off as ‘real’ Louis Vuitton bags? Does that make him ‘ethical’?

It’s just all a bit of a…..philosophical question. if the solution was to put legislation and training in place so that everyone was educated and protected, there would STILL be people who got hurt. Didn’t bother with their free education.

If prices were set by the government communism style, then humans would find other ways to try and elevate themselves from the guy next door.

I don’t know what the answer is to stop most of the world spending more than they earn and getting in a bigger financial hole every year, apart from what I can do in my own life and helping others get into it.

The free trip Chan and SIS went on did sound fun though.

There is some saying, to the effect that people will only change when they think the pain of changing will be less than the pain of staying in current situation.

facts – you wanted to buy – something stopped you, fear of ????? (being wrong, losing money, etc etc) and now you regret it. They say only a fool repeats the same not-working behaviour over and over, and a wise person learns from it, and adapts the behaviour to work better next time.

History shows your instinct/knowledge was right in picking the suburb. (‘i was right once, I’ll be right again’.)

So for the future.

As far as missing the boat goes, you just missed the last ferry, but there will be another one along soon.

…there is a ‘boat’ every 7-8 years, being a property ‘cycle’. with the half of each cycle being

low or dropping interest rates, buying frenzy, rents down, yields down, rising prices, people buying rather than renting, media/public craze on property

and the other half of the cycle being rising or higher interest rates, buying slump, rents going up, yields up, flattening or lowering prices, people renting not buying, media/public against property.

guess which one we are coming into now?
Yep. the latter.

So basically what you do, the way that is so completely and utterly logical to me, is that during the first half of the next property cycle you buy for cashflow returns – which should be getting better and better in the months coming up.

anything above ten percent yields is probably going to be a pain-free buy and hold, because if you can hold it for half a property cycle – 3.5 to 4 years – in which you’ll get none to moderate capital gain – and by then chances are you’ll have quite a high yield then compared to what you owe on the property, you’ll be able to sail home on another rising property boom, but because you will have bought ‘years ago’ you’ll be sooo winning.

does that make sense?

It’s just all FEAR headlines. i am getting so bored with that, in general

Maybe the reason they earn so much is that they have a lot of +ve CF property rather than just a ‘high paid job’??

Yeah, I just remembered that a year before I actually bought a property I was learning, reading, thinking, looking, but too scared to make a move – too scared to make a mistake. it took a seminar to teach me the final bits and propel me into the market with a good kick up the bum. And off I went and bought three properties in about 6 months and renovated two of them. (I’m still recovering! But now they’re set up.)

yack,

> I cannot believe people buy properties sight unseen and purely based on the
> numbers….

OK, when you say sight unseen, let’s say you have pictures, because you usually do get those when a property is marketed. and let’s say the pictures look OK, but you haven’t actually inspected in person. And you make your phone calls about the area, the street, the rental market, etc etc.

It’s not so much that you BUY sight unseen, – you just make OFFERS sight unseen but SUBJECT TO (typig in capitals as it’s a very important difference!!!) satisfactory inspection or building inspections. It’s just a form of time leverage, especially if you don’t live around the corner from properties you are looking at.

However i would stress that the bird-dog properties for clients we have photographed and inspected them ourselves.

> There is an agent i use that refuses to sell site unseen with some properties.
> He dont want them coming back to him 6 months later demanding a tenant.
>
*grin* woulda thought the agent would be happy to have another chance to sell the property, for commission of course…

Seriously, this is just stupid. I mean I am sure that there are people who would buy sight unseen and not do any due diligence, as there would be people who buy without a builder’s report and think they don’t need one because they ‘had a good look themselves’. I’m neither of those two types!!

Getting a tenant vs. sitting vacant for 6 months is purely demand compared to condition of your house for the price compared to what else is on the market. That’s all. It is possible to check all that stuff out with your BR and phone calls without actually going there.

> I have no qualms about buying a property without actually visiting it first,
> but I think you need an increased level of other types of due diligence.

exactly!!!!

>I’d
> certainly want plenty of pictures

yep

>and the advice of several people with expert
> knowledge (particular that of someone I can trust).

yep!!!

>Assuming you can trust
> them, building inspectors (for example) would have a much more valuable
> opinion of the property than I would anyway

SOOOOO couldn’t agree more!!!

> and, so far, I’ve found them to be
> quite reliable.

Yep!!

> I’m reading the new Margaret Lomas book at the moment and she actually
> recommends to buy a property sight unseen!
> SHe even advices you should not even see photo’s of the property!!
> She says that it is enough to do a lot of research (like Kay mentioned) and go
> from there. This way you won’t get emotionally involved.

i agree with this too

hey tank,

yeah, we’ve just finished a boom in Aus with most places going up humungously. But then another cycle will start. They say a property cycle is 7 or 8 years. So my logic tells me in 4 years time everything will start to go up like mad, again. but in the meantime, you have a few years to look fo bargains.

there might be growth still in the next four years, but it won’t be like the growth we’ve seen. there might also be a little negative growth. Basically I think any time in the next 2-4 years won’t be ‘too late’ if you can comfortable hold your property for the long term, you should be well in time for the next escalator ride up.

Don’t worry, you won’t miss it, the media will announce it with a big fanfare. ‘interest rates are coming down, rents at an all time high, properties now more affordable, 105 percent finance available,’ that kind of thing.

cheers-
mini

vindication for what I have been bleating on about for the last year:

“Provincial centres and rural areas outperformed the major centres.” Reuters News, 17. March 2004, ‘NZ property market picks up in February – REINZ’

It’s not too late, certainly not, however I am of the opinion that there *are* certain areas that are over-valued Now compared to a year ago. I would go as far as to say that it could be said to be true of all the areas mentioned above.

“Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, New Plymouth, Gisborne, Napier/Hastings, Palmerston North, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin.
Smaller cities being: Taupo, Rotorua, Whakatane Wanganui, Invercargill.”

i would call all of these areas capital gain areas rather than cashflow positive areas, apart from one or two which used to be CF areas but prices have moved so the yields aren’t that good any more. maybe now only 10 percent.

and so the CG potential is not there so much, (talking short term only, because I believe NZ is 5 star plus for long term investing – you just can’t go wrong.!!) and neither is the CF. And i reckon you’ve got to have one or the other for a deal to be a good one when you buy it *now*.

I think the ripple effect as described here http://www.positivelygeared.com.au

has kind of already hit the regional towns as listed above, but the ‘rural’ or small towns within 50-100k of the above are where the hot spots of CF+ve still are, plus the CG which will occur as the ripple of the boom spreads.

So I would go as far as to say that today’s CF+ve high yield area is tomorrow’s CG area, simply for the factors outlined on the article on the weblink above – the cheapest house do a catch up, so they still stay cheap *compared to* the market as a whole, but CG occurs – because of the growth the rest of the market has had.

I would also go as far as to say that i believe that houses at the bottom third of the market will have proportionately higher growth than those at the middle and top, because every time growth happens, the ‘market’ looks at the price-range one below where they were previously looking, forcing demand ever downwards. more demand means CGs

cheers-
mini

I have a shell map for driving/touring, and a book with maps of regional towns excluding auckland and wellington, for investing.