Which Author, Mentor, Trainer – Strategy

I always had an interest in property but not a lot of confidence and I found that was the most important thing. Stories of the many people who had done it already both here on the forums and in property magazines was really important for that.

I think Steve was influential in turning my mind out of a strong negative gearing approach. On reflection a lot of my fear was probably based on committing to being tied down to a high maintenance mortgage for a very long time. Knowing there were ways to avoid that made a huge difference – it opened my horizons.

Understanding my goals in life (and subsequently understanding where property investing fitted in) helped develop a personal strategy. These weren’t necessarily ‘property people’, more personal development type mentors.

Some personal friends/family were important too in bridging the gap between property strategy and matching to my goals. A highly experienced real estate agent principal/owner and a successful mortgage broker were two of these.

I didn’t tend to focus on speakers/trainers too much except to learn the possibilities eg. renovation, develop, vendor finance etc

I’m currently doing my second property investment.

Andrew

This may sound a little strange however, my mentor was and is my father. Those who know me may be aware that I have a european heritage, which means I like bricks and mortar (literally! I love building too and my old man was a bricklayer by trade).

I started my investment journey at 18 – almost forced but saved an amount by working my butt off from the age of 14 and hiding that cash away. Saved up for a deposit and with a sibling bought a 800 sqm property in Melbournes east. Purchase price was $160k and some years later its now worth $1 million in land however we subdivided and I still own a town house as an IP.

Although I was young, we would buy, hold and develop, with a building background in the family, there was no failure just success. We would turn a property in 18 months and make a signifcant profit. I can’t say at 18 or even 22 that I knew what +ve cash flow meant but I definately knew that borrowing to invest has its benefits and it worked for me. Continually I pushed myself in terms of IP and even a beach house know that in each scenario I would achieve capital growth and if rented a significant yield. Obviously with increased value the yield is lower.

During this time, I never once went to a website or a seminar, I had successful investors around me, they are my mentors and now I have the pleasure of sharing those experiences with my clients many of which are starting their journey. No No, I am just an SMSF guy, but I can share the fundamental principles to assist my clients in wealth creation whether they are 25, 35 or 65 it does not matter, they just need someone to assist them on their property journey. See thats the best part of my job is working with people and partnering with clients to achieve success. I chose property however, I have been in investment management for over 15 years and know investments back to front as well, but love my property portfolio over shares.

Bit of a rant but a different view from someone who had different mentors but I am sure there are many of you with a similar story of ‘family’ and ‘friends’ as mentors.

Hope that helps

Cheers, Ivan

magic32 wrote:

Which author/mentor/trainer/coach/speaker etc strategy did you follow for the main property investing strategy that you are currently using?

Magic, Listen up! This is as good as it gets when it comes to mentoring. Study everything there is to know about property especially cycles, cycles and inter-cycles. There is no such thing as a mentor when it comes to investment. I’ve been investing for nearly 50 years, it’s competitive, one deal one buyer! I’ve been screwed so many times because I asked the wrong person the right question and they’ve ducked off and white-anted me. Learn to love the industry and make it your hobby, and become ‘money conscious,’ set goals and put in the hours and the deals will come. Get a job in the industry even and read the capitalist bible “Think and Grow Rich” Napoleon Hill, the father of wealth mentors.
Two things to remember, most people who claim they will make you money have got an angle – even Napoleon Hill got rich selling books. The second is ask the right questions and often that question should be “if it’s so good why aren’t you buying it yourself.”
And finally, the two best deals I ever bought were tired properties owned by RE Agents, go figure.

Hi,

I read a lot, talk to people in the industry a lot, listen to all the good, bad and ugly about so called “mentor”, “coach”, “expert”. I learnt a lot over the years.

There is no right or wrong way to invest in property.
A lot of time, I found it’s just “common sense”, not the “rocket science”.
Just get on realestate.com find a property within your budget and call the agent, start the conversation then follow up …

Somehow, people forgot about the “common sense”, especially when there are many jargon and terminology used.

I totally agreed what Steve said ” The wealth creation industry is filled with people who talk a good game but have never been on the field.”

There are many people with knowledgeable and willing to share their knowledge on these forum, like Steve and Nigel. Maybe have a chat with them.

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by  TaylorChang.
• This reply was modified 10 years ago by  TaylorChang.
• This reply was modified 10 years ago by  TaylorChang.

Magic, this is a great question.

My first ever self help money book was the millionaire next door. It taught me that people who look rich spend their money doing so much of the time.

Then the richest man in Babylon. Taught me no matter what, simple budgeting and saving something was an easy way to get ahead.

After some time I went to the library, sick of not being rich and borrowed about 40 books over a few months. When I started coming across the same info I knew I had reached a level of saturation.

There were a few themes. Time is a winner. Invest and be patient. The one minute millionaire shows us that we can all save somewhere. But what resonated with me most was using other people’s money.

Opp is like steroids in the financial gym. Suddenly I didn’t need to wait 30 years. I liked it.

Peter spanns broke to multi millionaire got me interested. I had a share in a property I was interested.

Nobody got me as excited as Peter spann. I could relate. His struggles were a bit like my own.

Despite investing I still had debts. Total money makeover was the best book for me on debt.

So, I sold my share, bought a house for myself. It was slow though.

I read steves first three books. I liked it but told myself interest rates made it impossible to do what he did.

Now I’m back, motivated again. I see pos cash properties all the time, in my mind. Not how they appear, with my own ideas added they are at worst neutral.

Steve is right, it’s working it out for yourself where the learning is.

Now when Helen collier kogtevs said stuff I had worked out in my head but more concisely I felt reassured that I had some good ideas.

I find when you read enough there is a saturation point. When you are happy with your plan and there are enough ideas you can use that plan knowing you have knowledge from other sources.

Sometimes gurus seem to be selling you the dream. Like diets make you skinny. I’ve got news for you, they can all work because if you eat less than you expend you generally lose weight. My style is not to eat soup every day, so that’s not the diet for me.

Investing is a bit the same. Choose your style that suits you.

What I don’t like is a lot are too simplified. They want you do buy their stuff to delve. Well, I’ll always buy a book. I’m not buying seminars and courses without reading reviews first.

To his credit Steve goes into good detail. Steve gave up his houses for starting his own educational style. Can you imagine having what he had and say, I’ll do it all again, here my friend take all this hard work? He did.

I am interested in Helen collier kogtevs as her style suits my plans.

There are some YouTube guys that I watch and take bits from. I can’t remember names. They vary so much and are fairly lightly detailed. Webinars and stuff. A lot more basics saturation, but nevertheless I found out New Zealand has no capital gains. That hour was worth learning that one fact.

These forums are very good too. Still learning.

YouTube dude on options blew me away, I researched more and decided to take what I could and see that he was probably not my seven day shake diet either, but maybe one shake a week builds the diet that suits my property gym plan.