We have been writing to investors for some time now, and many have pointed out to us that they are not sure exactly what we do. Each day we are asked by potential investors who respond to our advertising and letters exactly how we can help them with their wealth creation program, so we thought it is about time we explained our role.

Firstly we are real estate agents with a big difference. Our role is to source the best possible investment properties we can find in Victoria, NSW and Queensland. They have to fit our strict investment criteria. In other words you can leave it to us to source good property investments, and wait for us to notify you of any opportunities that present themselves.

We travel a lot and check out many properties. The properties we recommend are cash flow positive. We also insist that our properties sell at or below bank valuation. (It never ceases to amaze us how many people pay too much for their real estate, way above valuation.)

Let’s talk for a minute about cash flow positive property. Put simply that means that the income or rent you receive from a property together with the resultant tax refund should exceed your expenses such as property management fees, rates, body corporate fees, repairs and of course interest on your mortgage. We always assume that purchasers will be able to borrow the full purchase price plus stamp duty, legal fees and loan set-up costs.

Now let’s talk about paying too much for a property. If you are borrowing to purchase a property, the bank or financial institution you use will automatically obtain a valuation of your property. If you are paying cash, we suggest you obtain a completely independent valuation from a valuer of your choice prior to entering into a contract.

How often have you been told by a real estate agent that banks never value a property at the selling price, but always at a lower price to protect themselves. This is blatantly a lie.

We never knowingly recommend a property if it is valued at less than the selling price.

The cash flow positive and valuation criteria rule out 95% of properties, but those that pass our test then have to pass about another ten criteria. For example they must possess a unique location, rents must increase faster than inflation ensuring strong capital gain, and they must be dripping in depreciation allowances.

Once we are satisfied that a property is cash flow positive and not over-priced, we then package-up the property for presentation to you, our investors.

We require developers to obtain valuations from bank valuers, accountant’s opinions, depreciation schedules, body corporate details, income streams, local council statistics, tourism statistics and then we incorporate these figures into a financial spread-sheet and cash flow analysis.

We then alert you, our investors by mail. We highlight details of our proposed recommendation, the reasons why we recommend it, the cash flows, the bottom line, where we think it may sit in five years’ time and generally all information an investor would need to make an informed decision.

We never phone or hassle you.

We leave it entirely up to you whether you want to request further details from us, and if you do we then forward a very detailed investment report of about 30 pages to you. We can also do this by email if you desire. We then again leave it entirely to you whether you want to inspect or buy our recommendation.

Now, why do we recommend property as the retirement investment of choice? Well there are really only four choices, firstly putting your money in the bank and earning interest on funds deposited, secondly superannuation, thirdly shares and managed funds and lastly property.

Most investors report to us that the first alternative is not really an option, and they then tell us that super is not working for them and they have lost substantial sums on their managed funds and share portfolios lately.

As an example, most investors report that they have to pay 15% tax on contributions to their super fund, another 15% because they earn more than $90,000 a year, 15% tax on capital gains and 15% tax on profits made by the super fund, and then as a final insult a further tax of 15% tax when money is withdrawn from the fund. I am not prepared to repeat what they say about the fees charged by their accountants or financial advisors to “administer” the fund for them.

The other problem is that most of us would like to be able to pass on some of our assets to family, grandchildren etc. but with superannuation providing for your old age, there may not be too much left at your demise! A typical superannuant seems to pass on a family home and an old Holden!

As an alternative both our clients and ourselves strongly believe in our stated philosophy of assisting our property investors to retire with about $2 million of unencumbered property by age 60. This should bring in a retirement income of about $100,000 a year geared to increase with inflation. Most investment properties should return a net 5%.

We work diligently with our investors to find the best available properties, help them finance their purchases hopefully at better than bank interest rates, monitor their portfolios, and assist them with their mortgage reduction programs enabling investors to own their properties outright much sooner.

The good news is that if you become one of our clients you do not have to pay for our services; they are totally free as the vendors pay our fees. We think we are offering a very compelling service.

It’s quite simple really, it’s not rocket science as they say, and we now have a huge following of investors accumulating property portfolios. It appears to our investors and us that this is a great alternative to superannuation, which appears to be attracting more and more taxes and fees every year.

And as a bonus as we mentioned previously, you don’t have to decide at what age you are going to die or how many years your super has to last before it runs out and you are left on the pension.

As another money saving service, we can help arrange bank finance for our purchasers at a heavily reduced interest rate. We can assure purchasers that at any time during the length of the loan the prevailing interest rate will be half a percent below the banks’ normal variable interest rate. This finance can also be linked to a 100% mortgage offset facility and split loans enabling you to repay your home loan much faster. This can be set up for you free!………… no need to pay thousands of dollars to outsiders to arrange it for you.

When we recommend a property investment, because of our strict selection criteria, they tend to sell rather quickly. We will be releasing new opportunities in Victoria, NSW and Queensland shortly.

We invite you to contact us on our toll free number 1800 730 100, (please during business hours) to commence our potential long-term relationship. If you would like to discuss your personal situation, please contact us for a confidential chat. If we can’t help you we will certainly tell you, however, please keep an open mind and you just may be surprised. We are not new to this philosophy, having been promoting this simple concept for over 25 years. All our property people are fully licensed for your comfort.

Any one of the above free reports could help you on your way to financial freedom sooner than you thought possible.

Additionally you will receive our free monthly newsletters and property recommendations.

You are welcome to phone us about any property related matters if you need a second opinion. We will also forward to you investment alerts, changes to government policy etc.. We are happy to quote names of accountants, financial planners and finance brokers who endorse our investment philosophies so let’s talk.

Kind regards,

David Bird
Toll free 1800 730 100