Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Get Invested: Part 1: Deniz Yusuf on property management

Episode Date: April 6, 2022

Building on our previous episode on property management, expert Deniz Yusuf joins us to talk about how investors can get control of, and optimise, their property management.  If you tuned in last week you’ll already appreciate how critical property management is to your success as a property investor. But I don’t want you to just take my word for it – it’s more important that you hear it from an industry leading professional. So this week we commence with Part 1 of a 2 part interview with Deniz Yusuf, a proven industry professional who has achieved great things himself and is now an inspirational property management trainer and coach through his Inspired Growth Training and BDM Coaching programs. Deniz is an internationally recognised consultant who now coaches, trains, mentors and presents to property managers and agents across Australia, New Zealand and the United States. And unlike many “experts” with a long academic pedigree, Deniz earned his stripes on the ground - his property management expertise was gained over years getting his hands dirty in the trenches of rental properties where he successfully listed 925 new property managements from an astonishing 1077 presentations in under four years, which is a staggering 86% strike rate, based on his advanced skills and unique approach. Deniz now strives at assessing property management teams and finding the ‘blockage’ in an office that may be stopping them from achieving their goals. After it’s fixed, it’s then about continued consulting and mentoring so they can become the best in their field. The impressive line-up of clients that Deniz has consulted with and presented to include the largest conferences in Australasia, including realestate.com.au, The McGrath Group, First National, LJ Hooker, Harcourts, the Real Estate Institutes of Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, as well as keynote presentations to leading property management forums in the United States and many more. Deniz and his partners in crime, train well over 200 real estate offices globally through their Inspired Growth Training Inner Circle Membership platform. His focus is now helping property management offices to grow their businesses by creating superior client experiences, and mentoring property managers to become market leaders in their area. As you can hear, Deniz has a wealth of expertise and a proven track record in the challenging world of property management. So in part 1 of our great discussion today, you’ll get to enjoy Deniz’s journey that has led him to become Australia’s pre-eminent property management trainer, including: How his early days as a fruito and vacuum cleaner salesmen along with his love of music has shaped his unique property management approach, so listen out for what he means when he says there are no emails in fruit. He unpacks his astonishing ability to break records listing rentals and how he did it. And he takes us through the trials and tribulations of his own property investment journey, including renovations, commercial property, SMSFs which you’ll gain a heap of lessons from. He also shares his best and worst investments and biggest mistakes along the way. Enjoy part 1, and stay tuned for part 2. Inspired Growth Training And if you like what you hear and you want to find out more about Deniz and the IGT team, jump on inspiredgrowthtraining.com.    Realty Talk And if you want to hear more from Deniz along with all of Australia’s leading property investors and independent professionals, join me and the other 120,000 plus regular listeners every week as I anchor host the country’s most popular and longest running property show, Kevin Turner’s Realty Talk, where we share short and sharp take home tips and tricks on all things property. And while you’re there, make sure you don’t miss an episode of Realty Talk by signing up, so you get every show and all of the leading property insights in your inbox, every week. Deep dive meeting with Bushy Or if you’d prefer an hour of power to talk with me personally on any questions, queries or issues you’d like to discuss about your investment strategy, finance or property portfolio delivery, just click here then select the ‘Lets Zoom, DeepDive Meeting with Bushy’ 1 hour option. Join the Get Invested community: And if you want to continue investing in your knowledge, join me and many other like minded investors in our Get Invested community right now. I send a free and exclusive monthly email full of practical ‘Self, Health and Wealth’ wisdom that our current Freedom Fighter subscribers can’t wait to get each month. It’s full of investment and lifestyle tips, my personal book recommendations, apps I use to enhance life and so much more. Just visit bushymartin.com.au and sign up at the bottom of the page … because this is just the beginning! Get Invested is the leading weekly podcast for Australians who want to learn how to unlock their full ‘self, health and wealth’ potential. Hosted by Bushy Martin, an award winning property investor, founder, author and media commentator who is recognised as one of Australia’s most trusted experts in property, investment and lifestyle, Get Invested reveals the secrets of the high performers who invest for success in every aspect of their lives and the world around them. Remember to subscribe on your favourite podcast player, and if you're enjoying the show please leave us a review. Find out more about Get Invested here https://bushymartin.com.au/get-invested-podcast/  Want to connect with Bushy? Get in touch here https://bushymartin.com.au/contact/  This show is produced by Apiro Media - http://apiropodcasts.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A worst investment was I bought a property, a smaller property once, and I put a friend in the property and I self-managed the property. And the mistake I made there is when they rang me up and said, Dennis, I can't pay the rent, I knew their personal situation that they were going through. And I said, okay, don't worry about it. That's okay. That's okay. and you've really got to separate yourself from regardless of who the tenant is because you've got to treat it like a business and i wasn't experienced i wasn't a property manager at the time um so i did self-manage it and it cost me thirteen and a half thousand dollars and the bank

