As a real estate agent I meet many property investors at open homes, APIA meetings, networking events and social events.
I would love to see more successful property investors, handling portfolios of 5, 10 or more properties.
However, I find it fascinating that investors from same backgrounds and similar skills sets produce vastly different results.
Why?
It’s probably their mindset.
If you want to change yours, join me at the following free event at Takapuna, Auckland on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of September.
http://www.wealthpropulsion.com.au/?af=CLS1110173
The Wealth Propulsion Intensive weekend will overhaul your thinking in relationship to your finances and give you massive propulsion towards the wealth that you’ve always deserved.
It’s about kicking your financial evolution into high gear.
You will have the opportunity to focus totally on your finances and to embrace a new mindset to revolutionize your world financially.
Get ready to open your mind to new possibilities, breakthrough your own glass ceiling and live a wealthy life.
Get your free tickets at http://www.wealthpropulsion.com.au/?af=CLS1110173.
August 15 2010 | Agent advice | No Comments »
Are you sometimes lost with all the information concerning property, not sure which is the best strategy for you, don’t know how or where to start?
Do you ask yourself, “why has the Buy and Hold strategy worked for some and not for others”?
Is fear of failure holding you back from achieving financial freedom?
Well, I invite you to join Kerry Christian, Matthew Gilligan, Lisa Dudson, Craig Parr-Whalley, Keith Mason & Rachel Chamberlain at the upcoming How2 Strategy workshops held in Aucklandand Christchurch, because NOW is the time to get answers to those questions.
How 2 are offering a series of 3 FREE workshops held monthly over the next three months.
This series of workshops is totally unique, with different speakers, strategies and great expertise.
Once you have completed this course, you will know what to do and what action to take to get results.
At these workshops you will:
- Learn How2 get on your path to financial freedom
- Learn How2 earn weekly cashflow for 20-30 hours work every 3 months or so
- Learn How2 to get FREE sections and houses
- Learn about Options, Rent2Buys & Big Backyards
- Learn what time of the Property Cycle to use the most appropriate strategy
- Find out about how to attend events for the next 4 years – FOR FREE
BOOK NOW http://strategyauckariel.eventbrite.com/
Christchurch – Saturday 14th August
Auckland – Saturday 28th August
August Speakers… Auckland and Christchurch
Lisa Dudson – Author, Investor, Speaker and TV3’s Money Man advisor
Lisa has been a successful investor and business person for many years. Lisa is a director of Acumen Inc, a financial consulting company, which specialises in portfolio management. Lisa is the co-founder of the popular website moneyTV.co.nz, which offers free tips and information on personal finance and investing. To get you started, Lisa will help you setup a strong foundation to put you into a position to get that deposit & get started in Property.
Matthew Gilligan
Matthew, from Gilligan Rowe & Associates, will show you what you need to do to monitor your financial performance and the tools you need to help you succeed, especially in this environment.
Rachel Chamberlain
Rachel has a JV partner who supplies the money, Rachel supplies the product and makes a great income. They JV the profits on sales – how would you like to do what Rachel does and find a JV partner? – a win / win.
We have JV partners in the room and you will meet them.
Rachel will show you how JV’s work and also show you How2 to find great trades, renovate these trades for a little as $1000, stage the property and sell it for a massive profit.
Introducing Craig Parr-Whalley
Hear Craig’s story and how applying some of the How2 strategies has improved his portfolio. This will amaze you and give you the confidence so that you can do it too.
And special guest speaker Keith Mason
A surprise speaker who will leave you thinking, inspire you and help you apply the tools you need to achieve your success.
BOOK NOW http://strategyauckariel.eventbrite.com/
Christchurch – Saturday 14th August
Auckland – Saturday 28th August
At the first workshop, we spend the first 4 hours on “Planning” and in the afternoon we take “Action”.
This is a great chance for you to sit with the best advisors in the industry and have time to truly map out your action plan.
The first of these workshops is by far the most important – book now – this truly is the best chance you will have all year.
