Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Get Invested: Part 2 – Ashleigh Goodchild on the future of Perth property

Starting point is 00:00:00 we were finding that because we have different legislations all over Australia, that the investor didn't understand how it worked in buying in WA. So we don't have a cooling off period, which is one of the biggest ones. And the second biggest thing that's different in WA is that you can't further negotiate your offer when you've received your building and pest. I think the other thing with buying sight unseen is that we don't have a rule in WA about how old the photos have to be that are used so what can happen is if you're looking at a property and in the description it says that it's tenanted at 450 per week and you notice that the photos that the agent has used are unfurnished photos I would be 100% asking them for up-to-date photos or an

Starting point is 00:00:46 up-to-date walkthrough of that property because if they're using photos from five years ago you you know, I want to see the property right now. And I had a client get stung with this, was pressured to put an offer in because there were other offers. 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.

Starting point is 00:01:22 Subscribe now and join me, and get invested in the life that you really want. Let's get started. Hi, Friday Fighters. What are your thoughts on investing interstate, and in Western Australia in particular? And how can you confidently buy a property site unseen interstate, and know that you're buying the right property in the right place at the right price with the right yield to suit your specific investment strategy? Well today you're going to find out because in recent times it doesn't seem to matter where you

Starting point is 00:01:54 turn in property circles it just feels like we're constantly hearing about the Perth and WA property market going absolutely gangbusters. But is the property party coming to a close? Well following a decade in the doldrums property values in WA have soared nearly 26% from the COVID trough to the initial July 2022 peak and following a minimal correction, property prices in WA had continued to soar to all-time highs as the West continues to be the absolute standout property market around the country with growth of just under 25% in the last 12 months, creating total growth of over 60% since COVID commenced. That's just amazing. So it appears that WA is in the midst of the perfect property storm, as national buyers, agents and interstate investors pile into

Starting point is 00:02:48 the affordable West in a self-fulfilling feeding frenzy. So is the property boom in the West going to continue, or is the bubble about to burst, as some are now starting to suggest? Now WA has always experienced a somewhat polarising property picture, and many property aficionados find it hard to forget the last resource dependent lost decade from 2010 to 20 so to add some intimate local knowledge to the debate in order to find out what's really happening on the ground and where it's all headed in WA along with a raft of other great investor initiatives that we're going to talk about after sharing her motivational story last week we're joined again by long-term local WA property entrepreneur investor advocate and property management specialist Ashley Goodchild

Starting point is 00:03:35 a director of SoCo Realty and founder of her PM Collective and property profiling businesses, which we're going to expand on. So welcome back, Ashley, everywhere, and let's get invested again, Ash. Excellent. Thanks for having me. Ash, I really enjoyed our chat last week. What you shared there goes above and beyond what a lot of people do and brings a real human face to what property is really about and the positive changes that we can help influence other people's lives. But I guess just to set the scene, Ash, given that you've been in the industry now for over 20 years, I'd love for you to share in your experience, what are some of the biggest common mistakes that you see investors making? Well, the first mistake they're making is

Starting point is 00:04:24 overthinking it and not making a quick enough decision by all means, but also not getting people on their team. So a lot of people do like to do it themselves. And I get it because when you speak to people around you, everyone has a different opinion and a different idea. So you have to really get that balance because you need to have people on your team, but you also need to do enough research yourself to make a decision and not go just buy your mate so a lot of people that are investing at the moment are listening to things that they're hearing in the media and they're listening to good experiences that their mates have had and we have this joke that their mates are a real pain in the butt at the moment because their mates have

Starting point is 00:05:16 done so well and they're expecting to do the same but what happens is if they're not going down the investment journey for their own personal reasons and are only looking at the experience their mate has had, they quite often will become quite disappointed because it's going to be a different experience for everybody. So really making sure that you know and you're very clear with why you're investing and then making sure that you're supported by the right people around. So the right people around are your mortgage broker, a good building inspector, a good settlement agent. Yes, if you can get some sales agents on your side, and then obviously a property manager as well, and a property manager that can actually support the process prior to you actually having

Starting point is 00:05:58 the property. Well, you mentioned the most important one last there, I think, Ash, because I know myself that with the investors that we help around the country, the first person we talk to, if advice agents put something under someone's nose is to talk to and get intimately aware with a local property manager who eats and breathes the local market because they know how one street differs from the rest and how one area changes from the other and how that property compares to others and the demographics of the area in terms of what the actual tenant profile are looking for to optimise that opportunity. So yes, that team approach is important.

