Transcription

“If you do this yourself I know that it’s going to take at least 6 maybe 12 months for you to find something and even then you might end up buying the wrong property and you might end up losing money. If you go with someone who’s doing it every day you’re going to have your deal in less than 3 months. “​

Intro

Well hello, it’s Bernadette back with another episode of She Renovates. And today I have not one but two guests. I know I’ve been mentioning the event that I’m participating in October in Brisbane and Sydney. The good news is it now has a name. It’s called “Financial Freedom… Against The Odds” and I have asked my co-presenters to come and join me today to give you some insight into their areas of expertise. And for anyone coming to that event what to expect from the day.

It’s an important topic and it’s something that I know is on your mind. The day is looming when you’ll need to rely on the resources you’ve built up to support yourself and you might feel like you have to make up ground quickly. And so this is what this event is all about. It’s a full day of training and we have a group of property experts myself included who specialise in strategies to build wealth quickly with either small development powerful property deals. And for me, I know you all know me is renovating but in this situation, Airbnb is the low hanging fruit so that will form the bulk of my content.

I thought it might be a good idea for us to all get together and give you some idea of the topics that we’ll be covering and really what’s possible for you.

I want to welcome Jo Vadillo. Jo is a property strategist and buyer’s advocate and her company is called Advocate Property Services. She’s also the owner of Property Women. Jo and I have a lot of alignments in our business.

So, welcome Jo!

Jo Vadillo: Thanks, Bernadette. Lovely to be around and be able to answer any questions.

Bernadette: And Nhan Nguyen. Nhan’s specialty is small development. No money down deals. We’re all poised to take in your expertise. Nhan is the owner of Advanced Property Strategy. Welcome to you!

Nhan Nguyen: Thanks, guys for having us. And I’m really, really excited to be doing this first of many events with you guys. I know you guys have done a few things together and happy to be the rose between two thorns and adding my two cents worth on what you guys are up to.

I know it’s taken a few months and weeks to bring this together but I really like what you guys are up to and your different points of view. I think there are so many ways that people make money through property and sometimes they get a bit confused. And I love it that we’ve got all this talent between us and give the people the best opportunity to choose what sort of work for them. Don’t you think?

Bernadette: Oh, absolutely! And Jo and I, already do a lot of work together. Jo sources properties for me and also for my students. So we’re very aligned as it is. But one of the things that I say to our renovating students is that at some point in time you will need to be moving on to small development.

Well, that’s because the profit margins are better. So that’s why I’m really excited. I’m not discounting renovating for one minute obviously because it’s more than just the profit from it. Personally I’m certainly on that path. So I’m really excited about what you will be talking about.

Do you want to share a bit about what your mojo is?

Nhan Nguyen: I just love the property game. When I started out reading “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” I found there was so much information in that book about ideas and how to get free which was when I started out I definitely hated my job at the time. And the prospect of working for someone else which I know some people do too can relate to that. I was in my 20’s when I was able to quit my job and do property full time.

I also made a lot of mistakes along the way. I had a goal of getting into and doing 200 property deals or having 200 rental properties and I haven’t quite hit that dollar, it doesn’t matter. I’ve done some really cool deals made a whole stack of money, made whole stack of mistakes as well.

But my mojo is I just love the game. I love the game and I love giving back. I love doing deals but I did find that doing deals sometimes can be a bit lonely and part of my M.O. so to speak with a Christian background is I love giving back and sharing my journey making it possible for other people to do it as well because I know that you can’t do it by yourself. I have tried and it can be a place that is quite lonely and you can lose money as well.

It’s potentially risky when you don’t know what you’re doing. With property that’s where I started with the buy, reno, sell. The buy, reno, hold model. I do believe that renovation is an absolutely essential skill and I do agree with you. If you do want to make 6 figures, 7 figures, $500K-$1M plus in property you need to grow organically and use the stepping stones of the renovation strategy and step up.

But oftentimes, recently I did a 2 x 2, 5 project subdivision where we kept the existing house. That needed some renovation skills and basic renovation skills and that’s why I do believe that renovating is very very critical as an essential skill. Having said that the next step above that is developing whether you are building townhouses, apartments, subdividing. It’s a natural and organic progression.

Bernadette: Yeah, I’d agree with you about it being lonely. That was exactly my experience too and really the reason I started my business I think both of us are people people just being amongst people that are like-minded brings a lot of richness.

