Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Get Invested: Finding a Good Property Manager and Why It’s Key to Investment Success, with Lauren Robinson

Episode Date: July 1, 2018

A good property manager can be crucial in the success or otherwise of a property investment over the long term. But choosing the right one can be surprisingly difficult – so where do you start? What do look for? And what should you expect from a good property manager? I’ve gone straight to the source on this episode of Get Invested. My guest is Lauren Robinson. The great thing about this chat with Lauren is that she comes to the topic from two perspectives, both as an award-winning property manager with her own successful business, Rental Results, and as a long-term property investor in her own right. In fact, when it comes to property management and investors, she wrote the book on the subject – it’s called Rented. And as you’ll hear, Lauren really knows her stuff. Here’s just some of what we check off the list in this episode:        What makes a good property manager      Top tips for choosing a good one      Why you should never self-manage a property      The benefits of using a dedicated property manager      How to minimise risks and maximise returns      Why she doesn’t manage her investment properties      The advantages of rent-vesting      Co-ownership – risks and rewards      Key reasons why landlords fail      Thoughts on pet-friendly rentals   Links:   Lauren Robinson - LinkedIn Rental Results Book - RentedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

And I think it is really important to do your homework and maybe not just go with, you know, the sales. Like if you purchase a property through a sales agent, maybe don't just go with their property management arm. Have a look around and see what other options are out there. Welcome to the Get Invested podcast, where we share conversations I've enjoyed with experts from all walks of life to uncover their secret know-how on where they invest their time, their skills, and their money, and the benefits this has created. Get Invested helps you to live more, work less, and leave a legacy by investing now. Listen to the show to discover top tips on how to get started to make the most of your investment journey and ultimately

to be living the dream. More episodes can be found on iTunes or at khgroup.com.au forward slash getinvested. Thanks for listening and let's get invested. Welcome back to Get Invested Freedom Fighters. If you're a property investor or you're thinking about it. What do you think makes or breaks your investment success? You may be surprised to hear that it all revolves around property management. Now, if you've got a good property manager, your investment journey can be a dream. However, if you get an average property manager, or worse still, you decide to try and do it yourself, then it often leads to financial and very stressful disaster. Now despite this, 70% of current property investors still self-manage

their property. And those that do decide to get a property manager tend to just focus on getting the cheapest fees. Now believe me, there's a lot more to it if you're going to be successful. And I think it's probably the reason why 50% of first-time property investors sell their property within the first five years, never to return. So what makes a good property manager? And how do you choose a good one? Well, this is where today's guest comes in. Lauren Robinson is a multi-award-winning property manager, and she's owner and director of her

own company, Rental Results. They're a dedicated and professional property management firm based in Brisbane in Queensland. Now Lauren's been in the industry for years and she's recently published a book called Rented and today we talk about this and we also delve into her experience and expertise to help you to minimise your risk and to maximise your return and most importantly enjoy your property investment journey when you decide to put your future into property. So please enjoy Lauren Robertson. Okay, we're back on Get Invested today and we've got the pleasure of talking to Lauren Robinson. Lauren is an award-winning property manager who runs her own business.

She's also an author, but without me getting into the details of it, welcome to Get Invested, Lauren. Oh, thanks very much for having me, Bushy. Great to have you here. Now, really looking forward to drilling into our journey today and I'm a big fan of property managers given they are absolutely pivotal to the property investor experience. But before we sort of drill into some of that, can you tell us a bit about who you are, what you do and why you're doing it? Yeah.

So I guess I have over 14 years experience now in the property management industry and I own a business in Brisbane called Rental Results and I started investing when I was 21 and had a great experience and was working in a property management office at the time I'm surrounded by mentors and that's sort of how I guess I started my property journey initially. Okay. So the – and let's go straight there then. So you bought your own property, your first property at 21? Is that what I'm hearing?

Yeah. So I bought it – yep. So when I was 21, I was living in a share house with some of my friends and I thought – and I was surrounded by people purchasing property and working in property management at the time. And I guess that sort of really spurred me on that. I thought I actually really want my own investment property or my own property to live in initially and then, you know, make that an investment as well. So, yeah, so I started looking. It took me about a year to find something that I was happy with.