Starting point is 00:06:45 And I guess what I'm big on, I'd love your thoughts on this as well, is I think it's really important to have independent professionals. So not the property managers that are attached to the sales office because they're going to be under some pressure to tell you what you want to hear

Starting point is 00:07:02 rather than what the truth is. But each of those key players, the mortgage broker, the investment strategist, the buyer's agent, the building inspector, the property manager, if they're all independent of each other, the likelihood is they're not all going to agree with each other. So there's going to be some robust discussions, but it's going to allow the investor to make informed decisions based on all that in relation to what's important to them. So I love that. On a similar tack, is there any sort of property investment approach

Starting point is 00:07:33 that you're seeing that you think the majority of people are getting wrong? And this is probably pretty relevant in what's happening in WA at the moment really. Yeah I mean they're not having a plan that that's a big mistake so they haven't spoken to someone to understand whether they do need something that is you know if it's more important for their financial position to be more you know cash flow positive or if they don't need that as much. I think when people come to me and they say you know we don't know whether we want to be going for we want two properties but they don't know how they want to create a bit of a strategy and I do always refer them back to you know a finance broker investment strategist for that but I always tell them to go back and

Starting point is 00:08:22 ask those professionals if they were to do option one first you know property one first how will that affect them getting property two and really looking at both case studies if I was to buy the new property first and then the older property second or, you know, which way to do it around. I think that that's a really good exercise for people and I don't think they're doing that at all. I think that they're overall in Perth, investors are going pretty well. It's just that they're just not having that planning in place for their future ones and they're definitely not allowing for expenses when it comes to maintenance in the first 12 months. That's becoming quite sensitive issue, to be honest. So they need to have that buffer and they need to, even if the

Starting point is 00:09:08 property looks amazing and it's renovated, you still really need to make sure that you've got that cash flow behind. Because from a property manager's position, I always say like our job is to help the investor buy a property and sustain that property for as long as possible within our business. We want the owner to be financial and to have a sustainable property. So that's our one role. And I think that at the end of the day, all investors want to hold onto properties long-term. So you need to really overestimate some of these expenses and they're not doing that. Yeah, 100%. Now, I just want to touch on something that I know you would have to be experiencing in WA at the moment, given the number of interstate buyers agents and investors

Starting point is 00:09:56 that are piling in to WA in droves and there's a lot of FOMO that I'm sort of seeing that's driving some of the activity. I'd love for you to share what you're seeing as some of the risks for interstate buyers purchasing property site unseen in WA and perhaps share some examples of what you're seeing in that regard. A risk is buying a property that's tenanted at the moment. it's a big one. I am always curious as to why an investor who has a really good tenant in a property would be selling. And there's two reasons. One is that they financially really happen to, but the 3D, like call it death, divorce, debt, you know, valid reasons for having to sell a property. But then there's a good chance that they're selling the property

Starting point is 00:10:46 because it's becoming a bit of a headache. And a big risk that owners are taking are properties that are tenanted. And what happens with those is that access into them is really difficult. So a sales agent may say to an investor, listen, it's tenanted, the tenant's paying this much rent, but we can't get access in. And then with this FOMO, people are still buying the property without seeing that. And gosh, the number of tenants that owners are inheriting from a property that are a problem is big, very, very hard to manage. And also we're finding that the risk with it as well is that the paperwork that has been put in place for that tenant is sometimes missing. Like we're getting properties handed over with no bond, no lease agreement, the wrong lease agreement,

Starting point is 00:11:37 really crappy situations and investors don't get to check that prior to putting their offer in because if they ask too many questions they're not going to get the property because there's so many other offers and so you've got to keep your offer really simple so that is definitely a big risk and it's definitely causing I'm seeing a lot of problems coming because of that so that tenanted property is definitely a big thing. I think the other thing with buying sight unseen is that we don't have a rule in WA about how old the photos have to be that are used. So what can happen is if you're looking at a property and in the description it says that it's tenanted at $450 per week and you notice that the photos that the agent has used are unfurnished photos, I would be

Starting point is 00:12:30 100% asking them for up-to-date photos or an up-to-date walkthrough of that property. Because if they're using photos from five years ago, you know, I want to see the property right now. And I had a client get stung with this, was pressured to put an offer in because there were other offers. Tenant in the property, actually a really nice tenant, and went to go do the pre-settlement because we weren't able to get in prior. We could only get in just before settlement to check the plumbing and electrical. I have never felt so bad in my whole life calling this owner and saying, I am so sorry that this property does not look like the photos. And we had to do, we got a few things from settlement, but I just, my words to him were something that

Starting point is 00:13:21 Oprah Winfrey once said, and that is, don't worry about making the right decision, make the decision right. And I said, you've made the decision. We've just got to make it right for you. And we have been in a process of sort of getting it all cleaned up, which a good property manager is going to do for you. But it's not necessary stress that you have to go through. So I think that investors can have a really good look online at a property and look at those photos. But we just don't naturally seem to think, when were these photos taken? Were they taken last week or 10 years ago. So very important to be mindful of that. 100%. And I guess that comes back to the important role of a local property manager who has intimate knowledge of that location. As I

Starting point is 00:14:09 mentioned earlier, it's a must-have for us if we're helping an investor to secure a property that might be put up by a buyer's agent or a seller's agent. Then we make sure that a local property manager who's been there a long time and understands the intimacy of what's going on does a full video walkthrough of that property before an office put in and also a pre-settlement inspection to make sure that it's a full working order exercise to make sure there's no secrets or surprises at that end. But I also know, and I'd love for you to talk about now, the excellent initiative that you've started with Property Profiling Australia. Can you talk to us about what that does and how investors might be able to access it?