Nhan Nguyen: Absolutely, sometimes if your spouse or your partner or your friends, they’re just not interested and you come up and you’re talking about this problem with the solicitor or this problem with a settlement or this problem with the tenant. After a while, if they’re not into property they’re not interested and they just kind of throw it to the side.

And I know some of us who love watching the reno shows as well. For me, I think that it’s obviously a TV show it’s not reality because the reality is the wins are sometimes really big but also the challenges are big, too. Sometimes you might have the bank approved financing in a week or two before settlement or the bank changed the deal. So you deal with stressful situations and having like-minded people who experienced similar challenges can support you whether they refer you to other people or calm you down, give you a reality check on what’s possible. Because sometimes you’re just dealing with challenges that the everyday person doesn’t understand or appreciate or they just say it’s gonna be okay. Well, that’s just not enough.

When you’re looking down the barrel of commitments and unconditional contracts et cetera…

People want to quit their jobs or they want to make six-seven figures. But some of them just don’t have the right tools or skills or contacts and that can be quite costly so some people in the GFC haven’t recovered emotionally, financially. Because they were overexposed, they grew too quickly and unfortunately weren’t able to heal and get older and start again.

Bernadette: And the last thing anyone wants to be doing particularly later in life is losing money.

Nhan Nguyen: Exactly. Losing money or otherwise going back and getting a job. I believe that developing can be simple as long as you’ve got the right tools, the right training, the right mindset as well. Thinking big and starting small and if I’m working on a 30 lot subdivision now. But I didn’t start there like I started doing the buy one one one and then the twos and a couple of years ago I did the two and a five, the four lot, I did the 13 lot. But you build, build and build and you build your profile, you build your confidence, you build your finances, your war chest and even just having the right mindset and the right team.

I know for yourself if you’re doing a reno you’ll have the painter, plumber, electrician. Well in development you have the same similar team, you have the surveyor, you have the town planner, you have the engineer and over time your team will evolve to be able to match your abilities and the projects that you do. Generally, the projects I like to do sometimes involve a fair bit of difficulty because that’s where, if I could solve the problem. It’s a problem that is difficult. Other people can’t solve and therefore I might be able to buy the site a lot cheaper and sort and solves the problem with a bit of energy, a bit of expertise and turn an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan and turn it into a profit as well.

That’s part of why I love the game is solving problems and creativity. I often talk about how to do deals with no money down as well. I do find people have financial challenges or just can’t get their head around “I want to buy a property, I’m maxed out with finance to buy and hold How do I get into a deal?” So that’s a big part of learning how to do development as well as not being constrained by your finances.

Bernadette: I’m really curious to hear and to hear you talk on that. I certainly know a lot of our students struggle with finances at times. That’s really one of the reasons why I developed Airbnb. You can never have too many tools in your arsenal.

Nhan Nguyen: Absolutely. I think Airbnb is a great place for people to make quick cash and cash flow and sometimes if they want to grow bigger if they want to do development no money down. It is definitely a skill that they need to learn. Just like when people set off whether it’s a buy, reno, sell or Airbnb they need to learn how to reno.

It’s just another skill set. I know it may sound flippant or sound a bit frivolous but it’s not. It’s just like learning how to ride a bike, learning how to swim, learning how to play tennis. It’s just another skill set. For me, if the skill set evolves because I had a problem then my problem was I ran out of money and I had to go based on goals of doing deals. I had to solve that problem and I went on a mission. As a 21-year-old to figure that out how do I do deals when I’m out of funds and can’t borrow any more. And as you know when you have a problem and you’re committed to solving it. If you put your energy in, you find other people who have done it. So it’s not even a new concept it’s one thing to talk about let’s say going to the Moon or going to Mars. Very little people know money down deals. It happens every day of the week. People going public, Facebook Woolworths, Coles all the big public companies use other people’s money. So it’s not a new concept. It’s just how do you piece it together so the layman person can use it to buy a house.

Bernadette: And that’s another one of those things where we need to develop a skill set around that by navigating the risk of it. You clearly mastered that.

Nhan Nguyen: I think that’s definitely one of the fundamental things is that you’ve got to buy right. You’ve got to buy under market value or you’re going to have an upside in your deal. Oftentimes people come unstuck when they’re doing no money down because the deal itself is actually fundamentally no good. So I say to people that no money down is just a finance vehicle it is no different to let’s say go into the bank and getting funding. If the deal is no good, the funding will just make it worse.