You know, I ended up purchasing in Paddington in Brisbane. Nice. Okay. Tell me about your thinking around that time. What motivated you to want to invest in property at that tender age, Lauren? and I guess the fact that I was seeing people invest every day of the week and it just sort of became the norm that's what I was living and breathing and I was also managing people's investment properties so um I just found it really exciting and whenever I saw someone

purchase a new property I you know I just felt like I really wanted to get involved and start doing that so um and I guess when I was the first thing I did was I went and saw a mortgage broker and just wanted to know how much could I actually borrow at 21 and, you know, what would be the repayments and just to get more of an understanding about how much of a deposit I need. And then I started looking, well, now that I know how much I could borrow, where can I live? What can I afford to buy?

Awesome. Okay, well, what you're demonstrating there straight off the bat is that you're getting your ducks in a row by pre-planning whereas a lot of people we see in the property market Let's focus on the property and then try and work the rest out afterwards. So awesome work on that. Let me take a step back then. So you're obviously working in property management at that stage.

If we go back to the time that you decided to get into property management, what was it that attracted you into the property management arena? I guess I initially – I mean, growing up, I'd never really heard of property managers. I grew up in country town and my parents had an investment property, but I didn't really have anything to do with it. And then I moved to Brisbane for uni and I rented and we dealt with a property manager, but it was never something that I thought, oh, I definitely want to do that. And I think I got into sales initially and then realized, oh, that's actually quite hard

when you're 19. um so i then um i then sort of fell into property management and i was really lucky to get um to to be approached by a property management only company in brisbane right um and i and i had fantastic training there so and i worked there for eight years before they sold the business but they grew over that time when i started they had about 400 properties and they grew to nearly 2000 over those eight years that I worked there. Massive. That's massive growth.

Did they do that all by organic lettings or were they buying rent rolls or how did they manage to generate that massive level of growth over that timeframe? Yeah, so they were one of probably the first property management only companies in Brisbane and I guess they sort of pioneered that specialist or specialisation in the market. So, that really helped and I think they had a really good focus on customer service. So, it was a really customer-centric business.

They did buy a small rent role but over the time, they really grew the business. Majority of the business was organic growth. That's a tremendous – it's a real testimony to obviously the quality of service that you're providing as a team at that point in time because that is quite exceptional growth. Definitely. So, property managers are a unique beast in my experience, Lauren, because you're quite often dealing with very emotive and quite conflicting needs at times between what the landlord's looking for and what the tenant's wanting. and you're obviously a seasoned campaigner because I haven't spoken to too many who've survived over 10 years in property management.

So talk to me about the qualities that you bring to the table and obviously those that you engender in your own property management business now that have enabled you to survive, prosper and enjoy that property management career. Yeah, I think organisation is a big part of it and you have to, you know, really be on the ball with a lot of things. I think not taking things personally, which is easier said than done,

but a lot of the time, you know, we are the middle person, you know, and at the end of the day, we work for the landlord and obviously the landlord wants to make sure, you know, their tenant is their customer. So we're sort of in the middle there trying to manage that relationship and it can be difficult at times. But I think having a thorough understanding of the legislation and just relying on that knowledge

and also making sure your organisational skills are there. You also have to, you know, marketing, counselling. You know, we wear a number of hats and it's just, you know, trying to balance everything and just remember that we are dealing with humans at the end of the day. Yes, yeah, absolutely right. We're talking real people and it's at that sort of fundamental personal level.

Now, just talking that through then, And the key qualities that you think, because from my knowledge, and this may be out of date, Lauren, but to my understanding, I think there's still 70% of residential investment properties that are privately managed or that the landlord self-manages them. If you were talking to someone who's doing that, what are the benefits of using a dedicated a professional property manager over trying to do it yourself do you think? Yeah I mean I think it's you know very difficult to manage your own property because for one you're not only emotionally attached to it I don't manage my own investments in the office and I think you know you're sometimes

you're not thinking clearly keeping up with the legislation and the knowledge there's about so you've got your residential tenancy act and you've got your property occupations act and then you also need to know you know your fire legislation and there's a number of different sections of legislation you need to be on top of so that's a full-time job in itself then receiving the rent managing the tenancy looking after any inspections so ingoings outgoings and routine inspections and then handling any maintenance and that's just the the basics so you might have a tenant who has a complaint about a neighbor or you've got a dividing fence issue or a tree issue you know the property manager deals with all of that for you um we run insurance claims on behalf of you know landlords