Starting point is 00:14:52 Yeah, so it started when we started the frenzy, which was about, I think, three and a half, four years ago now. And we were finding that because we have different legislations all over Australia, that the investor didn't understand how it worked in buying in WA. So we don't have a cooling off period, which is one of the biggest ones. And the second biggest thing that's different in WA is that you can't further negotiate your offer when you've received your building and pest. And in fairness to a sales agent, it's not their job role to maybe necessarily educate. They don't know who's buying the property, what they know, what they don't know. And so it was becoming a real problem with investors calling me to say, hey, I bought this

Starting point is 00:15:35 property, the selling agent's saying this. And then I'm like, yeah, they're correct. That is the way you buy. You need to know this stuff. So it ended up being definitely helping them doing that, but also bridging the gap and helping the sales agent as well because we've got to respect that the sales agent role is to look after the seller, present the property in its best light. You can't ask them to go through and tell you what all the problems are with the property like that. It's what you have to do.

Starting point is 00:16:03 So, yeah, going through, I felt like we were definitely not only protecting the investor but also making the sales agents' life a lot easier and it got to a point where some of the sales agents were actually recommending me to some buyers and saying, listen, before you put the offer in, get Ashley to have a look because they felt more comfortable knowing that there wasn't going to be any complications because it's been independently checked. So it sort of developed that way. I ended up getting ridiculously inundated and it got to the point where I'm going to have to really put some processes in place and, you know, create this as a separate entity. So I did that and it has

Starting point is 00:16:43 been very, very useful to investors. I offer all my online assessments complimentary to everybody. So when I would rather you send me a link of a property that you'd like, let me just do some due diligence on it. Let me check RP data. Let me do a rent opinion. I wouldn't trust the sales agent's rent opinion that they put on the ad at the moment. They're inflating them a little. get someone else to do that. So we do that for the clients. And we also do a neighborhood risk report as well, just checking sort of the neighborhood houses and surrounds. And even that due diligence is definitely a bonus and helpful for investors. It doesn't cost a thing. So I always encourage everyone to do that. And then you've got the pre-purchase inspections.

Starting point is 00:17:29 So we actually do pre-purchase inspections for private investors, but also buyers agents as well. And I think a couple of reasons why we stand out in doing these is because number one, we do all over Perth, which is very helpful, especially when you've got a client that might want to buy south, they might want to buy north, they're not sure. Very helpful from that. But also because pre-purchase inspections are a paid service, it means that we are going to give you a really, really honest answer. And I actually had feedback from a client once who said to me, who actually went with someone that was charging a pre-purchase inspection fee. And he called me up afterwards and he said, Ash, I've gone with this person and that's all fine. However, I feel

Starting point is 00:18:16 like they're just saying yes to all the properties because they want me just to buy it so they don't have to keep on looking at properties for me. And I was like, well, that's why you have to go with someone who professionally does this because they are going to give you that really proper answer and advice. And so I work on three rules. We've got three categories. The property's fantastic, big home open, nothing to do prior to it being leased out. Put your best offer forward as much as you can, your best offer. Option two is the property's fine. It does need a couple of things done to it prior to settlement. If you can get it for a good price, then great, but don't overpay for it because there are a couple of risks involved and then option three or category three

Starting point is 00:19:02 is I wouldn't let my mother buy it so I wouldn't be buying it and touching it if I were you and then that's the three categories and clients love that they just want to be told either good or isn't it and being honest with that and I'm very good at being honest with properties so I uh I people love that now I love the fact also that from my understanding you've rolled this out across the country now. So there are other independent property managers in pretty much every state now that can offer a similar opportunity. And the important thing to note here, I think, and this is what I talk to investors all the time, if we've got an independent and hopefully a dedicated property manager that's completely unrelated to the property transaction,

Starting point is 00:19:49 they are going to tell you the ins and outs because if it's a dud property, it's going to end up the property manager's headache. And the last thing a property manager wants, having helped my good wife own and operate a property management business for many years, is to end up with a dud property because dud properties generally come with troubled landlords and troubled tenants. So it becomes a world of pain for everyone in that circumstance. So just taking that initiative to get someone who really understands how the local market works and and got boots on the ground uh massive plus right from the get-go that's that that's the first call we make after someone suggested a location a property bank property manager is the first call

Starting point is 00:20:33 so uh so i love that um i'd love now to sort of expand a little bit more if we can uh on wa because you've mentioned already one of the very significant differences that there's no calling off period and for those listening in what that means then let's get really clear on this if i make an offer on a property and it's signed by the vendor, we're under contract right from the get-go. So there's no opportunity backwards and forwards. And the date for the process starts when the purchaser signs the offer, which is very different from every other state. So you really need to go in with eyes open and know what you're doing. And we've tried to manage that by either getting the due diligence done before an offer is made or trying to build in the due diligence

Starting point is 00:21:25 clause. But that's almost impossible now in WA, but it depends on the area. What else is different in WA in your experience from what property buyers and investors might be experiencing elsewhere? Yeah, mainly just that building and pest and negotiating afterwards. So with the building and pest and any major problems with the property, it doesn't allow a buyer to get out of the contract. All it says is that the seller must rectify any major problems. So there are some building inspection reports that are coming through where building inspectors try and put something through as major, which is just ridiculous. It's not structural, so it doesn't fall apart. So that's just something that sometimes investors are still trying to negotiate

