What is a buyer’s agent? And do you need one?
Listen to the episode above or read the transcript below to learn everything you need to know about buyer’s agents, the common mistakes property investors make and how to avoid them with Head of Research and Managing Director of Propertyology Simon Pressley.
Transcript
Meaghan Smith 00:21
Hello beautiful people and welcome to another episode of the money mindful Podcast. I am your host Meaghan, money mindset and empowerment coach for women who want to connect with their future self and create the life they want to live on purpose. There are lots of ways we can create money. One way that is very popular here in Australia is of course investing in property. Property investing isn't for everyone. But if you've ever wondered about how to get started investing in property and what exactly is involved, you're in luck because today on the show, I have head of research and Managing Director of Propertyology Simon Pressley on to talk to us all things property investing. Simon, welcome. Great to have you here on the show.
Simon Pressley 01:12
Hello Meaghan, thank you for having me on.
Meaghan Smith 01:15
Ah, I've been I've had it in the back of my mind for a while because sometimes on the show I just make the odd reference to buyer's agents or what's involved with investing in property. I think I've got to get a buyer's agent on the show to explain all things property investing and what a buyer's agent actually is. So perhaps Simon could we start with a little introduction to who is Simon Pressley and what do you do? What is Propertyology?
Simon Pressley 01:47
Okay, who am I? Well, I've got a banking and finance background always had a fascination with with numbers and economics and in commerce. I've been in business for 22 years now, or as Propertyology, dude, I guess where to use an analogy Megan where what a stockbroker might be to a sharing this stuff. You know we aim to offer the same sort of thing for property investors so that people pay off a predetermined fee to help them invest in real estate so we don't sell property than any houses or apartments for sale. And 100% of our clients are everyday or the mom and dad investors. So it doesn't matter to us where our client leads, or indeed we even where our offices all over Australia if you like is equivalent to our stock exchange for a property investor. So we're we're analysing the investment fundamentals of all of our capital cities and all of our regional cities. And then we help people invest in strategically chosen parts of Australia.
Meaghan Smith 02:52
Right so why property Simon?
Simon Pressley 02:57
Why property I think it's probably not a conscious decision I made but I think it dates back to my childhood. Meaghan, you know, raised. My father was in the army. So in my school years, it seemed like every, every year or two we were, we were transferred to a different part of the country. In when by the time I entered the workforce. My father stopped working in the army, and he never had a house. And guess it because he was moving around a lot. Military people are provided with a house whenever they transfer somewhere. Society as you well know and talk about a lot on your wonderful podcast. Society does not teach financial literacy, including my mother and father. So I guess I was entering the workforce at the same time seeing my parents entering what should have been the time of their life, that they could enjoy retirement, but they didn't even own a house, let alone have an investment nest egg. So it wasn't that mom and dad ever sat me down and taught me about money? I guess I just observed as I you know, and through my adolescent years the importance of making good money decision. And from that I was I became very determined to buy a family home as quick as I could. And then from that, you know, leverage off that off that equity to build an investment portfolio. That's a long answer. But that's, you know, that's why.
Meaghan Smith 04:15
Yeah, and I think that's common. Well, maybe it's not maybe it's just because I feel that too, but I can very much relate to wanting that security and wanting to have a place that is mine, that this is where I live, and I have some sort of safe, secure place in the world. The irony is I live in a rental because we've just moved inter state, but that's totally fine. But there's this somehow there's power for me in owning land and having shelter that I can live in at some point in time if I need to.
Meaghan Smith 04:55
So, Simon, those who listen to this show, they might not be familiar with you. I'm very familiar with who you are, because I've heard you in the media so many times on different programmes. But perhaps you could share with our audience. What are the fundamentals of property investing, like, what should we be taking into consideration when we invest in a property?
