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How To Pick The Right Investment Property: “Know Thy Quadrant…”

So, what makes for the RIGHT investment property… and how do you pick it?

Well, let’s be honest… most of us can’t tick all the boxes on our property wish-list. We’d like to, sure, but often this isn’t an accurate depiction of reality. We can’t all afford the best house in the best street in a blue-chip, capital-growth-centric location every time we invest in property! So, chances are you’ve had, or will have, a conversation about what you might have to compromise in the buying process.

… And this is where our “Buyer’s Decision Quadrant” comes in!

This is a framework that can help you with the asset selection process and help you make an informed decision so you are NOT compromising where it matters most. Because there is something that is absolutely non-negotiable.

So in today’s episode, we’re going to take a deep dive on the four areas — the “Quadrants”  — of our Buyer’s Decision Quadrant so you can sleep well knowing you’ve picked the right investment property with the money you have and the ambitions you seek!

Listen now to learn how to pick the right investment property by using our Buyer’s Decision Quadrant to weigh up the “wins” and “loses” of what you compromise on!

Don’t forget, get further insights and “play along at home” by picking up a FREE physical copy of our book here: http://www.thearmchairguide.com.au/

 

Here’s a bit of what we cover in today’s episode…

  • What is “The Buyers Decision Quadrant” and how can you use it to purchase your next investment property?
  • What is The One Thing you should NEVER compromise on?
  • Should you buy “Smaller, Closer In” OR “Bigger, Further Out?”
  • What can you compromise on if you have a smaller budget?
  • How to recognise which investment property will work for your own circumstances…
  • Is a property that “ticks all boxes” – AKA the perfect property – really a myth?
  • Is “Uglier” always better?
  • Land size considerations…
  • What should you quickly overlook?

 

Free Resources

  • Free Book – The Armchair Guide To Property Investing: How to Retire on $2,000 A Week (please just pay for postage – we’ll pay for the book and send it anywhere in Australia for you.)
  • The Property Couch PodcastThe Insider’s Guide to Property Finance and Money Management (This is Australia’s #1 Property Podcast with over 307+ episodes that features HEAPS of simple and actionable frameworks, countless interviews with the best minds in the Australian property and finance industry and a ridiculous number of free resources to help you at any stage of the property investment journey)

 

Episodes from The Property Couch to Further Support You…

  

387 | Everything you need to know about Home & Contents Insurance – Chat with Steve Mickenbecker

It’s no secret that Australia is facing an insurance crisis. 

Did you know that roughly 70-80% of all Aussies are underinsured?!  

With the constant string of natural disasters from fires to floods, the ability to choose the right personal insurance that actually covers you is becoming more and more critical!  

It might not be our sexiest topic folks, but it’s definitely super important to know!! 

But how are you supposed to know what insurance is best for you?   

Or what makes an insurance policy a good insurance policy??  

Thankfully to help us clear this muddy water we’ve got Steve Mickenbecker, financial services expert!  

As well as being part of Canstar’s Group Executive Team (aka. Australia’s Biggest Financial Comparison site!!), Steve is also Canstar’s financial commentator.

He brings more than 30 years of experience in home loans, superannuation, insurance, mortgages, banking, credit cards, investment, budgeting, money management and SO MUCH MORE!  

Basically…he’s the ultimate insurance guru!!  

And he’s here to explain… 

What the heck is Stagflation?!  

How to ensure your insurance policy appropriately covers flood damage!  

What the future for insurance policy services will be (Are we destined to forever be served by robots and AI?!)  

PLUS, Steve will deep dive into some of  Canstar’s and the Insurance Council of Australia’s Catastrophe Data. 

Listen in now folks – this one is real eye-opener! 🤯 

 

Free Stuff Mentioned 

 

Here’s some of the gold we cover… 

  • 2:02 – Money problems are actually Money H___!  
  • 3:48 – Welcome Steve Mickenbecker!!  
  • 5:37 – From ledger cards to cryptocurrency: Steve’s Money Backstory  
  • 14:36 – How Steve first got into finance!  
  • 16:21 – What the heck is Stagflation?! (And why haven’t we seen it since??)  
  • 22:13 – Why is it important to get your insurance right?   
  • 25:24 – What factors should you consider when selecting insurance? 
  • 27:44 – The underinsurance epidemic and why we’re seeing it today! 
  • 29:10 – How to CORRECTLY calculate if you’re underinsured… 
  • 35:23 – Folks, THIS is why you should read annual changes in your insurance policy!  
  • 36:36 – How to ensure your big-ticket items inside your house are actually covered!  
  • 40:20 – Steve’s rule of thumb for knowing what items you should ensure 
  • 42:05 – How to choose the best insurer for you!  
  • 47:30 – So…what actually makes a good policy?  
  • 51:15 – How much excess is juust right? 
  • 53:31 – Online vs. Human insurance service  
  • 55:45 – What sort of records should people keep for claims?  
  • 58:21 – Data dive into natural disaster coverage… 
  • 1:00:30 – The Average out of pocket costs for home and contents insurance!! (WOW!)  

