Inspire & Inform Show – Episode 10

In episode 10 of the Inspire & Inform Show Andrew & Colin will be sharing the top 13 lessons that they have learnt over the course of their property investment journey so far. This is the perfect chance for those starting out in their investment journey to learn from their experiences and avoid some of the mistakes they made.

Please see below for the full transcript of this video

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Transcript:

Andrew 0:09
Good evening everyone. My name is Andrew Koleda from Inspire Realty. Very glad to be here tonight What a crazy week we’ve had with the covid outbreak in Victoria. As a country, it’s putting us in a little bit of a state of flux. And as part of the team here at Inspire, we’re very much committed to continuing to bring you these broadcasts and spread a little bit of positivity into the world. Tonight, for the beginning, I’ll be by myself my esteemed colleague, Colin Lee is running a little bit behind. Obviously out seeing some clients. And yeah, I guess I wanted to share with you all tonight I guess last night I was actually signing a some mortgage documents for another investment property that I have due for settlement in a couple of weeks time. And one of the comments that was made by the mortgage broker was, you know, I guess we’re very much ready to to sign the documents and he was saying to me, it gets easier over time. And this morning, I was out, walking my dog and I was just reflecting on my property investment journey thus far, and more so I was reflecting around, I guess, the mindset that I have developed over time as I’ve started to, I guess, get some battle scars and made some mistakes along the journey. And I was just really reminded of how much I’ve grown and how much I’ve learned along my investment journey so far, and the learning as a, I guess, a property strategist and advisor, as well as a property investor myself never really stops.

Andrew 2:10
And I wanted to share with you all tonight, I guess 13 lessons that I’ve learned across my journey, which I feel, have really, I guess developed me as a person and as an investor and as an advisor at Inspire Realty. And hopefully for those of you that are listening, you get some lessons and maybe gain something and hopefully, grow as a person and become a better property investor yourself. So these, these are some of the lessons that I’ve learned along my journey. And once Colin joins us in a few minutes time, I’d be really glad to get his input and some of his thoughts on some of the things that I want to share with you tonight. And I hope it gives you some value. And just before we dive in, there’s amazingly for me, there’s no spreadsheets to share with you tonight.

Andrew 3:09
But obviously anything that we share with you on a forum like this is for educational purposes only. It is impossible for us to give advice on a Facebook or a YouTube live because we don’t know anything about your personal situation. So if there’s something that you’d like to discuss or want to share with us or like an opinion from, please feel free to comment on the post that you’re watching whether it be on Facebook, YouTube, jump on our website, www.inspirerealty.com reach out to us we’re very happy to have a chat. Get to know you a little bit better and genuinely add value in any way that we can when it comes to anything to do with property, wealth, money management or anything that you’re considering or doing at this time.

Andrew 4:04
So, onto the first lesson. I guess this is a very personal one. But the future is very a long way away. It’s very difficult for us. I guess in this day and age, I mean, you often hear about people talking about millennials and they have this need for instant gratification. It’s very hard for us to lift our eyes and, and and look into the future and start to consider something like property investment, which might be a 10, 15, 20 plus year journey, in order for us to, I guess, bear the fruits of reap the rewards of all of our efforts. And because it’s such a long term thing, whether financial freedom, wealth creation, it’s very easy to procrastinate. And say put things off until tomorrow. Think about that tomorrow, I’ve got more pressing things in my family life in my professional life or whatever it may be. It’s very easy for us to put things off to until tomorrow. And like most things when it comes to investment, the earlier you start, the easier it is. And the reason why I wanted to share this with you is that I was very guilty of this. So my parents tried to instill the knowledge within me around what property had done for them and how it had changed their lives at nearly age. And I was given that opportunity. And I just couldn’t really join the dots at the time as when I was younger, and I got distracted with whatever was going on in my life, and I found it really, really challenging. On a side note, I guess nowadays doing what I do for a living being a property investment strategist a mentor a buyer’s agent. Maybe I’m a little bit guilty of going the other way. But unfortunately, like most things in life, if you don’t start and begin with that bigger picture in mind, you’re never going to get there. So it’s almost like a catch 22. So we’ll share a few more insights around that side of things because that was very much a challenge for me to actually get started because it just seemed like 5,10 15, 20 years seemed like an Eternity, Eternity away from me.

