Just Joined Members Alliance

Hi

I went to a presentation about 5 weeks ago in Brisbane with MA and they called me last week to see what I was doing as  declined to go any further on the day of the meeting and would think about it and get third party advise and I gave them the bad news last week when they followed up i.e. "NO THANKS" !! . I found that what they say at the meeting  is all pure speculation and not guaranteed in any case. what I found more disturbing is they try and scare you into doing it almost in that if you don’t sign on the day the world will fall in and if you do sign then all will be good for the rest of your life – pressure tactics by smart looking sales man ( I didn’t see any official accreditation on their business cards) who pretend to be your best friends looking out for you when all they want is you $$ to I guess benefit you to some degree if it all goes well ?? but who knows but they take a fair swipe of $$ either way and pattern I see is you take all the risk on your current assets/money,  they sell you a property, if it goes bad which they brush aside as unlikely you are left with the debt and they walk away with a nice profit either way… . I should have known when telemarketer called and was saying it is information provided about "Financial advice, tax minimisation" etc etc and the women came out to talk to use, she was vague about the whole thing and ran the same line and we somewhat naively booked a meeting but all it is just investing in a property through them which you can do yourself anyway and cut them out…if you have the inkling and time to research property which is the smart thing to do to…

One other point is you cannot even pick a property and the detail is vague and they brush your question of and say "until you actually commit to it at least with drawing up loans with the banks etc which is very worrying – You don’t know much about it until you are committed ?? I don’t know how anyone could do that who was is right state of mind to be honest !!

All I can say is be extremely wary of these guys and other companies like them when looking at property, do your homework on it, and get third party neutral advise by someone without a vested interest before committing ( especially when they don’t want you to !!) don’t be fooled they will get loads of money from it and I am betting there risk is minimum and yours is great .. It is quite strange on the day that if you don’t commit they start to get subtly aggressive and almost condescending and go on how they have a team of people who have spent days looking at your file and get angry that you don’t agree to sign up because you want to think about investing hundreds of thousands of dollars , putting your home up as equity in it the whole deal and don’t want to rush in it – LOL !!!

We will look at property investing ourselves now as we want to get into it ( hence the meeting with MA) and do our own homework on it and take a measured , thought out approach with neutral advise to this going forward

Hi Mick,

There have been other threads about MA – recommend you do a search of the organisation.

Search facility is located top right corner.

Plenty of reading there.

As a professional in this industry that has had an extensive amount to do with his company, I can advise families to stay away from Members Alliance.

It is very hard to begin with the list of negatives as a novel could be easily produced. most importantly in any financial planning business, or businesses claiming to provide financial advice, is to act in the best interest of a client. This company acts in the best interest of themselves and unfortunately has very good processes around deceiving their potential clients. I am not going to go into detail but potential investors should take note of my following quote as their are quite a number of these companies around Australia and legally not a lot can be done by ASIC to put an end to these large operations.

"No investment worth investing in will ever place you in a position where you have to make timely and uneducated decisions. If a claimed professional is 'selling' an investment as opposed to 'showing the facts and figures' relating to your personal circumstances then pen should never be put to paper. This company is aggressive in its approach and has an incoherent understanding of what is sound financial advice"

Let it be known that a large number of financial professionals are actively working to restore this glorious industry and to ultimately have hundreds of these companies close their doors.

Yours,

A reputable Financial Planner

• Hi is there anyone out there that knows the address of the MA houses built by Image Housing Group in Bathurst as we are interested in what types of people they rent theses houses too. We have been led to believe that the people that rent these houses are subsidised by he government and are grouped together as they are families & same origin people living all together. Does anybody know if this is true as we are getting them in our town soon in the best area of our town & we are very concerned. We know they are already in bathurst so thought somebody there might be able to give us some info. Thanks

Hi,

I have run my own real estate business for 15 years and have done the acquisition for these Investment groups.  I am now retired and out of it.

My advice is to talk to an independent Financial Planner and pay for an hour of their time, there are plenty of reputable Planners out there doing the right thing by the their Clients.

These big groups use Telemarketing and gain an appointment by any means.  The Companies are only interested in selling you property especially through SMSF.  So you will notice the type of questions asked: 1 What is your income; 2 How much super do you have; 3 Let's have a look at your debt currently.  If you are not earing over $100,000 combined and have around $150,000 in super they are not really interested.  The advise stops there.  If they cannot sell you a property then they are really not interested, doesn't matter how well they 'flower' it up.