Simon Pressley 05:21
Yeah, look, it's a great question. And if I'd say the biggest mistake, that property investors, make, is that they repeat the process, buying an investment property for when they buy the family home. They're probably not doing that consciously that they are programmed human beings are programmed to do all sorts of stuff consciously or subconsciously. We need to remember as a property investor that the bricks and mortar and the things that we relate to property, we need to separate that because that's that's all emotion. When we're buying a property to live in. I'd say the number one thing we need to satisfy you is emotion. But Meaghan's emotions Simon's emotions are completely different. So when we're looking to buy an investment property, it's a financial decision. And we need to see property then as a financial instrument in the same way that a share investor would be choosing stocks on the stock exchange. Hopefully a share investor wouldn't be saying I must invest in Commonwealth Bank shares because I bank with Commonwealth Bank. It's got nothing to do with the investment decision at all. A property investor however, that's what almost everyone does. So they say I live in Sydney or live in Brisbane or l live in Melbourne or wherever they live. And they search for property very rarely venters beyond their hometown. That is a completely flawed decision making process. you've narrowed your focus to probably 1% of all your options you've never ever considered the other 99%.
Simon Pressley 06:51
So, fundamental to making a good property investment decision is to see property, not as the bricks and the mortar, not as the schools or the shop. sentence or whether you would or would not live in that city because that's a subjective thing. We need to see it as a financial instrument. And we need to understand there's a difference between desire and demand and property probably markets all the time we hear the terms supply and demand. And people say that as if it's a very simple process I'd argue there's nothing more complicated on this planet perhaps other than trying to find a cure for cancer, then trying to interpret property markets, it is extremely complex, but an individual's got no chance of forecasting how market might perform in years to come if we're focusing on on the bricks and mortar, and would I live there or would I not live there?
Meaghan Smith 07:43
Yeah, and that's right. And I think with shares and property, they're very similar in this way that nobody. Well, maybe some people think they can but personally, I think they deluded nobody can predict what is going to happen with the property market or what can happen with shares, but we can make educated decisions, right? based on certain fundamentals. And perhaps Simon that you could you could talk to some of those fundamentals like how do you as a buyer's agent, make decisions about what areas you're going to invest in? What do you look at? What are the important factors involved with choosing areas to invest?
Simon Pressley 08:24
Yeah, so how we do that now is a lot different to our might have done that certainly how I did do that and my first investment property nearly 30 years ago, on hand on heart, I've studied Australian real estate history. So that means that looking at the the evidence, the property market performance for as far back as the official data takes us, for not just our eight capital city, but they are an additional 177 individual regional towns and cities that have a population of 10,000 people or more. So there's lots and lots of locations for investors to pick from. So how we pick locations is based on first, knowing what the evidence says. And then digging deep into the signing was there's a location that, you know, 10 years ago had a boom and there's another location at the same time that had that big downturn, what actually caused the boom, what actually caused the downturn, and then what were doing is, there's no guarantee in investing. The next best thing to guarantee is to look for the leading indicators that the historical studies have taught us, that when you get this set of ingredients, usually good things happen.
Simon Pressley 09:36
Conversely, when you get this other set of ingredients are not so good things happen. So now what does all that mean? on the supply side of things, it's not just the volume of property in a town or city today, it's what's in what we call the supply pipeline, which is really construct controlled by the local construction sector. So one part of Propertyology's you know, daily activities. is looking at every location in Australia and what is the construction industry doing in each of those locations? And that's not just where are they building? Now? It's one step before that, what have they had approved through the local government authority that needed that before they start turning the soil? So that's on the supply side of things. There's also the rental supply sort of thing. So these are existing properties that are, you know, already built. But how many of those are available in the rental market? And is that too much or not enough? on the demand side of things I used to think just like about everyone on the planet thinks that population growth is the number one thing for housing demand. The historical evidence actually says that's a flawed statement, in a practical sense, understand why one thinks that, but there are, history is full of situations where individual towns and cities that performed really, really well they probably marked to perform well, but their population growth might have been modest in some cases. have actually gone backwards. So the housing demand side of things. It's really local confidence. If we have a think about property, it's an expensive asset. And before we buy that asset, we're really going to buy the debt first, then not so sexy thing, we've got to buy the money. And one needs to be in a particularly positive, confident sort of mindset. Before we reach out to a local mortgage broker and say, can arranged a line for me, I'm about to, you know, invest in property. So where does that confidence come from? It's really all the things that are happening within the community of an individual channel city and the biggest common denominator there is local economic conditions. So I would spend more time looking at local economic conditions throughout Australia each day more than anything else. It's the most complex bit, but the most valuable bit to focus on