Andrew 6:41
Being a good mentee, is hard. You know, you often hear you need to surround yourself with successful people. You are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with. But one of the interesting things as Colin will be joining us in just a moment.

Andrew 7:00
Here we go. Let me just add Colin in. Hello, Collin. How are you?

Colin 7:04
Good Andrew, how are you?

Andrew 7:06
Good, good.

Colin 7:09
Better late than never!

Andrew 7:13
We were just talking about how it sometimes might be a bit of a challenge being a good mentee. You know, you you’re often told that you should surround yourself with successful people. But sometimes, I guess in from from my particular circumstances, I as you know, and some of you listeners might know, I have a very analytical mind. It’s very easy, I think, to take something in a piece of advice that someone’s giving to you and rip it apart and and point out where it might be wrong and it’s easy to break it down. But I found it personally very challenging to almost humble myself. To be a good mentee or to take advice on from someone that that I respected, and I really reflect back to my first property investment purchase, I, I set out and I said, Well, look, it’s, I need to find someone that’s going to help me I sought out a buyer’s agent. But I actually genuinely had to give myself a pep talk before I went in there and say, Hey, you don’t try and pick apart everything that they are saying to you. There’s a reason that you’re going to this person for their advice. There’s a reason why you willing to part with your hard earned money for their advice. Yes, you need to be critical. And you need to be aware because ultimately, the responsibility is yours, but it’s very hard, I personally found it very hard to humble myself and say, Okay, I’m just going to follow. Have you ever had that experience?

Colin 8:51
I have Andrew And may I just say, you know, I’ve adopted the belief over the years that there is always something to learn from from another person, no matter how much you think, you know, I still feel like there’s always something that I can learn if you keep an open mind. It’s funny because on my way here, I actually met with one of my clients. And it’s someone I had mentored for many, many years. And, you know, after many years, he decided to invest in a property it’s actually his own place of residence. And he bought really, really well he actually bought in the higher end of the market. And today we’re looking at consolidating his property portfolio, and to be quite open with you. He’s actually done very, very well with this property. And he’s taught me a few lessons about what he looked for because he comes from a family of very sophisticated investors. So he was able to walk through some of the things that his uncle looks for when he’s looking for an opportunity. They’ve invested quite a lot of money in Australia, in different types of asset classes, including commercial and retail, but I was like as much as I was, you know, so called teaching, I kept an open mind as hard as it is because the guys nearly 10 years younger than I am. And he’s done quite well in his property portfolio. But it’s just, you know, it reminds me of, if you have to believe that you can learn no matter how much you know from from another person, then you’ll you’ll you’ll you’ll pick it up. But the caveat is you got to make sure you listen to the right person. I think that’s one thing you’ve said quite a fair bit, Andrew, because it’s easy to listen to the naysayers and be you know, affected and impacted by that sort of sentiment.

Andrew 10:34
Hundred percent hundred percent agree and, you know, I guess when it comes to being a good mentee, I think that it also comes from a position of mutual respect. And and it’s just like kind of what you were saying, you know, not not thinking that you know it all even when you’re in the capacity of an advisory or a mentor role, there is always something that you can learn. So I think that was a that was a tough lesson for me throughout my journey. So I wanted to wanted to share that.

Colin 11:06
May I say, Andrew, I’m learning and I’m learning from you quite a fair bit

Andrew 11:11
Same her mate. And then I guess it despite the fact that you need to learn from other people and be a good mentee, I think it’s still really important for you to invest in your own education. And before I actually went out and sought someone initially to help me to begin my portfolio, I spent a lot of time investing in my own education. I literally listened to every, I still do listen to every podcast I can get my hands on. I read every book I was trawling through websites, I was talking to anyone that I had within my network that was a property investor themselves, not necessarily I was a little bit selective about whom I spoke to even today, in the role that I do inspire, I’m very careful whom I speak to about property. Because a lot of people as you as you correctly identified are naysayers. And, and I think sometimes it comes from a little bit of ignorance not having skin in the game as such. And so I’m a little bit careful about that. But ultimately, when it comes to your financial future, when it comes to the decisions that you make, you can have all the advisors and mentors in the world but ultimately the responsibility is up to you and, and you owe it to yourself to invest in your own education, to be able to know the direction you’re going you don’t take things purely on blind faith and that’s kind of where the my analytical side really comes in. And for me personally, it was a lesson to balance that need to know everything for myself or in inverted commas Not that you ever can But also balance that against the advice that I was getting from my network and my trusted advisors at the time. So yeah, that’s something I’m quite big on.