almost weren't going to repossess that one they were going to take my big one they were going to take my best investment. So I was going through panic for about three months. I managed to move the tenant on and sell the property before it went any further, but I could have went back with 10 years, 15 years. Welcome to the Get Invested podcast, where we share great conversations with experts from all walks of life to uncover their secret know-how and where they invest their time, their skills and their money and the benefits that this has created you see the truth is that everyone invests every minute every day we're investing our time our skills our energy and our money in something some of us are investing consciously some unconsciously sometimes for good

sometimes for bad sometimes for no impact get invested will help you to start living by design not by default i'm going to help you to make it happen not let it happen you'll hear the top tips on how you can live with conscious intent so that you can live more work less and leave a living legacy by investing now listen to the show to discover the top tips on how to get started make the most of your investment journey and ultimately to be living your dream not someone houses. More episodes can be found on iTunes or at bushymartin.com.au forward slash getinvested. Thanks for listening and now let's get invested. Hi Freedom Fighters. If you listened to my recent bush bite session,

you'll already appreciate how critical property management is to your success as a property investor. But I don't want you to just take my word for it. It's more important than you hear from an industry leading professional. So this week we commence with part one of a part two interview with Dennis Youssef, a proven industry professional who has achieved great things himself and is now an inspirational property management trainer and coach through his inspired growth training and BDM coaching programs. Dennis is an internationally recognized consultant who now coaches, trains, mentors and keynote presents to property managers and agents across Australia, New Zealand and the United States. And unlike many experts with a long academic pedigree,

Dennis earned his stripes on the ground. His property management expertise was gained over years getting his hands dirty in the trenches of rental properties, where he successfully listed 925 new property managements from an astonishing 1,077 presentations in under four years, which is a staggering 86% strike rate based on his advanced skills and his unique approach. Dennis now strives at assessing property management teams and finding the blockage in a property management office that may be stopping them from achieving their goals.

And after it's fixed, it's then about continued consulting and mentoring so they can become the best in their field. The impressive line-up of clients that Dennis has consulted with then presented to include the largest conferences in Australasia, including realestate.com.au, the McGrath Group, First National, LJ Hooker, Harcourts, and the real estate institutes of Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia, as well as keynote presentations to leading property management forums in the United States and many other areas.

Dennis and his partners in crime train well over 200 real estate officers globally through their inspired growth training in a circle membership platform his focus is now helping property management officers to grow their businesses by creating superior client experiences and mentoring property managers to become market leaders in their area so as you can hear Dennis has a wealth of expertise and a proven track record in the challenging world of property management. So in part one of our great discussion today you'll get to enjoy Dennis's journey that has led him to become Australia's preeminent property management trainer including how his early days as a fruto and vacuum cleaner salesman along with his love

of music has shaped his unique property management approach. So listen out for what he means when he says there are no emails in fruit. He unpacks his astonishing ability to break records listing rentals and how he did it. And he takes us through the trials and tribulations of his own property investment journey, including renovations, commercial property, self-managed super funds, and you'll gain a heap of lessons from all of this. He also shares his best and worst investments and his biggest mistakes along the way. And if you like what you hear and you want to find out more about Dennis and the IGT team, jump on inspiredgrowthtraining.com. and if you want to hear more from Dennis along with all of Australia's leading property investors

