Hi all
This is my first ever experience at any form of chat/forum so please excuse any blunders.
I am a Real Estate agent in Penrith NSW.
With 15 years experience I thought I knew it all. What I know realise is that there is a whole world of opportunity for those who are prepared to learn and listen.
I have been doing a lot of reading on investment and plan to share my knowledge with others. I notice in the forum that there is not much respect for information recieved at seminars as the people holding them usually have an agenda.
Obviously I have an agenda as well – to sell heaps of houses. What I now realise though is that if I educated right minded people to better understand investment tecniques then I would be sharing my knowledge, making more sales and learning more thru our mutual growth.
What format would work at these information nights?
What subjects do people want to know more about?
Do people plan for retirement or quick fix ?
What professionals are vital to be a sucessful investor?
Who do you see as the Guru’s ( no pun intended ) in investment advice and why?
How complicated do most people want their investment strategy to be?
Don’t hold back!
Thanks DarrenFirst things first Darren – are you going to be providing advice and are you licenced too?
The biggest hurdle you will face would be credibility. As you probably know, as a group, RE agents aren’t held in the highest esteem, and most people would run a mile before looking for investment advice from one.
Are you a successful investor or is it theory? Anyone can learn theory but few actually put it into practice. If you are not an independently successful investor with a high net worth it makes it a hard sell to convince people to take your advice when you haven’t done it yourself.
I’d work on the basics of getting people to fill out a ‘budget sheet’, give them some info etc on trends in there area and then evaluate thier budgets to see where they stand, as everyone is different and has different goals etc..
Get guest speakers, insurance brokers etc etc and they can offer your clients a group deal for being members.
The only thing i say is try not to be ‘one-sided’, everyone has different goals, skill levels, income and paths.. [specool]
offer stuff outside of your area, if it’s all you, you, you..you’ll lose people, no-one likes a hidden agenda, be upfront
REDWING
“Money is a currency, like electricity and it requires momentum to make it Effective”
Count The Currency With This Online Positive Cashflow CalculatorRedwing is right about guest speakers. If it’s just you, they’ll know the only purpose of the night is for you to flog property. If you have other people along, then it becomes an ‘information night’. If people are getting value, they will be more inclined to listen to a sales pitch.
We’ve been invited along to quite a few of these nights. Often there will be someone there talking about landlord insurance. There may be a lender/broker. A good idea is to get a local accountant along to talk about structuring purchases etc.
ScottAnubis – Redwing – Depreciator
Thanks very much for your comments.
Firstly, I am a licensed Real Estate agent so the only advice I would give is my experience of property and the investment strategies that I learnt thru my own efforts and thru watching others.
I agree wholeheartedly that you can’t take advice on anything from someone who hasn’t been sucessful themselves.
I own 6 investment properties and have shares in various syndicates for dev sites as well as an option on another site which I have just lodged a d.a for.
As to credibility that is something that you can only earn. My cred as an investor is undeniable, my cred as an agent is built on the strenth of my client base. Unfortunately for our industry there are always cowboys who look for a quick $. This is my career.
Your advice re guest speakers is spot on. We thought about bringing in accountants/financial planners etc. The problem is them bringing their agenda. I want to teach people how to minimise their tax thru investment, how to build a portfolio thru inv, how to set up their finance, how to research the right property and how to deal with the consultants that are required to dev property. These are all things that I have personal experience with.
I am not a genius. I make mistakes.
The trick is to learn from your mistakes and the mistakes that others make to ensure that after each deal you are better prepared for the next.
Loved the comment about everybody being different. Its easy to forget that not everyone thinks the same way. I’ll remember to try and offer advice that is balanced and informative.
Should guest speakers be from a particular profession or local identities such as sucessful business people/developers/builders.
Reading Jan Somers gave me a lot of ideas – what are your thoughts on her?
Which inv guru’s do you believe in and why?
Whos the best speaker you’ve seen? (and worst)
Do you prefer statistics to back up a point or talk?
You three can be my honarary advisers.
Hopefully I can return the favour.
Let me know when you’re next looking at a property and I will email a demographic summary to show you what I can do.
Thanks heaps
DarrenHi Darren
Which inv guru’s do you believe in and why?