Colin 13:13
Andrew You know, I’ve the years I’ve spent 10s of thousands of dollars on education and something I’ve realized is property to me is, is important in terms of understanding the mechanics how it works. But a large part of what determine my success and a lot of our clients success is the investment in themselves in the education in the mindset of being able to understand the long term, I guess trajectory of property investment. So it’s the ability to, to stay and to be persistent. And sometimes investing in yourself gives you a much better return then investing in this is not necessarily into how to invest what to invest and understanding the market. It’s a lot. It’s a lot to do with mindset.

Andrew 14:02
Correct. And I guess one of the things I learned along the, on the research path, and I’m sure anyone that’s listening is well aware of is there is an absolute plethora of ways or strategies when it comes to property investment, whether it’s buy off the plan, buy and hold, renovate, develop dual occupancy, regional business, capital cities, no matter who you speak to, you’re probably going to get a different opinion. And, you know, I found I found that and obviously all of us want to put our best foot forward. But I guess the point of the plethora of strategies is and the challenge that we’re faced with as property investors is, most of us can’t do them all and certainly not do them all at once. What works for some people may not work for other people are inherently different. They have different skill sets, different experiences, different mindsets different goals that they’re looking to achieve. And out of those strategies, just like there’s not one correct property to buy for everyone. There’s not one strategy that needs to that that will work, given people’s experience, amount of funds that they have available and their objectives, what they’re looking to do out of it. And the other challenge that I learned out of this is that when it comes to property investment, it’s really difficult because of the high dollar amount of investment that we’re looking to do with each each asset hundreds of thousands of dollars. And also coupling that with a longer term mindset. It’s very difficult to know as a property investor, if the strategy that you picked was the right one, because you’re not going to know for the next 5, 10 15 years. So it was very challenging for me to go through that process, and then choose one and ultimately that the challenge that most people will face and I certainly face is you can probably you can probably at least initially only choose one and you have to stick with it and you have to have that commitment that fortitude to go, Okay, well, I’ve made that decision. Even when sometimes the facts if you like, take COVID-19 for an example, change in hindsight, you have to have that fortitude of in your own decision making, to know that you made the best decision based on the best advice, the best education, the best direction for you to go at that time based on the facts that you had available at that time. And there’s going to be lots of challenges to that over the next 5,10 15, 20 years.

Colin 16:52
I’m glad you’ve actually spell it out. You know, off the plan, buy and hold renovate develop dual occupancy, regional versus capital. The reality is I find personally that I can only do one, maybe two, maximum three different strategies at one time unless you’ve got a pretty sizable portfolio. But it’s interesting because one of the conversations I’ve asked my client today, he’s looking to change his strategy because, honestly, I said on a scale of one to 10, I said, Michael, are you so 10 being you’re very heavily involved, that’s potentially even part of your career. That’s what you invest a lot of your time doing that’s really that’s going to consume, you know, many hours in a day, that’s almost like a full time job for you. That’s 10 out of 10. And that could look like a development, project management. That could mean you know, looking after all the trades person and doing doing everything project, managing the whole construction and maybe even managing your portfolio afterwards. That’s full on development, all the way to zero where it’s literally set and forget you just park your money on and off the plan. You get somewhere to manage your property in uni, speak to them once every six months, or maybe once every 12 months. So he’s bought a couple of properties in that scale. And he’s wanting to move it more into the three or four, which means you may want to start to look at doing subdivisions or renovate, but employ a project manager to do it. So even that process is taking him that many years to get to this point. So I think every I think all these strategies can work is just what are you willing to give up? Because it’s you can’t have everything. If you want time, if you want a little bit of flexibility and you want to continue to work in your job or your business and focus your energy on that, then you may not have the the I guess, the time and the the funds, maybe even to get into that sort of development stage and manage that full time. So I think it’s a scale, Andrew.