Starting point is 00:22:15 after when they see those minor structural issues on a report and you just can't. And that's the reason why you have a property manager go through prior because while we can't get into the roof space and check anything major up there, which a building inspection report would, but we can still have a really good idea of um of that those minor issues and that would show on a building and pest report and to give you like an example like i've seen bathrooms and showers and they they photograph beautifully and they're actually not that old the house but when i've gone into the property and into that shower recess there was cracking all through the tiles all the way down and there was also a tile that was a little bit more elevated than the rest it was just a very more tiling job

Starting point is 00:23:02 So that is considered a minor issue, but to be honest, it's a major issue because it's going to cost you $3,000 to re-entile that shower. And so if you have someone go through and note these things for you, at least when you go make your offer, you've taken those things into account and you take these things into account before your offer. So I can go through a property and say to you, listen, there's probably, I reckon, $11,000 worth of works that i think budgeted if you bought this so if you want to buy the property take that into account with your offer and then it sets everyone's expectations up no one's surprised

Starting point is 00:23:41 no one wants to go unconditional settle on a property hand keys to a property manager to then be told oh you've got to spend ten eleven thousand dollars because you would have put a different offer in number one and you would have been more mentally prepared for it as well so it's a risk you take so the people that don't get this done don't get a property profile check done on the property, I say to them that that's fine because it comes down to everyone's different risk levels. But if you don't get one done, I would assume that you've actually got a buffer in your bank account and you're not going to be surprised if I said to you, hey, you're going to have to pay the property, it's going to be 8,000. As long as you're not surprised by that, no problems at all,

Starting point is 00:24:21 save your money. But that's what I'm going to be expecting from you. No, I love it. It's going on with all eyes open. Again, something that we talk to the property managers about is okay what's the property going to rent for now what needs to be done how much do i need to spend and what what will that do to the rent so again you're going in and also getting them to identify based on your experience what else is likely to come up when are we likely to have to replace the hot water service uh all those sorts of issues that they've been mentally getting themselves prepared and budgeting for uh those ongoing costs that are going incurred rather than get some big surprises after the event, which can be challenging.

Starting point is 00:25:04 So I love that. Let's turn to WA and the conditions there now. And, you know, as I've mentioned in my opening, it's going gangbusters. It is absolutely top of the pops. I always get a bit nervous because it's been going for a while now, and we certainly helped a number of investors into WA probably three plus years ago, and they've done extremely well. but I'm always a little bit nervous particularly given the amount of interstate activity and

Starting point is 00:25:31 there's so many buyers agents using the same data to then compete with each other to actually buy properties which artificially inflates the values and then when they suddenly lose interest and go elsewhere then things can often go sideways. So I'd love your read of what's happening on the ground and also your projections and again this is crystal balling but what you think is likely to happen moving forward in WA conditions generally? Yeah so home opens have been busy with sales I went to some on the weekend and they happen they're not as big as what I've seen them in the last like three to six months six months was pretty pretty ridiculous and but we're still sort of seeing a full home opens like I think one had you know when I was there I had

Starting point is 00:26:19 10 people through and I was only there for about five minutes so that was quite interesting but definitely still multiple offers so reasonable size home opens but a high conversion I would say of offers coming through from those people I'm seeing elderly people downsizing I'm seeing families coming through with their 30 something year old children to to get them into the market a lot of that happening at the moment and you know of course you see property managers when you go through as well, looking at properties. But really, I would say that the parents looking for their 30-something-year-old children is a big part and we're seeing that. And I think that's great, to be honest, because I think they're the ones that actually need the help. So that's what

Starting point is 00:27:08 we're finding. The prices are still going a little bit too high. I personally am in the process of trying to buy some investments too. And I've missed out because of price, but I'm not prepared to overpay for a property at the moment when I know that the rent return's not there. So that an owner-occupier or one of those other categories definitely would be prepared to pay more. And that's fine. So they're the ones getting, I feel, getting these properties in terms. So what was the second question you had, Pat? Yes. And I guess the flow on from there is, given that WA has been historically very resource-driven, and we saw the resource sector dropped off in the early 2010-11 and property prices plummeted, I guess there's a fear that

Starting point is 00:27:58 once the current buyer agent activity, given there's a bit of a frenzy there, abates and they start to shift their attention elsewhere, is the property market in WA going to be challenged? And if so or if not but also associated with that as you and I know people in the media love to talk about the state and the area as a whole and it doesn't operate that way every street every suburb is different from every other one there's going to be areas that will be influenced I'm sure if there's a downturn in resources because of the reliance on on China etc but there's also going to be areas that are going to continue to perform so can you put a little bit of shape around all that for us? Yeah, I think we're going to find that the sales market, I think will slow down a bit

Starting point is 00:28:45 for sure. I don't actually think it's going to go backwards. I think everyone just expects a crash. I don't think we're going to get a crash. It doesn't feel like we're going to at all, but it definitely will stabilize. And then we should see just that more consistent growth that we normally would in a normal market. So I think that that would happen. So therefore, I still think it's a great area to invest in. I just don't think you're going to get that massive growth that you would have got if you'd sold, if you bought three years ago. So I have definitely seen that there's been some investors that purchased three years ago that are, you know, taking that money and running, that there is a small percentage that are definitely doing that. But I think that

