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Preface

• When investing, only ever buy houses for other people to live in.
• When you strip away all the emotion, the only decision worth considering is how much more your investment will make, compared to how long it will take to earn it and how much risk there is that you will lose some of your capital.
• The key point is not to get emotional about the property you purchase.
• As long as people need to live in houses, you’ll buy problems and sell solutions.
• Success comes from doing things differently.

Chapter 1: Humble Beginnings

• While your past doesn’t determine your future, if you want something other than what you’ve got at the moment, you’re going to need to make some changes.
• Your history isn’t as important as your future, and your future is what you make of it.

Chapter 2: Making a start

• The first step to becoming a more successful investor is gaining clarity on what you are looking for from your investments.
• You only have two choices: cash flow or capital appreciation.
• All I had to do was find positive cash flow properties and I was well on my way to becoming financially free.
• Often the best way to discover information about an area is to ask a local.
• There’s simply no substitute for taking action.
• The more specific you can be with what you’re looking for, the more chance you have of finding it.
• If you don’t know an area like a local, don’t invest there.
• Failing to try means you’re trying to fail.
• I’m willing to bet that the main reason you can’t find great property deals is because you’re too busy not looking for them. Your financial future is worth a hundred times more than the inconvenience of looking like a fool or trying something new.
• You’ll only ever do your first deal once. From then, as your experience broadens, you’ll become more and more confident in dealing with agents, inspecting property and making offers. It’s nowhere near as scary the second time around.
• A good place to start is to create a profile of your ideal property.
• Time is your most valuable asset, so look for ways to leverage it wherever possible.
• Find an area where you’d like to invest and then take the time to visit. There is no substitute for getting to know an area personally. And remember, if you want to be treated like a local, look like a local.

Chapter 3: Ramping it Up

• Networking with other real estate investors is one of the best and cheapest ways to learn.
• The best way to make money in real estate is to buy problems and sells solutions.
• Luck is something that happens when the right opportunity and the right time collide.
• Opportunity always exists for those seeking it, but the nature of it changes with the mood of the market.
• Your goal should be to make money, not save tax.
• To own multi-property portfolio you will need to use an investing system that is profitable, scalable and sustainable.
• If you are planning on using real estate to become financially free you’ll need to transition through three phases: The saver, quick cash and cash flow.
• Being financially free won’t in itself make you happier, however it will empower you with the time and money to able to pursue the activities and causes you are most passionate about.
• Money assumes the character of the person using it.
• Don’t be afraid of money. You’re asked to be a good steward of your resources, and to multiply what you’ve been given. Just be careful not to become a money lover or forget that money is a tool, not an idol.

Chapter 5: The Truth About Creating Wealth

• Avoid properties that suck your cashflow.
• Buy properties that make money from day one.
• It’s your responsibility, not the government’s to secure a comfortable lifestyle for yourself in retirement.
• The more important questions is how much of what you earn are you able to keep.
• It doesn’t matter how much you earn, just how much you keep.
• We have a love affair with spending money.
• What is debt? When someone lends you money, what are they lending against? It’s not the asset (such as the plasma TV or investment property), it’s the salary that you have not yet earned.
• By borrowing money you are reaching into the future, grabbing hold of cash you have not yet earned, bringing it forward to today, and spending it.
• The more dollars you spend that you haven’t yet earned, the longer you must work to repay the debt.
• The secret to sustained wealth creation is to simply spend less then you earn, and invest what’s left over.
• If all you did was spend less than you earn, you’d have no choice but to accumulate wealth.
• The fairytale soon becomes a nightmare once you realize that you’ve traded your freedom from trinkets and now have to work.
• Until you master the habit of spending less than you earn you will continue to be the weak link in your investing.
• Remember that you take home less than your gross salary, because what you receive is eroded by tax and superannuation.
• Learn to equate the joy of spending with the effort of earning.
• It takes less effort to spend than it does to earn.
• The rat race is a trap for people who spend first and then have to work to pay for yesterday’s extravagances with tomorrow’s earnings.
• In every case of financial hardship that I’ve ever seen, the problem has not been earning too little but spending too much.
• For things to change, first things must change. You must be willing to give something up to create room for a new opportunity.
• You will always be a slave to money until you discover how to become its master.
• The secret to sustained wealth creation is to always spend less that you earn.
• A dollar saved is a dollar earned.