Andrew 18:51
Yeah, I agree. And as at what stage during your portfolio journey, what’s the outcome there’s, there’s a lot of it’s a lot more deeper discussion. I think on this there’s no right or wrong, ultimately

Colin 19:07
it’s what’s best for you? ultimatly

Andrew 19:09
Correct, correct. And ultimately, for most people, the objective is some sort of financial freedom or, I guess, peace of mind financial freedom. And regardless of your advisors, and I’ve kind of alluded to this already, if it’s going to happen, well, it’s up to you. You’re the only one that can take that responsibility for your financial future. A lot of people leave it to chance to be honest with you. They rely on their superannuation, which is an interesting topic, currently with through COVID-19. With You know, a lot of volatility we’re seeing in the share markets. Obviously, most people’s superannuation is heavily vested into the share market. Or alternatively, you know, you’ve got the option of the age pension, they’re almost your two choices if you want to leave it up to someone else. And as Australia is a country with, you know, we’re living off. Globally, we’re living longer than ever before, through medical advances, etc. Australia has got the baby boomer generation, which is a lot of them, we’re going to be relying heavily on the age pension. If I’m honest with you this and look at the amount of money that we’ve just spent to prop up our economy through COVID-19. There is no guarantees that the age pension is going to be around. You know, hopefully it is for a lot of people, but there’s no guarantees. So one of the things that keeps me going, is, I want to be the one that’s in control. I want to be the one that’s responsible for my own future. I don’t want to have to rely on anyone else. I can use other people. As part of my team as tools, you can outsource the action, you know, I guess going out finding the right property put helping you put the strategy in place. But ultimately, the responsibility lies on your own shoulders. And for me, that gets me excited. It used to be scary, to be honest. But that’s what keeps me getting out of bed every day because I know I’m in I’m in control. And I’m also responsible for whatever good and whatever bad happens.

Colin 19:24
Yeah. It’s interesting. You mentioned that you can rely on government. I think that’s absolutely true. I think on another page, I’d also say that at the moment, in my previous blog, I actually said there’s no better time than to, to look at the government incentives at the moment because the government is really trying to prop up the economy and to continue helping the economy tick along. I think it’s, it’s it’s an opportune time now. To at least consider looking at your your, you know, overall strategy and looking at building an asset base to help you retire because, like you said, Andrew, it’s just you’re just not going to be able to depend on your super, or your age pension. You know, certainly for someone my age, it’s another 20 something years away, it’s how long time away. You know, it’ll be a bonus if I can get any of that to be quite open with you, Andrew. But what I’m trying to say is there’s a lot of good opportunities out there, you can rely on the government, but the government out there at the moment at this stage, particularly for first home buyers, if you’re in that pool, I think now’s a really good time to start to take responsibility and you know, and really take the step forward to explore what’s available out there for you to take advantage off and to get into the property game.

Andrew 22:48
Agreed. You’re the expert on the incentives Colin.

Colin 22:54
Love it.

Andrew 22:58
And again, tying into the futures a long time away, the concept of delayed gratification is just so important. Having that, that faith and that confidence that the actions and the sacrifices because let’s not beat around the bush, you know, we can paint property investment as the bee’s knees if you like, and I can make the numbers sing, but ultimately, that you need to make some sort of sacrifice some adjustment in your life, some commitment towards your long term future which is going to pay dividends. But you need to have the faith that confidence that what you give up today, whether it be time, effort or money is going to pay dividends into the future and continue to pay dividends over the long term through the power of compounding, and I guess I revert back to my notion I know it’s a little bit strange about building the machine building that property investment business, which is going to pay my wages when it’s time for me to stop working. But we need to wait.

Colin 24:16
That’s right.

Andrew 24:19
But at the same on the same hand, and this is a lesson that I’m still learning if I’m completely honest with you, is that balancing today and tomorrow? One of the traps if I’m honest with everyone that you can fall into as a property investment strategist is you spending all day every day talking to people about the long term, the future, delayed gratification, all those sorts of things. And one of the traps I fell into was forgetting about today. You know, you need to celebrate the little wins that come along the way and you know, you need to, I guess, spend some money or time or effort on yourself along the way, it’s not all about the future. And that’s where personally I was reflecting this morning that I am blessed to have my partner who helps me get that balance. Because ultimately, like most things in life, it’s there’s no end point there’s never going to be an epiphany, right? I’ve crossed that financial freedom barrier. Now I can go turn the switch and focus on myself. It’s all about the journey, not without an end point. It’s about changing who you are. And so I need I need the lesson that I’ve learned is I’ve needed to become a little bit more, give myself permission almost to allow myself to enjoy today and not just worry about the future.