Meaghan Smith 11:54
Okay, so you who are listening right now, if you're suddenly thinking What? I have to go out and research the economy and the population growth and everything going on, where do I even start? What suburb do I even look at? Here is what you do and here's what I've done. And listen, this isn't I'm not telling you this is the right way to do it. It's not the only way to do it. And I know that there's, I've met I've had a good friend of mine on the show before she buys and researches properties herself. She's totally into it. She will spend heaps of time doing that. We both learned together actually like how to do that, like actually got training to do that. And so that's a thing you can do it yourself. But for me, when I bought my second property investment property, I went through a buyer's agent. I actually used Propertyology full disclosure, because I am totally not interested in spending my life doing that I just do not no offence. Simon, sorry. No offence, but researching the towns and the economy and employment is just totally not my zone of interest or you know, or genius. I don't want to become an expert in that I'm not going to be buying properties every week, you know, not even every year. So it's something where I made the conscious decision that I'm going to go out and get somebody to do this for me, who's a professional and does it every day of the week. And so that's where a buyer's agent comes in. Now, I'm not trying to sell you on the idea of a buyer's agent, but I just want to present to you what a buyer's agent does, and why they might be useful to use if you are looking at investing in property. So this is your I'm putting the floor to you now Simon to just tell give us the rundown. Like what exactly does buyer's agent do?
Simon Pressley 14:02
Okay, a buyer's agent is the reverse of a real estate agent. So the real estate agents you know, licensed professionals the Ray White, LJ Hookers of the world that are in every city in Australia, trained professionals that their clients are the property owners. So someone who wants to sell a property will sign a legally binding document with the Ray White, LJ Hookers of the world to help them sell a property asset. And the real estate agent is paid by the owner of that asset to market it to promote the features and benefits of it to handle inquiries, open homes, auctions, whatever it is to do the negotiation. In the negotiation part of it. The real estate agent is trying to get the highest price because again, they are contracted by the owner of that asset and are bound by law to act in their clients best interest. So the old fashioned DIY way of buying a property. You know, back in the day, we used to look at properties that were advertised in the newspaper. Now it's more online, but still, we then go to open homes and auctions and that sort of stuff as a DIY and we're talking with that real estate agent. Whilst they more often than not are very nice people, very professional, they're not working for you, they're working against you. And they're doing something every day that the average property buyer will be flat out doing two or three times in their entire life.
Simon Pressley 15:33
So a buyer's agent is that same licensed professional who does it all day every day, but they sign a contract with the buyer of the property. And this legally binding arrangement there is for the buyer's agent to act in the buyers best interest so they've got no properties to sell these no pictures of houses or apartments in the shop front window. Their objective in working their buyers best interest is to agree initially on the brief, you know what, what, what sort of property we're looking for what objective he does it need to achieve. If it's the family home, they'll be talking to, you know, to Meaghan and her husband and understanding where they want to live and how big it is and what their budget is and all that how they're going to feel it. As a property investor, if the buyer is isn't invested purposes, that's a different brief. But the buyer's agents role is to first help establish clarity with their client. This is the objective. Here's the roadmap ahead of how we're going to achieve that. The buyer's agent is then the one looking for suitable property, finding the right property, recommending that to their client, the buyer, then negotiating the lowest price for them. There's all sorts of negotiation tactics a buyer's agents use, knowing what to look for helping with due diligence, you know, organising building inspections, pest inspections, liaising with conveyances. liaising with finances all the way through this problems appear. The idea that something will discover something today, we didn't know yesterday. That's the nature of buying property. The buyer's agent is buying property every day, we'll have come across that before. But they'll know some warning signs, you know, and then and then where to go to dig further to see what the right outcome is, is for the buyer. So yeah, hopefully that that makes sense and helps distinguish the difference between the sales agent and a buyer's agent.