we pay their rates their body corporate levies that you know their water bills and then on top of that we then invoice the tenants for water so it's definitely a full-time job and i think if you're trying to do this on your own whilst you know running it you know working yourself or running a full-time job and then having if you have a family you know trying to get the kids around and um and also have a life you know it's very difficult absolutely great i've always said that um uh if you're trying to self-manage a property you've bought yourself a second job and that's not actually an investment that's a drain on your time so way better to be the the worst player in the room and get good professionals around you that are looking

after you and then just manage the manager so um so you do you handle many interstate landlords in the portfolio of properties that yourself and the business looks after lauren yeah we've got quite a lot of landlords that are both interstate and also overseas so um and you know we handle the whole process for them we take photos and inspections we take photos of entries exits um and i guess the other thing you know if they're ever in brisbane we always love to meet them and have a look through the property together so um but yeah we've got lots of clients that aren't actually in Brisbane or local and yeah and they've chosen to invest in Brisbane. Yeah brilliant our business is helping quite a few investors moving into South East Queensland as we speak actually given

the the high growth potential that we think it has at the sort of price points. Are there any additional challenges that come from looking out for an interstate landlord over a local landlord do you think um no i really feel um you know the whole point of having a property manager is ideally to not be too involved they they manage everything and take the stress away from you so whether you're local or interstate or overseas really you know it's it's it should all be fairly stress-free for an investor yeah okay that's that's awesome i've had a good look at your book, Rented, which I think really sums up all of the key issues that a potential investor needs to consider both before, during and after getting involved in a property.

And you cover some awesome subjects in that. Oh, thank you. I'm particularly interested in having a bit of a chat to you about rent vesting because We're quite strong proponents of rent-vestors, particularly for young investors who may not have the ability to buy the dream home, but if they rent and then put all of their capacity into tax-deductible properties that, if they're structured well, won't cost them much, is a great way to set themselves up. But what's your view on rent vesting and what sort of exposure have you had to it with the landlords that you look after today? We've got a number of landlords and quite a few actually that have investment properties that choose to rent elsewhere. And I think it's a great option. I mean, I think at the moment in particular markets across Australia, there's an oversupply of apartments and house and land packages, you know, are quite often a good investment.

um so what we're finding and i've got a number of friends who've purchased homes um further away from the city and then they they still want to maintain their lifestyle so they work in the city so they're renting you know within four kilometers of the city they can run to work in the mornings um and still you know be able to go to restaurants and things like that but they own an investment property that they eventually may want to live in or it's you know growing in capital capital growth In the meantime, that's not necessarily in the location that they actually want to live in. Yeah, exactly.

It's sort of the best of both worlds. It's what we often say is access lifestyle but own investments that are ultimately going to make you money. Not having to – I think we've all been brought up to believe that you have to put all your money into your home. If you separate lifestyle from investment in that context, then you can pretty much have the best of both worlds. Yeah, definitely.

One of the other subjects that you cover is co-ownership. Can you talk a little bit about co-ownership to those that may be having to look at that given that individually they may be not able to secure property in their own right? Yeah, so I guess it's just another option. So rather than just purchasing a property in your own name, it may be worth looking into purchasing a property with a second person. person like it might be a family member or a friend so there's a number of legalities so you could you know you can purchase as a joint tenant there's there's different options available out

there for people so but I guess you also need to look into the risks because it is similar to having a business partner and you need to make sure that you've got you know every the agreement is signed before purchasing a property, just so that both parties have their interests assured there. Yes, absolutely. One of the other subjects that I really enjoyed in the book, Lauren, was your discussion around the reasons that new landlords fail. Can you share with us what they are in essence?

Yeah, so I guess when you're a new landlord, there's a couple of things you need to be really careful of and they can be, you know, purchasing a property that may be an emotional decision as opposed to something that's going to be a good investment. So, you may think that you want to purchase a property that, you know, has a pool because you really like, you know, you really wanted to have a pool yourself or purchasing an investment that, you know, might be close to a train station or, you know, I guess you've really got to think of what your, who your target market is going to be and aim to look at properties that are going to be able to attract those types of tenants in order to pay the highest rent.