Starting point is 00:29:26 there are still areas that haven't been considered by investors at the moment. I still think we have, there's definitely areas like the Rockingham manager area that have had their place and I have to say that rental yields down there are incredibly or I think incredibly low from what we've seen but made but then someone actually did say to me well it's actually normal for the rest of Australia but I'm just so used to it being so good down there that it's like it's for me it's a shock but it's still probably good in comparison to the rest of Australia so we've seen that change there and I think that we will see the rental yield drop a little bit in the other states, I'm sorry, in the other suburbs. But yeah, there's still definitely a

Starting point is 00:30:11 few untapped suburbs in Perth, definitely on the east side that I don't think has been exhausted enough. I think south has been exhausted enough. I think north somewhat and northwest, but yeah, that the east corridor, a bit more room for movement, I believe there. And I think that in terms of an affordability from a rental cash flow point of view, I feel that renters are a little bit slower on the expectations of rents at the moment. I still feel like we've got room for them to grow and for that to increase because we still find that our applications that are coming in from tenants are all still pretty good. I mean, tenants are applying for properties with a 19% affordability up to 30% affordability, which is very, very good. Yet people are still

Starting point is 00:31:01 complaining that rents are too high. But I feel like if it's only 30% of your income, it's pretty good. But yet renters still feel like they're in a little bit of stress at that point. And I think they're just going to have to understand, pull up their big girl pants, that that's actually that's actually pretty good in comparison to to over east at the moment i think we're very very lucky so i do feel like um that renters need to be prepped that that 30 to 35 affordability is really you know where we will probably end up um which would be good to give those investors that just that little bit of um cash flow um but i i want them to stay in the market i don't want investors to all leave because if they all came through in a big wave if they all fly out um it's

Starting point is 00:31:55 a problem and the reason why I say that is because there's a lot of people particularly on TikTok which is the horrible platform that I'm on uh very you know uh reluctantly but I hate seeing comments from people saying things like well if the investors stop buying properties then maybe we could you know buy a property and in my mind I'm thinking to myself but you were never going to buy a property in the first place you don't have a deposit you don't have that interest to buy which is fine because not everyone you know wants to buy property but don't say that an investor is taking that away from you when you were never going to be a homeowner in the first place they're providing a home for people that don't want to be don't want to be an investor

Starting point is 00:32:42 and we need to keep them here because we're going to have a problem if we don't, we'll end up with a lot of properties on the market for sale and I wouldn't worry for that. 100% agree. Now, I know WA pretty much dodged a bullet recently in relation to some of the rental reforms that have been introduced, particularly compared to the eastern states where they've been quite draconian in some respects,

Starting point is 00:33:04 particularly Victoria and, to a lesser degree, New South Wales and Queensland. planned. I love your thoughts on the rental reforms. I know there's a couple of stages to go yet, but what impact, if any, are they having on investor appetites to secure and hold rental properties in WA? And do you think there's going to be any flow-on effects from those? Yeah, we're very happy as an industry over here, or everyone that I speak to is. I think that they are very fair changes and I think that they were probably quite, they were best practiced in a lot of agencies anyway. So one of them was changing the rent increases to be done every 12 months

Starting point is 00:33:45 instead of six months, which I always practiced because I felt that 12 monthly was reasonable and I used to always like doing rent reviews in line with leases. So if you guess if you had a six month lease, fine, but I would always do 12 months with 12 month reviews. So best practice for a lot of people anyway. Very reasonable. So very happy with that. In regards to minor modifications, same thing. People were, you know, best practice says that if a tenant wanted to put a hanging point up, that it's not a problem. Like we never worried about things like that. So again, we're not worried by that one. The only thing that I think as a property manager, we worried about was that a tenant was going to say, I want to paint my bedroom black. And you

Starting point is 00:34:29 know what were we going to do if they asked that but that hasn't happened so I think that's just us worrying about something what that was unnecessary then you've got the pets where owners do need to say yes to pets but they can say yes with conditions so a condition would be that you have to have the place fumigated or you know you have to do this or that and I think that that's reasonable I haven't personally seen huge amounts of pet damage in property so I'm not bothered by that what I'm bothered by is more the um the mistrust in that a tenant could apply for a property and not mention the pet and then two weeks later they they've got a pet and I think that's going to cause relationship issues between tenants property managers and property owners if

Starting point is 00:35:15 they're um if they do it the wrong way but ultimately not bothered by it and I feel overall i'm i'm compared to the other rules in other states um i'm very happy because in queensland they can only do they can do the rent reviews every 12 months but it's based on the property and i heard that if you were a landlord and you went and renovated your property in between tenants but you've had already increased your rent six months ago that you still can't increase your rent till that 12 month mark which i would really hate for that to happen so the risk that i think we have to really be careful in WA and I'd love to make sure that investors that are listening are mindful of this is that if you with rents being increased only 12 months if you thought