Colin 25:53
Yeah, absolutely. Can I share with you Andrew, one of the exercises I’ve done very recently, I’m being coached by a mentor at the moment in business. And, and he’s actually suggests that I put a 90 day plan together. So it’s balancing today but also looking at a milestone of 90 days. And he’s got me to set some goals for 90 days. And he’s actually we’ve actually broken it up into I think it’s 12 weeks. So every week, we’ve got a sticky note and you kind of write down what goals you want to achieve in that week. And so I’ve got this massive board with sticky notes everywhere with some very noticeable goals that I can achieve in that week. And overall, for me, it was a business goal in 90 days. This is you know, how many properties value of properties I’m going to be selling and how many clients are going to be servicing. I’m also in financing so how many loans and how much am I going to help my clients to finance or refinance, so I’ve got all that there. And it’s actually next week is the end of my 90 days and it’s really funny because I’ve actually achieved my 90 day goal. I’ve I’ve hit the goal which which is I’m so glad and grateful for but i’ve you know, one thing he said is have a reward but also have a punishment. So if you did achieve your 90 day goal, you know set a significant reward for you to enjoy and like you say enjoy a bit of life and look at today and celebrate. But if I didn’t do it, I would have donated you know, quite a bit of money. And I don’t know if you realize, but I’ve got a lot of books. So I said, I’m going to donate a whole bunch of books as well. Thankfully, I haven’t done it because I have a little bit of an affinity with my books. But I’m able to, you know, to celebrate those wins. Albeit it being 90 days and I think to me 90 days is a really good timeframe. It’s three months to be able to set a goal to to then, you know, celebrate if you do achieve what you’ve set out to achieve.

Andrew 27:55
Good stuff.

Andrew 27:58
My favorite topic principal place of residence versus investment. There is the reason why I share this is, again, when I was younger, my parents really wanted to help educate me and share with me their journey around. You know how property has changed their life. And one of the things that they were encouraging me to do, and potentially a little bit of a older school mindset, if you like, was to try and help me to buy my first home. And I remember in those conversations that you know, as a single person at that time, I was scared when I started to do the math around, you know how much it would cost me to hold on to this principal place of residence back then, based on the income that I was on back then and all those scenarios, and I honestly didn’t know that there was a there was another way I didn’t understand how, I guess, you know, investing in property and getting the rents in and the tax deductions that are available and all that sort of stuff would have potentially changed my mindset there. Because it all at that, at the time, it all just looked even though they were going to give me a little bit of help, it all looked too hard, it just looks impossible, insurmountable. Even even trying to make some sacrifices and moving to a more modest area and all those sorts of things. It just didn’t seem feasible and also maintain some level of lifestyle. So just that education and knowledge which my parents couldn’t give me, I didn’t have anyone in my network that could give me that that knowledge and understanding at that time so that’s something I’ve always been reflecting on.

Andrew 29:49
Having a big reason. Again, I I’m reminded of Naomi which I’ve shared on the on the live stream before Naomi is my soon to be mother in law, and basically 72 years of age on the age pension. And one of my goals objectives has always been to provide for her. So I shared a little bit earlier calling you what inspired me along this line of reflection was I signed the mortgage documents last night for the apartment that Naomi’s going to move into. So that should happen in the next couple of weeks. So very excited for that. And just having that that big reason, which now I’m about to achieve, and I’ll share at some stage the next big reason, but, you know, it really helped me cut through all the noise. And, you know, there’s never going to be that epiphany moment when it comes to property investment, wealth creation. That there’s there’s there’s never going to be any notes that no one knows. There’s always going to be a doubt and uncertainty and having that big reason really helped me to, you know, push through and start and continue with my journey and still fills me to this day with confidence that what I’m doing will pay dividends into the future. Despite all the all the unknowns that still continue through past covid and whatever happens over the next 10 15, 20 years, having that big reason helps me to take action and to continue to take action.