Also, another thing to be careful is if you're managing a property yourself, you can form a personal relationship with the tenant. So they start ringing you on your mobile, you know, on a Sunday if there's a leak and things like that. It's just making sure you have those boundaries because, you know, at the end of the day, it's a business and you should treat it as such. Yes. And also not charging market rent.

So, you might think, oh, they've been really great tenants, I really like them, they've looked after the property, so I'll just leave the rent, you know, below market rent which is one strategy but it's also, you know, if you have a property manager, that's their job to understand the market and know what rent you should be charging and again, you've got to remember it's a business and also not maintaining your investment property. So, that's a really important thing is, you know, to make sure like the silicon behind a kitchen's you know maintained it's not cracked or you know you're going to a property and you know the carpet's torn things like that you just want to make sure that your property is presenting

as well as possible and in a great condition because not only is it a legislative requirement but it's also you know you're maintaining your asset yeah no that's awesome advice so if a one of the listeners is either an existing landlord or they're about to invest in property What advice do you give to them in terms of how to choose the right property manager, Lauren? Yeah, so I guess I always recommend meeting the property manager. Actually, in the book, which is Rented, I've actually got a checklist in there on what you should be looking for when you choose a property manager. But there's a number of things. So I guess you want to make sure that they – I always recommend specialist property management agencies.

So, rather than having an agency that focuses on sales as well as rentals, that they purely just do rentals because they tend to be a bit more focused on that. Making sure that they understand the legislation, asking them how many properties they actually manage and how long they've been at the agency for. And also finding out about their leasing process. So, if you have a vacant property, how are they going to market your property so it stands out from the others in the marketplace? do they do personal viewings um do they hand out keys do they what sort of background checks do they perform you know are they coming through on a regular basis to check your investment for routine inspections and how do you know what like what are they actually checking when they go through um so there's a whole list that i've actually got and put together so that i would

recommend asking a property manager just so you have a really good understanding of what your expectations are of them and what they what you what you can expect from them too yeah that's awesome a couple of rules of thumb then that flow from those questions so let's take a couple of those because the the average landlord or investor really won't have a sense or feel for this but one of the questions you mentioned was how many properties do you manage what is a and a sort of number that's uh comfortable to uh for a property manager to be able to uh yeah it really depends on um on the structure as a business so you know if it's a portfolio business which means that one property manager manages um manages the entire process so they might um and in our office for

example we have someone who looks after the leasing of the properties so her full-time job is to make sure that there's no vacancies and then the property managers focus on the entry condition reports the vacates the maintenance and the handling of any issues that may arise during the tenancy right and we have a different person who does all the trust accounting so and typically a property manager would manage around about 100 properties depending on their level of experience so um it just it really just depends on their capabilities and how long they've been with the agency and their level of experience at the end of the day but um you know if you have got maybe a new a new property manager they may not be able to manage 100 properties they might

be able to manage you know 10 or 15 initially until they get gather that experience and you know understanding so if you were a landlord let's say you're looking to get your own property managed lauren what answers are you looking for to those key questions to make you feel comfortable that you've got the right person looking after your greatest investment. Yeah, I guess I'd probably want to see an example of an entry condition report that they've completed because the entry condition report's probably one of the most important documents

and it sort of sets the tone for the entire tenancy. I'd want to know how often routine inspections are carried out and whether the property manager's doing those themselves or whether they've got, you know, sometimes agencies outsource the routine inspections to another company or they may also have a junior staff member doing those. Yes. And I'd also want to make sure, you know,

will I be notified of all maintenance and do they have any systems or technology that handle that maintenance process? Yes. Because I think, you know, they're the main things. The entry condition report, you know, really saves you at the end with the vacate and then during the tenancy you want to make sure

that the property is, you know, regularly being checked and everything's in order. No, that's very good advice. So the key thing I'm taking away from what you're saying is that the benefits of a portfolio approach where effectively you've got one property manager managing beyond leasing your property from end to end and therefore is totally across pretty much all of the issues associated with that property will be far more beneficial than the other option in the industry which is the sort of pod approach where you've got a conveyor belt of people handling different aspects of it And therefore, much greater opportunity that something's going to fall through the cracks. Would that be a fair assessment? Yes, definitely. So I think quite often there's actually, you know, quite a high turnover in property management in the industry.

