Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Get Invested: Part 1 - Would you hire property now?

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

Property gets talked about like it’s one big market, but it isn’t. Every property has its own micro climate, micro economy, buyer pool and position on its location specific growth S-curve. So before you buy based on a postcode, property type or glossy brochure, you need to decide what job you actually need the property to do. In this solo episode of Get Invested, Bushy puts Property through the same investment diagnostic used for Business, Shares and Alternative Assets, and gives you the practical filters to decide whether it deserves the job. In this episode you'll discover: Why “the Property market” doesn’t really exist, and why street-level conditions matter more than national headlines How to write a seven, line Property Job Description before you start searching The difference between borrowing capacity and what your household can safely hold How to use traffic lights and three gates to stop a fatal flaw being averaged away Why one brochure, agent and valuer can still equal just one source The three year no rescue test and three ledgers every property needs to survive How the 3,2,1 Freedom Test can help determine whether your property portfolio is actually creating freedom Why your comfort asset might earn an interview, but only evidence earns it the job Property has earned the right to apply. But has it earned the job? Tune in to find out. FREE PROPERTY INVESTOR’S FIELD GUIDE How Should I Invest In Property Now? After months of post-Budget analysis, modelling and conversations with investors around Australia, Bushy has distilled the key insights into a practical guide designed to help you cut through the confusion and identify the opportunities that still exist for strategic property investors. Download your free copy here: https://bushymartin.com.au/fieldguide Take the next step with Bushy Personal Solutions Session Get clarity and personalised guidance: Book now Property W.E.A.L.T.H Program - live now! Be first to access discounts + free Module 1: Find out more https://courses.bushymartin.com.au/property-wealth Find your Freedom Formula Success in property starts with your 'why', and then the 'what' and 'how'. Let me, Bushy Martin, lead you through it! Sign up for my Freedom Formula program. The first session is absolutely free, and it only takes around an hour! Find out more https://bushymartin.com.au/freedom-formula-course Subscribe to Property Hub for free now on your favourite podcast player. Take the next step - connect, engage and get more insights with the Property Hub community at linktr.ee/propertyhubau Get property investment and wealth resources, and book a Personal Solution Session with Bushy. All the links and info are here: linktr.ee/propertyhubau About Get Invested, a Property Hub show 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. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube to get every Get Invested episode each week for free. For business enquiries, email [e-mail]. This content provides general information only and has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It does not constitute legal, tax or financial advice and you should always seek professional advice in relation to your individual circumstances.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi Freedom Fighters, what would you do if the same kind of home became cheaper to buy and dearer to rent? Would you call that an opportunity or a trap wearing a discount sticker? Because right now two cues are telling very different stories. At many open homes the buyer cues thinning as high rates have capped buying power, inflation has refused to lie down and another rate rise continues to be a life possibility. So confidence is brittle. Valuations are conservative. And some vendors are becoming more motivated.

But around the corner, the rental queue is still running right down the driveway because Australia doesn't suddenly have enough homes just because the headlines turn gloomy. And that tension really matters. But it still doesn't tell you what to buy because, as I've kept saying for years, the so-called property market doesn't even exist. Every property in every street in every suburb

has its own microclimate, its own microeconomy and its own position on a long, lumpy 8-15 year growth S-curve which is out of sync with everywhere else. So median, means and averages make neat headlines and great narratives on news stories but they make lousy purchase decisions. So today in the first of two connected property job interviews we're not giving property free pass because this is the property hub.

We're asking whether property deserves a place on your freedom payroll at all. Can it do the job you need? Can you afford a salary package? Will it grow into the role? Can you improve its performance? Or will it call in sick every time that rates rise? So, some property candidates deserve redundancy, some deserve promotion, and one odd-looking

applicant, part established location, part new home, part manufactured value, may look like a bit of a property platypus, yet still be the best worker in the building. So, would I hire property now? Well, the answer? Sometimes. But only after asking one question that most investors never ask. miss it and you could employ a 30-year financial hostage. Get it right and you may be hiring the next member of your freedom team. So what's that question? Well let's start the property job

interview so I can reveal it across these two episodes as together we get invested. So stick with me and I'll see you on the inside. Welcome to Get Invested on the Property Hub podcast channel, the leading weekly show for Australians who want to learn how to unlock their full self health, and wealth potential. I'm your host, Bushy Martin, and each week I go deep with the best investors, experts, leaders, and founders to find out what it takes to break free from the grind, discover freedom, and to live by design. Subscribe now and join me and get invested in the life that you really want. Let's get started. But first, I'm interrupting today's episode so you can invest in something far more important than property because our great mate eddie the

frenchman on the run has now been constantly on the road for 28 relentless days so for almost four weeks he's woken hurt like you wouldn't believe healed run and then done it all again day after punishing day he's battled debilitating recurring shin and quad issues that would stop dead any mere mortal like you and i and on top of that he's suffering inflammation open wounds red raw chafing sunburned crushing fatigue and the daily ticking clock of continuing to run around 70 to 110 k's regardless of what his body keeps screaming in agony yet he just keeps moving and here's why for eddie tomorrow means choosing to run again but for a child with cancer tomorrow can mean another test, treatment and sleepless night

while their families try to hold together work, bills, siblings and a world turned upside down. Eddie can choose to stop but they can't and that's why he won't. He's turning every wound and every kilometre into practical financial and emotional support through Red Kite while chasing a world record running non-stop from Cottesloe to Bondi and a million dollar lifeline.

The record matters, but the reasons matter more. So Freedom Fighters, if Get Invested has ever made a difference in your life, please pay that value forward now. Don't just admire his courage, multiply it. Like this episode, follow at Frenchman on the Run, share Eddie's story with a friend today and donate whatever you can

through the link in the show notes to frenchmanontherun.com. A million dollars compounds from everyday Aussies like us by making just one generous decision now. Every like lifts the message, every share grows the team and every single dollar helps one more family feel less alone in their despair. So let's help Eddie break the world record and help Red Kite ease the crushing family burden of their kids with cancer.