They are primarily interested in selling a property to you because that's where they make their money.  I will tell you how, as I have purchased land for them and also organised Builders, I know their profits.

They look at purchasing land from Developers either on a 'Call Option' (Queensland), Builder's Terms or better than Builder's terms.  As they are trying to sell you a turn key property for under $400,000 then they are looking for land under $150,000 retail.  They will negotiate at around $15,000 to $20,000 discount on bulk lots.  By the time they settle the lots often in a rising market the price has already gone up.  Remember Developers are always interested in locking in numbers as this helps them to secure funding from the Banks.

They then organise with a builder to build a turnkey home for a price often $30,000 to $40,000 below retail build cost.  This is done in bulk with the builder offering a small range of house designs with mirror reverse designs included.  Remember these homes are built to 'turnkey finish' which usually includes cheap tiles on floor, fans to bed rooms, air conditioner in open plan area, fencing, driveways, turf, often electric garage doors and letterbox.  They need to make a profit so they sometimes cut corners to do so.  I would prefer to give any profit to the Builder before anyone else.

So their total margin can range from $40,000 upwards.  The reason more of these investment groups do house and land packaging is due to laws that are changing to stop large profits being made by these groups.  Remember all commissions, marketing fees etc have to be disclosed on the contract.  They have got around this by having a separate contract with the builder that does not have to be disclosed.

Is a picture starting to emerge.  They get you in the office, often flying you in, so you feel obligated, dine you, often accommodate you for the night and try the hard sell at the end.  Remember you have a 10 day cooling off period.

These people are after one thing and that is getting you into an investment property to make their money.

If you are concerned about the area they are offering, then do your own homework and ring the local agents and find out for yourself what the houses are selling for, how fast, what is the growth of the area, how far away are employment opportunities also what is the rental vacancy rate in the area (under 3% is acceptable) and what changes are foreseen.  The local agents know what is happening, especially the experienced ones.

Don't get me wrong, I am not against investment properties but there are better ways without lining the pockets of these investment groups.  My children are into investment properties themselves and I direct them away from these groups.  There are distinct advantages, tax wise with a new property but an hour with an independent advisor and then an accountant will cost you a lot less in the long term.  Let them explain negative and positive gearing without a hidden agenda.  Property has proven to be a good wealth building tool but do you homework.  These people who announce they have been investing for five years and have five properties and are now millionaires, BS, they probably owe as much as they own initially.  Property wealth is build on long term investment letting the tenant pay for your investment.  Statistics have shown 7-10 years houses double in price, ask your parents what they paid for their home and see what it's worth now.

Do your homework !  There are investor clubs around who band together and buy in bulk and you keep the savings.  The price difference could be the difference between negative gearing and positive gearing.  Good luck and I hope this helps.

Hi All, I have just had my introduction presentation with MA on the weekend and as a single woman at 46 I am a bit nervous and would like to hear from someone who has gone down this journey with MA and how it went?

In particular I would like to know if it was true that no money was required up front and it is a bit of a ‘set and forget’ kind of deal.

Thanks
Fiona

Stay clear we made the mistake and it has been the worse decision of my life. House is currently in build and has been for 17 months…

Just stay clear of them

After my experience with Members Alliance (now also going by the name Iridium Holdings) I would also recommend to stay well away.

Three and a half years after settlement we still have an unfinished house. The building finally reached lockup early 2015 after 2 ½ years before the builder, Image Building Group, had their licence cancelled by the QBCC. Members Alliance then offered another builder, Silverback Constructions, to complete the house but they to had their licence cancelled by the QBCC before undertaking any work. Interestingly enough, both building companies were subsidiaries of Members Alliance with the Directors being the usual players, Domingo, Macvicar etc.

We have now started the costly & time consuming process of terminating contracts and lodging a claim with the QBCC in an effort to get the house completed. Once we have sorted through that we will be lodging a claim for our not inconsiderable damages through the Courts.

Lesson learned the hard way.

Cross posting from the other Members Alliance thread but I am hearing that the Members Alliance/Iridium Capital house of cards has finally collapsed with ASIC issuing insolvency notices.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by  Romper.