I am almost certain that there will be another outrageous assertion by the individual in question, but please understand that I will not be responding to it any further.
I have never made any "outrageous" assertions, nor will I.
All I have done is share my side of the story.
This will also be my last post to this thread, and I would like to make something very clear …
I was never, ever "abusive" or even in any way rude to you or your staff.
Sorry to hear that family man. I too have had an awful experience at the hands of “Australia’s leading property mentor” and I posted a huge response on this forum about it which seems to have magically disappeared. I can’t state strongly enough that this company should be avoided at all costs.
I am Familyman and put a comprehensive response here on my experience in dealing with integrity property mentors, but it seems to have been taken down. Negative criticism of bad businesses is not a reason to remove. Indeed, scam watch.gov.au even encourages personnel to get the word out in dodgy property investment companies. Removing my post is disappointing but I will say that integrity property mentors should be avoided at all costs.
My experience in using integrity property mentors was very poor and financially very costly. The CEO of the company, who calls himself ‘Australia’s Number 1 property investment strategist’ sat me down and told me how he can structure a real estate portfolio that would see me holidaying in Majorca (his words) because I would be raking in the cash. His strategy (which I subsequently believed) was to buy a negatively geared property in Gladstone and a negatively geared property in Dysart, because the monster rents I’d receive will be beyond belief. The CEO assured me that he had undertaken thorough research of the local markets and there was ‘virtually no risk’ (again, his words). I found out after the fact that he had built in 10s of thousands of dollars in undisclosed commissions from the sale of the Gladstone property through a local builder and the land developer. The end state was that I now have negative equity in both properties and rents come nowhere close to covering costs. My lessons learnt with Integrity Property Investment Services (now calling themselves Integrity Property Investment Mentors) are as follows:
1. Their ‘extensive research’ of the Australian property market is nothing special and offers no guarantees of success. You can get the same speculative forecasts from a property investing magazine.
2. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight I found their real estate tips to be very flawed logic. Statements such as ‘real estate always eventually doubles in value in a property investment cycle’ and ‘to be successful in real estate, buy where its booming, simple’ is not good advice for anyone seeking an honest education in property investment.
3. The CEO and his staff have real estate licences, not a financial qualification, and as such are not legally obliged to ‘act in your best interest’. Hard selling me a high risk portfolio was not in my interest but definitely their’s.
4. Ultimately it was my terrible judgement in listening to Integrity Property Mentors strategy that got me in financial peril. I accept that. This post is to warn any prospective clients to be very aware of the advice they receive from this company.
5. The company discontinued communication with me once they had their commission. I can only assume they were chasing other clients and didn’t have time for me anymore or it was cut and run. Either way, I did not have ready access to my property mentor.
6. As part of their education program, they will offer to set you up with specially selected properties. Be aware that they will have tagged on 10s thousands dollars in undisclosed commissions. They will also offer no guarantee that the property will be a financial success, other than their ‘integrity’.
7. Integrity does not mean honesty or acting in your best interest. If you are convinced of your own moral compass, then by definition you have integrity.
8. Quite a few of their real estate tips are nothing more than motivational finance quotes to designed to motivate you to invest (in their property stock of course).
9. When dealing with me, they connected me with their finance and legal experts to mentor me into the portfolio. Their choice of mortgage broker was tardy and apathetic in sourcing loan applications. When I raised this with the CEO, his exact words were ‘it’s your responsibility to chase up your own finance’. Great mentoring support from a company that ‘mentors’ you to a property portfolio.
10. Give integrity property mentors a wide berth if you don’t want to be given poor service and terrible decisions that are financially costly.
11. The CEO seems to be extremely sensitive to negative criticism of his business and his ideology. This can be construed as ‘defending his integrity’ or as I have observed, defending his business model in an attempt to maintain its legitimacy.
12. It’s ultimately up to an individual whether they attend these ‘seminars’ but be very aware of their reputation and that they are ultimately real estate agents looking to sell you their property stock at an inflated price because ‘they have integrity’.
13. Do your own research and get qualified advice before even listening to this mob. A little effort on your part will save potential financial misery.
Absolutely nailed it there family man. Let’s see how long it takes for Mr Patterson to pull a few strings and have this post removed just like your previous one and mine before that. I almost lost everything due to this idiot and I just hope a few people see this before falling into the same trap that we did.