So just one more share, one more donation to ensure one more family know they're not alone. On behalf of Eddie and his family, I really thank you for your support. Righto, let's get back to the episode. Welcome, Friend Fighters. Have you ever accepted the cheapest building quote, then discovered that the real price was hiding in the exclusions? Back in my architecture and project management days,

I learned that the first page could win the job while page seven quietly owned your wallet. The headline figure looked wonderful. until you added the missing site works, variations, delays and all those little items who are apparently not included. And property can play the same trick. The purchase price is page one. The interest, holding costs, future repairs, tax treatment, ownership structure, time demands and eventual exit buyer are often hiding in the exclusions. So today property finally takes the interview chair in our continuing A for Approach series. This is the next step in this year's

property wealth journey, where your W for Y sets your destination, your E for examine showed what you can do, and we're now inside your strategy, which is my shorthand for a strategy that starts with you, where A for Approach helps you decide what you'll invest in and what approach you'll actually choose to do. So this episode gives you the decision logic and our complete property wealth program takes you deeper into the numbers, finance, structure and implementation. Now on recent episodes we've already put business and shares through the same common sense diagnosis and alternative assets is likely to face that too because every investment vehicle needs to answer the same basic logic. Does it suit you? Does it suit your life stage? And can it do the specific

job that your freedom strategy actually needs doing? And property gets the deeper interview today. Not because it deserves special treatment, but because you're listening here to the Property Hub and because property is where many of you feel most comfortable. And because property has its own organisational chart from the family home and established growth assets through new builds, income property, commercial property, listed exposure and a few unusual career paths in between, we're devoting two connected deep episodes to this very important asset. Part one today puts property itself through the full body scan. Part two next week opens the employment applications so you can compare the legitimate jobs, career paths, good versions,

bad versions and fit of each approach. Now that's not a free pass. It's enough room to do property justice and give property focused investors a complete map. Now to be clear I'm totally agnostic about which investment vehicle you use. I don't care whether your freedom arrives in bricks, businesses, shares or something alternative as long as it actually arrives. But property has long been my preferred comfort asset. As an architect, project manager, investor, land agent, property manager, finance broker and strategist, I understand buildings, people, place and the way they all work together. And property lets us select value, protect value, influence value, create value and sometimes manufacture value.

I can improve a floor plan, have another income, unlock a site, change the use or turn an ugly duckling into a cash-flowing swan. But as a shareholder, I can't ring the board of BHP and ask them to move the kitchen. But comfort, comfort, I'll say that again, but comfort isn't competence and familiarity isn't permission

to fall in love with a bad candidate. Comfort only becomes an investment advantage when it's informed comfort, understanding deep enough to keep your head when headlines, rates and sentiment lose theirs. And informed comfort creates something far more valuable than enthusiasm. It creates stickability, the confidence and financial capacity to hold a sound asset long enough for time, leverage and compounding to do their work. because the theoretically perfect investment that you abandon under pressure

can perform far worse than the very good investment that you understand, can afford and can hold. And that matters more than ever now because the podcast stratosphere is overflowing with overnight experts with an iPhone, a microphone, a ring light, a Zoom account and a thumbnail photo where the host looks as if they've been putting two fingers

into a live PowerPoint. Somewhere, I'm sure there's a content marketer that's actually laughing their heads off right now because today's algorithms appear to feed on three favourite food groups, greed, fear and conflict. But I refuse to play that game. Property Hub has always focused

and always will focus on quality content, valuable education and the direct down-to-earth truth. No manufactured outrage, no glitter covered guarantees and no confident opinion wearing an evidence costume after nearly a decade i've get invested in more than a thousand podcast conversations across this show realty talk and many others i've learned that the loudest voice is really the widest wisest one i'd rather be cautiously useful than confidently wrong so my role isn't to join properties fan club or its latest funeral procession.

It's to be your trusted voice of property, grounded in evidence, experience and transparent reasoning, while still joining the forward-looking dots that data alone just can't tell you. So, if you found Get Invested like a diamond in the rough, welcome aboard. We may never win the international award for most electrified podcast on mail,

but you'll find the real investment gold here, without the glitter, without the hype or the barely concealed self-interest and my job today is to help you think clearly enough to make your own better informed decisions so we'll use some of the latest figures as wind vanes but not steering wheels because statistics and data look backwards through the rear view mirror but investment decisions must look forwards through your windscreen so where appropriate we'll join the dots between borrowing power inflation rates housing shortages shifting sentiment local supply, buyer emotion and the position of each location on its very own growth S-curve.

Not to predict tomorrow's headline, but to improve today's positioning. And we'll bring all of that back down to street level because your bank loan won't be secured against a national median. It'll be secured against one very specific property. So across these two episodes you'll know how to separate a genuine hiring opportunity from a distressed dud a useful discount from a shrinking buyer pool a strong rent from an ugly after-cost result a quality new home from a tax brochure and we'll separate a property platypus with genuine potential which is my name for a young home on old dirt that combines a modern home with an established location from a development duck wearing a new build beak and will separate a commercial

income story from a long vacancy and a nice blazer. We'll also test the finance, the debt, the war chest, the ownership wrapper and the exit because a good property can still become a bad investment when it's hired on the wrong contract. And as always, this isn't personal financial, tax or legal advice. But it'll give you the questions to take to the right property specialist professionals before you sign, borrow, build or believe the brochure. And through it all, I'll keep one critical asset just out of the reach until right towards the end. Because before we interview a single property, there's one missing document that most investors never prepare. It isn't in the brochure, it isn't in the valuation, and it isn't in the loan approval.