It will make it faster. It’s a vehicle to accelerate your ability to do deals. But if the deal is rubbish there’s no profit in it, it’s retail, then you’re going to make a big mess of it. The fundamental part of what I teach is you make your money when you buy. If you buy right, get a discount or what you’ve done recently Bernadette the free block claims, keep the house cut off the backyard, so to speak. If there’s profit in it. Know we’re talking 15, 18, 20% profits then the money partner becomes or the joint venture deal becomes a viable option. But if the deal doesn’t happen, then no money down is a disaster for everybody.

Bernadette: Are there deals around at the moment?

Nhan Nguyen: I believe so. I’ve got clients recently earlier in the year bought a double block on the north side 10 K’s out and she paid I think in the nines cut it in 2 and she’s made 200K by June this year. So, that’s an example. Another client of mine bought a house and I force sold it for high sixes. Buy, reno and sell there and made just under 100K in about 90 days so I believe whichever markets you’re in if it’s a buyer’s market. I think people should be getting deals ready right now and looking for those opportunities right. So there are deals right there. Right now it’s just a mindset and getting yourself deal ready and active and doing your market research, talking to agents and being clear in your strategy.

Bernadette: Are you specifically talking about the Brisbane market, Nhan?

Nhan Nguyen: Yes, I am. I believe the other clients in Melbourne as well who are doing some really, really cool deals down there as well. I know that I believe that it’s a buyer’s market down there as well it’s just recently stabilised and I’ve got a client doing a one into four there and that’s really really cool to see state motivated seller. Some of the owners are still asking too much but in that free block of land play where they keep the house at the front cut off three of the back. There’s definitely, definitely opportunities there. I think it just comes down to matching the strategy with the marketplace as well.

Bernadette: Awesome. Well, I’m really, really looking forward to your sessions. Now, I thought I would move on to Jo. Thank you for that, Nhan. We’ll see you in a few weeks in Brisbane and Sydney.

Hi Jo. How are you?

Jo Vadillo: Hi Bernadette. I’m here I’m listening. I’m focusing on what Nhan was saying and really interested to see and hear more about what he does. I know a few of his students and few advocates. What he does, the levels of mentoring he provides as well.

Bernadette: I have a huge amount of admiration for what you provide.

I’ve certainly been your client and am currently. I’m really interested in what you offer because not everyone has the capacity to get the right deal for their projects and that’s where you come in.

Jo Vadillo: Yeah. Traditionally started out as a buyers agent. And so very responsive to clients briefs and budget and moved into the strategy to I guess be responsive to clients’ goals. So many people would want what other people were doing and I want to replicate that. But does it sit in with your lifestyle? Your stage of life? Your budget? Where you’re headed? Is this the right fit for you?

We very much start at that base with our clients and ensure we get them into the right property and in the current economic climate we are very much talking to clients about showing that they’ve got a really strong yielding property even if that just makes up part of their portfolio and it’s not the be-all and end-all of it. It’s just anchors them and allows them to have the lifestyle that they want to live now.

I don’t believe a strategy of drink after eating two-minute noodles for 15 years is a good one to get you to a lucrative retirement it’s all about living now and enjoying the process as well.

Bernadette: It’s sort of about being strategic.

Jo Vadillo: Absolutely, completely. And I think people do get lost in seeing the successes of others to the point though where they know someone that works that did something 3 years ago in a location that that ship has sailed. You can’t buy what they bought for that dollar value it won’t sell for the same profit margins. And I think people do get swept up in it.

It’s fantastic. I’m all about being inspired and motivated which is similar to what you know yourself and Nhan both mentioned surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals.

I think that’s really really important but it’s also about making sure that we’re as you go forward that the fit is right. And I guess one of the products of massively advocating, for now, is the two-income opportunities and the dual occupancy properties that we’re finding our clients are not only been able to secure but do again and again because it’s actually buffering up their income if not in some cases replacing their income.

Bernadette: Well isn’t that a unicorn. They’ve got equity, growth and yield.

Jo Vadillo: That’s right. I do apologise to any Spanish native speakers that listen to this because I may not do this sentence justice but the terminology is “Por que no los dos?” like why can’t you have both? Or why can’t you have the two of them must be given the translation. Why can’t you have a positive yielding rental property? But at the same time, you are still getting those returns year on year capital gains context so that you are in a position to draw equity and at the same time you’re actually buffering up your day to day income levels.

