Here is a post I put on my Property Investor Chat Group page this morning ...
Wow, what an incredible few days we had down in the South Island this week!
Katrina and I went down to Dunedin to do a talk at the Otago Property Investors’ Association on Tuesday night, and then drove down to Invercargill on Wednesday to do a talk at the Southland Property Investors’ Association that evening.
Each evening was totally different with how it all went. Dunedin had about 90 people attend and Invercargill about 40 from their association.
The Dunedin one was more of my story and a lot of the mistakes I’d made over the 25 years. Also a little bit about what we’re up to at the moment with the trading and renovation of properties, and also buying the 20 properties in one year in 2014, which is what my new book is all about. What really impressed me is how so many of the investors there already are what I call financially intelligent. They are mostly very savvy investors with what they are doing and several investors there were what I would call a lot more successful financially than what I will ever be. It was so good to meet many of the investors there, quite a few are in the property group here.
With the Invercargill meeting, I did a short intro on how I got started in property. Shortly after that with the way the questions went, the evening went in various tangents and out of all the seminars I’ve ever presented, was the most enjoyable one for me. People were so willing to listen, learn and really got things very quickly.
We were able to drill down on a lot of various topics with regards to property investing and peoples’ finances. We covered what an ‘investment’ is, what it means and people fully understood it.
I asked first of all ‘who would buy an investment property if they knew it was going to be worth exactly the same as it was now, in 25 years time from now?’ At first most said no they wouldn’t, but a few said yes they would and why. After a short while people got it, really got it like I haven’t ever seen before. I then told them if I knew a property I was buying as a rental was going to be the same value in 25 years time from now, I would still buy it. And even if I knew it was going to be worth 25% less than what I paid for it, I would still buy it!
That’s because if you buy wisely and have the rent cover everything, the tenants pay for it, not you.
I kind of got as well that with so many investors concerned about house prices and what they are doing, or guessing what they think they’re going to do (all a which is a complete waste of time), the majority of people that I know that have lost everything are the ones that focused more on that side of it! And out of the hundreds of people that I know that have gone bankrupt through property investing, most of them have been from Auckland where they all think you should be investing, because they say it has the biggest growth! I then talked about when I owned a Mr Rental franchise and how the fridges and washing machines were all investments to me, as someone else was paying for them, not me. After they’re all paid off, I used to still get rent for them every week. The fridges and washing machines were obviously worth a lot less than when they were purchased, however the rent was still the same as when they were new in most cases. None of the franchisees ever once got together and talked about what they thought the fridges might be worth in 5 or 10 years time, or if they thought they would go up or double in value!
I’ve talked a lot about this in various ways over the last 25 years at seminars (as well as on here and Property Talk) and although several people do get it, most don’t. At the Invercargill meeting, I think everyone there really, really got it. They understood it in a way I hadn’t seen before and will take that with them into the future with their investing.
We also talked about Time and Money and how you can either spend, invest or leverage each of them. An example of leveraging your time is where tenants are paying you rent each week, not you yourself having to go out and earn the money to pay your own mortgages down. Then we talked about how my strategy works (with buy and holds), about using leverage wisely while having good cashflow and also focusing at the same time on reducing debt. When building my portfolio up from 0 to 60 properties where it is now, it was a constant juggle of leveraging, getting good cash flow, while also aiming to reduce debt at the same time. Now, although I could have at least double the amount of properties, my focus is almost solely on the ‘reducing debt’ part of the strategy.
Robert Kiyosaki used to say a lot in his talks that I went along to ‘only go out at the top, never quit when you’re tired’. That relates to a job, business, career etc.
And doing those two seminars, especially the last one in Invercargill, I feel like it was the top for me, the most enjoyable and satisfaction I’ve ever had from doing a talk. So for me, I think it will be my last talk to a Property Investors’ Association.
The comments afterwards were the kindest and the most genuine and therefore most personally satisfying that I’ve ever heard.
It was my first time to both Dunedin and Invercargill and I loved it so much there, it’s an incredibly beautiful part of New Zealand and such lovely, lovely people.