But if you don't write it, the property will write it for you, usually in 30-year ink. And that missing document is your property job description. Not the property brief that a buyer's agent writes after you've hired them. And not a shopping list that starts with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a double garage and somewhere nice for the dog. This document starts with your life, before anyone shows your property. because here's the first twist. Most investors write it backwards. They meet a charming applicant, fall in love with the kitchen,

then invent a job to justify the hire. That's like employing a brilliant heart surgeon to fix your leaking tap. Very impressive resume, but very expensive plumber. And this is the important distinction. A good property doing the wrong job is still a bad investment for you. Now, don't get too comfortable because I still haven't answered the question from today's opening. Your job description gets you into the interview room, but there's still one final question that decides whether the candidate gets a security pass,

and we'll come back to that. But first, we need to stop writing job descriptions that say, make me rich, because that's not a job description. That's a wish wearing a tie. So your property job description needs seven lines. And the first line is the result. What exactly does this property need to achieve? Is its job to create growth, to improve current income,

to manufacture equity, to reduce your home debt, to provide a future home, to create forced saving, or to buy back more of your time? Because property isn't the destination. Your life's the destination. Property is just one possible vehicle that may help you get there. And this is where your freedom numbers come back into play. Your freedom numbers aren't an Instagram net worth target.

They put numbers around the life that you actually want to fund. Your desired lifestyle income, your break-free timeline, the investment nest egg needed to fund it, and the gap between that future and where you're currently heading. So let's make this real. Imagine you want $120,000 a year to fund your ideal lifestyle. and your current projected investments are likely to produce about $70,000 annually. That leaves a yearly $50,000 gap.

Now, using a purely illustrative 5% net income or net return, you'll eventually need another million of income-producing capital to close that gap. So suddenly, Make Me Rich has become help me build my missing future million dollars by my break-free date without breaking our lifestyle today. And that's the job. And this isn't a neat theory I invented for a podcast. It came from getting life badly wrong, then sitting down with Sonia to design the right way around. And a while back, when I was a guest on Aaron Christie-David's Australian

Property Investment Podcast, that I re-ran here on Get Invested via the link that you're going to find in the show notes, I explained the moment that our investing changed and the three duties that every asset has had to perform for us ever since. So have a listen to that now. A mate of mine dragged me along to a Robert Kiyosaki conference in good old Adelaide. You know, our rich dad, poor dad fame. And I'll never forget him saying from the stage,

at the moment that passive income becomes a part of your life, your life will change. And that absolutely, totally resonated with me. It was a real lightbulb moment. I actually refer to it now as my Kiyosaki moment. and and from that day on now and i saw the world completely differently and i became what i now affectionately refer to as being passive aggressive and and uh what i sort of jokingly mean by that is i became very aggressive about passive income so everything from that point on

had to do three key things it had to create passive income it had to grow in value and it had to be a saleable asset beautiful and our thinking really shifted from you know the old salary to savings from income to investment and from wealth and I developed what I now refer to as two-eye scene and which is almost like a parallel perspective because as an architect you're used to creating in your mind's eye something beautiful that you want at the end of the journey and then then you progressively put a team around you and take the steps to make that happen yeah so that became the essence of what we now refer to as living by design and my now life partner in all things, Sonia,

and I got together on a wintry Sunday afternoon in a little country restaurant in Clarendon in South Australia and we actually designed our ideal lifestyle. We monetised it and I recorded it on the phone. I've got vision boards, which I've still got around the house, and affirmations that went with it. And that became both the magnet and the compass that has enabled us to make decisions day-to-day

on whether it's taking us closer to that or further away. So that's the point. We didn't start with a postcode. We started with a life. We priced that life. We identified the gap. Then we gave every investment a measurable duty to produce income, to grow in value, and to remain saleable.

Now, that's not a motivational poster. It's a rejection filter. If a property can't show how it helps close your gap, it doesn't get hired just because the kitchen island has mood lighting. And our Complete Property Wealth Program and Freedom Forecast Indicator do these deeper calculations for you. But for today, the key is simple. If you don't quantify the gap, you can't know whether you need growth, income or a clever combination of both. Which brings us to line two of your property job. When must the job be done?

A 40-year-old with 15 years to compound isn't hiring the same property employee as a 62-year-old who needs income in three years. One may need a growth apprentice. The other may need an experienced income-producing executive who starts paying from Monday. So don't ask the apprentice to fund retirement next Christmas. and don't make the executive spend 15 years in the graduate program.

Now, line three of your property job is your salary cap. What can you comfortably afford to contribute after interest, rates, insurance, management, maintenance, vacancy and the tax timing that applies to you? Not what the bank says you can borrow. That's the size of the employment contract. It's not the salary budget that your household can safely carry. and don't write whatever it takes. That's how property becomes the family member

who keeps borrowing money and then never remembers to bring their wallet. On four of your property job is the contract term. How long can you genuinely hold it? Property's entry costs and lumpy cycles punish impatience. If your likely horizon is three years, don't write a 15-year job ad and don't assume that you'll hold forever

when life may bring retirement, relocation, illness, relationship change or a much better opportunity. Line five of your property job is the performance standard. What does good performance actually look like? Enough growth and enough income, strong tenant demand and a broad future owner-occupied buy pool, useful tax treatment and sound fundamentals, control and simplicity comfort and evidence because this is and not or investing it doesn't mean finding a unicorn with a granny flat a subdivision 10 yield no maintenance zero risk and a tenant who sends you christmas presents it means refusing false choices you don't need maximum growth or maximum cash flow you need the right blend for your phase your capacity and your sleep which brings us to

informed comfort. Now I like property because I understand it. I can see it, touch it, improve it and influence its future value. That understanding helps me stay calm when sentiment isn't. But comfort without competence is just a recliner in a burning room. So your comfort needs to be earned through knowledge, numbers, independent verification and a willingness to reject what doesn't stack up. Now let's test all of this on a property. Imagine a $750,000 family home around 600 square metres in an established employment and school precinct. It rents for about $620 a week. That's about $32,000 a year or roughly a 4.3% gross yield. Now at 80% lending the loan's $600,000. At an illustrative 6% interest rate the interest alone is around $36,000

before rates, insurance, management, maintenance or vacancy. So the healthy-looking $620 a week pay packet isn't the same as take-home pay. For our 40-year-old accumulator with stable income, a proper savings or equity loan war chest, a 15-year horizon, strong local demand and genuine potential to improve the home, the property may be a very useful growth employee.