Andrew 31:43
Getting comfortable with debt. I know we’re going a little bit over but we’ve got a couple we’ve got three more. strange photo, but I reminded of reminded of the story of two kids playing in the sandpit and one one kid says to other kid, my family, so poor, we have $100,000 worth of debt. And the other kid says, In response, my family’s so rich, we have a million dollars worth of debt. And so it’s about getting comfortable with debt and understanding the difference between good debt, bad debt and medium debt. And you know, all those factors around leveraging compounding and net worth as opposed to, I guess, the amount of debt that you have, and getting comfortable with that finance basic financial literacy, and understanding that the debts there for a purpose to as an enabler for me to achieve my longer term goals and objectives when it comes to finance rather than inhibitor which is there. Oh my goodness, I’m in so much debt, millions of dollars worth of debt. I need to pay it back as quickly as I can and changeing that mindset and that relationship that I have with debt, and I think that was a big lesson, because that was really hammered to me by my parents, which had a very much a different mindset that debt is bad, my goodness, you get any debt, whether it’s a income producing or a growth asset, or not pay it off as quickly as you can. And that’s where I’ve had to change my mindset.

Colin 33:27
I think just to clarify, Andrew, I think be comfortable with good debt. Because I think there is, there is bad debt, and you certainly don’t want to be investing in anything that loses its value over time. So good debt is investing in assets that appreciates in value over time. So probably being one of those asset class. I would, I would, I would say that that’s good debt. So just just wanted to clarify.

Andrew 33:51
Yes.

Andrew 33:55
Surrounding yourself with the right people. Again, we’ve spoken about this, so much many times but it’s just so critical. You know, finding someone to guide you, someone to follow and most importantly someone that’s already achieved what you’re looking to achieve and follow in their footsteps rather than trying to go out there and face the big bad world yourself, I guess and whether or not you have to pay for it, I mean, pay pay for that right person through a strategist, your accountant, your lawyer, etc. These are all valuable members of your team. I remember I heard a saying once, especially when it comes to property investment, no matter what you’re going to pay to learn, whether that’s paying money for the for someone to follow and act on your behalf and guide you through as a mentor, or you’re going to pay with mistakes and lessons and time and potentially lost money. Either way, you’re going to have the pay.

Colin 34:57
Just Just so you know Andrew ive paid both mistakes and lessons, but I’ve also paid to make sure that I learn from the best of the best, and from mentors that have achieved it. So, you know, first person to say I’ve done both, but I would definitely go along. I would rather not make those those mistakes and they’re very expensive mistakes, their opportunity cost. I think I could be a little bit further on in my investment journey if I hadn’t made those mistakes that many years ago, but that’s the price you pay for it, you move on. But if I could do it again, Andrew, I would certainly pay to be more educated to learn more to, to speak to more people that had very importantly achieved the goals that I want to achieve.

Andrew 35:39
Yep, nothing wrong with a bit of battle scar.

Andrew 35:44
And with that in mind, I guess, another lesson that I that I have to have to learn and continue to have to learn to remind myself is good is better than perfect. Or as Voltaire said, perfect is the enemy of good. You know, I guess it’s very easy to do nothing and say, Well, I’m just waiting for the perfect time or the mark of the perfect, perfect property to come along, etc, etc. But doing nothing is also a choice, you think you’re delaying a choice. And personally, when I started out in my investment journey, one of the reasons I spent so much time around education, of how to invest in property is I was really scared to make a mistake because the numbers that we’re talking about, again, hundreds of thousands of dollars, and even even to this day, as a as an advisor, I’m actually I was actually it was a hurdle I had to get over coming into the property industry when I first began because basically, if I was scared to lose my money, well, at least at the end of the day, its only my money, but if I’m making a recommendation to a client, my goodness, I had to, I had to, to me that was another level even above that, in my own mind, and there’s never going to be that email is is the way I normally sayit, that email that message saying, hey, now’s the perfect time, now’s the perfect property. Sometimes you need to understand why you’re doing this in the first place. Simply just, I remember when I bought my first one, just take a deep breath and go for it. And that was a lesson hard fought in my own mind. And I think there’s something quite a few people struggle with.