And… 

 

344 | Have You Made The Wrong Investment Decision?

“Have I made a mistake?” This is a common question we get from investors who just start listening to our podcast and learn the fundamental principles we teach for the first time.

Sometimes it’s directed to a specific property in their portfolio or is based on an investment decision they were initially considering but are now unsure if it’s a good idea or not.

And today we are answering some of these key questions – one, in fact, where the listener is not entirely “wrong” in their choice, though at face value seems to go against our general rule of thumb. You’ll learn why exactly this is and how to use this information in your own decision making process.

On top of that, we’re unpacking how to tell HOW MUCH a property is worth – including common D.I.Y mistakes folks make when trying to value their property and some simple (but overlooked) tips to assess this yourself and how to recognise when it’s time to bring in an expert.

Plus, if you’ve ever considered if solar panels on an investment property will increase its value and even the amount of rent you receive, then definitely tune into this episode… ‘cos you might be surprised by our answer!

You can suss all the questions we answer below – otherwise simply hit play and enjoy the show!

 

Oh, and, yep – Next week we’re kicking off our NEW WINTER SERIES. It’s kinda like our Summer Series but, umm, in Winter 🤣 So we’ll be interviewing our listeners who’ve had Real Life Financial Transformations! And we gotta admit… these stories are off the charts!

 

 

Free Stuff Mentioned 

 

The Questions

Question from Ricky Comerford on “Getting Solar Systems For Investment Properties

Hi Ben & Bryce and all the team working behind the scenes. I just want to thank you for these podcasts and all the wonderful things that you are doing at Empower Wealth. I have a question today in regards to Solar Energy in a Solar System. Now, we’ve got a strict budget for our primary place of residence that’s currently being built. This house is going to be turned into an Investment Property in 6 years’ time. We’ve been quoted for a solar system and it’s pushing the budget by $3000. Now, the return for investment for this Solar System will be 3-5 years, not taking away the fact that solar power is great for the environment. I just want to know strictly financials What is your opinion on solar systems for an investment property?

Do they increase the value of the home by much and the rental yield? And should we get one installed knowing the situation of this house and our budget and the fact that it’s going to be an investment property? Thanks for your time and yeah, hopefully I get a response.

 

Question from Riley on “Buying New with Grants Instead Of Established”

Hi Bryce and Ben, I’m just wondering with all the government grants that are coming out at the moment, if it’s almost a bit too good to say no to at the moment as a first time buyer. I’ve been looking to get into the market for a while now. And down here in Tasmania, we can access up to $45,000 in grants to build a new place. I know it sort of goes against everything that you’ve taught in your podcast. But I’m just wondering if it’s probably now with these grants a better way maybe to get into the market. I know certainly from my perspective, that’ll help with cashflow as well, given that I’ll probably get an extra, maybe bedroom and bathroom into the house as opposed to buying a smaller townhouse type of property closer to the city. So just wondering what your thoughts would be on that, if it is now possibly a better option to be building a house rather than buying existing? Thank you.

 

Question from Kate on How To Calculate Loan To Valuation Ratio

Love the show. I’ve been listening for a few years now and I’ve done all the episodes and I tell everybody I can about The Property Couch. So my question relates to loan to value ratio.

Obviously, it’s easy to determine what the outstanding loan amount is, but where would you go to determine the best value do the free bank valuations cut it? You know, the ones, I mean, I’ll flick by most of the big banks put the address into the website and they spit out a value, but it is generally so broad that is almost useless. Should I ask the bank where the mortgage is held for evaluation? If so, would there be a fee payable? Should I get a real estate agent thing? I probably want to over the value of the property and use RPM. Isn’t that the same as what the bank is? Please help.

 

Question from Riley on “Have I made a mistake?”

I just want to start off by saying that I absolutely love your podcast along with the books and resources you provide. I have just signed up to your workshop and the Money S.M.A.R.T.S portal, which I am excited to get started on! You’ve probably heard this a lot but I wish I had found The Property Couch sooner!

My wife and I are settling on our first investment property in Vasse, WA next week.  I only found your podcast 4 weeks ago and have a lot of catching up to do! I have a couple of questions if you guys have the time to go over them.

Little bit of background:

We are 34 and 30. Bought our first home together almost 8 yrs ago in Padbury, WA and still living in it now. Had the expensive wedding, bought the dream car (for my wife who has expensive taste) and now we are just about to settle on the first investment property.

Together we earn $203,500 before tax but we are hoping to start a family asap so we will drop down to one wage of approx $104,000 (self-employed and pay myself $2k p/week before tax) in approx 6month – 18months.