and independent professionals join me and the other 120,000 plus regular listeners every week as I anchor host the country's most popular and longest running property show which is Kevin Turner's Realty Talk so I look forward to seeing you on channels.realty.com.au forward slash Realty Talk where we short which where we share short and sharp take-home tips and tricks on all things property. And while you're there, make sure you don't miss an episode of Realty Talk by signing up on the realty.com.au homepage so that you can get every show and all of the leading property insights in your inbox every week. And if you want to start or continue investing in your knowledge, join me and many other like-minded investors in our Get Invested

community right now. I send you a free and exclusive monthly email full of practical self-health and wealth wisdom that our current Freedom Fighter subscribers just can't wait to get every month. It's full of investment and lifestyle tips, my personal book recommendations, apps I use to enhance life, and a whole lot more. Just visit busheymartin.com.au and sign up at the bottom of the page, because this is just the beginning. Or if you prefer an hour of power to talk with me personally on any questions, queries, or issues you'd like to discuss about your investment strategy, finance, or property portfolio delivery, just jump on knowhowproperty.com.au, hit the purple book appointment button in

the top right-hand corner, then click on the Let's Zoom Deep Dive Meeting with Bushy one-hour option to book in your preferred time, and for the princely sum of just $2.95, you can ask me anything you want for a full 60 minutes. In the meantime, enjoy part one of this great conversation with Dennis Youssef. Hi Freedom Fighters. Now, as I've been saying for years, the one thing that makes or breaks the quality of an investor's experience revolves around the quality of the property management. And in this regard, your property manager has the longest relationship and most responsibility in the success of your property investment journey. And on the flip side, property managers have the most difficult job in the industry.

So to delve into the critical importance of all things property management, we're joined by a recognised leader in the property management arena, who's now an international consultant, a trainer, mentor and keynote speaker globally, Dennis Youssef from Inspire Growth Training and BDM Coach. So welcome and let's get invested, Dennis. Hi, Bushy. Thank you very much for that introduction and for having me here on your show. And I look forward to being able to feed and help yourself and anyone out there that's listening. I have no doubts we're going to get heaps of gold from you, mate.

So having had the pleasure of having chats in the past. So, mate, for those who aren't aware of you and what you do, can you start off by giving us a rundown on who you are, what you do, and most importantly, mate, why you do what you do. Well, let's first start with I am an investor. I'm a residential investor. I'm also a commercial investor in property that was, you know, bled into my veins from my dad as I was growing up as a kid. I, you know, it's just a, it's like you buy and you don't sell.

My dad would roll in his grave if he heard that I'd ever sold a property. You know, God bless his soul. But, yeah, so I'm a real estate trainer. I did real estate in a small country town called Nowra in New South Wales, which is the south coast of New South Wales. It's a couple of hours south of Sydney. I call it God's country, Bushy. I hope I don't upset too many people.

But Google Shell Haven, Google Homes Beach is absolutely stunning down there. God's country. Yeah, it's beautiful. So I, you know, I did daughter-in-law sales. I did hospitality, sold Kirby vacuum cleaners. I do apologise for anyone out there that had one of the demonstrations because I was quite successful at that. And it gave me some good footings into, you know,

negotiating and learning how to avoid objections, which was great. I also own fruit markets and I fell into real estate. And by crikey, did I love being in real estate, Bushy. absolutely loved it. So I did real estate for just under five years and I was very humbled to win some national awards. And I thought, wow, if a small bloke like myself can win these national awards, been in real estate for a short period of time, I mean, fruit and veggies was my real background. I need to start teaching people, you know. So I started my own company called inspired growth training and um i you know delved into training you know agencies all over australia

and new zealand and that moved into the us as well which was really exciting to you know um getting to the us market i started organizing um my own seminars and two-day conferences and i've now got two other business partners on board with me and we're training over 365 agencies in 12 countries, and we travel to nine. So it's humbling. And I've just released my own book as well. Have you? I have, yeah.