Chapter 6: The truth about property investing

• To make money: Capital gains made as property values rise over time. Lump-sum cash profits from quick-turn real estate, created by adding more in perceived value than actual cost. Recurring positive cash flow returns – where you receive more money in cash receipts from the property than you pay in cash towards the investment
• Treating a tenant like a potential menace rather than a vales client impedes the development of a good tenant-landlord relationship.
• The only way you can continue to afford additional properties is by accessing the equity you earn from capital gains.
• Since capital gains generally take a number of years to accrue, expanding your property portfolio can take a long time, which is more evidence to account for the fact that 92 per cent of investors only own one or two properties.
• Each negatively geared property you buy means you have less cash in your pocket to pay for lifestyle expenses. Wealth creation is about expanding your empire, not watching it diminish in ever-decreasing circles.
• Repaying debt. A great way to increase your cashflow is to reduce your debt, since less debt means lower interest payments, and lower interest payments means more cash in your pocket.
• Reducing the amount of money you owe also mitigates your credit risk.
• No-one went broke because they owed too little.
• The attitude I adopt is that my tenants fund my financial independence.
• The best way to get the outcome you desire is to provide an incentive.
• Achieving financial independence is no fluke. It starts by determining the amount of passive income you need and then acquiring assets that will bring you closer to your goal.
• The two most popular classes of assets for capital growth are:
• Shares: One of the most attractive features of shares is that it’s possible to make money in a stock market that is trending up (going long) or trending down (going short). The stock market is my preferred methods for earning capital gains.
• Property: Property can also be used to earn capital growth, provided the prevailing market conditions are right. In fact, if you were absolutely convinced that negative gearing was a strategy you wanted to pursue, then you could use this third of your positive cashflow to fund the cashflow shortfall rather than having to rely on your salary.
• The three ways to make money in real estate are: Your property can appreciate in value; and /or You can make lump-sum cash gains by adding more in perceived value than actual cost; and /or You can earn recurring positive cashflow returns, provided your actual cashflow received is higher than your cashflow paid out.
• Anyone who suggest it’s a good idea to lose money is a fool.
• If owning real estate builds wealth then it makes sense that you would want to own as much of it as possible.
• The reason why so many investors own so few properties is simply that they cannot afford to own more.
• When someone tells you it’s a good idea to buy real estate that lose money, don’t listen.

Chapter 7: The truth about negative gearing

• 90 per cent of properties for sale at any given time will be negatively geared.
• Many of the free seminars and courses are simply for selling overpriced property to unsuspecting buyers.
• A simple truth that negative gearing can’t hide from is that it is a strategy created to make a certain loss today and maybe a profit tomorrow (via future capital appreciation.)
• Real estate investors are also allowed to claim a tax deduction for expenses incurred in earning their real estate incomes. Common deductions include interest, rental management costs, insurance, council rates, utilities, minor repairs and depreciation
• Capital gains are a form of investing profit that occurs when your property appreciates in value, or, to put it more simply, when as asset is worth more than the cost of acquiring and holding it. Capital appreciation is by far the most popular reason why investors buy real estate.
• When home values increase faster than incomes, fewer and fewer people can afford the loan repayments and cannot enter the property market.
• Investing for growth is about timing the market not time in the market.
• Inflation represents the erosion of the buying power of money as a result of increasing prices.
• The impact of inflation is that dollar today buys less than a dollar yesterday.
• The way the capital gains discount works means those who hold their properties for the long term and disadvantaged compared to those who hold for shorter time frames.
• Negative gearing is a strategy designed to lose money, and in order to fund that loss you will need to continue working.
• When comparing the purchase price and the rental return, most properties sold in Australia are negatively geared.
• Even though you are able to use the loss made from negative geared to reduce the amount of tax you would otherwise pay on your employment income, you will only receive back a maximum of 46.5 cent in every dollar lost. The remaining 53.5 must be paid from your own pocket, and this means less money to live.
• The trigger for a growth phase in property price is when incomes improve and/or access to credit becomes easier.
• Inflation erodes the buying power of your money. The longer you hold your property portfolio, the higher the proportion of any gain made that is gobbled up by inflation.