The house is a 6yr old 4×2 in Vasse on 570m2, great spot (I think) between the high school and primary school in a fast-growing area (they predict the population of the South West will quadruple in the next 20yrs) and rentals are very scarce. We paid $416,000 and it is currently rented out for $480 p/week on a 18month lease. We signed up on a very low rate 2yr interest only loan and I have worked out that after expenses (mortgage, prop manager fees, insurance, rates and 1.5% maintenance) we will have approx. $10,240 left over making this property positively geared.

In my view (prior to discovering your podcast) I thought it would be great to have it positively geared straight away as we can put that surplus towards the deposit for the next property and/or renos for the Padbury house (want to make it into a 4×2, currently a 3×1

and already have plans drawn up) but from everything I have heard is that when you first acquire a investment property it starts off negatively geared and may take 5-10yrs to become positive.

 

So to the questions:

  1. Have we done something wrong?
  2. Do you recommend that we put all that surplus into the Padbury house (PPOR) offset until we are ready for the next deposit or would you put it into the investment house offset?
  3. Do we make it negatively geared for the short term to pay less tax? (we have surplus cash that I’d love to put towards our next property asap even though we are paying lots of tax)
  4. After the 2 yr period would you switch to a P&I loan or keep it on a IO loan?

 

I know there are a lot of factors at play, and I hope I have given you guys enough information to comment on our situation and we would love to hear your views. Sorry if this has been covered in your podcast but I am still only up to episode 40, I need to do some more long drives as that is the only chance I get to listen 🙂. Again, thanks to both of you for your time and knowledge, you make me excited about property investing and I can’t wait to learn more and more as I go through TPC free resources.

 

 

343 | “Pass Go & Collect $200” – 6 Property Lessons From Monopoly!

Ah, Monopoly – the classic board game… chances are you’ve got fond (or maybe even frustrated?) flashbacks playing it…

[… Nothing quite like the feeling of “Passing Go”, getting a quick cashflow lift, and then proceeding to bankrupt your loved ones in a friendly-but-no-so-friendly game of Monopoly… 😅]

Well folks, Did You Knowthe 100-year-old property-trading game actually has 6 Proven Property Lessons that you can (and should!) apply in real life!!

Yep. And here’s the deal… today we’re unpacking exactly how you can apply these key lessons from Monopoly to YOUR own lifestyle design!

Look, this episode’s a bit of fun BUT, most importantly, is full of timeless takeaways that’ll shake up the way you look at property investing… (and help cement the wisdom!)

 

Can You Guess The 6 Property Lessons…? 👇

  1. Always Be __
  2. The Most __ __ Is Not The Best
  3. Focus on __
  4. __ Your Investments
  5. __ Matters
  6. __ __ Is The Key

 

Tune in now to get the answers!

 

Free Stuff Mentioned

 

Here’s A Bit Of What We Cover…

  • 02:49 – Your BIGGEST Competitive Advantage!
  • 04:24 – Wait, you’ve NEVER heard of Monopoly..!?!
  • 05:43 – Bryce first thought you had to do THIS when negotiating…
  • 07:46 – LESSON 1: Always Be __
  • 08:39 – Trying to buy everything you land on… (and The Meltdown!)
  • 11:43 – How to Hack Probability WITHOUT Gambling…
  • 13:09 – Things we ask ourselves BEFORE we purchase anywhere
  • 13:22 – Can you get it right 100% of the time!?!
  • 14:17 – The block of dirt Ben almost bought…
  • 15:14 – LESSON 2: The Most __ __ Is Not The Best
  • 15:28 – When you’re caught up trying to buy Mayfair and Park Lane…
  • 17:48 – The most expensive properties on Monopoly… but in Australia!
  • 19:55 – LESSON 3: Focus on __
  • 20:18 – How to recover when you pick The Unlucky “Chance” Card
  • 23:20 – When the borrower is at the mercy of the lender…
  • 25:06 – The BIG yield between the “red” and the “blue” properties!
  • 25:47 – LESSON 4: __ Your Investments
  • 28:26 – What Monopoly teaches us about BORDERLESS investing…
  • 32:19 – LESSON 5: __ Matters
  • 32:45 – What squares are MOST landed on in Monopoly? (And what does this hint at when you invest in property…?)
  • 37:19 – LESSON 6: __ __ Is The Key!
  • 40:32 – Robert Kiyosaki’s cashflow game…
  • 43:42 – What the creators of Monopoly quickly realised…
  • 44:38 – 7 reasons why playing Monopoly is a great for kids!
  • 46:42 – Bryce’s version of Monopoly at home (LOL)
  • 46:57 – The Reality of Retirement WITHOUT a passive income…

 

 

342 | From $250K to $2M Properties: How To Invest No Matter What Your Budget Is!