But for our 62-year-old who needs $25,000 of net income Come in three years, the same property walks into the interview and asks the employer to pay it. So same property, same street, same rent, but completely different hiring decision. That's why there's no such thing as a universally good investment. There's only good fit or expensive friction. And that takes us to line six of your property job, the probation conditions. What would disqualify the property candidate? Evaluation shortfall, a major repair, a rate rise,

three months without rent, one income disappearing, a builder delay, an insurance exclusion. If one ordinary setback breaks the household, the property hasn't failed probation, the employment contract was unaffordable from day one. Then finally, line seven of your property job is the replacement plan. Who will want this property next?

not who might rent it today who will compete to buy it when you need to exit a young family, a downsizer, an investor, a developer or only someone who falls for the same bracelet that you did because the future buyer is effectively your redundancy insurer and before you think about securing a property you need to be ensuring that it will appeal and be in high demand to a large audience of emotionally driven owner occupiers when you sell it

so that you end up with the biggest possible payout. So before you open another listing app, write this sentence. I need this property to produce this result by this date while costing no more than this, surviving these shocks, requiring no more than this much of my time and remaining attractive to this future emotionally driven buyer. If you can't finish that sentence, you're not ready to hire a property. You're just borrowing financial dating profiles.

And the glamour shots rarely include the rising damp. Now, once your job description is written, most properties become a quick no. And that's not missing opportunities. That's management. But a job description only tells you what role exists. It doesn't tell you whether the applicant's resume is true. So next, we're going to run properties reference check using just five questions. And the fifth question can turn the first four into very expensive trivia.

Because a candidate can look brilliant on the first four questions and still bankrupt the employer on the fifth. So here's the property's five-minute reference check. Not 50 questions, not a spreadsheet that needs its own IT department, just five questions with actual measuring sticks. Question one, can it grow? Question two, can it pay? Question three, can it scale?

Question four, can it sell? And question five, can you comfortably hold and keep it long enough for the first four to actually matter? Now, that fifth question isn't another box. It's the oxygen feeding all the others. Now, before we test them, you need three traffic light colours. Green means independently supported evidence. Amber means a reasonable assumption that still needs proof.

and red means unsupported unaffordable uninsurable or depending on something that you just can't control so here's my first rule of thumb don't average away a fatal flaw a crack slab doesn't become sound because the kitchen scored nine out of ten any red light on structure insurance legal use your ability to hold or your future exit means stop until it's independently resolved and if you've got three or more ambers you haven't got an investment case yet you've got a story with nice lighting now this scorecard is really our gear set sniff and bushido thinking without drowning you in alphabet soup where gear set tests the fit for you stiff test the facts and numbers and bushido test whether you can own it with discipline think of them as three gates in this

order. Gate one is gear set. Does property's job fit your growth goal, expertise and ease, affordability, risk and rest, simplicity, equity and leverage efficiency, time horizon and your co-driver? If it doesn't fit your life and capacity, stop there. A brilliant asset that destroys your sleep, relationship or borrowing runway has failed the cultural interview. Gate 2 is your sniff Does this specific property survive scrutiny on strategy and self-fit numbers and net result, investment integrity, flexibility and freedom and force multipliers with a failure plan

Then gate 3 is your Bushido Will you own it with the behaviours that let time, leverage and compounding actually do their work Because acronyms line don't make you wealthy If they did, Sesame Street would run a hedge fund So the last five we're about to use is the reference check. It isn't the entire investigation. So let's make all three usable.

First, can it grow? Not, did the suburb grow last year? That's the rear view mirror. The useful question is, what's likely to attract more capable buyers here than the number of desirable homes available when I eventually sell? We're looking for evidence of future growth

and positive change here. So my first pass macro growth drivers test is my good old trusty three eyes of infrastructure industry and incomes. Out of 100 I generally await infrastructure at 40 points industry at 40 and incomes at about 20. Why? Because a new roundabout may improve traffic but productive infrastructure and durable jobs improve people's capacity to pay more. for future growth infrastructure like roads rail and technology connectivity to open up access school what's funded committed and actually useful not a politician's artist's impression with trees added later for industry look for at least three independent employment engines including uncorrelated combinations that may include health plus education logistics plus

manufacturing or defence plus professional services. Because one giant employer isn't diversity. It's a company town with one dependent reference. And ensure the area has the necessary critical mass of population, which is generally a rough and dirty minimum of around about 25,000 people. And for incomes, look for young growing family demographics with rising full-time employment with wages that can support the current local price point and enough ongoing affordability for the next buyer to still borrow. As a rough total free eye screen, 70 out of 100 earns more investigation. It doesn't mean buy, it means the location or property applicant gets a second interview. Below 50 means the future case needs extraordinary evidence, not extraordinary

optimism. Turning to the micro area level, what's the local embedded sentiment towards this precinct? Do long-term locals consider it a good area or is it perceived to be a bad area? Because reputation is generational and it takes decades to change. Then bring it from location level down to the micro street level with an upper max limit of 30% renters to 70% owner-occupiers. Is competing supply constrained? Do owner-occupiers actually want this style? Can a normal local household live there happily? Is the home's replacement cost supporting the price? And does the property have something scarce you can't simply add later? Like useful land, solar orientation, a quiet position, walkability, a flexible floor plan or access to a tightly

held precinct. Because street appeal and owner-occupier appeal are potentially priceless. You can renovate laminates, but you can't renovate an arterial road out of the front yard. So that's growth question one. Question two, can it pay? Here's the quickest rent-ready reckoning here. Weekly rent multiplied by 52 divided by purchase price gives you the gross yield. But gross yield is property's salary before tax, super, sick leave and the office Christmas party. As a rough first pass, quarantine 20 to 25% of gross rent for rates, insurance, management, maintenance and normal vacancy before interest and tax. Some apartments, high maintenance homes and specialist accommodation will cost more.

