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We were cold called ,had the guy over apparently we ticked all the boxes ,offered us flights to Brisbane 2 nights accomodation .We went through the exercise in Brisbane ,I am so glad I have been professionally trained in sales as these guys are really good at making you want to buy . Basically you walk in in the morning and by 2 pm you are actually looking at selected properties just for you so going from nothing to buying a property in one day is unbelievable and I nearly fell for it. What got me suspicious was how did they allocate 3 properties to me on what basis and where were the rest , and on the way back we stopped for lunch and he said he would leave us to make a decision ,alarm bells no deal .I then asked him if there are any other properties closer to Brisbane which there were and on it went .In the end back at the office I was put under immense pressure to make a decision as they thought they already had us closed previously it was very difficult to say no but I just thought to myself you usually take more than a day to buy a car but sign away the equity in your house away in one day I could not do .

I’ve been setting appointments for investment property advisors for around 15 years. I’m not aware of the specific company you are referring to.
Given that you are based in a remote region, you’ll probably have less options of advisors to discuss this with, but none the less the industry is full of sharks that only want a sale.
That said, there certainly are integrity based investment property advisors.
Most people want to use investing in property to pay off their mortgage faster, reduce taxation, and generate passive income approaching retirement – so that is all valid and doable.
But it comes down to a grounded honest and integrity based relationship with a qualified investment property advisor. You can check advisors names against the ASIC register, and ask for other clients to talk to if you are looking at a given advisor’s legitimacy.

I was recommended by a friend to go with this company. I was suckered into buying a new property in Queensland. I should have stuck with Melbourne. The salesperson I dealt with who no longer works there, lied about costs and how the loans would be structured. I just wish I had the figures checked by an independent accountant first and I would have walked away from this. Whatever you do, DO NOT buy into Queensland unless you want to throw your money away. After 8 years I had to sell my property and made a massive loss. I’ve now had to push out my retirement by years just to be free of debt because of this disaster. Queensland is not a good investment as there is a massive over supply of apartments and units, some sitting vacant as investors struggle to find decent tenants and absolutely no return on your investment. Put your money into super instead, I wish I had.

Benny wrote:

Queensland per se is not the problem – the product you were buying was the problem. Sorry to hear of the outcome – but thanks for sharing your story.

I actually think it is not necessarily the product itself that is the problem, but the fact that you are being educated in what you are doing.

I don’t suppose most of those groups are willing to teach you how to do research, how to make sure the numbers stack up, how to perform negotiations, etc…

To share my experience. Sometime early last year, I attended one of those webnairs. The webnair was all good, where the presenter talked about “buy property for below market value, get positive cash flow, and get instant equity”. So OK, that sounded like a strategy I would like to implement. So I went on to look further into this. They patched me up one with of their consultants.

However, during my time with the consultant, I was presented with all those brand new development properties… most of them are in Queensland, and most of they are House and Land Packages, which to me was kind of contradictory to what the webnair’s presenter’s “buy below market value, get positive cash flow, get instant equity”…

But I was willing to give them the benefit of doubt while doing some of my own research. I found 2 things that I really needed clarifications:

1. They are “predicting” growth areas. To me, that sounds like speculation rather than investing.

2. I also found that they are massively building House and Land Packages in areas where population is less than 1000.

So naturally I started asking them questions.

When the consultant I have been in contact with conferenced me into a call with their “acquisition manager”, the acquisition manager said some lines such as that the idea of “buy below market value is a terrible advice”, which directly contradicts to what the person on the webnair is saying….. and that made me raise my eye brows……. what the acquisition manager said next is what really ticked me off… he said “all of the information can be very confusing for beginner investors so they ‘strongly discourage people doing their due diligence and instead have their consultants do the due diligence for them'”…… so my reaction was “hell no”, there is no way I want to work with a group who doesn’t want me to do due diligence myself, that is just absurd.

I never spoke to them again after that day.

Currently I am working with a mentor, looking at New Zealand properties. I did have to pay hefty fee to attend that program (I am sure a few people on this forum knows about it as I talked about it in the past).