Chapter 8: The truth about financing

• Leverage means being able to do more with less.
• LVR means loan-to-valuation ratio, and is used to express the amount of money you can borrow relative to the property’s independent valuation which is almost always the purchase price.
• Just because a financier will lend you a flattering amount of money doesn’t mean you should accept it.
• The names of the sustainable property investing game is to borrow in such a way that you’ll be able to continually go back and ask for more money without the lender to perceiving you as an increased credit risk.
• The secret to getting financiers to say ‘yes’ to your application is to take away all the reasons for them to say ‘no.’
• Begin by talking to a mortgage broker rather than directly with a financier.
• No matter what your circumstances, there is sure to be a lender who can service your needs.
• Lenders are primarily concerned with two things: What is your ability to repay the debt? What security are you offering as protection should you default on the repayments?
• A lender will seek to establish the maximum amount of debt you can afford to take on given your current income by applying a formula called a debt to income ratio (also known as a serviceability check.)
• As a general guide, lenders will be reluctant to lend where the repayments would exceed one-third of the borrower’s gross income.
• Clients who have a reliable employment history will be looked upon favorably.
• The property is the security for the loan. What financiers are really lending against is your future salary or income-earning ability as this is what will allow you to repay the loan.
• mycreditfile.com.au
• It’s a good idea to review copy of your credit file to make sure there aren’t any incorrect entries.
• Mortgage insurance insures the lender, not you.
• If you default on the loan, the insurer pays the lender, but the insurer will then seek to recover this money from you.
• Being maxed out means that you can’t borrow any more money.
• Getting a lender to say ‘yes’ is a matter of taking away all their reasons for saying ‘no.’
• It’s possible your credit record contains inaccurate information. Make sure you get a copy and dispute any inaccuracies.

Chapter 9: The truth about structuring

• Your aim should be to control your wealth rather than own it.
• An asset is something that holds future value, and a home certainly does that.
• A lifestyle asset is something of value that you own for your enjoyment, or because it serves a non-financial function. Examples include your home, cars, clothes, furniture and jewellery. A financial asset is something that you own with a view to making money. Examples include shares, property and managed funds.
• The moiré emotion there is in your investment decisions, the harder it will be for you to buy, hold or sell at the right time.
• Lifestyle and financial assets should be owned in different structures.
• There is no distinction between ownership and control of assets that are held in your own name.
• Aim to have one partner own the lifestyle assets and the other control the financial assets.
• Borrowing capacity: The amount of money you can borrow is limited to how much debt you can service based on the income shown on your payslip or tax system.
• Tax on trust distribution is paid by the beneficiary not the trustee.
• Keeping lifestyle assets out of the name of the person doing the investing ensures that high-worth lifestyle assets (such as the home) cannot be at risk if the guarantee is ever invoked.
• A guarantee to repay a debt is not the same as having the debt in your own name.
• To get the most leverage from your borrowing ability you will need to: Only borrow a maximum of 80 percent, because then you shouldn’t have any issues with mortgage insurance. Have a high income but low or no personal debt in your own name.
• Be careful not to confuse lifestyle assets (which you own to enjoy) with financial assets (which you own to make money). Financial assets should be bought, held or sold based on the facts, not emotion, as you try to make the most money, in the quickest time and with the least risk.
• Buying property as an individual is cheap and easy, but the downside is that you have limited borrowing capacity and poor asset protection.

Chapter 10: The truth about depreciation

• Expensing the entire cost of a major capital item in the year it is acquired will overstate the expense and understate the profit.
• A piece of real estate is made up of two components: the land: and the building(s) on the land.