Colin 37:32
If there is such a thing as a perfect property that is Andrew, I’d rather have two handfuls of good properties and to have one perfect property that exists. Because it’s all about exposure. I mean, this. It’s just I have met a lot of people. I’ve actually got a friend who’s the same age as I am. He owns one property at the moment, and I’ve certainly got a lot more than he does. But that’s because for many years, he’s been trying to find that one perfect time for the one perfect property and it took him many, many, many years. And finally he sent me a property that he bought two years ago, I looked at it and I go, really, this is perfect. So perfect in his eyes Fair enough, granted, and he actually surprisingly used a, he used a buyer’s agent and to get into that, but man, it took him many, many years. I started my journey in my late 20s. He started in this journey, you know, a couple of years ago. So, you know, I think it’s just horses for courses look at the bigger picture. It’s you can’t find a perfect property. So I rather have a few good ones.

Andrew 38:31
Hundred percent agree and that ties in perfectly to the last one for tonight. Optimism versus pessimism. There’s so many pessimists out there. And I guess, in my mind, pessimism leads to inactivity. There’s always going to be an excuse not to do anything. Anything that you go out there and form the view. This is risky, that’s risky, or whatever it may be. I can guarantee you also find someone that supports your view, no matter which view you have to be honest. And I guess it’s those naysayers, that that go, Oh, look, I told you the property, the property market was going to go down by 5%, or whatever, whatever they say, hindsight is always 20/20. But you never going to achieve anything unless you take some sort of action. So and you know, I’m sure there’s plenty people out there that are smarter than me and know better investors than me that know perfectly what the property market or the share market is going to do and which direction and when, and all these sorts of things. But ultimately, if you always form the pessimistic view, you’re never going to achieve anything, you’re not going to step a step foot outside your house. I mean, that’s an interesting topic right now. But the point being is, I guess, I always try and listen to the optimistic view of things and that doesn’t mean I’m willy nilly. And all sunshine and rainbows. But the overarching stuff that I let into my ear into my mind every day has a positive twist on it. And that helps me to feel comfortable with the amount of debt that I have with what I’m doing over the long term. That’s just an important, I guess, side of things.

Colin 40:23
Here. Here’s a very, very good analogy, Andrew, if I may say so, I just learned that the auction clearance rates for Sydney in the last month was 66%. And it’s funny because I had a conversation with someone and they said, Oh, that means you know, you have 34% of properties that didn’t pass an auction. I said, but, but 66% that’s an increase of 3% from the last month. And so I think it’s doing good. And it’s funny because I’ve heard from so many people that I speak to people that I take my advice from, and they say now is actually one of a very small window now that you can look as to as a buyer’s market to get into the market and negotiate a really good deal as much as I’m not all always about the deal. I do feel the now buyers, I mean, rather, sellers are a little bit more realistic with it with this sale price, developers are a little bit more realistic with their sale price, they’re willing to lower the margin and have more of a win for the purchaser. And plus, you’ve got all these incentives, you know, from the government. So I think now you know, looking at this as an optimistic point of view, I also look at it as an opportunistic point of view now now as an opportunist, now is an opportune time rather to consider building your property portfolio and for any first time buyers, man now, I don’t know if now at any time could come better than now for you to consider some options.

Andrew 41:49
Fantastic, great way to finish. If anyone has any questions, comments, have you know even any other tips or things that really help them along their journey, particularly when it comes to mindset. As I said, I think this was a really pertinent time to share some of this, to try and put out a little bit more optimism out out into the world. There’s a lot of things to be fearful and scared of, at the moment, depending where you’re listening to. And it would be very easy for any of us at the moment to regardless of property, not property, you know, anything in life at the moment to go into our shells. So I thought it was a really pertinent message to share. If you have any other tips, strategies, you know, that you’re using in your own life, you be very keene to hear them. If you’d like to have a chat about your situation, any opportunities that you’d like to take advantage of, or work out what direction you’re going or use this time that we have, under these conditions where we’re not going out as much and staying at home a little bit more to reflect on what’s your next What’s your next 5, 10 15, 20 years gonna look like now’s the perfect time to sit down and think about that and have a discussion and we’re very happy to facilitate that discussion. Put a comment on the post that you’re watching on or visit us at. Inspirerealty.com. Very happy to help and sit down and have a chat.

Colin 43:22
Thank you, Andrew.

Andrew 43:24
No problems. Have a good evening, everyone.

Colin 43:26
Bye