So the average property manager generally turns over every six months, which, you know, no landlord wants to know about. And I guess at the end of the day, you know, you really want to know that the property manager is going to be the one at the beginning who's put the tenants in and also the one who's going to do the vacate at the end. So, there's no sort of safeguard to say that they're going to be there the whole time. But ideally, you want to know they've been with the agency for a while and they're going to stay, ideally. Yeah. So, I think portfolio system is good because at least you have that relationship with the property manager.

You ring the office, they know you, they know your property and they know your tenants. Whereas if you're ringing an agency and you're dealing with maybe someone who's never seen your property. It's, you know, definitely not the same experience in terms of service. Yeah, very good point. Now, the other side of the coin here, I guess, is that in terms of having a successful business and a successful experience for your landlords, you've obviously got some criteria around landlords as well as tenants. So, what sort of landlords and or properties do you say no to as a business owner? yeah so i normally go out and see every new management that we put on um and i feel like

that's sort of a non-negotiable for me and i i really need to do that just to make sure that you know it's it's not sort of a um a liability as well so we really want to make sure that landlords are maintaining their property not only for um risk mitigation reasons for you know themselves in our office but also you know to make sure that it's safe for the tenants um it's it is there's a number of requirements under the legislation so like owning an investment property is actually a business and you need to treat it as such so and you need to be aware that you know if you have cracks in your driveway or if you've got pavers that are lifting that's actually a trip hazard and could be a potential risk so it is really important to make sure that

your property is well maintained. So I think if a landlord wasn't prepared to look after their property or spend money um you know that would be a concern if if there were risks at the property okay well let's um uh flip around to the other side and uh what advice do you give investors in terms of the warning signs uh when you're looking out for choosing good tenants um i guess you know it's really important to make sure like we do all our checks on our end so when we're doing our checks we make sure that the tenant's not blacklisted on any database um And we're also making sure that, you know, if they own their own business, we're speaking to their account and we're getting financial information. We're speaking to their current employers if they're employed.

We're checking all the previous rental references. If they own a property, we're checking on that as well. So, doing as many possible checks as are available and also making sure that, you know, if these things aren't done, you know, you could potentially have a risk of your landlord insurance not covering you. if the basics haven't been met at the beginning of the tenancy. So that's probably one of the most important things as well as the entry condition report is making sure that you've done all the checks on the tenant. So there are always risks involved in owning an investment property

and tenants, you are dealing with people so things can change in their life. So all you can do at the beginning is make sure you've done as many checks as possible to try and mitigate any risks there. Yeah, awesome. One of the other subjects that a lot of landlords get concerned about is tenants having pets. A lot of people have pets.

What's your view of that and what do you say to landlords who may have those concerns? I really think it comes back to the property and whether it's suitable to have a pet there and also the tenant as well. Obviously, there's good pet owners and not so good a pet owner. So, we ask for a pet reference, we ask for photos of the pet and we try and gather as much information as possible. If we have a particular breed that the pet is, we look into what typically are the traits of that breed but it really comes back to, you know, whether the property is suitable and we find that if it's a family home with a fully fenced yard, you know, you are likely

to attract a family with a pet and by not allowing a pet, you know, you really do limit your market. So, I think it just comes back to it's often something that should be considered upon application depending on the property. Okay. Good thoughts around that. Okay. Now, sort of turning back to you and your business, I love talking about property management as you can see. It's certainly been a big part of our own property journey to now.

But having a look at yourself and your business now, I noticed in one of your media releases you talk about the fact that you've taken your business from nought to 400 properties in three years. Can you tell us about that and what challenges have you and your business experienced in enjoying that sort of massive growth? Yeah, I guess I initially started the business on my own. So I had an opportunity to work from the back office of a developer's office and he let me use a desk there, which was really, really great. So that helped initially when I was first starting out and I worked there until I had about 70 properties that I was managing and then I was able to afford an office space. But that was probably the hardest time when you're doing everything on your own. So, you know, you're answering all the phone calls, you're emptying the bins, you're doing the mail plus all your normal property management jobs, you're trying to lease properties, do all the trust accounting, pay the trades people and it can be quite overwhelming and I spent a lot of time at the office in that first year but it does get easier and as you grow, you know, you've got support staff and, you know, it's definitely a lot easier after a while. So now I've been going now for four and a half years