None really – I have read a few books by gurus but none of their strategies fit to mine. I liked Craig Turnbulls books, Steve McKnight’s was a good read but not the path I wanted to go dowm. Jenman’s books are handy for the uninitiated but a bit preachy.Do you prefer statistics to back up a point or talk?
I’m an analyst so I love stats
))What professionals are vital to be a sucessful investor?
A good solicitor, a good accountant, and maybe a good architect.Any guests should be recognisable to your audience – local businesses etc
Good luck with it all.
prdnationwide,
The seminar thing will also depend on who you’re targeting. Some of what you’ve said in your posts are what other investors take for granted. But new people might find that info informative. If you’re looking t people who are already investing, they need to be able to know that you know more than hey do- otherwise, why would they attend? If, for example, you did a seminar on whyt RE is a good investment… well, we know that, but it would, again, be interesting info for those who are not yet investing, to hear.
How much will you charge?
I would be interested to attend a seminar where the info wasn’t being covered by others, the media, or in books. For example, if I want to know about sydney demographics (Bernard Salt provides all this info), I can find out about it on google news or a range of other sources. What can you provide that gives insights into other areas? What’s your specialist knowledge/nich area?
I would be happy to go to a seminar that spoke about a particular area… for example, if you ran a seminar on why the inner western suburbs of sydney will outperform other suburbs over the next ten years (as an example) then I’d be happy to hear that info- because it’s novel, and it isn’t already being said around the traps.
If people do seminars and tell us how much money they made in the past decade- and that’s why it’s good to invest in the next two.. well, unless people are taking into account current conditions, would find that awaste of time. Anyone who invested in the past made money- but now we are looking forward to the future. What do you have to say about the future of property? Some stuff we can’t find out from Residex or the other sources.
And if you are gonna do seminars, keep your info current. All that data about “only 5% of investors own 2 properties or more” and “90% of Australians retire in poverty on the pension”… [hmm] that data is really old, and does not reflect the current position of the population. Up-to-date info, and info that is not easily accessible off the net, is what I’d be looking for.
As for me, I wouldn’t care if you had 400 properties, or one or none. If I listen to someone, I care not about what they have, but about what they have to say. also, a seminar presenter can lie about how much property they have- they can say, “I made $4 million last year from property.” Well, maybe they did and maybe they didn’t… but it’s what they have to say in their presentation that gives them credibility, from where I’m sitting.
kay henry
You guys (and girls ) are a wealth of info.
I would not charge anything for my seminars.
Their purpose is to educate a group of investors in the hope that they would rely on me to source their inv properties.
My commisions would be paid for by the vendors at the same fee I charge for residential sales.
A large part of my client base pays way to much income tax. Up till now they have had to rely on their accountants and financial planners for their bad advice.
I think my main target market would be inexperienced investors – where else do you learn this stuff.
My father has been in r/e for 30 odd years and even his understanding of inv is limited to the traditional tecniques.
I must disagree on the sucess of the presenter. How can someone preach a method of improving their wealth if they haven’t done anything themselves? If your ideas are good back them up with action.
I’ll ponder Kay Henry’s comments re offering something different. Your spot on when you said that most of the info is outdated and overused.
Have a great weekend
DarrenYou said:
“We thought about bringing in accountants/financial planners etc. The problem is them bringing their agenda.”
Agreed, but they would also bring their clients. There’s no point having a seminar with great content if nobody comes. Advertising is expensive. You’ll no doubt promote the seminar through your data base. An accountant would promote it through theirs. A broker would promote it through theirs etc. The key is to find people who have data bases that they communicate with regularly.
Kay makes a good point about you finding a niche. Otherwise it’s just a general investment seminar and there are plenty of them. Penrith is your territory. Penrith people will be attending the seminar. Presumably you want to flog Penrith property. That area is huge and there would be lots of interesting local opportunities apart from just buying a house and renting it out. I was out south west of Eastern Creek the other day and I couldn’t believe the space. (Plenty of room for an airport.)
When it comes to presenters presenting their credentials, I rarely believe it. Just because someone says they have 6 properties doesn’t mean they do. And who knows what the audience will think of 6 properties. Isn’t there some book around that mentions 130 properties?
You’re right content means everything.
It sounds like a lot of people in this forum spend a lot of time learning.
How many seminars do you do before you feel confident to invest?
Is it an ongoing learning process?
There is a lot of talk about doing your homework. Who do people rely on to complete their research?
Thanks again
Darren
))
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