August Workshop Agenda
1. Creating the foundations of wealth…
2. Power of money beliefs & why they are crucial to financial success
3. Focusing on your “End game” – deciding when you can retire
4. Education and Information on How2 Strategies
5. What strategies work within the property cycle
6. Identify what Strategy will work best for YOU
7. Trading/renovating & homestaging
8. Where to find the good deals for your choosen strategy
9. Hear from investors who have applied the strategies
10. How2 build passive income
11. How2 successfully grow a property business
12. Getting your team together and action plan
BOOK NOW http://strategyauckariel.eventbrite.com/
Christchurch – Saturday 14th August
Auckland- Saturday 28th August
I look forward to meeting you at the Auckland workshop.
August 13 2010 | Events | No Comments »
Investing in rental properties is often the best and safest way to grow your capital, but you need to make sure you do your research and have all your facts before you dive into the challenge of finding the right property to invest in.
Firstly, consider is how long you intend to own the property. If you plan on having the investment property for a long time, you will need to spend more money maintaining and repairing it.
However, this does not mean that long-term ownership is a bad thing, as there are also risks with owning an investment property for a short time. By owning for a longer period, the property is more likely to increase in value. If you are only going to have the investment for a short time, it could easily decrease in value without having the opportunity to regain that value before you sell. For beginner investors, or those that do not wish to invest too much money, long-term ownership may be the way to go.
You also need to make sure that your finances are in order before you can begin to consider the possibility of investing in real estate. You need to do your research and look at different mortgage interest rates from banks and mortgage lending companies, as higher interest rates will cost you and you may not end up making as much on your investment as you originally thought.
So before you make a purchase, obtain a credit report and make sure that it is accurate, then pay off any debts, and then start to apply for a mortgage.
You also want to make sure that you have enough money left over after the purchase to make any necessary repairs to the investment property. Improvements constantly need to be made and unexpected vacancies can sometimes occur. It’s a good idea to always have at least one month’s rent available to cover these costs.
You also want to make sure that you are paying the right price for the property. It’s important to remember that when buying for investment purposes the chances of making back what you put into the property are slim if you pay too much to begin with.
It’s important to make sure that the rental income will cover any costs that you will need to pay. This includes the mortgage for the property, property taxes, insurance, cost of repairs, and possibly utilities. When determining what the profit if any, will be made, it is important to consider that even if you are only going to break even, you will still profit in the end, due to the value of the property increasing.
For relevant checklists check out this post.
Classic Brick and Tile - Investor's favorite
July 27 2010 | Agent advice and Property Investment | No Comments »
Setting rent on an investment property is often a difficult decision, as you want to maximize profits without scaring away potential tenants.
If you don’t do sufficient research, it can really impact you in the long run – both in your vacancy rate and your ability to cover costs and generate a return on your investment. Also, once you have established the amount of rent to charge, it’s wise to regularly re-evaluate the price because of regular changes in the market.
The more experience you have at renting out investment properties, the better idea you will have at maximizing your income without having frequent or unnecessary vacancies.
Typically, there are two main methods used to determine how much rent to charge for your rental property. The first is return on investment, and the second is market analysis.
In order to work out the return on investment of your rental property, you first need to determine the costs of owning and operating it. Things to consider are the cost of servicing your mortgage, property management fees, insurance on the property, maintenance fees, and the amount of profit you want to make from the property on a whole.
Calculating how much to charge for rent based upon return on investment is a great mathematical exercise and puts fences around desired rent levels, but it is also very important to take into consideration what prices are suitable in the current property market.
Typically, the ideal way to determine how much to charge for rent is to combine your return on investment analysis with a market survey of rents charged for comparable properties in your area. Keep in mind that rent can vary significantly from street to street, and you need to take this into consideration and adjusting your rent accordingly.
Evaluating how much rent is being charged for similar rental properties in comparable locations is a great way to gather information before locking in your rent prices. It’s up to you make unbiased adjustments to your rent based upon rival properties in the area. For example, if you’re looking at similar properties, and a competitor property has a more modern décor than yours, this must be taken into consideration.