Have you ever wondered how to invest in property with YOUR specific budget?

Like, what if you DON’T have a big budget to spend…?

Or, on the contrary… what if your budget’s actually quite healthy – but you’re not sure if a $1 million – $2 Million property is really a premium investment (Should you buy two cheaper investment properties instead?)…

Folks, they’ll be something for you in this Q & A episode… ‘cos we’re covering A LOT of ground here – how to invest no matter what your budget, age or strategy is!

We’ve got everything from…

  • Investing at 21… and 60!
  • Buying $250K or $2M Properties
  • Getting the “Big Rock in the Jar” at every life stage
  • Selling an investment to buy a dream PPOR
  • Understanding The Donut Ring concept
  • Unpacking new ATO data that reveals current investment trends
  • Helping kids get on the ladder
  • Why Rentvesting is mathematically a better idea, BUT….

Let’s just say: you’re in for a solid treat.

Listen now and find out how to successfully invest at any stage of life or budget 🕺▶

 

 

Free Stuff Mentioned

 


The Questions We Answer…

 Question from Sharon on Buying Higher Priced Properties

Hi Guys, Thanks for having such a great podcast. I’ve recently got very addicted to it and I’m really enjoying it. I do have a question though around the value of properties that we should buy. I hear you talk a lot about your asset selection but I never heard you talk about higher priced properties, so like when you’re well over the $1 million mark. We live in Melbourne in the North, so we’re looking $1.5 to $2M for our next purchase and I’m wondering if you consider that a best investment or what you think about high priced properties ‘cos obviously that’s still just like a very average 3 bedroom house in the North. So I am just wondering if you don’t talk about it for any reason, or if there’s some reason you should avoid that price point.

 

Question from Steve on Selling An Investment Property for A PPOR Or Buy Cheaper

Hey Gents, absolutely love the podcasts and I’ve been a listener for many years now. I’m 30 years old with a fiancé and we have an investment property fully paid off worth about $600,000. We’re currently renting very cheaply in order to save for our principal place of residence, so we were originally looking around the Ringwood area to spend about $900,000, but due to such limited opportunities I feel, and really average properties that don’t have scope to expend, we are considering selling the investment property off and plunging pretty much all of our net worth into a property that will allow us to get us into something more like around the $1.2 or $1.3 Million mark. In saying that, we’ll still probably only need to take on a loan of about $600,000 between the two of us, which is quite achievable, however just wanting to sort of get some advice from you.

Do you think it’s worth trying to buy our dream home — something that we’re gonna be happy for a very long time — and selling off the other investment, or whether we should be holding onto the investment and obviously sacrificing our lifestyle for the short term and turn to getting into something a bit cheaper?

Really interested to hear your thoughts. I am very, very confused at the moment. Thanks guys.

 

Question from Julia on Sell or Hold An Architectural Apartment in Inner Sydney

Hi Fellas, I feel really strange talking to my computer asking a question but I love your show, really had a great time listening to it. So my situation is I am in my early 60s and I’ve been working on super and all that stuff and I own my own home, but I bought an investment property in the heart of the city of Sydney. It was actually in a designer’s building – it’s got about 51 apartments there. Anyway, COVID came and of course the tenancy situation really changed in the heart of Sydney.

So, I did have to reduce my rent from $650 for a one-bedder down to $520 a week so that was a massive drop for me, but really my question is about – over the last 5 years since I’ve owned the property it’s only gone up about $20,000 ‘cos I think I’ve paid at the top of the Market.

My question is, Should I cut my losses being in my early 60s or should I hang in there and hope for better days?

My original plan is to keep this property well into my 80s and I’m just feeling the jitters because the rent has dropped so much and the value just hasn’t increased over the last 5 years so any input would be appreciated.

 

Question from Gabby on Buying A $250,000 Property

Hi! My name is Gabby and I’m a 21-year-old from West Australia. I love your Podcast, but I feel as though I belong to a bucket that you haven’t talked about much. I’ve been boarding and renting my whole life, but wish to or have to move out of home eventually and hopefully soon especially with low interest rates. I want to buy an old unit with 2 bedrooms in a small block priced between $250,000 and $300,000 and then rent out a room to a friend.

It’ll be in the East Fremantle area hopefully, which is on the premium side of first home buyer suburbs, but it could be out of my grasp if I sit on it for too long. The problem is that I don’t actually have the money needed and my parents are happy to invest as long as it makes sense. I’m thinking that repayments could be roughly $260 a week and the room could be rented out for $120 at least a week. This basically makes almost cheaper than renting but me getting the lifestyle and the property at the end.

Do I get them to go Guarantor or use the complete trust we have with them instead taking on the loan as an investment, but me paying it off behind closed doors and essentially taking it over by the end.

 

 

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