So replace the estimate with real quotes before you buy. And here's Ready Reckoner 2. At 6% interest, every $100,000 of debt costs about $6,000 a year or roughly $115 a week on interest only. And on P&I or principal interest, the cash repayment may be roughly 20% to 45% higher depending on the remaining loan term.

Now, principal isn't an expense, but it still leaves your bank account. So a 1% rate rise on a $600,000 loan adds about six grand a year or another $115 a week. And that's a lot easier to feel and understand than 100 basis points that economic commentators like to talk about. And one empty week vacancy removes about 1.9% of annual rent. So four empty weeks or a month removes about 7.7%. And we normally like to budget for three to four weeks of vacancy a year in our cash flow calcs to cover tenant changeovers, etc. Because vacancy isn't free leave. It's unpaid leave that you approved accidentally. Question three, can it scale? Now, this doesn't

mean owning 10 properties. It means that this purchase mustn't consume all of tomorrow's choices. At 80% lending, a rough acquisition allowance is around 25% of the purchase price before your war chest reserve buffer. That's roughly a 20% deposit plus roughly 5% to 6% for stamp duty, legals and buying costs. Now the exact figure changes by state, price, property and your circumstances. But 25% stops you pretending that the deposit is the whole check. Then keep your household emergency money of 6 to 12 months of living expenses separate from your property war chest rainy day reserve now my rough property war chest starting point is six months of the stress shortfall plus the insurance excess plus the largest likely

near-term repair and we'll unpack the finance architecture later but if settlement leaves you asset rich cash poor and praying that the hot water never reads its contract the candidate they can't scale. Question four, can it sell? Now here, I suggest you use my three buy rule. Before you buy, name at least three credible future buy pools. Not three imaginary people, but three distinct groups, perhaps young families, professionals, or downsizers, so that you're focusing on emotionally driven owner-occupier home appeal, and preferably not unemotional spreadsheet investors renovators or small developers because you want to sell to hearts not heads and owner occupiers make up about 70% of residential home buyers so this is your

value-driven demand sweet spot and your target buyer groups must generally want that so they want that price point that property style and that microclimate location if the exit depends on one specialist buyer, one tax rule, one industry or one optimistic valuer, that's not an exit. That's a hostage negotiation. Then question five, can you comfortably keep it long enough? So here's the collision test. Run the numbers at your actual quoted rate, then add 2%. Cut achievable rent by 10%. Allow four weeks without rent and one ugly repair and test a period of one household income. Not because all five will happen forever, but because two or three can arrive together without booking an appointment. And don't use future capital growth to pay next

Tuesday's plumber. Growth can build wealth, but it can't direct debit the hot water service. Now, let's put our $750,000 candidate through the reference check using our full property investment analysis software rather than maths written on the back of a beer coaster. Because many quick and dirty serviette screens assume a $600,000 loan with the 20% deposit and buy cost paid from your cash. Under those assumptions, a 200 to 230-odd weekly shortfall looks mathematically right. But this isn't generally the whole salary package, because most investors use accessible borrowed equity from their existing properties in their Worcester Thunder deposits, stamp duty purchase costs, loan costs and any other fees. So that doesn't make those dollars free it just

moves them from your settlement check into your debt and weekly holding cost. So in our full existing property analysis the $750,000 purchase plus $68,600 odd dollars of buying costs plus over $6,900 at loan costs creates total household debt of about $825,500. Now, that's not a standalone 110% loan against this property. It relies on equity or security from your other existing properties from elsewhere. But your household still pays tax-deductible interest

on every borrowed dollar. So at 6.5% interest, that costs about $53,660 a year. The $620 weekly rent starts at about $32,240 but after allowing 7% vacancy only about $30,000 actually arrives. Then management, letting fees, rates and land tax, insurance, maintenance and other costs consume another $13,000. So the true first year cash shortfall is about $36,660 odd dollars or roughly $705 every week. And under the new post-budget no immediate negative gearing tax assumption there's no longer a salary tax refund to rescue today's budget. Now the loss may have future tax value and or be deducted from the property's cost

base when you sell to reduce CGT paid subject to the new law and professional advice but it doesn't pay this Friday's bills. So $705 a week is this existing property's candidate's real salary request, which is more than three times the cost of the quick 80% loan example. So same $750,000 price tag, but completely different employment contract once all true costs are actually incorporated. And here's the comparison that exposes why taxes salary packaging, not property performance. A qualifying $750,000 new build example with total debt of about $809,675 with $650 weekly rent, 7% vacancy and full operating costs still loses about $33,200 before tax or roughly $638 a week. So it isn't a cashflow unicorn wearing a hard hat.

But under the specific taxable income, ownership, depreciation, eligibility and PAYG withholding tax variation assumptions for our typical investors Michael and Jessica that we unpacked a few weeks ago, in our detailed analysis, the modelled tax benefit is about $21,900. That reduces the after-tax shortfall to about $11,290 or roughly $217 a week. so the full comparison is existing property about $705 a week under no immediate tax relief qualifying new build about $638 a week before tax and about $217 a week after the negative gearing tax benefit that's a $488 a week after tax difference or around 25 grand a year now as I mentioned we've unpacked that comparison more deeply in the recent snip test episode but today it's got one different job to show why purchase price and rent can't tell you the household salary request so you need four numbers cash required up front total economic debt

including any equity loan weekly cost before tax and weekly cost after tax So never compare two properties using price and yield alone when their finance, tax, vacancy, maintenance and acquisition contracts are doing different jobs. And remember, the $217 a week figure only assists cash flow progressively if the investor qualifies, the deductions remain available and a PAYG, withholding tax variation, is correctly implemented.