Anyway, they don’t sell me any properties, but instead they teach me on how to do my research, how to source properties, how to perform negotiations, how to write up sales and purchase contracts, how to work out if the numbers stack up or not and how to work out renovation, etc… So after I learn those lessons, it is up to me to find my own properties, to maintain contacts with agents, property managers, builders, etc… and my mentor and I keep in touch almost on a daily basis. Basically I would present a deal that I work on and he would provide me with comments on why this is a good/bad deal and if this is a potentially good deal, what he thinks I can do to say add value and increase rent or add value to generate equity.

I know what some of you may be thinking “all those knowledge can be learned for free, so why pay a few K (in my case 28K) to learn those knowledge”? This is because naturally I am not a very good self-learner. A lot of times I may have the knowledge, but when applying those knowledge, I tend to stuff up here and there and I found unless I have someone who is constantly supervising me and providing me with comments, otherwise I am bound to mess up. And this is property investing we are talking about, so one apparently small mistake can end up costing me a fortune. So I’d rather have a mentor who can guide me through the whole process.

Basically my mentor says if I apply the same principle, and I can investigate properties from anywhere in the world, as long as the numbers work out. The most important part is make sure the numbers work.

Also, while they do provide souring agent service, my mentor has never really liked the idea of using sourcing agents. As he would say “you can do everything a sourcing agent can do, so why pay them a sourcing fee when you can learn all of their skills”?

At the moment, I have already worked out my strategy and I have already defined which area I want to invest in, so now I pretty goes on a daily routine like this:

1. look for properties in that area (could be the latest listing or could be listing that hasn’t been sold for months, and months)

2. look for comparable sales in nearby streets and roads (basically within the immediate vicinity) for the past 6 months.

3. find 5-6 comparable for sale, find 5-6 comparable for rent

4. Calculate how much is the purchasing price, how much is renovation cost, add them together.

5. Do the math: Future valuation after renovation – (Purchasing Price + renovation cost) = 20% equity generation or not.

6. Also do the math: (Future rent after renovation * 52) / (Purchasing price + renovation cost) = at least 8% or not.

7. If both 5 and 6 ticks, make offer, try to negotiate a lower price to maximise profit, but it is OK if I pay the asking price as long as the numbers can work out.

8. If one or both doesn’t tick unless the purchasing price need to be reduced, then make an offer based on reduced purchase price. Doesn’t matter if vendor rejects my offer, as I have nothing to do lose anyway. It is vendor’s choice to accept or reject my offer, but it is my own choice to make an offer or not to make an offer. The worst case is a “no” answer from vendor… so what? nothing for me to lose.

The whole routine only takes me like 30 minutes every day… I mean I can definitely spare 30 minutes every day.

Hi Benny,

thanks for the reply. I know of quiet a few people who have bought in Queensland, Not from the same company I did. They all have the same problem, cant get their money back. From the research I have done since, there is too much over development in Queensland and not enough demand, hence the very poor returns on investments. Governments are trying to drive the price of housing down as its a vote winner. As long as this continues in QLD, investors are going to lose out. I haven’t had one favorable reply about QLD investing on any of the websites Ive joined.

Queensland per se is not the problem – the product you were buying was the problem.

Sorry guys, but I am sticking with my original statement (above). It may APPEAR that Qld was the problem, and there are reasons for that. One common “gotcha” is that Qld prices (locally) are way below similar prices in Sydney or Melbourne. Some marketers use that to pump up their selling price to unsuspecting buyers.

Prices here can appear “too good to be true” so the marketers help to overcome that by keeping the price nearer to “what you are used to”, yet still lower than you would expect. Thus, they seem like great prices.

Be careful when buying in ANY area where you are not familiar with the market. A course in due diligence would be advised. Take “Steps” to find such a course ……

;)

Benny

PS Watch out if you are approached with something like this:-
https://www.propertyinvesting.com/topic/4410491-the-big-picture-for-new-readers-especially/page/2/#post-5027703