Meaghan Smith 17:28
Yeah, and my two cents that I want to add to that is that something I hear spoken about more so now than ever is the cost of property and how prohibitive it's been and there's, you know, the jokes about avocado toast for breakfast and why we can't afford to buy property and all these things, but reality is like we've just moved to New South Wales and I've been talking to some people who we are a bit out of Sydney, but closer into Sydney. It's true in terms of the house prices in inner Sydney that maybe that is out of reach for some people that are entering the market for the first time. But I'm just gonna, like blow your mind a little bit here. And this is why you might want to consider a buyer's agent that when we went to buy our first property investment, I knew that we had a budget up to 400,000 thousand. Now we were living in inner city Melbourne. So you know what that gets you in Melbourne? That's like well, barely anything maybe a little dog box crappy flat in the air. Yeah. Yeah. And in terms of when you're looking at the fundamentals of investing and what makes a good investment that didn't match the brief so for getting a property in Melbourne, but I knew that I wanted an investment property and here's the thing When you engage with a buyer's agent, like Propertyology, and by the way, there's nothing going on here, I've just invited Simon on the show. I'm not trying to like when there's no money going under the table here in this conversation, but a trained buyer's agent who's doing research in areas around Australia can actually present to you areas where you could buy that might not be where you live, but are in another area of your state or even in a different state. And so when we presented that to propertyology, we were able to invest in a property that met that brief. You know, we didn't invest in the inner city suburb of Melbourne, but we now have an investment property that we could buy for under 400,000 thousand. And I think that this is something I really want to land for you because if you are sitting there thinking I can't invest in property, that's impossible. I can't you know, borrow a million dollars or eight hundred thousand dollars? You Yes, that's true, you might not be able to do that. But maybe you can borrow 500,000 or 400,000. And property investing is actually available to you. And that's a myth that I want to dispel that it's possible you can actually get into the market, but you have to be willing to be wrong, I guess and think outside of the square. And because this is happening, I've done it. Like, I'm an example of this. I have a property when we bought it, it was under 400,000. And that was what we could afford at the time and we're in you know, we're in the market. We didn't have to think, oh, we can't invest because we don't have $800,000 to buy a crappy house in inner city, Melbourne. I mean, what do you think about that? Simon? Would you agree that this is like this common thing that people think like they can't get into the market because it's too expensive.
Simon Pressley 21:00
It is and it's especially common, I guess. Yeah, let's face it Sydney and Melbourne are our most populated city. But the thing is, it's impossible to know what one doesn't know. And what's normal for you. It doesn't mean that that's the only way or that it's normal or that your normal is the normal somewhere else. I'd argue that there is. I mean, Australia is often referred to as the lucky country, but for property investors. It is definitely the lucky country. I mentioned earlier 8 capital cities, and 177, non capital city towns towns and cities. So we have we have got such a diverse range of wonderful communities to live in. Now, I told you to invest in now you pick one of those that suits your need to live in. But there's a whole bunch of others out there that suit other people's needs. And some of those would be great places to invest in even though you might not want to invest in without saying where but here's some real numbers because I can recite these because of an existing client reached out to us yesterday looking to invest again. So in March 2019, 14 months ago, we helped him buy his first investment property which was a four bedroom, two bathroom, solid house in a very well established regional city for $317,000 a lot of people living in Sydney and Melbourne would go I didn't even know you. That was possible anywhere. Right $378,000. He contacted us yesterday because he's arranging pre approval to buy his second investment property. And he shared with us he said my loans are all in place. The bank has value that property. The property already helped me invest in just 14 months ago and 18.2% capital growth in just 14 months. At the time of him buying that first investment property 14 months ago. The rents gone up by a little bit. He does not put his hand in his pocket, not one cent for the entire year to cover the cost to hold that investment property. And the only paid a 10% deposit against someone living in an expensive city like Sydney and Melbourne, would go I didn't even know that's possible. So there's no cash flow impact for this real life property investor at all. And he's gotten just short of 20% capital growth within a short period of time. So that highlights, you know, one cannot know what they don't know. But if you just allow yourself to have an open mind, you never know, you know what might be possible.