Chapter 11: The truth about selling

• The right time to sell is when you can earn a better return elsewhere.
• Under Australian tax law a capital gain is only taxed when you sell the asset. You can borrow against the equity without any tax consequences.
• To cease to move forwards is to go backwards.
• The faster your returns compound, the more wealth you’ll create.
• A profit hasn’t been made until it has been converted into cash.
• If you have large amounts of untapped equity then it’s highly likely that you have lazy money. In other words, you have the potential to be earning much better returns. If you could be earning more money from your investments, why aren’t you?
• Maximizing your returns, not saving tax, should always be the motive driving your investment decisions.
• It’s not smart to use borrowed equity to fund your financial freedom. The better options are positive cashflow and gains that have been converted into cash.

Chapter 12: Buy and Hold (rentals)

• A residential rental is a home to a person.
• A commercial rental is a home to a business.
• How you can make a profit. The two ways you can make money from rental properties are: Capital appreciation (capital gains), positive cashflow returns.
• Smart investors don’t just sit around and wait for capital appreciation. Instead they manufacture their own capital gains by buying problems and selling solutions. Examples include:
• Buying vacant land and subdiving it and/or building on it.
• Buying run-down properties and renovating them.
• Buying vacant properties and renting the out.
• Buying blocks of units and selling them individually.
• The secret to manufacturing capital gains is to always add more in perceived value than actual cost.
• Paying down debt. Reducing debt will decrease the interest and increase your cashflow.
• As asset is something that, when used, generates income.
• When it comes to property, the asset definition changes depending on the profit outcome you’re trying to achieve.

The focus of a capital gains investor:

• Desired outcome: make money via capital gains.
• Achieved when: The property appreciates in value.
• Strategy for capital appreciation: Property investing.
• Primary asset: Land.
• Secondary asset: Building.
• Ancillary item: Tenant.

The focus of a positive cashflow investor:

• Desired outcome: Financial independence.
• Achieved when: Passive income is higher than living costs.
• Strategy for capital appreciation: Property investing.
• Primary asset: Tenant.
• Secondary asset: Building.
• Ancillary item: Land.
• You must choose whether you want capital gains or positive cashflow returns, since your decision will determine which of the three components is given the majority of your time.
• Investors must choose which is more important – capital gains or positive cashflow returns – and then focus on properties that deliver the required outcomes.
• Properties are inanimate objects without bank accounts. Tenants – who are living, breathing humans – are the ones with the chequebooks.
• Landlording is a people business.
• Being active rather than passive in your approach to investing.

Chapter 13: Vendor’s finance sales

• The amount that the purchaser can reasonably afford determines how much extra you can charge as a margin.
• Focus on people and let the profits take care of themselves.
• Play by the rules: The three rules of vendor’s finance sales that you should never break are:
• Keep repayments affordable – never place your client on the edge of a financial cliff.
• Always give full disclosure – to both your client and to your financier.
• Always comply with the law – and to do this you must know what the laws are, so do your homework.
• In a vendor’s finance sale you become like a bank where you make the majority of your profit from interest while the purchaser takes on the risks and rewards of ownership.
• Provided the purchaser meets strict qualifying criteria, vendor’s finance offers a relatively high return for the risk involved.

Chapter 14: Lease Options

• Under vendor’s finance sale there is a contract signed for the purchase of a property, whereas under a lease option there’s only the right, rather than an obligation, to buy.
• Successful lease optioning is not so much dependent on the property but the person who will become your client.
• The key to sustainable investing is to only venture into deals where there’s a chance for everyone to win.
• A lease option is a strategy that combines a residential lease with an option for the tenant to buy the property at an agreed price, on or before an agreed date, as negotiated at the beginning of the deal.
• The rent charged is usually set at a market premium, perhaps up to 20 per cent higher. However, a portion of the rent is then credited against the option price provided the client goes ahead and purchases the property.

Chapter 15: Simultaneous Settlements

Flipping Houses:

• Step 1: With time on your side, you can search for diamond in the rough deals – properties you can acquire at a significant discount because the vendor has an urgent need to sell.
• Step 2: Buy it.
• Step 3: Sell it to someone before having to close on the deal.
• Step 4: Set up simultaneous buy and sell settlement dates, so after solicitors swap a lot of paper, you receive a lump-sum cash profit and the person buying from you obtains the property title in their name.
• Like most creative investments, the time you allocate to sourcing opportunities will have a direct impact on your success.
• If you have lots of time it may only take one or two lucrative deals each year to potentially replace your normal salary.
• If you can’t flip the property before settlement date then you’ll have to buy it.
• There are two significant issues that will impact on the profitability of a simultaneous settlement: They are stamp duty and capital gains tax.
• A simultaneous settlement sale (or flip) is a strategy designed to earn quick cash profits rather than ongoing positive cashflow.
• Simultaneous settlement is a strategy that’s difficult to use successfully in a market that has rapidly booming prices where vendors are asking for quick (30-day) settlement periods.
• Any profit you earn is likely to be heavily eroded by stamp duty.
• Unless you can negotiate an extra long settlement, you will pay tax on your entire profit. The 50 percent capital gains tax discount will usually not apply because in most cases you will not have owned the property for longer than 12 months.

Chapter 16: Subdivisions

• If you want to be able to spot great deals then you need to know what prices represents exceptional value. You can do this by keeping a close eye on sale and auction results.
• If the sales price is ‘plus GST’ you will probably want to purchase in an entity that is registered for GST so that you can claim it back.
• Sometimes the highest profit alternative is not the best, particularly if it longer and has more risk.
• You make a profit from subdisions by selling, off the slices for more than you paid for the entire pie.

Chapter 17: Renovations

• When renovating properties the key to success is to add more in perceived value than actual cost.
• You should stick to what you are good at.
• It is a lot smarter to be realistic and conservative rather than optimistic and gung-ho.
• You have to be in the game to profit.
• You’ll make money from renos provided you add more in perceived value than actual cost.
• There’s a problem though: you’ll probably have limited amounts of time and money. So, rather than trying to do everything, you’ll need to prioritize based on what’s going to give you the biggest profit bring for your reno buck.
• When you renovate a property you are telling a story about how great it would be to live in the dwelling. A good story has three elements.
• Once upon a time (how the property looks from the outside)
• The man plot (the interior)
• Happily ever after (a feel-good experience about a happy life living in the property.
• You certainly don’t need to make your property look like a palace. Neat and tidy is enough, with perhaps a landscaping feature.
• Ideas to add more perceived value than actual cost.
• Get rid of clutter. Tidy the gardens. Plant annuals in the garden that are in flower (it add color). Add a nice letterbox (including number). Install a good front door and doorbell. Add proch lights. Remove stains from concrete. Have no cars parked in driveway.
• Things to avoid because they add more cost than perceived value.
• Re-roofing, gutting (unless it is awful). Major landscaping. Garden lighting (most inspections are done during the day). Security doors that make the property look like Fort Knox and Awnings.
• Real estate agents tell me that men buy houses and women by homes.
• Areas that add more perceived value than actual cost: kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms, bedrooms.
• Areas to avoid because they add more cost than perceived value: sheds, studies, laundries, carports and garages.
• It will be more cost effective to keep the structure or framework in place and renovate around it.
• The look and smell of new carpet is appealing, to many buyers and speaks of a fresh start.
• If you can, avoid spending money on areas you can’t see, hear, touch or smell as they will add more cost then perceived value. This includes: wiring, plumbing, stumping, roofing, standard items that people will not pay extra for, such as the oven, dishwasher, hot water service, toilet and fences.
• De-clutter and de-personalize. Try to view each room through the eyes of someone walking through your house, and make it as ‘person neutral’ as possible.
• Squeaky clean. A clean house appears fresh and ready to live in, while dirt and grime places doubt in the minds of potential buyers.
• Themes and matching. Your house tells a story, and you want the story to have a theme and make sense.
• Choosing and placing the right furniture in the right place can make a room more inviting and spacious.
• Your reno project will succeed or fail based on the accuracy of your financial assumptions.
• Their rule is that the sales price of the renovated property must be at least 135 per cent of the purchase price. That is: Purchase price times 135% = Sale price.
• 135% is the sum of:

Purchase price 100%

Closing costs 5%

Reno costs 10%

Holding costs 4%

Selling costs 4%

Profit 12%

• In harder economic times, buyers prefer affordability over comfort.
• Buy Dean and Elise’s step-by-step “Complete Renovation System’
• You can’t get a full-time outcome from a part-time effort.
• The more accurate you are with your assumption about your reno costs and end sales price, the more accurate your profit estimate will be.

