Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Get Invested: Part 2 - Michael Olivieri on local investment

Starting point is 00:00:00 I suppose the reason I structured my business the way I did was because of that belief of you really need to understand the area. Data is great and you need to review the data as well and understand what the growth drivers are. But having that intimate knowledge and actually having boots on the ground unlocks a lot of opportunities as well and gets access to property that you wouldn't otherwise get access to if you're a national buyer. Welcome to Get Invested on the Property Hub podcast channel, the leading weekly show to help you unlock your 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,

Starting point is 00:00:50 discover freedom, and live by design. Subscribe now and join me and get invested in the life you really want. Let's get started. My friend and fighters, how important is intimate local knowledge when it comes to you buying a property? And how do you balance this with a need to go borderless rather than your backyard in order to secure the best available property for the highest potential growth to satisfy your investment needs? Now, this is a conundrum that I see many investors trying to come to grips with when it comes to securing a high performing property portfolio. And this paradox has flowed into the world of buyers agents. And in my experience of working with a broad range of buyers agents over the last few years, I now see that most of them

Starting point is 00:01:37 operate on a spectrum that spans somewhere between total local area experts with intimate awareness at one end, while at the other end, I've seen the growth of a lot of buyers agents with high media profiles who brag about their national footprint and the ability to secure any property anywhere on the strength of their data-driven and desktop analysis. But there's a real danger here because an area and a property can look great on your computer and it can be backed by kilos of AI-driven data points that can be used to post-justify just about anything. But it's not until you've actually walked the streets and you've mixed it with the locals before you can get a true appreciation of the local sentiment and perception of an area, which can actually

Starting point is 00:02:21 vary from one street to the next. And on top of supply and demand, local sentiment can have a massive impact on the performance of a specific property and a specific location. And in this respect, nothing beats boots on the ground and intimate local knowledge. So I believe that the best buyers agents land in the middle of this spectrum between the sort of local versus national and the quantitative versus the quality data spectrum, where they enjoy a balance of local intimacy with data-backed leading indicators, which is where today's continuing guest, Michael Olivieri, comes to your rescue and we're going to deep dive on this very contentious topic. As you enjoyed last week, Michael's the founder and director of successful Central Coast Buyers

Starting point is 00:03:06 Agents who operate as local area specialists north of Sydney in New South Wales. So welcome back and let's get invested again, Michael. Thanks, Bushy. Let's do it. Michael, we had a great chat in the last episode on your own very successful investment journey, and we sort of touched on your role as a buyer's agent and helping others to do the same now. But to sort of set the scene on all of this, what do you see as the biggest mistakes that property investors make

Starting point is 00:03:34 when it comes to researching, selecting, due diligence, negotiation, purchase and settlement of a property and beyond? yeah i think the the mistake um one of the mistakes is is not doing enough research and then doing too much research i i think obviously not doing enough research you're you're going to fall short you're going to select either the wrong property or the wrong area um and it's not going to perform the way you intend it to and you're overall going to have a bad experience and um you're gonna end up cursing property yeah if you do too much research uh and you and you suffer from analysis paralysis then that's not a good thing either so you might

Starting point is 00:04:17 know a lot but unless you actually jump in and get your hands dirty then you're also not going to get the results you want so um i think it's just it's doing that right amount of research that you feel confident um you're seeking the advice from the the right people um in your team building a team around you to give you the advice where you need it and then actually acting on the advice I'm giving you. Yeah, very good thoughts. We mentioned in the last episode your own experience about initially approaching a buyer's agent who wasn't prepared

Starting point is 00:04:53 to educate you on the journey, so you probably tilted back towards DIY. Given where you're at and what you're doing now, why do you think property buyers should engage a buyer's agent over finding and buying a property themselves? I think because, like I said, building that team around you, having someone that's an expert that's been there, done that, is especially comforting for people that haven't purchased property before, whether it be their first home or first investment property.

Starting point is 00:05:24 Engaging with someone that has done it, has proven track record and understands the process, gives you a lot of comfort when moving through purchasing that property. I still think anybody's going to have buyer's remorse and feel a bit unsure when they sign that dotted line, but definitely having people around you to say, no, you know what, you've done the right thing, back yourself, this is the right property for your strategy,

Starting point is 00:05:54 it's a lot easier to do it. Yeah, so when you – I hear a lot of investors who initially go, well, why would I spend $15,000 or $20,000 to get someone to find a property that if I spend enough time, I can find myself? What's your normal response to that approach? Yeah, look, certainly you can buy property yourself. You can do your own tax return too. Diagnose yourself with Google if you have a medical issue as well.