So it's kind of like my memoirs, but it's all about how to be better at what you do, how to prospect for business. And I've actually got people buying the book that aren't even in real estate. Yeah, great. Well, we'll talk more about that shortly. What I'd love to do, Dennis, is to delve into, you know, circle back into some of that background. You mentioned you start in the fruit and veg area.

Talk us through that. And then you mentioned that you fell into real estate. Talk about how you actually fell. What was it that sort of enticed you to go across that after you tell us about your fruit and veg background? yeah so my dad owned um you know it was called shillhaven fruit market on the south coast of new south wales we had the the largest privately owned fruit market um you know in the illawarra region and um dad was so passionate about fruit veggie he moved into australia from cyprus in 1956 and he went to the sydney markets that good old hay markets and fell in love with fruit because

his dad was a farmer in cyprus and then he saw the quality here and he started up a went and worked for a gentleman and then took over the business and i tried avoiding it but ended up being in the family business myself you know as most children do they don't want to do what their parents did right that's how i got into kirby vacuum cleaners hospitality but fruit and veggies was um you know i ended up owning my own small shop and then i'm selling it and taking over my dad's profitable business but i want to share a quick experience for everyone here and and you'll understand i don't know if anyone that's listening or even yourself or she or or your beautiful wife sonia when you've gone into a fruit market and the fruit man reaches over and gives the child

a strawberry or or something to eat has that ever happened to you absolutely mate or or uh signed an apple and handed it to me or my son yep spot on mate absolutely so well i i didn't understand the importance of that until my dad came to visit me in my shop at one time and you know strawberries were so expensive at the moment they were really expensive and my shop was a little bit busy at the time it was you know around that school time parents pick up the kids come do the shopping and um and there was a child crying in the pram you know probably two or three years of age and my dad reached over opened up a pun of the strawberries and gave the kid a strawberry i'm freaking out thinking that cost me five dollars what are you doing dad you know and and

when the shop settled down i said dad what like could have you not like picked something else and he said son did you see what happened tell me what happened once i gave that child the strawberry and i was processing and i said well the kid ate the strawberry dad he said no you've got to look deeper the mum smiled she got happy her presence her anxiety dropped the kid yes and stopped crying but then the mother started to engage in conversation with me she spent more time in the shop and she ended up buying more produce she was calm she's now got an emotional memory of coming into the fruit market feeling calm her child's going to be happy and she's going to spend more money in here and i went by crikey what a great lesson yeah that's a lesson that could be

applied to uh all spheres of life mate uh i've heard you say before that uh you know as a roll out from your life as a fruto i think as you as you call it affectionately that there are no emails in fruit tell us a bit about what that means man well that that bleeds into my um how i got into real estate so i'll jump on that um we grew our fruit and vegetable business quite large and we had some opposition and they could never take over our business because we focused on customer service and quality it's all we bought we never we let the supermarkets buy the cheap stuff we always bought the quality and our business kept on growing we i ended up selling the business because i just couldn't refuse you know the money and opportunities for overseas popping up and i

sold the business and um my wife had just found out that we're pregnant with our third child and we were heading to america we all hear about the american medical system and we'd had issues with the first two so we didn't want to go overseas so i had to apply for a property because i just leased out my home yeah just signed a two-year lease so i went to the real estate agent and the leasing agent was not interested in helping me they didn't know who i was i was best friends with the business owner at the time and basically i rang him up and i said mate i've just if you ever came into one of my fruit markets and you saw one of my staff you know not looking after clients i'd hope you'd ring me he said well what are you talking about and i said well this leasing

agent how does she know i'm not an investor or moving into the area for six months then i'm going to buy and he said dennis you are an investor you are important to me what happened and i said look you know i basically told him that you know i was asking questions and i got no answers he said if you think you can do a better job come do it yourself i was unemployed i had you know no credentials behind me no university tape degrees or anything so i thought you know what i i will and i did you know so i ended up joining real estate and you just mentioned there's no emails in fruit well so whenever a new coffee shop opened up or a cafe that's the same thing in the restaurant or anyone opened up i couldn't just email them and say hey can you buy

your fruit off me i used to go visit them i used to pick up the phone i'd buy a coffee is the chef here who's in charge and i'll explain to them that if they bought the quality fruit and veg off me their clients would be happier i did the same thing in real estate you know so that that's that's my my go-to line people tent doesn't matter the industry people hide behind an email which if you want to get something done sending me an email is not going to get it done picking up the phone gets it done, correct? Matt, I've always said that an email is just a confirmation of a conversation you've already had.