and we manage nearly 500 properties now. Massive. Well done. And we've got six of us at the office now, which is much easier. I'm hearing a lot of blood, sweat and tears and maybe late nights and lots of weekends in those early days. Talk to me about the decision to open your own property management business. You're obviously working for a successful business for quite some time

and you mentioned that that business was sold. Was that the – that's what prompted you to make that decision? Talk to us about your thinking at the time, if you can, please. Yeah. I actually – I never wanted to own a business, to be honest. That was never something that I – I just never thought – it's not something that I ever thought I ever wanted to do, but I actually was studying a marketing degree whilst I was working

and I'd been doing that for nine years whilst working full-time and so I finally finished. So after I worked at the office for eight years where they had, you know, I grew up to 2,000 properties, I worked for another office after that doing business development for three years. And then I actually was approached by a developer who said, you know, you should start your own. Would you like to, you know, use the back of my office to start? And I thought, well, you know, it's probably a really good opportunity to do so. and at the time I said no initially and then I sort of came around in thinking and because obviously it's a big step going from, you know,

earning a decent income to basically, you know, earning nothing and sort of, you know, and you're used to going into an office and having, you know, heaps of emails and being really busy and to all of a sudden walking in and you've got a single email and you've got to generate a business which is not so easy. No, absolutely. Well, I've shared that journey on a number of occasions and so looking back now, what's been your biggest challenge in your career today and what have you learned from that?

I think initially in that first, probably the first six months, when you're incredibly exhausted, you're earning less than half of what you were before and you're working more hours than you've ever done before i just i i just was sort of thinking why am i doing this um and i i had probably three people approach me at the time to go into partnerships with them and i seriously considered that just because i just couldn't see how this would get any better um and yeah i'm glad i didn't i persevered um so because yeah i just i feel like now the decisions are a lot easier to make when it's just solely one director. Totally, and I would absolutely endorse that decision.

Having been involved in a number of partnerships over the years, while they've been very beneficial to get you to a certain point in time, there's still an element of compromise that comes in when you're having to satisfy a number of people's needs. So what gave you the resilience to say, well, no, I think I'll just soldier on? Can you remember what your thinking was at the time? um i i asked a few people um in around me and everyone sort of had said you know if you can

hang in there and you know perhaps look at hiring someone um and it's hard to do when you you know you can't afford to hire someone but i sort of thought no i need to do that and i'll i'll jump on to that um i'll take that path rather than a partnership and and then reassess it in maybe six months time and see how i'm feeling at that point um and i'm really glad i did that absolutely I would full praise to you in having the solitude and the resilience to be able to overcome that mountain because it's the old story when your business gets to a certain critical mass, all of a sudden things start to change. And clearly the growth for yourself and the business has been exponential since then and with the amount of industry recognition that you're achieving and taking the time out to write a book. So talk to me about that, having taken 18 months to write my own book and it's a very interesting journey.

Talk to me about the book writing experience. Why did you do it? What's been the benefits to you and to others of going through that? Please, Laura. Yeah, so, yeah, obviously I did a program to write the book and that was a really good experience. I guess it sort of set out like the stages of it. We did a 30-day writing challenge.

So every day you wrote 1,000 words. And it's actually been a really great experience. I had a book launch in March this year and since then I've, you know, done a number of radio talks and I also did some work with a major bank on talking about millennials purchasing investment properties and there's been some great opportunities that have come out of writing this book. Yeah, so I'd highly recommend it.

It's also been a really good tool for our clients and potential new clients because it sets out in the book a lot of the questions we often get asked by new landlords in particular. So we've given, in the book there's checklists and a lot of information on, you know, the process or what to look for when you're purchasing a new investment. So, yeah, and it sort of just helped me in my own mind clarify the process and really just make sure

that it was really clear in my own head what steps a new investor does take and then be able to write all the checklists for those. Brilliant, brilliant. Now, given that as a background and the deep thinking work you've done in helping others through the book, what are some of the bad recommendations

you hear in your industry in relation to property management, Lauren? I guess, well, I guess often, you know, you hear an investor might think that we're all the same and they choose a property management company purely based on you know cheap fees and I think it's really important to make sure like anything you get what you pay for and I think it is really important to do your homework and maybe not just go with you know the the sales like if you purchase a property through a sales agent maybe don't just