After you determine which rental properties are comparable, finding out the current market rent is easy. Put yourself in the shoes of a potential tenant and know the surrounding monthly property rents. You can do this by looking through your local paper and making appointments or going to open homes of rental properties in the market that are comparable to yours. This way you can know what is being charged by competing properties for rent in the market, and you can work out a reasonable amount to charge within this range for your property.
July 24 2010 | Agent advice | No Comments »
Simple.
Ask your tenants what they want.
“How can I improve the property to better suit your needs?”
and
“Will you be willing to pay an extra $10/$20/$50 per week if I did?”
You may think you should change the carpet but your tenants may want a carport and will be happy to pay you an extra $50 per week if you build them one.
You may think you should paint the property but our tenants may have lots of stuff and want a storage shed - buy one for $500 and increase the rent by $25 per week.
If you find a solution to your tenants’ (clients) problems they will:
- Love you and look after the property
- Stay longer
- Pay more rent
Just ask.
Keep your tenants smilling
continue reading »
June 22 2010 | Agent advice and Property Investment | 2 Comments »
I see that a survey of 2,459 landlords has found just under half say they plan raising rents as a result of the
Budget. My first response to that is that the over 50% planning to leave them unchanged illustrates quite well
the lack of business nouse amongst average Kiwis. Given what is going to be a worsening imbalance at
current prices between the supply of and demand for rental property, failing to raise rents will not only deny
them easy income, it will prevent the very market response needed to ensure housing supply responds to
the imbalance. In a nutshell one sees why NZ is failing to go back up the OECD ladder. Tony Alexander, BNZ weekly Overview.
Property investment is a business. Its purpose is to make a profit.
When costs rise, yes – no building depreciation is ultimately a cost to property investors, rents should rise too.
Tenants understand that.
So why should you, the investor, subsidise their lifestyle? Shouldn’t they they subsidise yours? After all you are taking all the risk.
“They are great tenants”, ” They’ve been with us for five years” and ” They look after the place” are all great reasons (excuses?).
But the only way to manage a sustainable property investment business and keep a roof above your tenants heads (and your head) is to increase rents.
If you are not sure about whether or not to increase your rent ask yourself “is this a business or a charitable organisation?”
More information at Increasing the rent and How much notice do I need to give to increase the rent?.
Are you giving your money away to your tenants?
(This is part 12 of my 30 day blogging challenge)
May 28 2010 | Agent advice and Property Investment | No Comments »
No.
Now is a great time to invest in property.
Why?
The market is shifting. That shift creates confusion and thus opportunities for the educated investor.
You may ask: How do I start to invest in property in New Zealand?
Stage one is about your big WHY
What is your end result that you want to achieve through property investment?
Is it to retire early, travel the world, or be able to give more time and money to charity?
Stage two is about self education.
Go to the library and pick up books and magazines about the subject, join you local property investment association, network with other investors and read other investors’ blogs.
Read this magazine for free at Auckland Library
Stage three is about strategy and action.
What is your strategy?
Are you going to buy and hold, renovate and sell, rent to buy, build new properties, invest in apartments, units or houses, what area are you going to specialise in?
Now that your strategy is clear and written as a business plan go out there and make some offers – success in yours!
You can accelerate this process by registering to a free four part webinar (live online seminar) from Property Teachers.
Hosted by friend Steve Goodey, a seasoned investor with over 300 renovations under his belt, the webinars will show you exactly how to make it in property — even if you’re a beginner who knows absolutely nothing about it.
Here’s what they’ll be covering…
- How do I get started if I’ve never bought any property
- What do I buy first? A home or an investment property? In our conversation – Steve told me : “This one takes all the worry out of buying property – Even the nervous first-timers relax and clearly see the certainty in property.”
- How can I sue property to escape the “9 to 5 grind”?
I suggest you quickly register for the webinar series at this link as the webinar series start on Monday May 31st https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/853471354.
Please remember to mention my name when you register for the webinars.
I’ll also tune in myself.
How about you – Will you take the step – just to check it out?
I sincerely hope so,
Ariel Levin
(This is part 9 of my 30 day blogging challenge)
May 25 2010 | Agent advice | 2 Comments »