Meaghan Smith 23:38
Yeah, that's right. And it's about one education and two just getting out there and doing your research. And I'm not suggesting that you have to go out and research every single state and become an expert in data analysis. But you've learnt now from the show that there is a there is a job description. called a buyer's agent. These people exist and they're in every state in Australia in some operate Australia wide you. You guys are Australia wide? aren't you?
Simon Pressley 24:11
Yeah, yeah, I probably should touched on the difference of buyer's agents as well.
Meaghan Smith 24:15
Yeah, please do Yeah, tell us.
Simon Pressley 24:18
Because it's a different reason why some of might use buys agent and not every buyer's agent will be useful to every buyer. Think of why is it as a profession, but similar to some other professions? There is a let's refer to the in the medical profession as a general practitioner, or licensed professional who has an a holistic look at medicine, but they're not a specialist in every field, right? There'll be times when the general practitioner will refer you to the cancer specialist or whatever. Think of finance like that as well. All right. The buyer's agent in Sydney or Melbourne might be useful to help you buy the family home in the city that you live in, in the city that they operate in. Propertyology is this is a specialist. We won't help someone bought a family home. That's not saying it's not important. We're saying that's a different set of skills to investing to buy the family home. That's a highly emotional decision. And there'll be some really good buyer's agents in every capital city and some of our bigger regions that I'd highly recommend reach out to them and engage them to help you buy the family home. As an investor though, you don't want that strong emotional intelligence person. You want someone who is very pragmatic and data driven and forward thinking, who only buys investment properties. And who literally looks all over Australia because no one sees will always be a good time to invest. Every location there'll be good time to invest in other other years when it's not, not a good time to invest. So Propertyology offices in Brisbane, but Brisbane is not a market. Our market is literally all over Australia. In fact, I bought very, very few properties for our investors in Brisbane over the last 10 years because our research suggested that there's a lot better opportunities out there in other parts of Australia.
Meaghan Smith 26:05
Yeah, and Simon, can you elaborate some more like just imagine that somebody who's listening has never heard of a buyer's agent before? Like, what's the minutia involved in? You know, so do you have to? Would you have to fly interstate to see the property if somebody was buying a property for you in another state? Like, how does it work?
Simon Pressley 26:29
If it's um, if you're engaging the buyer's agent to help you buy the family home? Or I would say definitely at some point, you you should, as the buyer, you should inspect that property. You're in the flesh, because in unit you need to be happy living there. And only the buyer can answer that question. No one else can answer that question for you because it's your emotion. As the property investor though, No, in fact does the same thing a property in the flesh as an investor to actually bring in our will bring in emotion that could bring in emotion that actually get in the way making really good financial decisions. You know for example um seeing a property in the flesh and the sales agent has done a really good job with the lighting and the roast chicken is cooking in the in the kitchen and then the flowers at the front door and then the gardens have been freshly cut hey the hearts pumping and the brains going this is the one but that's actually got nothing to do that that's that's that's emotion talking.
Simon Pressley 27:29
Conversely, you could expect another property and might be, you know, significantly unrenovated. So you walk in and you see the 1970s original, you know, bathroom tiles of the mission brown real small things and, you know, the kitchen that's dated and the emotions gun, yeah, now I can see the growth, when actually that might be the best investment property. The key thing there is I've just spoken about aesthetics and the aesthetics are not important to the actual capital growth. So the trained buyer's agent will know, what are the things to look for in the place more emphasis on for what is a financial decision as opposed to emotional decision. There are some things from a quality control point of view, that the only way to satisfy those quality controls is a physical inspection. But it's then getting the most qualified party, the building inspector, the pest Inspector, the buyer's agent checking out you know, as the room size, okay, is a street selection, right, you know, what's been approved within in this community or this community going to be changing in the next few years and the things I can't see with my eyes now, inspecting the property in the flesh is not going to answer that for you. But the buyer's agent will know you know, changes that are planned and approved for that area. So, the buyer if their investor is important, they should see the property No, your buyer's agent will have processes. were required to inspect properties and verify certain things at certain times.