Starting point is 00:36:04 that you could beat the system by just doing a six-month tenancy and then kicking the tenant out after six months so then you can get another market rate I would say to you that you are potentially affecting the future legislation. Because if we find that that's happening too much and that tenants are complaining about that happening too much, which they can complain, then they put a rule in to say that it needs to be put with the property. So let's just do the morally the right thing and understand that it's 12 months and not try and beat the system. Because at the end of the day, if you were to do that, kick a tenant out after six months and put a new person in the only person that's probably going to win is the property manager

Starting point is 00:36:48 because they're the ones collecting changeover fees and lending fees and it's not actually financially the best option anyway absolutely that's something that i really want people to be think about a lot and before thinking that they might do that yeah and i very well said and i think also you touched on pets i know in our own experience when when we used to own and run a a red roll we used to encourage landlords to accept pets with conditions because if you don't you're cutting out a big chunk of the the tenant market we're mad dog lifers we've got samoids and always have and always will and a lot of people do particularly post-covid there's been a lot more pets in the exercise so just being reasonable about that and and just taking a

Starting point is 00:37:32 common sense approach to the exercise with the help of the property manager is important i think I love that. Talking about property management, given your expertise in that area, what do you believe differentiates the best property managers from the rest? And as a flow on, how can investors actually ensure they engage the best property manager to look after their property? The best property managers that I meet are the ones that definitely have a better attitude and it's hard isn't it to you know determine what makes a good attitude and what doesn't but being able to call someone and speak to them straight away and communication is a really big one we are finding that we're actually getting a lot of new managements at the moment from other

Starting point is 00:38:18 offices where owners just can't get hold of a property manager or hold of someone and so that's that's really a massive massive thing in the business is the communication and someone who picks up the phone or will answer the phone when someone calls most of the time. That's massive because at the end of the day, in terms of being the best property manager, there is always a situation that even the best property manager hasn't been in and will have to seek advice and help sort out. So there is no property manager that knows every single situation. But if they've got the right attitude and they can communicate and stay in touch with you and help work through certain situations that that's what you're wanting. So definitely that is the case. I think

Starting point is 00:39:07 a best property manager is someone who educates owners. So I know that in our office, we have monthly training for our landlords on how to be a landlord because you buy a property, you don't know how to be a landlord. You don't know what expected, what you're meant to be doing. Like you need someone to tell you what you don't know so we do that one of my favorite videos that I have in the series is what to do if you can't afford maintenance and we found that there were some owners that just would say no and they would be too proud to say I can't afford the maintenance when you need to tell me if you can't afford maintenance because I've got things that I can do to help you like I've got a system that allows for financial you know borrowing the money I've

Starting point is 00:39:51 I can financially help you in the business and go on a payment plan for it. There's lots of things that we can do. We've got great trades people that are happy to invoice over a couple of months. But it's important to have those conversations and be educated and a property manager to educate an owner on how it works and how they should be a landlord to have a sustainable property. So education, educating their clients, I think is something that would be a standout for me as well. In terms of structure and things like that, when the property manager's local or not local, I'm a bit sort of relaxed with all of that because I think the other two are more important. Yeah, no, well said, extremely well said. Now, you've touched on the

Starting point is 00:40:37 importance of education a number of times. And again, it's a great segue because I know that you've put a lot of energy into your Empowered Investor Bootcamp, but tell us a little bit about that. Yeah. So I caught up with the lovely property manager, Jackie, over in Queensland, and we had the same sort of thoughts and we were actually getting the same questions by investors. And when you are in a situation, you're getting a high volume of leads from clients wanting to buy in Perth and they all ask exactly the same questions. I actually had a joke with someone once when he started asking me questions and I actually said to him I bet you I can guess what the next question is on your list like clockwork and uh and that sort of you know prompted me to

Starting point is 00:41:24 go okay well I don't actually have enough time in the day to be repeating myself like it was at the point where my children could just about talk to my clients because they heard me say the same thing constantly so we decided to actually put it into a course and we sort of created a whole heap of videos just to make the investor's life a bit easier, give them the information that maybe they don't know they need just yet. And wherever they're buying in Australia, have some support there. And it was just, it's an affordable way to get that information, especially for investors that maybe don't want to have the pressure of speaking to a property manager in case that property manager is going to be a bit salesy with them. You don't want to be, I feel like I'm going

Starting point is 00:42:11 get hounded by that property manager. So you can sort of do this in your own time. And so the topics were really enjoyable to talk about. And it was thinking about, you know, why you're buying an investment in the property. And is it because your mates bought a property or what's your reason for doing that? It was talking about the best things to be asking a property manager for buying in a local area, whether they're getting lots of applications from families, do the families have cars do they need to be near transport do they have shin what what type is the ideal tenant that's really important um it goes through the psychology of um of buying a property as well and what to experience when you're dealing with a sales agent best ways to contact them things to

Starting point is 00:42:58 keep in mind that you might need to know when you're contacting an agent and and then we go into things like we have interviews with settlement agents and we and building inspectors and things like that with tax depreciation, but also what you should expect from your property manager moving forward once you've purchased that property, what you should expect from a communication point of view, what you should know about an agency before you're appointing them. So for me, I make sure that I give lots of information. As you know, I talk lots, I bombard them with all the information they need to know. But if you're an investor and all you do is call up a property manager and ask what their fees are and ask how many properties they manage