Perfect. If you haven't had the conversation, there's certainly no relationship building that comes out of an email, mate. Not at all. No connection in that at all. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's a great lesson to learn very early. So tell us, I know you achieved some very quick and inspiring success in the property

manager around you yourself in terms of the listings that you're able to generate tell tell us a little bit about that because uh i think it'll blow the hair back of a lot of the listeners mate yeah um thank you i i um so i i started as a leasing agent hence um as you know that experience i shared earlier and um i absolutely loved helping um you know first-time tenants or mum and dad sort of had to downgrade or sell a house because you know whether they were struggling or whatever the case was helping them find their next home being part of that journey with them so as a leasing agent i totally loved it i really loved experiencing giving them a call you've been approved for the property giving them tips on how to better apply for a property so they

could get it quicker it was a beautiful experience to be part of and i was doing really well at that and then i um i'm quite competitive and one day it was only my second meeting in real estate two weeks in I said to my boss what do you do I do this Nicole does all these other works what's left to do mind you I was very green in real estate and she said she goes to people's houses and tells them how to prepare their home for rent and I went wow that's really cool because I'm doing that for the tenants but you could do that for the owners and at the same time you're competing against the business from the other agents because other agents are doing it and she said yeah but we don't compete and I went yeah you do if there's three agents going you're competing I said that's

what I want to do I want to go to the next level my boss at the time said no Dennis you get rid of those vacant properties don't worry about your job but I found the passion so I ended up after a few months becoming the listing agent for Integrity Real Estate and I listed 925 properties in a four-year period so i was averaging 33 properties per month i didn't know that they were phenomenal numbers because i thought in a small country town if somebody's doing that i was what are they doing in sydney melbourne brisbane perth etc you know but these these were national records and um i still think today that nobody um has beaten my record of how many in a month um but it's not about me it's just i just was so good at helping people and and getting that trust from people

educating what i mean that sort of generically uh covers the exercise what do you think were the the standouts for you in in relation to being able to achieve that why could you achieve that where others others couldn't what was the difference do you think yeah i mean firstly i wasn't scared to pick up the phone and ask for feedback from the people that i went to a lot of people they fear that rejection but I was very open to calling I was really interested in I used to call myself a lazy agent because I didn't want to go back to the house twice so I used to ensure that I educated them as much as I could about the warnings about what not to do when owning an investment what to look for you've really got to make sure that you're picking that

agent that's got the right systems and procedures in place so I was showing and sharing and asking questions what are your concerns about renting your home out before i even got to their home so they were fully educated um by time i got to the property and um and people trusted that and i was sending them articles to read i was really educating them um prior to it because i really cared i really wanted the people not to make the mistake and go with the agent down the road key points is just helping people and people really feel that they sense that in you yeah totally that level of personal care and genuine care that is almost a rarity these days.

Dennis, why is that, do you think? Because people are so self-focused, I suppose. They always look at what's best for them. I mean, this is obviously generally speaking here. A lot of people are just about the numbers. But when you're dealing in property and property management, property management will never be released by an application. there's too many people involved there's for an example you've got the landlord it's a person

you got the tenant it's a person you got the property manager it's a person you got trades people they're all people there's people involved even the transaction you've got you know mortgage brokers it's people that you've got to deal with you know people don't make a choice on a home loan based on the fee they make decisions based on who they trust the most yeah yeah and you know In real estate, it's the same. Yeah, spot on, mate, spot on. So tell us, sort of circling around that background of yours, I'm looking at how it sort of influenced you moving forward.