Meaghan Smith 29:03
Yeah, I think that's a good point. And one reason another reason I like to use a buyer's agent because I'm all about what the house looks like, I don't care about the suburb or like, what does the house look like? Is it nice, clean, fresh white paint? Is the bathroom nice? Is the kitchen nice. And I would totally, I just know what I'm like, I know that I would be looking at that when I'm looking at a property whether it's for me or not. And it's so hard for me to see past that. Like, I just it's like, well, if I wouldn't want to live there who would want to live there? Truly, but yeah,
Simon Pressley 29:37
and then we've all done it, Meaghan.
Meaghan Smith 29:39
Yeah,
Simon Pressley 29:39
We've all done it. I've done it as well. Not for a long, long time, fortunately, but you don't know what you don't know. And it's not. A property's not like an outfit or we're not feeling it to feel good. It's not like ordering. You know, a meal was off the menu in a restaurant. Yeah, because that's what we like to eat. It's a financial instrument that to making a really good financial decision as an investor, as opposed to an owner occupy is to treat it as a financial instrument. I bought properties when I was much younger, you don't know it at the time, but the decisions then were heavily influenced by how I felt when I inspected it in the flesh. So I said, this is the one and it's not to several years later, when when you're then monitoring the performance of, of that broader market, and then how and that individual property that I've chosen several years ago, then if you reflect back on it, this wasn't the best decision. Not, there was a tragedy or anything like that, but it's not to years later, you realise I was really influenced by how I felt back then, which is really silly as a as an investor. So structured decision making processes, which is part of what propertyolgy has is it's partly designed to allow the brain to process the most important information and to quarantine the other stuff that really is noise it can get in the way of a really clear and informed financial decision.
Meaghan Smith 31:01
Yeah. And just to be clear by property. Yeah, yeah. But I think it's important to point out that that doesn't mean that property investors, are like cold hearted people in the houses are horrible and not fit for people to live in, not at all, but just what it means is that house that I want to live in personally, what suits my needs, it doesn't necessarily reflect the needs of the community where I'm buying the property. And, you know, I have a property that is not like to my taste, it's not sort of the kind of place that I would live in, but we've had it rented out the whole time and, but at the same time, you know, there's nothing wrong with the house, we had to get that the heater broke down, we got it fixed straightaway, you know, like, all these things, just, it's just property investing is like having a business. It's the same thing like if you sold a product or if you had a I don't know a car rental company, I'm just trying to I'm making this up as I go along here, but the car might not be the kind of car that you want to drive. But the person who's renting the car, that's exactly the car that they want. And they're really happy with it. That doesn't mean that you're not giving them the best quality car possible for that person. It just means it's not what you want. And I think there's a I really want to be clear of that. Because I've heard people talking before, even in my group of friends that it's kind of like this property investing thing. It's Well, I know we've all Some of us have all experience having property owners who aren't, you know, maybe the nicest property owners, but not everyone's like that, you know, and you don't have to be like that either. If you're investing in property.
Meaghan Smith 32:48
Now, I send all my tenants a gift every Christmas, because I'm like, Hey guys, you have looked after this house and cared for this house. And this is I see my, my tenants as my clients as in like, I'm running a business and they're my customers, and I want them to be happy. You know, like, if anything ever breaks down, I get it fixed immediately. I remember at one stage we had this pregnant woman in one of our houses that and she was, you know, due and it was a crazy heatwave period in the town where it was and the air conditioning broke down. And when the agents called me, I said get someone out there immediately, like, you know, and this is you can be a property investor and have a heart like just because you're looking at buying a property somewhere. And you're looking at it from an investment perspective. And what's the word I'm looking for? You're making decisions from a non emotional space, that doesn't mean that you can't provide a good quality home for someone to live in.
Simon Pressley 33:59
Good Good point, Meaghan.
Meaghan Smith 34:01
Yeah. So Simon, I think I'm gonna change things up a bit as we move in towards the end of this interview. I actually just one quick question that I didn't ask you do you have to have qualifications to be a buyer's agent?