Starting point is 00:43:44 like that doesn't really give you a lot of information and like an example of what um you know you should be asking is how is their office structured so are they portfolio based or are they target based yeah and do they need to know um who would i call when you're on holidays um you know what's the what's the um what would what would happen if you have a sick day is do i speak to this person or that person in our office everyone knows that when a staff member's on leave that their phone's diverted to me and their emails are diverted to me so they've got that or if for any reason they can't get hold of the property manager I'm the point of contact but you know knowing that you also want to know what their structure set up so we can call up and you say to a property

Starting point is 00:44:27 manager how many properties you manage and you might have in your mind that the property manager that manages 100 properties has more time than the property manager that looks after 200 properties you're going to be wrong because my team look after what's considered a high amount but the support they've got in the back end is incredible and then the fact that they've also got myself who is a property management focused director supporting allows them to look after a good amount of properties comfortably none of my team are forced to manage any certain number it's on their choice at a couple of levels but I've also got a very happy long-term team that have been with me eight to 14 years. So they're not at a risk of burnout, but you could have someone who's

Starting point is 00:45:13 only on a hundred properties, but they've got no support and they're having to do everything themselves. So you can't judge what your experience is going to be based on some of these superficial questions either. So going back into that empowered investor, the training in that, we talk about things like that. We have a conversation and it's two property managers sharing their experience um and at the end of the day it's about buying with confidence you know you can buy a property on your own you can actually even manage your property on your own if you really want to but you can't own a you can't um invest in a property with confidence unless you've got that support and that little bit of extra training yeah extremely well said and you've

Starting point is 00:45:57 touched on uh just a smattering of the great information that you've covered in that uh which we're going to talk a little bit about later as an opportunity for some of the Get Invested listeners. But now's a great time to grab that blindfold and cigarette again, Ash, because we're going to jump into the second round of the ambush bushfire lightning round. And the first question there is what's your favourite quote and why? Work hard, be kind. That's on my social media and two things that I think is what you need to do in life. Love it, love it. Well, you're a great example of both of those.

Starting point is 00:46:36 And the be kind is a big piece that a lot of people forget. So I love that. What about in the literary field? What's the top book that you'd recommend we read and why? I'm going to be rude and actually say, can I suggest a podcast instead? Of course. Because I'm more of a podcaster. I discovered a guy called, actually, it's not property related.

Starting point is 00:46:59 Does that matter to you? No, no, whatever gives the most value. Okay. I follow a guy called Dan Lok, L-O-K. Have you followed him before? No, I haven't listened to Dan Lok, but I'm going to. I mentioned him because I find a lot of people haven't, and I was traveling in Japan last year,

Starting point is 00:47:18 and he's a Japanese motivational guy that, you know, he's very smart in business and he came up on my um on all my you know marketing or you know ads and stuff like that and I started listening to him and I think about him I really like he's motivational he makes sense um from a life point of view from a business point of view and I really love what he has to say and I've mentioned this to you before he's the person that said you've got to allow people to trust you in their own time and that just stuck with me for some reason and bringing that back to investors and property managers, I think one thing that property managers can do wrong, and I'll put us in the spotlight for this, is that we just assume that

Starting point is 00:48:02 investors are going to trust us immediately. And we're quite offended if you don't trust us immediately. And I train my team on this a little bit because we're good at what we do and we just think, why aren't they listening to me? I told them they should do this and they're not doing it. and we've got to allow the investor to trust us in their own time so we need to understand that you know over time with the education with the correspondence that some need a little bit longer than others and that's okay and um and that's something we should all be mindful of so here's the one that had that quote which i would yeah i love and and that's a podcast that i always get little snippets of really cool little quotes and information from love it dan lock l-o-k okay i'm

Starting point is 00:48:46 I'm loading that into my Spotify list later today, Ash. Next question, quite a different direction on this one. If I was to give you $50 million in cold hard cash right here now, what would you do with it and why? I would waste it. I can tell you right now. I would absolutely waste it. I would be on a one-way plane somewhere with my children

Starting point is 00:49:14 and I would be then thinking about where I was going to buy my next one-way ticket to. There is nothing else that I would be doing except for that right now. But maybe that's just the point, you know, the week I'm having that's making. Maybe you should ask me that question next week. But right now that's what I'd be doing. I would absolutely though be, I would be buying property

Starting point is 00:49:38 and I would be putting the foundation that I look after, you know, I'd be definitely using it to support DB families and providing crisis accommodation and things like that, without a doubt, that's an ovarian animal. Yeah, I love it. The Orana group could really benefit from that. So I love that. But enjoy a round-the-world trip in the meantime.

Starting point is 00:50:04 That's awesome. Now, as I mentioned to you off air, I'm a big habit fan because it's the daily disciplines and the habits that we develop that over time create massive change without us realising it. So what's a personal happy habit or a rewarding ritual that you employ that's contributed most to your success? Yeah, I actually really, really struggle with habits. I have to work on creating habits every single day and I force myself to find a habit to have. So at the moment I am going to the gym every single morning and I hate it, like I literally hate it.