go with their property management arm have a look around and see what other options are out there because the level of service you may receive you know could be the difference between having a successful investment property and a not so successful investment property. So I think it is really important to do your research and understand the market. And I've had friends looking to purchase investments and, you know, perhaps the information they've received may not be correct in that, you know, I think if you're looking at rental appraisals or wanting to know the value, I'd talk to a couple of different third-party property management companies just to understand really the true value of the rent rather than just going with what you've

been told through the sales agent. That's very good advice. I've heard an expression a number of times that the difference between paying for a good property manager and a bad one is often about a cup of coffee a week. That's it. And if you're prepared to put your property, which is your greatest investment at risk for a cup of coffee a week, then you've really got to consider the decision that you're making. So, yeah, no, I 100% agree with everything you're saying there, Lauren.

It's, as I keep saying, the property manager is the key person in the success of a property investment journey long term because if you've got a good one and they hang around for the long term, then the journey can be very easy because everything's being looked after. So that's awesome. Now, sort of coming back to yourself and sort of looking to the future, Lauren, can you talk to us about what your dream lifestyle looks like and how that might differ from what your current lifestyle is and what are you going to invest in between now and then to bridge the gap? So I guess like last year I purchased a commercial property, which is different to what I had been looking at previously. And I think what I'm looking at doing next is actually my partner, he owns an investment property as well.

So between the two of us, we're actually looking at renting for a little while together, rent vesting, and trying to work out where we want to purchase a home. So that's our next step. And then from there, you know, purchase a home to live in together. Yeah, so I guess in the future, I'm probably wanting to continue to grow my portfolio. I really do see it as a great form of, you know, setting yourself up for your future

and having that reoccurring income there for the future when you do retire. So, yeah, I plan on continuing to invest in property. I think it's been a really great experience so far and I've got a couple of properties now and, yeah, I'm definitely going to be continuing on that path. Excellent. In my own study, looking at successful people in all walks of life, time and time again I see that a lot of Australians just invest in their work, their career, and they focus on just the income side. Those that I've seen achieve true freedom also invest in growth assets that over time replace their active work income with passive income. You're obviously investing in your business.

you're investing in property as it means to help you put you in that position where you're getting more time back to do things you enjoy doing. Apart from those, is there anything else that you would consider investing in as you move forward, Lauren? I guess in terms of education, so I'm constantly, like every year I've been doing a course. So I've done not only have I done my business degree

but i've also done three separate business accelerator courses um so every year i've done one since i've started the business um i also you know doing it i go to a lot of networking events and if there's any education that i can attend that to help grow both myself and the business um yeah i'm all for that um so that's probably and i actually really love love learning so i think that's that's you know anything that i can do to to learn more and to grow my business essentially is is what i want to focus on um i don't know enough about shares and things like that so i'm not you know i i still feel that property is where i'll be investing majority of my time and also in the business so yes yes awesome awesome okay now i'm going to do a complete pivot here for a minute

Lauren, because this is a little hobby horse of mine because I still sense that way too many Australians are working very hard and paying way too much tax. So what are the top things that you've done to save tax and keep more of your hard-earned in your pocket? Yeah, I guess, well, owning an investment property and also spending money on that investment property to maintain it has really helped with saving tax. And I think, you know, that's probably my number one tip is to, you know, if you have an investment property and you need to, you know, do any upgrades or maintenance, then to look at it as a tax deduction. So, it's an expense that you can claim often. So, and I'd speak to your accountant on what you can and can't claim. But, yeah, I think, you know, maintaining your investment is a great way to also grow that wealth in the property and make sure your property is being well-maintained and getting the best rental return. Yeah, fantastic.

Awesome. Okay. Now, look, I'm going to enter what I call the ambush bushfire lightning round now, Lauren, which is playing on my nickname, of course. Just a couple of very quick questions. So, starting off, what quote do you live your life by or think of often? I really liked, so there was a, I did a course a few years ago, which is Business Blueprint, and they said that you're either green and growing or ripe and rotting, which means, you know, I guess it's really important to continue to grow and learn.

Otherwise, you get left behind and you sit and you rot. So, I often think of that. Yeah. Brilliant, brilliant and what's the one book that you, apart from yours, that you recommend our listeners should have a look at and why? I really liked Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kawasaki. I think that was probably one of the first property investment books I read when I was 19 and I learned a lot from it. I think it really just sets a really good understanding of, you know, how to grow wealth and that's probably been a key to what I've done today. Absolutely.