Simon Pressley 34:16
You need to have a licence the same as a real estate sales agent. So you need to be licensed in the state that you are transacting in. In Propertyology case where active in just about every state in Australia, so we need to have multiple licences because legislation is different from one state to the next. In real estate, and guess what they want a consumer is looking for is not so much qualifications over and above that, but years of experience, you know, skin in the game, does the buyer agent, walk the walk, do they practice what they preach, I think, important thing, have they got some scar tissue? You know, in our case we were investing in in properties before the GFC days during the GFC post GFC mining Boom, mining downturns and now on this dreaded COVID bar. So there's lots of experiences and all these things influence property.
Meaghan Smith 35:09
And I would also add to that, does the buyer's agent actually have properties themselves? Do they invest themselves?
Simon Pressley 35:17
If you're, if you're looking for a buyer's agent to invest in? Absolutely. The same is if you're looking for a financial planner who's recommending that you invest in shares or managed funds that they don't do that themselves, if not why they're recommending that you do it.
Meaghan Smith 35:34
Yeah, that's right. So Simon in regards to property investing, if there was one thing that the listener today could take away from this conversation, what do you think is the most important thing?
Simon Pressley 35:47
Yeah. See property as a financial instrument, as an investor, not as the bricks and the mortar and then the schools and the shopping centres and the parks and more I live there see it as a financial instrument and you cannot give yourself a good chance of making the best decision possible unless you first review 100% of your options. So see every capital city and every non capital city location Australia has all of those options, unless you can put your hand on your heart and say, I have studied the fundamentals of all of them. And from that process I've derived at investing in location x, then you've given yourself No chance. I would argue that no DIY can do that because that's what a hobby, that's a full time profession. But then perhaps the best decision they could make is go through a structured process, define a professional, who they can trust and have confidence in to help them do that. But the biggest takeaway I give to any property investor, where you live should have zero bearing on where you invest, believe me as a younger version of Simon Pressley, I did what every other DIY property invested I tossed up, you know, a few suburbs in my hometown, you know, thinking ahead Colonel Sanders, secret hits and spices. And I considered, I hadn't even considered all of, my hometown, let alone all of Australia. So I only had myself to blame. When five years later, my property was worth pretty much the same as what I paid for it. And all these other parts of Australia had had performed really, really well. That's, that was my fault. But that can be a great learning tool. It's an expensive way to learn, you know, but it's that it's that individual experience in a much younger version of myself. That forced me to literally study Australian real estate history. And then doing it Meaghan what I learned is a lot of the myths about property investing. They're actually not supported by the evidence. I mentioned earlier. Population growth, people think it's the most important thing, far, far from it. Nowhere near my top 10 most important things, but I wouldn't have known that unless I'd studied the evidence.
Meaghan Smith 37:57
Yeah, that's so interesting. Simon I know that you're a dad what is the most important advice you would pass on to your is it children or it's one you've got one
Simon Pressley 38:09
I've got a teenage boy
Meaghan Smith 38:11
ah All right, there you go. So it's all
Simon Pressley 38:14
That counts for a couple doesn't it?
Meaghan Smith 38:15
I think so. Um, so what would you teach him about? What What do you teach him about money? Do you teach him about money?
Simon Pressley 38:24
Yeah. Whether I'm whether I'm great at it, I don't know that parenting is hard, and we certainly try we've used pocket money as I guess, you know, a basic building block for later in life when, you know, when you start working and earning money from self, you know, he's not even pocket money, yes to earn pocket money. The same as I or anybody else who earns an income you have to earn the income if you don't do there own hard jobs, but if you don't do the basic chores around the house, do not expect to get the pocket money. If you do a job half hearted, don't expect to get 100% of your pocket money. How we also Thinking about money as if you want something that's you know quite expensive a lot of these Lego in that can be quite expensive a bike or your the things that kids want is rather just give children some because they want it is you know depending on what the value of it is so a bike for example we might sort of say well you first save the first hundred dollars you're teaching him to be disciplined with money and that life is not about I want and automatically given because that that's what a lot of parents do I think lovingly but you're actually not teaching children good habits that they've given because when they become adults never at all wanting something it doesn't all sudden land in your lap.