Otherwise, the household may still have to fund the $638 a week cash gap then wait for a later tax refund outcome at the end of the year because tax timing is holding cost. And here's your next ready rechner. A 1% rate rise on roughly $810,000 to $826,000 of debt adds another $155 to $160 odd dollars a week. Under the full 2% rate rise collision test with rent reduced, vacancy and normal expenses, the pre-tax salary quest can push beyond $1,000 a week before the ugly repair. So now you've got a real decision tool. If your affordable written salary cap was $200 a week, both property candidates fail. No romance, no tax brochure, resuscitation and no hoping rates feel better by Christmas. They fail.

if your salary cap was $250 a week that you can afford the fully funded existing property still fails but the qualifying new build may pass its modeled after tax test but only the actual property tax treatment finance timing and collision test all survive verification because cheaper to hold doesn't automatically mean better to own but impossible to hold really becomes a great long investment. So you change the deal, the purchase price, the upfront cash, the debt, the rent, the finance structure, the war chest, or the property's income. But you don't change the maths with hope. And this gives us the funding triangle, upfront cash, total debt, and weekly holding cost. You may reduce one by increasing another, but you can't minimise all three at once.

the deposit you avoid hasn't disappeared it simply turned up for work wearing a interest rate badge so suddenly the trade-off's visible you're not buying an income employee you're funding a growth apprentice now that may be sensible if question one can it grow has strong evidence question four can it sell has three buyer pools and question five can i hold fits your salary cap and your war chest. But without those, the growth story isn't a strategy, it's an IOU from the future. So our property candidate's first pass traffic light scorecard is growth, amber, until the three I's, local competing supply and street level scarcity are independently verified. The pay score is red for an income job because the fully funded existing candidate asked for about

$705 every week with no immediate salary tax relief. It's a known salary cost for a growth job but only if your household can comfortably keep paying it. The scale score is amber because you can contribute roughly $187,500 up front before the war chest or use accessible equity and carry total debt of roughly $810,000 to $826,000. So lower cash at settlement means higher debt and holding pressure. And your next purchase only remains possible if this one doesn't consume all your capacity and your sleep. The sell score is potentially green if that normal family home really attracts free future emotionally driven buy pools. And the hold score is red that anyone whose safe salary cap can't survive the collision test.

So the verdict isn't the property's good and it isn't the property's bad. It's this, promising growth applicant, wrong income employee and not hired yet until the growth evidence, finance and failure plan clear the references. That's what usable analysis actually sounds like. One property, one job and one honest verdict.

but here's where the job interview gets interesting because once a candidate passes the reference check we still need to read his resume and property claims one career super power that shares cash and many many other assets just simply can't copy but that superpower can either manufacture wealth or manufacture a very expensive mess so let's open property's resume and find out which one that you've actually hired. But first, let's correct one popular exaggeration. Property superpower isn't simply leverage. You can borrow to buy shares, businesses use debt,

and plenty of alternative assets arrive with gearing already on board. So property genuine superpower is the combination of relatively safer low-cost leverage, direct influence, the ability to manufacture value and an eventual emotionally driven owner-occupier-buyer. That combination is unusually powerful and unusually dangerous when one part's missing. So properties resume has five claim qualifications. So let's now check each one out. Property qualification one, I make your money work harder. That's leverage. Imagine you contribute a $150,000 deposit to control a $750,000 property. A 5% value movement is $37,500.

That's only 5% of the property, but it's 25% of your $150,000 deposit before purchase costs, interest, tax and selling costs. Wonderful when the lift goes up. Less amusing when you discover it's also fitted with a down button because a 5% fall is still 37 and a half brand and the bank's debt doesn't fall with it. So leverage isn't a return, it's an amplifier. And here's your usable rule. Measure every likely value movement up and down against your total cash and equity at risk. Then include all buying and holding costs. If the downside damages your ability to keep holding, the leverage is too loud. Property qualification two, my tenant helps fund the journey. Yeah, that's true. But helps is doing Olympic level work in that sentence. So calculate

the rent coverage ratio. Take the rent that you generally receive after vacancy and divide it by interest plus cash operating expenses. For example, in our existing $750,000 existing property example, $30,000 of actual rent is covering about $66,600 of interest and expenses. That's only about 45% rent coverage. So the tenant isn't paying for the whole employee, they're shouting just under half of the salary while you cover the rest. In the new build example, the property itself has about 49% pre-tax rent coverage and the much lower after-tax household cost comes from tax treatment, not stronger operating cash flow. And that's a very important distinction. Tax can improve your ability to hold, but it doesn't improve the property's rent coverage.

So I put both figures on every application, property rent coverage and household after tax holding cost. One tests the asset, the other tests you. Property qualification number three, you can improve my performance well this is where property earns my informed comfort i can improve an awkward floor plan at a bedroom create another income improve light and flow upgrade landscaping subdivide suitable land or replace a use that buyers don't value with one that they do but activity isn't manufactured value paint isn't equity just because it came in an expensive color manufactured value exists only when the conservative increase in end value exceeds every dollar required to create it. So use my two for

one first screen. For every dollar that you plan to spend, look for at least two dollars of conservatively supportable value uplift before tax, finance, delay and selling costs. Why demand a margin? Because builders, buildings, budgets and councils rarely develop a sudden passion for your spreadsheet. So imagine you buy for $750,000 then spend $35,000 turning a clumsy three-bedroom layout into a flexible four-bedroom family home. If independently supported completed sales are just $820,000 in value, the gross uplift is $70,000, less the $35,000 spend and you've manufactured about $35,000 gross equity before finance, tax, time and surprises. So that's well worth investigating. But if the end values only comes in at $780,000, you've spent $35,000 to

create $30,000 of equity. That's not manufactured equity, that's a $5,000 gym membership with dust. And the two-for-one rule doesn't approve the project. It only earns a feasibility study, where planning, buildability, services, finance, end valuation, contingency and tax still need to agree. Property qualification four, I'm scarce and tangible. Yes, sometimes. A house is tangible, but scarcity has to earn its adjective. If a developer can produce another 500 similar versions around the corner, the property may be solid, but its scarcity is called in sick. So buy what you can't cheaply change, then improve what you can. You can't cheaply change the street, landscape, orientation, noise, neighbours, zoning, flood risk

or the buyer's embedded perception of that precinct. But you may change layout, presentation, energy efficiency, function and income utility. That's the irreversible first rule. Select the difficult to change attributes brilliantly then spend carefully on the changeable ones. Property qualification five, I encourage discipline. Yes, property can be a wonderful force-saving vehicle.

