A few weeks ago I asked for your help by ranking the importance of 5 statements and a big thank you to those who took the trouble to respond. It was much appreciated, as I want to put together a program to help YOU, by addressing YOUR needs and wants and helping and assisting you to achieve them.

The clear winner in the ranking was ‘Being Healthy,’ which clearly shows that regardless of creating wealth, health is number one and as the saying goes; “Health is Wealth.”

Number 2 was ‘Wealth Creation’ and Number 3 was ‘Retire Comfortably.’

‘Retiring Early’ came in last at No 5.

The puzzle for me however is that although wealth creation is important to most people, it does not get addressed and pursued by the majority of people. Otherwise we would not have so many people on a pension and government handouts. Furthermore the majority of people do retire on a pension, which is by no means retiring comfortably.

Here are some lessons that I have learned about investing through previous property cycles.

The markets will slow down, but they do not go into reverse – they just slip form fifth gear to second gear. We also know that if history repeats itself, some markets will swing too far into the negative, driven by fear.

Do not listen to the ‘Doomsayers,’ they are always out there and usually spruiking their solution. For as long as I have been around investing; and that’s over 40 years now, I remember hearing people with excuses why property prices will stop rising, or even worse, why property values will plummet, however well located properties have doubled in value every 10 years or so.

Fear is a very powerful emotion, and one that the media used to grab our attention.

Sadly some people miss out on the opportunity to develop their own financial independence because they listen to the messages of those who want to deflate the financial dreams of their fellow Australians and profit from them

If you learn from previous cycles the roller-coaster ride will not be as dramatic because you won’t let your emotions drive your investment decisions.

Remember both fear and greed will drive you down the wrong path.

YOU MUST FOLLOW A SYSTEM

Smart investors follow a system to take the emotion out of their decisions and ensure they don’t speculate. This may be boring, but it’s profitable.

Let’s be honest, almost anyone can make money during a property boom because the market covers up most mistakes. But many investors without a system find themselves in financial trouble when the market turns.

Warren Buffet said it succinctly: “You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.”

In other words, if you aren’t following a system that works in all market conditions you will be caught naked when the market changes. If you prefer to have consistent profits and reduced risk, follow a proven system.

Make your investing boring, so the rest of your life can be exciting.

GET RICH QUICK = GET POOR QUICK

Property is a long-term investment yet some investors chase the “fast money.”

You’ve probably met people like that – they look for that deal that will make them fabulously rich.

When you see them a year later, they’re usually no better off financially and still talking about the next deal that will make them rich.

They are often influenced by the latest; get-rich-quick artist, with a great story about how you can join them and become stupendously wealthy. Their stories can be very compelling, even hard to resist. They often pander to the wishes of people who would like to give up their day job to get involved in property full time, but in reality it takes most people many years to accumulate sufficient assets to do this.

Patience is an investment virtue.

Warren Buffet said it right when he explained that: “Wealth is the transfer on money from the impatient to the patient.”

IT’S ABOUT PROPERTY

If you want to create wealth simply and safely you have got to be in the business of property investment. Yet during the last boom many investors forgot the age-old property fundamentals of buying the best property they could afford in proven locations. Instead they got sidetracked by glamorous finance or tax strategies and some lost out.

Smart investors do it differently.

With this said, and after listening to your input, I will be letting you know about some exciting news that I will bring to you shortly. So be on the lookout for it and I will ensure that you will ‘Create Wealth Through Property,’ and let the money work for YOU!

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”The rich buy assets. The poor only have expenses. The middle class buy liabilities they think are assets. The poor and the middle class work for money. The rich have money work for them.” – Robert Kiyosaki (author of Rich Dad Poor Dad)

Cheers,  Bertram

After over forty years in property and real estate it is becoming clearer and clearer to me that buying property wholesale beats paying retail. Don’t get me wrong buying retail is better than not doing it at all, but given what I know now when you purchase wholesale you are way in front straight away.

Now you will ask “How do I do this” and I would simply say buy property in a ‘Collective.’ In other words get a group of people together and buy a property and develop it together.

This is not new or rocket science, but clearly you need to know what to buy and where to buy and there are many experienced people who do this well. The problem is there is also many out there selling education to do this and leaving people with a bit of knowledge and then offering to do it for them and charging exorbitant fees. There are others pushing people to buy property that they have a share in or property spruikers selling overpriced property that is supposedly cheap.

If what I am suggesting strikes a chord with you, I am thinking of doing this with groups of people in a collective and not just in residential, but commercial property as well.

It saddens me that there is so much opportunity for people to create wealth through property, which does not get explored and I see so many people retiring on a pension. This is crazy; there is a better way.

In due course I will be blogging about this further and if you are at all interested please feel free to email me at Bertram@itsabreeze.com.au and I will put you on a list to get first bite at the cherries that I come across.

“Real estate investing, even on a very small scale, remains a tried and true means of building an individual’s cash flow and wealth.” – Robert Kiyosaki (author of Rich Dad Poor Dad).

What I love about this idea is that you do not have to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars, because it is done in a collective where small becomes big.

Cheers, Bertram

After over forty years in the real estate and property world and observing what goes on in the real estate industry, I felt so strongly about this that I wrote a book about it and I am pleased o say that it has resulted in many people following the steps and achieving a top result.

The book is called ‘The 7 Deadly Sins when selling your property’ and of course there are seven very important steps that a seller/vendor needs to take to ensure the best result.

The 7 chapters in the book are:

Introduction
Pricing your property
Preparing the property for sale
Choosing an agent
Method of sale / strategy
Marketing & advertising
The fee for service
Why sell your property

If you follow the advice given you cannot go wrong.

The easier way is to use the services of a Vendor Advocate, as this does not add or increase your costs and in fact will actually reduce the costs.

So who is a Property/Vendor Advocate?

Advocacy in the area of selling property is the guiding, advising and assisting sellers/vendors of property through the process to make it easy and stress free.

In simple terms you select your vendor advocate and he will assist you right through to the end by advising about;

1. How the property is presented for sale and any repairs or sprucing up required and even arrange the tradespeople for you.
2. Advise and arrange to furnish and decorate the property if it is vacant and this is required.
3. Advise and assist with the choosing of which agent (critical).
4. Advise with the choice and costs of the marketing program.
5. Advise regarding the choice of the method of sale.
6. He will be the person liaising with the selected agent and advising you right through and then be involved with the negotiation for the selling price, terms and conditions. To the point where you do not need to stress, because the advocate has done it a thousand times.
7. And the best part is you do not pay any extra for his services, just the normal fee for service to the agent.

If this does not get you thinking about using an advocate, I will be surprised.

Also, if you would like a copy of the book ‘The 7 Deadly Sins when selling your property’ as an eBook or hard copy, please email me to bertram@bertramdaniel.com with your preference and I will get one to you asap.

Till next time

Warm regards, Bertram