I call it my Kiyosaki moment. It was a big moment for me a long time ago. I won't tell you how many years because I'll start showing my age. but it's certainly some gold there in terms of the principles that you need to start living by, particularly with the focus on generating passive income rather than focusing on active work income. So, yeah, brilliant.

What about podcasts? You're a podcaster. Is there any favourite podcast that you listen to regularly, Lauren? There's a couple of podcasts. I typically listen to property-related podcasts. So, nothing that I can think of off the top of my head but there's a couple that I do have on my regular list that, yeah, it's all property-based.

Yeah, there's some great ones. There's so many out there now. Yeah, I love Kevin Turner. I love the breadth and breadth of the stuff that he goes through and I think you've been a guest on there at one stage early this year too, if I remember. Yes, he's fantastic. Yeah, I often listen to his podcast as well.

So, yeah, he's great. He's a good one. Now, what's the best piece of investment advice that you've ever received, Laura? um i guess it's more um i think learning my my previous employer had said to me make hay while the sun shines and i think that comes back to getting into the market now whilst you're young um and you know work hard at chipping away at that so that you can you know enjoy yourself later in life so i think you know paying down those mortgages and you know reap the rewards later

Yeah, it's spot on. Time is your friend and if you get in early enough, it makes the journey so much easier. Oh, definitely. Starting at 21, one of the smart ones is there's way too many of you partying until they get into their 30s and even 40s before they start thinking about it. And we have quite a few investors who come to us in their 50s

and I call it their oh shit moment because suddenly they realise super's not going to get them there and that they need to pull rabbits out of a hat to get themselves in a position where they can maintain their lifestyle long term. So that's awesome. Just to close then, what's a personal habit that contributes most to your investment success so far? I guess one of the things I do is I'm constantly

on the lookout for property and not only do I have the luxury or I'm very fortunate to be able to work with property investors every day and I see a lot of investment properties but I'm also on realestate.com every single day of the week so looking to buy and also at rental properties so I have a really good understanding of the market which has definitely helped when I look to purchase my own properties.

I know sort of what demographic of tenants are likely to rent that property and also, you know, whether that should be around that market value or not. Yeah, spot on. Given the exposure you've had to investment personally but also the number of landlords that you've assisted over the years. If you were to draw together and perhaps think of the most successful one that you've worked alongside, what have they done and what has been the keys, do you think, to their success in property?

I think, I mean, I've got a number of successful investors that we work with on a regular basis and I think the key has been that they've used the equity in their investment to purchase again. So they've been able to grow great portfolios and some of them have retired early and they live off the profits of those portfolios and they know when to get out to.

So they look at the market and they know when's a good time to sell and all reinvest as well. So yeah, I've learned a lot from those people. Awesome. Excellent. Well, look, I really appreciate you dedicating so much of your precious time, given I know how busy you and the business are.

Life as a property manager is always frantic. So I really appreciate you being so generous and having a chat to me, Lauren. No, thanks, Push. Thanks for inviting me on the show. It's been awesome. I think we're both graduates of the Key Person of Influence program, which it's certainly been life-changing for me in terms of helping me to get very clear on our message

and how to communicate that. And writing the book has certainly been very cathartic in that process and I'm sure you've enjoyed the same experience in that regard. Definitely. So good people in property are hard to come by, Lauren. So keen to stay in touch. Yes, that'd be great. The Get Investment podcast will continue to focus on issues

that are important in the investment arena. And as I said a couple of times, property investment, is very key in that and you're closer to the ins and outs of the property journey more so than anyone given the length of time you spend managing properties across a broad range of areas. So I'd love the opportunity to come back to you and talk to you about changes in the industry and challenges and what some of the innovative solutions might be in terms of really optimising an investment portfolio. Sounds great. Yep. Be happy to be part of that. Terrific, Lauren. Well, you have a fantastic day. Thanks again. And we'll look forward to talking soon. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Bye for

now. Bye. How good was that? I hope you enjoyed it. To get a summary of all the investment gold and to get a copy of the show notes, email me on hello at khgroup.com.au. That's H-E-L-L-O at khgroup.com.au or check us out at www.khgroup.com.au forward slash get invested and join me next week for another episode of the get invested podcast thanks for listening and as always dream as if you'll live forever and live as if you'll die tomorrow