The loan gets paid, the tenant contributes, the asset is hard at the panic sell before breakfast, and your TLC of time, leverage and compounding has room to work. But that strength comes with property's price of admission. It's slow to enter, expensive to leave, impossible to sell one bathroom at a time, concentrated in one roof, one street, one council, one insurer, and often one tenant it need maintenance it can be vacant its valuation can fall when you need

to refinance most and although you can influence its performance you don't control interest rates tax law planning delays building costs insurer appetite or buyer sentiment so use the notice period test if you need that capital back within about five years properties like to be the wrong employee. And if it can't genuinely afford to hold for a minimum of 10 and preferably 15 years or more, its lumpy cycle and transaction friction may choose your exit for you. Now compare that resume with the other applicants. Shares are generally liquid, divisible, cheap to transact and easy to diversify. But you don't choose the tenants, change the floor plan or ring the board about the kitchen. A business can offer even more control and extraordinary manufactured value

but it can also demand your time, energy, people management and operational risk. Alternative assets may do specialist jobs but can bring specialist complexity, counterparties, fees and exits. So property sits in a quite unusual middle. Tangible enough to influence, financeable enough to scale human enough to be inefficient and emotional enough the right buyer to pay more than a spreadsheet might

that's why I lean so heavily into property when it fits not because it always wins but because its combination of leverage, influence, scarcity, income and manufactured value gives a skilled investor many more levers to pull

but a resume only tells you what the candidate might do It doesn't tell you whether the evidence abides a proper SNF or whether you'll manage the employee properly when the roof hands in its resignation. So now the candidate goes on probation. And I'm going to show you two properties at the same price with similar rent where one earns a second interview

and the other gets escorted from the building. And the difference won't appear in a suburb media. So let's start with the S in SNF, strategy and self-fit. Write the property's job in one sentence, then ask my three-year no-rescue question. If rates don't fall, rent doesn't jump, tax rules don't improve, and prices don't rescue me for three years,

does this property still do its job without breaking us? If the answer's no, you haven't got a strategy, you've got a weather forecast with a mortgage. Then your N in SNF is numbers and net result. And here's a more useful way to organise the numbers that we've already tested. Use three ledgers. Ledger one is the property ledger.

Actual rent, less vacancy, interest and every operating cost. That tells you whether the employee earns its own salary. Ledger two is your household ledger. The real weekly cost after your personal tax position plus the collision case that we ran earlier. That tells you whether you can safely employ it. Ledger three is your freedom ledger. After buying costs, holding costs, future selling costs, tax,

and the capital that you've tied up, how much closer does it actually move your nest egg and your freedom of others? If it only looks good in a ledger too because of a tax benefit, it may help holdability. But tax is salary packaging. It isn't CPR for a debt investment. Then comes your sniff eye for investment integrity. And here, use my two-source rule.

Every assumption that can change your decision, like rent, value, vacancy, insurance, build cost, planning use and future supply, needs two independent sources of support, and at least one must not get paid if you buy. The brochure, the selling agent and the developer's valuer aren't three sources if they're all on the same payroll. That's one source wearing three lanyards. then comes your first sniff f for flexibility and freedom so for this use the three two one freedom test can you identify three genuinely different future buy groups do you have two workable responses in the if the first finance or income plan changes and can you name one non-forced exit window so a life event doesn't choose your sale date. Then the sniff second F

is your force multipliers and failure plan. Write down one upside lever you can influence, one failure trigger you'll monitor and one funded response if it occurs. For example the lever may be a legal fourth bedroom that improves both rent and buyer appeal. The trigger may be the weekly shortfall exceeding your limit for three consecutive months and the response may be funded may sorry the response may be a funded minor reconfiguration a refinance review or a planned sale inside an acceptable window because hope isn't a failure plan hope doesn't even return emails now let's put two hypothetical property applicants through a sniff both cost 750 grand Property applicant A is a tired three-bedroom home on useful land

in an established owner-occupier microclimate. It rents for $600 a week. It has an awkward dining room that may become a legal fourth bedroom for about $30,000. Two settled sales support an end value of around $820,000 if the work's done well. Planning use, insurance, builder scope and rent have each been checked independently.

It appeals to young families, downsizes wanting land and professionals. In comparison, Property Applicant B is a glossy four-bedroom home in a large New Fringe estate. It rents for $640 a week and comes with a $25,000 incentive. On the brochure, it wins. It has more drone footage than a wildlife documentary. But the valuation relies on asking prices, the rent came from the selling channel, Another friend of 80 very similar homes have proposed nearby and this only upside lever is waiting for someone else to pay more, which is just a variation of the old bigger full strategy. Now, property applicant A isn't automatically the better buy.

It still needs full due diligence and the renovation may not stack up. And applicant B isn't weak because it's new. A differentiated new home with independent value, controlled supply, strong land attributes and broad future demand can still be an excellent hire. So the problem isn't new. The problem is undifferentiated, unverified and incentive dependent.

So property A earns a second interview. Property B gets amber lights until independent evidence replaces the brochure. and if the incentive is merely an inflated price wearing a fake moustache, B leaves the building. Now we reach the final gate, Bushido probation. This tests you because a sound property could still become a bad investment in undisciplined hands.

So begin with the end in mind. Before contract, write a one-page exit memo. Who may buy it? Who will they want it? And why will they want it? what must be true for you to sell, and what must never force the sale. Then, understand before owning. Use the 60-second explain back.