And I have preached this for a number of years. It’s like adding another human into your family unit, another adult income into a family unit. You don’t need to share a bathroom with them or buy them Christmas presents. It’s a property and it’s doing the same work for you it’s bringing in that extra income, it’s fantastic.

Bernadette: That’s an interesting analogy!

Jo Vadillo: Completely doable especially with depreciation to add on top of the equity and add on top of your rental returns.

Bernadette: And you know what? I still hear people saying, “I’ve got a tax problem, I’ve got to buy a property”. And the inference is I’ve got to buy something that’s going to lose money. So I don’t pay so much tax.

Does that drive you crazy?

Jo Vadillo: Might feel like a crazy thing to say. But the way I see it if you’re paying tax you’re making money. But I enjoy good roads and hospitals and schools. But build a portfolio that is smart. And yes, you’re increasing your taxable income but then we’ve got because we’re focused as part of a strong property portfolio. I guess an element of new property build. You’ve got depreciation benefits there as well. And that makes up a really good strong component. People who are looking to minimise some of their taxable income as well as negative gearing.

I’ve got a diverse portfolio. Got a little bit of something and I have gone down the subdivision route, VA’s, Self-Managed Super Funds. I have now sold properties that I’ve had with strata elements to it. I’ve got the dual-income, I’ve got the set and forget, I’ve done the reno, equity buyer gain formula and that’s how I kind of got started.

I think when you’re really sitting down and looking at your portfolio and forward planning you need to take a little consideration. And this is one of the reasons I always suggest or highly recommend it when you build your team around you. Your accountant should really be at the top of that tree and have an accountant as part of your team that understands your motivations and your goals and also understand property and is on board with that as well.

Bernadette: I fully agree with that. That’s one of the first things we address, making sure that our clients have a property-specific accountant that has a portfolio of their own and understanding.

Jo Vadillo: Yes, 100 percent. I think people get lost in that. I can do this. As you and Nhan when you were discussing like you can do this on your own but it’s quite lonely. And if you do this with the right team around you and that is having fantastic financial support from a mortgage broker from your accountant. If you’re looking to step forward in a realm that’s new to you it’s also about outsourcing and getting mentoring and support and that also includes as part of the overall picture. Property strategist and a buyer. it’s money well spent. I think it can be a false economy when you’re trying to save money but then you’re buying into poor deals that could take 10 years to come to fruition or to rectify losses as well.

Bernadette: Exactly. Unless they’re really experienced in sourcing property deals, to use an expert. And often I’ll get asked, “Yeah, but doesn’t that cost you money?” It doesn’t cost them money and I’ll say to them, If you do this yourself I know that it’s going to take at least 6 maybe 12 months for you to find something and even then you might end up buying the wrong property and you might end up losing money. If you go with someone who’s doing it every day you’re going to have your deal in less than 3 months. You’ll have your first profit made. The cost can pale into insignificance. Anything else you’re going to cover in your session?

Jo Vadillo: Well, I do want to cover off what you can do with excess funds. If you’re in a position where your income, your household income is rising as a result of good investments. What are you doing with that additional funds? And that could be, I mentioned lifestyle I mean perhaps it’s forward planning for your children’s education, it could be assisting other family members, it could be putting the money and funneling the money back into your principal place of residence.

I’ll be running through some of those numbers and what that will look like in terms of years time-saving, interest saving as well or comparing that, too if I was to put these funds perhaps in an offset account and when I’m in a position to buy and gain. A formula that I look at allows people to be added to get additional funds quicker from a lender and be able to get back in the property market again far quicker than a property that is negatively geared.

That’s a reality and I think it’s about as you are planning towards building your portfolio. This is one of the tools that’s going to enable you to build a portfolio around you and you do need multiple properties as part of that retirement strategy long term as well but not with sacrificing the day to day joys of life. I mean that’s really very important to take on board as well.

And some of the properties I will be presenting and showing you also meet the changing face of Australia’s demographics and how we live as well which is very different to say my grandparents’ era of the way that they would live. And that’s just I mean a square meter each of what people are expecting. The fact that now more and more I think the biggest rising number of households now is a single person household as well but they’re not living with children. But then almost ironically there’s also a big rise now in a lot of cultures that are looking at multigenerational living. So I’m going to be sort of sharing what that looks like and how you can I guess meet that growing demand as well. As you look at building your own portfolio how to meet what people are looking for in terms of housing and to buy and also to rent as well.