Starting point is 00:06:24 But look, there's experts in fields, in all of those fields, for a reason. And if you really want to understand the nitty-gritty, the little tips and tricks, the years of experience that only through doing it and living in it and working it, you just might get. And so that's something that I had to build as well over my journey. Like I think we might have discussed it off air. Like I didn't know as much as I did at the start as obviously I do now. I had to learn that. I had to learn that the hard way and put that effort into building that experience.

Starting point is 00:07:10 So if you can pay someone and get that experience, why not? Yeah, 100%. It's an investment in your own future and growth of your knowledge as well as a property, I believe. If you're working with a buyer's agent like yourself who's actually trying to educate your client investors to improve their position down the track. In the opening, I talked about the sort of the national

Starting point is 00:07:34 one-stop shop players versus the local experts. Given you've got really intimate local area expertise on the central coast in New South Wales, what's your feeling about the sort of national property buyers' agents? yeah i suppose the reason i structured my business the way i did was because of that um belief of you really need to understand the area um data is great and and you need to review the data as well and understand what the growth drivers are but having that intimate knowledge and actually having boots on the ground unlocks a lot of opportunities as well and um gets access to

Starting point is 00:08:19 property that you wouldn't otherwise get access to if you're a national buyer you just don't have enough time in the day to build relationships with people all over the country to for them to be calling you and sending deals your way um i don't know how these people that buy all over the country do it but for me um it was very much about i know i know the central coast and i very well i've grown up here and lived here my pretty much my whole life so um and i've really focused heavily on building relationships with people on the coast um in all parts of the the property purchasing and owning journey so that i've benefited from it from through my own portfolio and now my clients are in in their property acquisition and ownership yeah no very well said

Starting point is 00:09:13 And talking about buyer's agents generally then again, what do you believe differentiates a great buyer's agent from the rest? I think definitely one that's been there, done that, and one that I think it's not just buyer's agents, it's any business, customer service. If you deliver an awesome customer service and actually care about the customer, that really is a big differentiator in any business.

Starting point is 00:09:42 um but it's why in what i do i try to educate people um obviously the central coast isn't uh an area that suits everyone for investment um so like i believe it's it is a great place to invest but it's not something that suits everybody and everybody's budget everybody's strategy so it needs to be the the right person uh that to to purchase a property on the central coast as an investment um and so that's and and i i really believe in the education piece teaching them how to buy if they want to learn um i'll teach them and talk to them as much as and give them as much of my knowledge as i can because if they then want to buy a property elsewhere i don't purchase properties elsewhere so they can either engage and buy as agent elsewhere or

Starting point is 00:10:34 or they can have a go at doing it themselves. Yeah, extremely well said. So if there are those listening in that are thinking about this, what would your advice be to them in terms of the keys to selecting a great bias agent? So ask the questions, you know, about their track record, what they've done, what their education and background is, um understand um sort of why why they became a buyer's agent for me you know there are a few

Starting point is 00:11:10 um like in any industry when there's i suppose money to be made people are always they can become quite transactional and just chase the dollar but um for me it's it's more more than that i do it because i enjoy it and i enjoy seeing other people get success from property um i suppose that's some of the questions i would ask a agent and understanding where their focus is in terms of their area the type of clients they work with um the the type of properties they purchase regularly that they're they're important questions to ask yeah totally because it very much is horses and courses uh you've touched on some of this already but in terms of central coast buyers agents uh what do you believe sets you apart from from the rest um yeah well like like

Starting point is 00:12:04 i've touched on i've got a very uh like personalized um and um approach and so for me it's it's more really getting to understand and know the client i really take great pride in that um build very close relationships with my clients throughout the journey and I look to continue that even after purchase. So that's something that I've always put an avid focus on, in structuring the business. Yeah, and I love that. Looking more generically then, Michael, what are your top tips

Starting point is 00:12:39 on how to choose a location to buy a house? So, you know, there's many sort of free resources you can access and paid resources as well in terms of data, understanding what growth drivers are, you know, where infrastructure and amenities are going or where they exist, you know, looking at all the different metrics that property investors look at. So really understanding the area,

Starting point is 00:13:11 knowing what people want in that area as well. So, for example, it's easy for me to talk about the Central Coast because that's the place I know. So it is very much the culture here and the idea that there's not a great deal of units and sort of strata title properties and those types of things. There's a few pockets where there's a higher concentration, but majority of people do like to have a backyard and have space

Starting point is 00:13:38 and things like that. So it's understanding what the occupants want, really. If you're buying a property for an investment, then you need to understand what the tenants want. If you're buying a property as a home, when I'm representing clients that are owner-occupiers, that's very personal. That's up to them.