I know from a note that you sent me earlier that you're a bit of a drumming sensation too, mate, at one stage. Tell us about that. Yes, I am. I'm a percussionist. I love drums. and i was um at school i was also in the army cadets i was the first person to be the australian lead drummer three years in a row um played at the entertainment center in front of you know

prime minister of australia and all of the delegates which was a bit of a um a humbling thing and i um i can't read music it's all off memory if they knew that at the time I would just hear a song once and then I'd be able to play it and I'd be fine. And I love drums. I just love the music. I don't listen to words too often, which is a bit of a downfall, but I love music.

It's just, yeah. And I've played in bands in front of hundreds of people and it's all off memory. Yeah, love it, mate. Because I'm a bit of a closet muso myself, Dennis. having and in fact i played played drums for many years myself actually yeah not doing it at the moment my son's a way better percussionist than i ever was and ever will be but you're right there just something about music that gets under the skin uh yeah and did you still um still uh tap

the skins mate or uh i i promised myself at the beginning of the year that i would buy a drum set again that i was going to do it this year but obviously with all the pandemics and things and And, you know what, that's just an excuse, right? But my hands are very custom to tapping the drums around, but I am going to get back into it again. It's something that is, you know, that I'm quite passionate about. You know, music is one of those things, Bushy, that if you're in a bad mood, stop what you're doing

and sometimes just turn on some music just to get you back into a vibe. There's various ways of doing it. i teach my clients about you know what sometimes just turn the phone off drop the laptop down go for a walk put some music on put a good podcast on and reset the mind go to the gym go to the bush for a walk go to the beach you know but music is that common thing that um i listen to i actually have one keynote presentation that i'm actually doing in the us um later next year it's about removing toxic people from your life um so you can you know better yourself and i actually have a song that i need to get played before i i um go on stage for that particular keynote because

it's a bit of a heart-wrencher it gets people crying share those experiences within my life in removing people from my life so i could better move forward it brings up a quote that that i'm happy to share you know if you want to kill a big dream tell it to small-minded people and that's by steve harvey and sadly i had to remove those small-minded people from my life so i could take those big dreams and music is something it's it's we will rock you by queen if i was ever going to somebody's house and i wasn't in that right mindset for for business i would have that song on so music is such an important factor we don't realize the release that we do get from it i'm right with you i yeah often uh we'll just chuck on a favorite piece of my music and dance around

the kitchen because it just totally reframes my outlook and the energy level yeah it's just a a mood modifier like you wouldn't believe mate so uh no i love your thoughts on that um tell us a bit about your own property investment journey then I know you're an active investor as you mentioned from the outset talk us through your property investment journey from the first property why property firstly what did you do and then talk us through how you built a and what's your portfolio look like over time and and talk us through the strategy you had the decisions you made and the lessons you've learned well as I said earlier my dad told me to buy and not sell So, you know, the portfolio for me started when I was 19 years of age and that was the first property that I'd moved into, you know, and dad said, son, just work on, don't buy the best house in the street, you know, you've got to work your way up to it, take your time.

So I bought one of the worst houses in the street and, you know, lived in it for two and a half years. We did it up. We painted it, put new carpet in it. I didn't do the expensive renos of the bathroom or the kitchen, you know, but we just did the basics, two and a half years. and then um i sold i i actually did sell that property and i used the capital gain the the excess to upgrade so then i could move into because i needed upgrade because my first child except my first child was coming yeah so once we did that um i then kept the next property we did the same thing we put an extension on it put an extra bathroom in it turned it into a five-bedroom

home and then i kept that particular property and um and then bought another one so i was always using the equity of the home that's something that my dad taught me all the time you know using the extra income from the rent plus the extra value over time and it was always uh the tenant was always being able to help me pay the rent and then dad put me onto a very smart accountant that specialized in investments not just someone that did the figures for you um that's um always kept me up to date on new um you know reforms that was occurring that was going to benefit investors etc there was a stage when um i had to sell property as well to move forward as the family group yes no um and that's that's how it went i was fortunate bushy to inherit a commercial property