Thank you Family Man for coming out and sharing your experience. I’d also like to add my experience as well with Daimien Patterson and Integrity Property Investment Mentor (http://www.propertyinvestmentmentor.com.au/).
I wish I never met the man. It’s been a financial disaster. I’m not going to speak to Daimien Patterson’s ‘integrity’ as I don’t want to get sued so I’m going to stick to facts. This should be enough for readers to make an informed decision on if they want to deal with him. Upon meetings with Daimien Patterson, I was talked out of purchasing a property in a major capital city because they produce a negative cash flow and would impact my standard of living. Mining towns are great, according to Daimien Patterson, because they have positive cash flow.
So in 2011, I purchased a 3BR strata titled house and land in a mining town with Integrity Property Investment for $390,000. There were build issues and construction did not complete until 2014. Owners heard a bit from Daimien Patterson in 2012 assuring that:
“Fortunately we did get the location right and you have made significant capital growth which more than compensates for any holding costs on the land. The rent return is also expected to be far higher than initial expectations.” (Email dated 3-Sep-2012).
Soon the communication dwindled and the emails and communication stopped coming.
Today’s value on realestate.com.au is $149,000 for a similar property.
Today’s property rents are $200-$300 per week for a similar property.
It has been, and continues to be, a very costly lesson that I should have never accepted financial ‘advice’ from this sales person.
This reply was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by Kensington T. Reason: Edited URL for image to display correctly
This reply was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by Kensington T.
Hello all.
I just want to respond to the allegations made here in this forum.
There is no denying that any investor who went into central Queensland before the boom ended and stayed has now made a significant loss and many may now be in a difficult situation, but the true villain in this situation has been unforeseen market forces. I too was dramatically affected by it.
I understand how some may seek to blame me or others for for their dilemma, but ultimately we must all accept responsibility for our own investing decisions.
The market in Central Queensland was booming and investors were making significant gains. Many of the major property investment firms were helping people get into that market, and many investors simply just demanded it and weren’t interested in anything else.
But the following key unforeseen events happened and that ruined everything for everyone:
– BHP-Mitisbushi Alliance (BMA) ordered an unprecedented and unforeseeable rental block out where they refused to rent any properties for about 6 months at a time that also coincided with them shutting down operations that were union dominated. This rental block out was devastating to the rental market seeing rents that were in the $1500-2000pw range, drop to below $600pw in many cases. This in turn caused a major panic sale of properties and the prices soon followed as the number of sellers rapidly increased, and the buyers disappeared.
Additionally, the then Labor government introduced the carbon and mining taxes that they made an election promise to Not bring in, which resulted in many mines cutting back on their operations to avoid the new taxes pending a change in government.
To add insult to injury, the US and Canadians also dumped a lot of cheap subsidised coal on the global market which collapsed the coal price, and in turn resulted in further job cuts.
All these events were unfortunately unforeseeable and therefore difficult to ultimately avoid.
The moment the situation changed we did of course immediately cease introducing clients to anything in that area. But many were already committed to projects that were also dragging out due to developer delays. I know of one of Australia’s more well known Property Investment experts who had 20 properties of her own in Moranbah alone.
Of course had we have foreseen any of these events we never would have gone there in the first place, but noone has an all seeing crystal ball and it’s wrong to ever expect guaranteed results from any recommendations you ever get when investing. The bottom line is that we must ultimately all accept responsibility for our own investing decisions.
Whilst it is easier to seek to blame others when things don’t go to plan, noone forced anyone to sign anything. The decisions are ultimately that of the investor themselves. There is no such thing as a risk free investment and the real villain in this scenario has been the unprecedented and unforeseen market events.
This whole issue has been difficult for all involved, but I have remained contactable throughout all of this to all clients who needed any assistance, and I remain so.
As a company we now only introduce clients to Eastern seaboard capital city opportunities.
Regards, Daimien Patterson.
@maddog73 what a post! Sorry to hear that story. I can only agree with your last point:
“13. Do your own research and get qualified advice before even listening to this mob. A little effort on your part will save potential financial misery.”
This is always always good advice, and the point of places like this. Keep learning, one day you will be able to turn that experience into a stepping stone somehow.
South Coast NSW Independent Buyers Agent - Wollongong to Batemans Bay and Regional NSW. DOWNLOAD OUR FREE 14 POINT PROPERTY BUYER'S CHEATSHEET to avoid painful mistakes at precium.com.au