Starting point is 00:50:49 Even this morning I woke up in the morning and I said to myself, I can't do it, I can't do it. You deserve a day off, you've been there all week. And as even those thoughts are going in my mind, I am putting my shoes on and it's still going through my mind as I'm getting in the car, like you're an idiot, what are you doing, like go back to bed. I have to force myself. And I don't think it actually matters, like mind changes.

Starting point is 00:51:18 I don't have long-term habits, so I can't give you any examples for that, but definitely short-term ones. so at the moment the short-term habit is um this 30 minutes at the gym each morning which I know that I need because we're going through a busy season uh you know in business so I need that me time because if I don't have that I give so much all day I'm completely drained by the end of the day so at least if I've done that subconsciously I know that I've done something for myself and it doesn't matter if nothing else gets done for my you know for me so that's big And another habit that I really do and I find just makes my life a lot easier is making

Starting point is 00:51:56 sure that I'm prepping dinner in the morning. So again, I'm aware that by the end of the day, I'm completely exhausted and happy to have Domino's pizza and I do that. So because that means I have to go to the gym for an hour instead of half an hour. So instead, I am prepping what I can for dinner in the morning. So when I get home in the afternoon, it's not a big task to do. So that's probably another big habit that I do constantly find to make my life easier.

Starting point is 00:52:28 Well, I guess just to bring it all to a close then, Ash, what's the key takeaway and or action step that you want to leave us with? For investors? Generally, just from the great conversations we've had today and last week, what's the thing you want us to take away? Yeah, always having a team of advisors is always a big thing, whether it's investing or personal life. That would be something that's really important

Starting point is 00:53:01 and making sure you're always moving forward no matter how small it is. I say that if you stay stagnant in life, whether it's personally or professionally, you might as well go backwards because the world is going to change with or without you. Yeah, beautifully said. The last question then before we go into the close, if I ask you to get invested, what does that mean to you? Straight away, I would say get invested is about getting invested in yourself. Because I think that when we are better invested in ourselves, everything else comes naturally in terms of

Starting point is 00:53:43 our personal situation our business situation life in general we have to be happy and constantly evolving and investing in ourselves to be of any benefit to anyone else so I know that it's probably a lot of people think I'll get invested as might be about property but you can't do that if you're not happy and educated yourself so always always get invested with yourself first yeah I love that Good advice. Now, I guess we're going to have all of your contact details on the show notes so that people can reach out. But for those that, like myself, who've really resonated with what you've shared with us, how can we find out more and get more involved with you, Ash? Well, you can just Google me and I always sound very Google-able, so you can pop Ashley

Starting point is 00:54:31 Grinchard in there. And lots of different ways, because I'm on YouTube and LinkedIn. LinkedIn's probably my favorite um place so that would be great to connect with everyone there and um and then obviously instagram so whatever you know someone um however someone prefers learning but i would say linkedin definitely my favorite and definitely has the variety of things that i do both personally professionally um you know with um not-for-profits real estate the whole lot so that's funny i love it i love it okay now i'm not you and i uh spoke off air uh about the the awesome uh special challenge that you're uh giving to get invested listeners uh and that pretty much uh you're happy to give away a an empowered investor boot camp uh but i want to

Starting point is 00:55:20 make them do some action for that ash because uh nothing comes for free and uh i'm going to encourage everyone to email us at hello that's h-e-l-l-o at knowhowproperty.com.au again that'll be in the show notes and share with us the best takeaways that you've got from ash's great discussions over the last two weeks so word and the the person that ash judges as the the best answer on that and will score an awesome opportunity to enjoy the empowered investor boot camp so i love that and again we'll have the link to the empowered investor boot camp in the show notes for those who want to check it out and take advantage of it so look at i really want to thank you again for taking the time to inspire and educate us with your journey and the wa and

Starting point is 00:56:08 investor opportunities that you've shared over the last two episodes and we really look forward to keeping the conversation going before we close for everyone listening if you'd like to confidentially delve deeper into your specific property needs or challenges feel free to book in with me for a personal solution session by clicking the link in the show notes or going to knowhowproperty.com.au and hitting the purple book appointment button where you'll have a complete, dedicated and undivided session drawing on my 40 years of property experience to help you solve your property challenges for a full hour. Now, in addition, I just need to ask you a really big favor that will only take a couple of seconds of your time. Currently, just under 70% of you that

Starting point is 00:56:49 tune into the Property Hub podcast, don't subscribe. So if you've ever enjoyed our shows and videos, following the countless hours that myself and my support team put into preparing and producing the episodes, can you please do us a massive favor and hit the subscribe and the like button right now. It helps the Property Hub channel more than you know, and I promise you that the bigger our Southern Crossroads Stereo and Hot Copper channel continues to get, the better big guests are going to get, and the better your investment learnings and your outcomes will be. and to continue our great conversations make sure you join us on the property hub collective interactive facebook community by clicking the link in the show notes now that brings us to the

Starting point is 00:57:24 end of another great conversation so thanks again for getting invested and let's keep the conversation going ash thanks for having me 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.

Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Get Invested: Part 2 – Ashleigh Goodchild on the future of Perth property

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