Meaghan Smith 39:40
I totally agree. Totally agree. And I always in Simon, I'm just asking my guests if you have some sort of habit, money, habit or ritual that you do that you'd be happy to share something you do personally that that helps you with your, you know, money management that the listeners might benefit from.
Simon Pressley 40:00
Yeah, look at the basic principle. But sometimes the basic things in life are also the most valuable, or quarantine money for different purposes. So, you know, as a late teenager in my first job and earn very little money, I remember I had a money box of sorts that had different compartments in it. And when I got paid, I would put X dollars, you know, in the petrol compartment and X dollars in the entertainment compartment and X dollars, you know, in whatever else the holidays or you know, in the groceries as an adult, it's not a money box, but it's different bank accounts. So, the household budget has an account that's just for our bills. So all the council rights and electricity and the phone, money comes into that account every fortnight. And then direct debits are set up for all the utilities, all of the expense account automatically come out. So I never ever have to manually pay a bill and I never have to worry about having the money to pay it. As an investor, I do the same thing. So we have a difference. bank accounts for each investment property. And we also have a different bank account for savings for the next investment property or for the, for the emergencies that every household has from time to time, so quarantining money would be my number one basic tip.
Meaghan Smith 41:15
That's interesting. I do that too. But the only thing about that is that would you agree we ended up having like a Kazillion bank accounts, that's that's the only the only downside I think to it, but I definitely agree and I do exactly the same thing. And I feel like it just makes life so much easier. You just know that you've got the money because it's set aside in that account.
Simon Pressley 41:37
I've got a friend of mine mentioned her name, but she's got a sock drawer and she's got different coloured socks and she because she still uses cash, and she puts cash in different coloured socks for different purposes.
Meaghan Smith 41:50
Good on her. So it's, hey look, if it works for you, go ahead and do it. You know, that's what that's what I think it's it's all it's got a suit you Your own lifestyle and if socks in a top drawer is your thing, then and it's working. I don't see any issue with that.
Simon Pressley 42:08
Well, I'll get, I'll guess whether it's the the money box I've described or our bank accounts or the sock drawer, the principle is the same. And that is planning ahead for important purposes.
Meaghan Smith 42:18
Yeah, that's absolutely right. Well, Simon, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show today. I think that this is really valuable information for the listeners to learn about what a buyer's what on earth is a buyer's agent? What do they actually do and how they can benefit you. so Oh, before I say goodbye, you better tell us how can we find you Simon? Of course, I'll put all the links in the show notes but how if somebody wants to talk to you or talk to Propertyology, how do we find you?
Simon Pressley 42:50
Yes, very kind of you. Thank you, Meaghan. Propertyology.com.au propertyology.com.au at the top menu, ribbon, there is a, there's a contact us section there if you just want to, you know, just a basic email. There's a bit about us there as well. I'd recommend that everyone subscribed to the propertyology newsletter. We don't. There's no sales material and that I personally write a couple of research blogs every fortnight. And we parcel that up. And that goes out to all our subscribers has an education platform for probably this is completely free. Yeah, so hopefully that some of that helps people. There's lots of lots of educational property market research blogs, on our website. The good thing about that for a consumer is they can spend as long as I want, reading as many reports as I want to, they'll be educated in doing that. They'll be starting to work out whether we might be the right fit for them or not.
Meaghan Smith 43:51
Good stuff. All right, Simon. Thank you. Again, thank you for being here today.
Simon Pressley 43:56
Thanks for the opportunity. Good on you, Meaghan. All the best.
Meaghan Smith 43:59
There you have it Simon certainly knows his stuff the fundamentals of property investing and why you need a buyer's agent. All explained. I hope this has helped clarify some common mistakes when it comes to investing in property and set you up with sound understanding of what you need to consider when it comes to property investing. As always, if you want to get to the bottom of what holds us back when it comes to money and learn how to change your money mindset and connect with your future self that is the results that you want to create on purpose. Get in touch with me anywhere that you're following me if you want to stay connected between episodes and stay up to date with all things Money Mindful, get on the mailing list, follow me on Instagram and Facebook. All the links are in the show notes. Until next time, have a beautiful week. Bye Bye.
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