Wow, what an incredible few days we had down in the South Island this week!
Katrina and I went down to Dunedin to do a talk at the Otago Property Investors’ Association on Tuesday night, and then drove down to Invercargill on Wednesday to do a talk at the Southland Property Investors’ Association that evening.
Each evening was totally different with how it all went. Dunedin had about 90 people attend and Invercargill about 40 from their association.
The Dunedin one was more of my story and a lot of the mistakes I’d made over the 25 years. Also a little bit about what we’re up to at the moment with the trading and renovation of properties, and also buying the 20 properties in one year in 2014, which is what my new book is all about. What really impressed me is how so many of the investors there already are what I call financially intelligent. They are mostly very savvy investors with what they are doing and several investors there were what I would call a lot more successful financially than what I will ever be. It was so good to meet many of the investors there, quite a few are in the property group here.
With the Invercargill meeting, I did a short intro on how I got started in property. Shortly after that with the way the questions went, the evening went in various tangents and out of all the seminars I’ve ever presented, was the most enjoyable one for me. People were so willing to listen, learn and really got things very quickly.
We were able to drill down on a lot of various topics with regards to property investing and peoples’ finances. We covered what an ‘investment’ is, what it means and people fully understood it.
I asked first of all ‘who would buy an investment property if they knew it was going to be worth exactly the same as it was now, in 25 years time from now?’ At first most said no they wouldn’t, but a few said yes they would and why. After a short while people got it, really got it like I haven’t ever seen before. I then told them if I knew a property I was buying as a rental was going to be the same value in 25 years time from now, I would still buy it. And even if I knew it was going to be worth 25% less than what I paid for it, I would still buy it!
That’s because if you buy wisely and have the rent cover everything, the tenants pay for it, not you.
I kind of got as well that with so many investors concerned about house prices and what they are doing, or guessing what they think they’re going to do (all a which is a complete waste of time), the majority of people that I know that have lost everything are the ones that focused more on that side of it! And out of the hundreds of people that I know that have gone bankrupt through property investing, most of them have been from Auckland where they all think you should be investing, because they say it has the biggest growth! I then talked about when I owned a Mr Rental franchise and how the fridges and washing machines were all investments to me, as someone else was paying for them, not me. After they’re all paid off, I used to still get rent for them every week. The fridges and washing machines were obviously worth a lot less than when they were purchased, however the rent was still the same as when they were new in most cases. None of the franchisees ever once got together and talked about what they thought the fridges might be worth in 5 or 10 years time, or if they thought they would go up or double in value!
I’ve talked a lot about this in various ways over the last 25 years at seminars (as well as on here and Property Talk) and although several people do get it, most don’t. At the Invercargill meeting, I think everyone there really, really got it. They understood it in a way I hadn’t seen before and will take that with them into the future with their investing.
We also talked about Time and Money and how you can either spend, invest or leverage each of them. An example of leveraging your time is where tenants are paying you rent each week, not you yourself having to go out and earn the money to pay your own mortgages down. Then we talked about how my strategy works (with buy and holds), about using leverage wisely while having good cashflow and also focusing at the same time on reducing debt. When building my portfolio up from 0 to 60 properties where it is now, it was a constant juggle of leveraging, getting good cash flow, while also aiming to reduce debt at the same time. Now, although I could have at least double the amount of properties, my focus is almost solely on the ‘reducing debt’ part of the strategy.
Robert Kiyosaki used to say a lot in his talks that I went along to ‘only go out at the top, never quit when you’re tired’. That relates to a job, business, career etc.
And doing those two seminars, especially the last one in Invercargill, I feel like it was the top for me, the most enjoyable and satisfaction I’ve ever had from doing a talk. So for me, I think it will be my last talk to a Property Investors’ Association.
The comments afterwards were the kindest and the most genuine and therefore most personally satisfying that I’ve ever heard.
It was my first time to both Dunedin and Invercargill and I loved it so much there, it’s an incredibly beautiful part of New Zealand and such lovely, lovely people.