If you can't explain the strategy, numbers, risk, and exit to your partner or independent accountant in plain English, you don't understand it well enough to sign. Then, survive before striving. Fund the quantified six-month collision case before settlement, not after the hot water service discovers its new purpose in life. Then head before heart. Use a 24-hour romance quarantine after every inspection.

No offer until the evidence file is complete. The stone benchtop will still be gorgeous tomorrow. The loan contract won't marry you to your personality. Then invest long enough for TLC to do its work. That's time, leverage and compounding. If you can't hold through a normal location-specific cycle, the strategy is asking time to perform a magic trick. Then comes diversify by design.

Don't just count properties and postcodes, count shared failure modes. If three properties depend on the same employer, insurer, flood system, tenant profile, builder or lender appetite, you may own three addresses and one risk. And finally, own the process. For every critical claim, write down who supplied it, who pays them, who independently checks it and who owns the final decision.

That last answer is always you. Advisors advise, buyers agents search, brokers finance, accountants account and podcast hosts occasionally interrupt perfectly good sentences with the acronyms. But you own the outcome. So here's your Bushido hiring rule. don't average away a hard no no legal use no acceptable insurance no independent integrity or no funded survival plan means no hire every other amber gets a written condition an owner

and a deadline before you go unconditional that's how gearsat sniff and bashido all work together the right job the right evidence and the right behavior now we know how to reject the wrong applicant. But we still haven't answered the question that most property investors are really asking. Which property job should I advertise for now? Because the next short list includes seven very different property careers and one popular senior executive may be carrying junior level results. And that's exactly where we'll pick it up next week. But before we leave the interview room, today's episode needs to earn its own salary. So would I dismiss property as an investment class right now? No. Would I give it the job automatically because I understand it, prefer it, and you're

listening to the Property Hub here? Absolutely not. Today's verdict is this. Property has earned the right to apply, but it hasn't yet earned the job. Because preference may get property into the interview room, but only fit, evidence, holdability and disciplinary behaviour will keep it there. And that's what we established today. First, property needs a written job description. One primary job linked to your life, freedom of numbers, break-free date, capacity and stage of life. Not the corporate waffle of make me wealthy while I sleep. That's not a job description. that's a motivational mug looking for a payroll department. Second, property needs to pass gear set.

Growth, equity, affordability, risk, scalability, effort and tax. Not in isolation, but as one connected system. Because an asset can score beautifully in six columns, then empty your bank account through the seventh. Third, the specific property needs to pass the sniff test. The story must survive independent evidence, the numbers must survive real costs and the future buyer must exist for reasons stronger than your own optimism. Fourth, you need the Bushido behavioural discipline to follow the

evidence after your emotions have already moved into the master bedroom. And finally, you don't average away a hard no. No legal use, no acceptable insurance, no independent integrity or no funded survival plan means no hire. Not a reduced offer, not a motivational affirmation and definitely not work it out after settlement. That sentence has funded more emergency plumbing, forced sales and awkward conversations with accountants than I can care to imagine. So here's your immediate action from today's episode. Before you open another property portal take one blank page and write five headings number one the job in one sentence what must property do for your freedom plan number two the working conditions write your maximum purchase ceiling annual holding ceiling

time commitment and funded buffer number three the three non-negotiables the three pieces of evidence that every property candidate must produce number four the three disqualifiers The hard no conditions that end the interview, however attractive the kitchen may be. And number five, your stickability statement. Why does this approach fit your knowledge, comfort, cash flow, temperament and ability to hold for a full location specific cycle? If you can't complete that one page, you're not ready to inspect property. You're ready to be seduced by it. So here's your food for thought.

If every property listing disappeared for 30 days, could you still describe the exact job that your next property needs to perform? Because if the answer's no, you're not selecting an investment, you're shopping for a justification. And my quote of the week is this, your comfort asset earns an interview,

your evidence earns the job. And next week, the property applicants arrive. One wants a family home to take on a second job, one's an experienced old campaigner with a renovation, resume, one's brand new wearing tax advantages like a freshly pressed suit, one's a strange young home on old dirt hybrid that I call the property platypus, one promises income, one arrives in a commercial suit, and one doesn't even hand you the keys. And we're going to test all seven, then put five of the loudest property claims through

the claim clinic before examining the finance, ownership, war chest, and exit contract that can turn a good employee bad. And I'll hold back one decisive word until the final verdict. So follow Get Invested Now and make sure the upcoming Property Part 2 arrives on your desk next week. And if today's diagnostic has shown you what needs to be done, but you need help turning it into your complete property plan, that's why I developed the Property Wealth Program. It takes you around the complete property wealth clock from your why, freedom, numbers, capacity, and approach through finance, structure, selection, acquisition, holding, and ongoing review.

You can explore it at busheymartin.com.au forward slash wealth journey, or just click the link in the show notes. And I'll place the direct links alongside the complete Australian property investment podcast conversation I enjoyed with Aaron David, Christy David, that I extracted for the relevant section in today's episode, also in the show notes,

so make sure you check them out. and as always this is general information and education only it isn't personal financial credit tax legal investment advice so before acting get independent advice that considers your objectives financial position needs and your personal circumstances and thanks again for sharing your most precious commodity your time if the day has helped you think differently please follow get invested share it with someone who's currently giving property a free pass and leave us an honest review. Then write the property job description,

check the resume, call the referees, fund the probation period, and next week we'll decide which applicant actually deserves a chair. Until then, live more, give more, grow more, and become more. And as always, always get invested. Thanks for tuning in to Get Invested

on the Property Hub podcast channel, your home for property investment insights and inspiration. Make sure you subscribe to Property Hub for free. Get your weekly dose of Get Investing inspiration along with every episode of Realty Talk, Australia's top online property show for red hot property investing news and insights direct from industry leaders and influencers.

And finally, I'll see you next time.