Today, I want to share with you what I consider “The Three Fundamentals” that you need to master as a property investor. This applies at all levels:
Whether you’re learning to be a property developer, subdividing land, building townhouses, removal homes, or you just want to do a cosmetic renovation and make some money on it. Some of this may seem overly simplified, but I wouldn’t step over it if I was you.
You see, I just finished a one-hour session with one of my mentors, Ling.
He’s a Chinese guy from China mainland. However, he’s got a PhD in English that he got in Australia. So his English is very good, and his knowledge of property is phenomenal. I’m pretty pumped about our session and I thought I’d share these insights with you:
(There’s a text version below the video)
Fundamental #1:
I think one of the key things people miss in the property game, is buying right.
Buying right can be achieved in many ways. You can buy with a long settlement. You can buy with the right to get an approval. You can buy at a discount. (I think buying at a discount is a very underrated skill that is critical for success!)
Oftentimes people get lost in the fact that they’ve missed out on an auction or get outbid. While instead, you should focus on becoming a better negotiator.
Honestly? I’ve built my whole career on buying right.
Buying at a discount. Buying from a motivated seller. Buying 10%, 20%, 30% under market value. As an investors, you need to find a way to do that. Being able to negotiate a better deal is critical.
Fundamental #2:
The second thing that is critical (and may surprise you) is…
Knowing how to do a cosmetic renovation.
Whether you do it or not is another story. But you want to master this skill. I can’t say I’m a master renovator, but if I need to do one, or organize one, it can be done. A quick lick of paint, new kitchens, and bathrooms, things like that.
And while it’s definitely not a part of my business model, it’s still vital. Especially when you’re starting out.
For example, say you’re doing a 1 into 2, and you keep an existing house. It may be beneficial for you, besides extracting the free block of land, to renovate the existing house too. Or if you’re doing townhouses, you might keep the existing house and build a duplex, triplex at the back. Or just a fundamental renovate and flip it.
I think it’s a critical skill to learn. Because there’s always room for one.
Fundamental #3
This one is HUGE.
The third fundamental for you to master is having multiple sources of income.
At the basic level this could be adding an extra bedroom to increase the rent. Otherwise extending the house or adding a granny flat to it at the backyard.
You can take it to another level by keeping the existing house on your next subdivision. Some of my clients do 1 into 5, keep the house, cut an additional four blocks off it. The recent one I did on the Northside was 1 into 11 and I kept the existing house.
Listen, it’s all well and good to do developments. But ultimately you really want to be holding some property as well. Having a whole stack of tenants paying you rent every week. Doesn’t matter if that’s commercial property, if that’s 5 tenants, 20 tenants, 100 tenants…
Having people paying you $500 bucks a week, $1000 bucks a week, $10k bucks a week is really powerful!
So anyway, these are the three biggest fundamentals I think you need to keep in mind as you’re building your property business. Hopefully, you’ve got some value out of that. And we’ll catch up with you soon!
Kind Regards,
Nhan