Bernadette: And that really plays into the high cash flow scenario as well, doesn’t it?

Jo Vadillo: Absolutely.

Bernadette: So if you’ve got the ability pay. I’ve heard it referred to as opening up the funnel and providing lots of different opportunities to different sort of family makeup to use the property.

Jo Vadillo: And people often ask with the two incomes and the house with the granny flat or the two incomes under one roof the duplexes. Who is the buyer? Ultimately they rent like hotcakes but the buyer can be the first homeowner that wants to live in part of the house and then have I guess additional funnel themselves of income by subletting the smaller side out. It could be the downsizes that want to live in a smaller side and then have rent out the larger size inside of the house with the duplex as you can sell one side off.

If you want to free up your assets to buy something else there’s that formula at your disposal as well. There’s a whole bunch of really exciting ways and strategies not only on when you’re making that initial purchase but it’s to meet rental demand. But it’s also about your exit strategy when you get out of the property ultimately. I think a lot of people get into deals without actually considering exit strategies especially for the changing market around them as well.

Bernadette: I’m really looking forward to that as well. Actually, that segway is pretty well into my topic Jo. I’m going to be talking predominantly about short term rental. Now, most people think of it as Airbnb in actual fact. We’re talking about multiple platforms. However, we love Airbnb because it’s the easiest platform. Talking about the changing face of how we live in Australia, a lot of our really successful Airbnb hosts have actually started their portfolio in their own backyard.

One student that came to us to do quite a big renovation on her house and it was just going to be overcapitalised. She wanted to do the reno on the house and then go and access the equity to buy an investment property. And the problem was she would have been so heavily leveraged that she wouldn’t have been able to do anything .

What we did was pull back that plan. She still got the dream home. But in it was the ability to actually have a little suite for Airbnb that gave her current income. And she had about $80K left over. With that $80K that she saved. She’s loving the Airbnb so much that she’s now gone and built like a granny flat under main roof so that she’s got a second income. And this one is not actually in her home. And so going from just the family home to having the family home and 2 investment properties without going outside the door I think its awesome.

Now it’s not for everyone but many Australians are looking at it be it their empty nesters with their great big 5-bedroom, 3-bathroom home looking at how can we leverage this to help in our retirement and stay in our own home? When we downsized we made sure that we bought something that had additional income. And of course, Airbnb is the path that we’ve chosen because it’s so much better. In Sydney and I think in other cities as well the rental yield has dropped considerably. Airbnb seems to be a no-brainer.

Jo Vadillo: The good thing about Airbnb, I mean it’s something you can do pretty quickly.

Bernadette: Yes. That’s one thing that I’m going to be presenting, the program for getting going from standing. So from zero income to setting up an Airbnb and having income coming in the door in 7 days. That’s the great thing about Airbnb. It’s almost instant. If you’ve got the space you can have that up and running and have money in the door in 7 days.

But the other thing that I have found and once again working with people that can’t get finance is it’s a fantastic way to actually build an income. You don’t actually have to own property to do it. You can use rented property and yes you do need to get permission from your landlord to do that.

When I first discovered how amazing this strategy is I got so excited and I went back to my students and said, “This is amazing, this is what you can do” We put together a program to help them because obviously there are a few pitfalls along the way. And they went mad and one particular student over 18 months built 18 listings all on rented properties. She built an income that was around a half million a year all on rental properties in Brisbane where the property you know like talk about turning lemons into lemonade.

Now I’m not suggesting that everyone would want to do that. Some people would only want to have maybe 1 or 2 listings where they have maybe 10K, 20K, or 30K extra coming in a year so they can pay the school fees, to pay off the mortgage maybe go on a flash holiday and then there are others who want to replace their income.

But one of the things that I’ll be doing at the event is actually going through the process of how you build a $100K a year income using Airbnb and rented properties . The beautiful thing about that. If you set it up with the right legal entities then you can do that in a way that you’re able to demonstrate income you’re able to build up serviceability so that you can get a loan. That’s what excites me the most about Airbnb.

A lot of the women particularly that we worked with have come off pretty badly come out of it maybe come out of a marriage worse off or have just slipped through the cracks in terms of superannuation. And this is a fabulous way to build momentum. And it really feeds into their skills because most of them are style queens, they’re nurturers, they’re homemakers and are just perfect for the strategy. So that’s what I’m excited about.