You know, God forbid, I'd prefer if my father was still alive, but I did. But then I did the same with that. I utilized the equity of those properties to buy another commercial property. And Bushy, I also self-managed Superfund at an early age. When I only had $14,000 in the bank into a super, my accountant at the time said, you know, you don't have enough to do it. And I said, I don't care. I want to do it. So I did it and I used the self-funded super to buy blocks of land

and the blocks of land I would just on-sell and buy another one and use the capital of that to grow my superannuation. Love it, love it. So if you sort of look back on the portfolio that you've built over the years, what's been your worst investment and what's been your best and why in both cases? um the best investment for me was um actually it's the last house that i sold um because you know we're in a pandemic and the market hit i actually just had the highest selling property i'd recognized i was just about to approve a tenant and i'm always watching the market being

in the industry etc and um the sales agent rang me up and said dennis you you've got a five bedroom home and it's empty and there's no five bedroom homes on the market at the moment and i said listen don't give me a sales pitch you know i've heard it all before and they said dennis i'm not giving it to you go and have a quick search and then they said what do you want to sell it for i said no no you rang me you tell me what i'm going to sell it for and we put it you know interests off and we sold it for a probably 150 000 over um so that was a very very successful thing now Now, the mistake, Bushy, my biggest mistake is I didn't buy something straight away because guess what's happened?

The market's jumped. So the value of that extra income that's earned is now sitting into a bank account. So I'm now waiting for that 10% to 15% drop before I can get back in the market again to replace that income, right? So my lesson's in the same one. You've really got to buy back again. Yeah, it's spot on. If we look at the worst investment apart from that one, what would that be and why?

A worst investment was I bought a property, a smaller property once, and I put a friend in the property, and I self-managed the property. And the mistake I made there is when they rang me up and said, Dennis, I can't pay the rent, I knew their personal situation that they were going through. And I said, okay, don't worry about it. That's okay. That's okay. And you've really got to separate yourself from regardless of who the tenant is

because you've got to treat it like a business. And I wasn't experienced. I wasn't a property manager at the time. So I did self-manage it, and it cost me $13,500. And the bank almost weren't going to repossess that one. They were going to take my big one. they were going to take my best investment because you know they don't care they don't necessarily look at the um the one that's suffering they look at what they can sell easiest

so i was going through panic for about three months time for three months i managed to move the tenant on and sell the property before it went any further but that could have i could have went back with 10 years 15 years yeah yeah and then there's a there's a bunch of stuff in they're self-managing, putting a friend in, there's big red lights flashing when I hear those. It's probably a really good segue into, you know, I want to have a great deep dive conversation with you around the whole world of property management. Sort of slipping into that, what are the biggest mistakes that you believe people make around

managing their property, Dennis? Oh, self-managing, by crikey, is one of the biggest mistakes I see. And look, there are some successful ones. We successfully did manage our own properties for a long period of time until we got burnt, you know, and we realised it's not about the fee that you're paying, but it's about how much a property manager, whether it's commercial or residential, can save you in money, you know, because they consistently put the rent increases up. they understand you know the importance of smoke alarms or whatever the case is to protect you we had a fire and we were covered thankfully because we had the the commercial smoke alarm system through which we wouldn't have done you know um and just knowing that peace of mind it's really important and just quickly back on that other property i actually bought the property for the

tenant so that was a massive mistake as well yeah right yeah so there's a lot of you know reasonings behind that but um the biggest mistake i see is people not going in prepared understanding that tenants don't always pay the rent it's really important to pick the right agency um you know don't go for the cheapest agency either make sure that you've got one that's um that's trained, continually trained, and up-to-date on systems. Hi, friend and fighters. We're going to break part one of Dennis' great conversation here. So now that you've got to know Dennis

and his highly credentialed property management background, listen out for next week's concluding part two of our great conversation where he jumps into the nitty-gritties of property management and gives a wealth of tips and tricks and things to watch out for that will make or break your success with your future property managements. So enjoy the rest of your week. And we'll get invested together again soon. To get a summary of all this investment gold in the show notes,

just 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.bushymartin.com.au forward slash GetInvested. I look forward to joining you next week for another episode of the GetInvested podcast. So thanks for listening. And as always, dream as if you live forever

and live as if you die tomorrow.