Chapter 18: Developing

• Your aim is to make the most profit, in the quickest time, for the least risk.
• The four financial variables in a property development are: purchase price, holding cost, construction costs and sales price.
• Homes that are well presented are more appealing and sell for bigger prices, Suggestion fgor enhancing presentation include: Attractive street appeal, tasteful landscaping, room layout and floor plan design, interior design, including color scheme plus lighting.
• What fees and commissions are charged.
• How many similar properties has the agent sold in the last six months.

Chapter 19: Planning for success

• While you could be classed as a theoretical guru, unless you can translate what you know into an investing profit, you’ll be forever destined to trade your time in exchange for money by working in a job.
• All the knowledge in the world is useless unless you have a practical context in which to apply it.
• Impressive results can be achieved when you: think big, set a goal, break it down into mini steps, take immediate and massive action.
• Yesterday is gone forever, let’s focus our attention on tomorrow.
• The lessons you must learn take time and must be experienced rather than taught.
• Your success is dependent on developing realistic goal, turning it into achievable milestones, and maintain the necessary focus for as long as it takes for you to achieve success.
• Uncertainly and lack of focus are the downfall of many investors.
• The best way I know is to invest in residential property to make lump-sum cash gains, and then once you have acquired enough capital, switch over to commercial property for the rental return.
• Financial independence does not arise by fluke or by chance. It is earned.
• For most investors the plateau effect is preceded by one of the following events: the lack of a long-term investment plan. Cashflow shortfalls given that you have existing property investments that are negatively geared. Unlimited imagination, but very limited finance. An inability to locate deals. Negative experience with current investments. Fatigue or boredom with the idea of property investing when once it was exciting and exhilarating.
• Everyone experience a property investing plateau sooner or later – no one is immune.
• You can always help yourself by taking action.
• Your only certainty is that by doing nothing, nothing with happen.
• Before you ever invest in a property, you must find decide why it is that you want to make money. Once you have a reason for investing, you can start to target investments that will help you achieve your goals.
• Investing without an outcome in mind will create two results: You’ll follow the path of maximum resistance, eventually you’ll plateau out.
• Only once you know where you are now and where you want to go can you plot the quickest path to get there.
• Achieving financial independence is by no means easy, but it’s also no fluke. By breaking down your financial goals into the amount of debt-free commercial property you need to own, it will become more than a dream.

Chapter 20: The Asset Zoo

• First decide your intended financial outcome, and use your choice to guide you as to what property and what strategy is best.
• Employment income is slow and steady and requires a lot of hours to earn.
• The return from interest is low and there are no opportunities for capital gains.
• My preferred wealth-creation model for financial freedom is.
• Step 1: Use your savings to purchase quick-cash property deals.
• Step 2: Add more value than cost, then sell.
• Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2 to build your investing kitty.
• Step 4: Purchase debt-free commercial property to gain reliable income and growth.
• Without any debt, the income return will be high, and because investing in commercial real estate is largely automated, the passive efficiency is high too.
• It will be easier to buy a new asset than to wait for an investment to change its character.
• Diversification means not having all your investing eggs in the one basket.
• Success comes from planning and doing things differently.
• It’s unwise o have all your money invested in one asset, because if it fails you can lose any profit and some of the money you invested.
• If you can’t afford insurance then you shouldn’t be investing.

Chapter 21: Finding the money to begin investing

• Your savings, your equity, the money raised from public or private financiers.
• Your savings. It doesn’t matter how much you earn, what’s important is how much you keep, earn more and spend less.
• I guess this summarizes the difference between the hype that sells property and the reality that investors must come to grips with at the coal face or trying to make money.
• Interest on mortgage redraws is not deductible where the loan funds are spent on lifestyle expenses.
• The two critical pieces of information a bank will try to ascertain are:
• How much money do you want to borrow as a percentage of the value of the property?
• What is your ability to repay?
• If you’re seeking finance then I suggest you use the services of a mortgage broker to help you shop for the right loan for your circumstances.
• Just bear in mind the potential lack of independence here by keeping abreast of the interest rates and fees associated with the loan.
• Just because you don’t have the funds to invest doesn’t mean you can’t make a start. There’s always a way to solve a problem.
• You’re likely to have a spending rather than an earning problem.
• If you want to borrow more than 85 per cent you will need to offer up additional security.
• The amount of money you need to get started depends on the value of the real estate you intend to acquire and the property investing strategy you plan to implement.

Chapter 22: Where, what and how to buy

• If you want to maximize your return then it’s much smarter to focus on the tenant and/or next purchaser who will be using and buying the property, rather than its location.
• Think about doing a letterbox drop mentioning that they’re private investors interested in purchasing property.
• It is better to have a lower grade house in a better grade suburb than a better grade house in a lower grade suburb.
• The bigger the grading gap, the better the potential for adding more value than cost.
• Crunch the numbers: Before making an offer you will need to make sure you’ve done your numbers to gain clarity about:
• The source and amount of cash and finance needed to acquire the deal.
• How much cash you are going to receive back?
• How much time it is going to take to get your cash back?
• How much risk there is that you will lose money?
• A written offer is always better than a verbal offer.
• Provided you do it the right way and have a get-out clause then you have little to be afraid of.
• A get-out clause is a special condition you add to the contract that, if not met to your satisfaction, allows you to walk away.
• Examples of get-out clauses include subject to finance, subject to building inspection and subject to legal review.
• Only purchase property in an area that you know like a local. Otherwise you risk paying too much for something more astute investors won’t touch.

Chapter 23: Real People Real Deals

• Supply what the market wants, not what you think it needs.
• Budget based on working backwards from your likely end sales price, deducting all other costs and your potential profit to calculate the maximum price you can pay for the property.
• The lesson is to assure nothing and make sure you manage everything and everyone.
• The four questions to ask:
• How much will it cost?
• How much will I make?
• How long will it take to make it?
• What could go wrong (what’s the worst-case scenario) and can I live with the consequences?
• Don’t make investment decisions based on hearsay. Do some proper and thorough research.
• If a strategy is working for you, stick to it (Why fix something that isn’t broken?)
• Don’t let emotion (in my case desperation) dictate your investment decisions.
• Don’t compromise on your investment strategy or criteria.
• Talk to others who are already investing in order to understand what works and what doesn’t. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s better to risk looking silly than risk losing money.
• Join a networking group to become more educated. Education provides knowledge, and increased knowledge will help you make better investing decisions.
• Jump on the internet to read and participate in online investing forums.
• Join a mentoring program which offers one-on-one mentoring.
• Don’t lose sight of what you are trying to achieve. How many houses you own isn’t very important, rather the critical question is, how does owning those properties advance your pursuit of financial freedom?
• Good home staging is critical to create a wow factor for potential purchasers, which is why you see furniture and other props in the photos.
• Checklists are so important.

Chapter 29: What’s your next move?

• The enemy of a great life is a good life.
• Good is not great.
• People who are financially comfortable are doing okay, but they often live with unfulfilled dreams which can turn into regrets.
• Niceness numbs the motivation to dig deeper and be great.
• Vision: Vision refers to your ability to see or perceive a life that’s different and better than what you have now.
• Nothing happens without vision.
• Vision relates to creating a plan to improve the lives of yourself.
• Intelligence: Intelligence refers to your ability to know how to achieve your vision.
• Purpose: Having vision (the ability to see) and intelligence (the ability to know) is not enough. You also need the ability to do, and this speaks to your life’s purpose.
• Having a strong purpose is the glue that holds your financial dreams together.
• If you want something different then reset your sights and aim higher.
• The only way to transform do into done is to take action.
• I knew that in order for things to change, first things had to change.
• For what the mind can realistically see, the body can achieve.
• propertyinvesting.com
• Everything you choose to do – or not do – has a consequence. For example, where you are today emotionally, physically and financially is not a fluke. It didn’t just happen. It’s the consequence of years of operating below your peak performance! If you won’t accept this for a moment longer then make a stand and do something about it.
• For in the absence of change, things will always stay the same. No-one ever became financially independent by staying in his or her comfort zone.
• Money can always be replaced, but time can’t.

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