Starting point is 00:14:01 And it really is dependent on their individual needs and circumstances and what they want out of the property. So they need to look at things such as lifestyle and amenities and schools and whatever suits their lifestyle and their needs. If they're in retirement stage, they might want to be closer to the ocean or to lifestyle attractions. So it really depends on it's a horses for courses approach. Yeah, no, that's good.

Starting point is 00:14:28 A couple of times in the conversation already you've touched on growth drivers. Everyone seems to have a different definition of what are growth drivers in the context of what you're doing? What would you consider to be the key growth drivers that investors need to focus on? Definitely supply. Supply is one of the big things.

Starting point is 00:14:49 So the Central Coast is quite landlocked, similar to Sydney. There's plenty of land on the Central Coast, but not all of it is accessible for development or, you know, new housing or new commercial even because a lot of it's either green like green corridors or flood areas or bushfire zones. So it's the simple economics of supply versus demand. When you've got a very limited supply and you've got strong demand, that's one of the key things that are going to drive growth both

Starting point is 00:15:26 in the purchasing market and the rental market as well. um and so that that demand uh versus supplies is a key driver to look out for but also just um what what suburbs where the money's being spent what infrastructure is being put into the areas to improve that uh whether it be transport and accessibility whether it be improved medical or increased schools and if there's more schools going into an area that's because there's more families going into that area and that just shows the level of demand yeah spot on really good thoughts there now there's a lot of smoke and mirrors around the the whole topic of exclusive off-market properties in the particularly in the buyer it's agents arena

Starting point is 00:16:12 what are your thoughts on the merits or otherwise of off-market properties yeah so off-market properties are broken up into pre-market so but before they actually come live on the market so it's not that they would ever be off market forever but they're getting access to them before they hit the market then there's sort of off market being or sort of post market so they've they've been on the market but they've come off they're still for sale but they just don't you know publicly advertise it and then there's the genuine off market where they're probably direct to vendor or something like that where they're not actually with an agent you just have access to a property um directly to the vendor so my thoughts on it i

Starting point is 00:16:57 know buyers agents love to talk about it and it's this you know very sort of elusive thing but um it's not always the cheapest it's not necessarily a cheaper way of buying property but it definitely is um very critical to it's not something you want to ignore because in a market where there's very low supply and there's high demand if you can get access to a property that 90 of the other of the market or the other buyers don't have access to you can buy it without the competition you can get into something sooner and and we have already discussed the importance of of time in purchasing property and the value of compound so if you're missing out on on property continually and two months, three months, four months goes past

Starting point is 00:17:44 in a hot market, and that can be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Great. That's a very good point. Well, the big question is always around this subject. How do buyers know they're actually getting a good property at a good price when it's off market and it hasn't been market tested? Well, even a property that's on market, how market tested has it really been until it's sold?

Starting point is 00:18:05 So, yes, you're not really going up against other people, but I think I bring it back down to that's when I start going back into the data around doing evaluation, doing a market analysis on the property and understanding, well, what have similar properties sold for the way a value or would value a property? Use those methods and understand the value. You don't need the other buyers around you to be telling you what they think it's worth.

Starting point is 00:18:31 At the end of the day, the market is what somebody's prepared to pay for it. Yeah, that's a very good point. And sort of circling around this off-market area, I know there are, sadly, quite a number of buyers' agents who really focus on lazy sales agents who just want to move a property quickly and because a lower price is not going to affect their commission much,

Starting point is 00:18:58 there's certainly a number of those. What I'm hearing from you is something different around identifying properties that don't involve a seller's agent at all how do you go about actually hearing about and then and potentially buying those truly off-market properties where an agent's not involved um i do a lot of networking so i i'm you know involved in a lot of community and business business community um networking events and and so when i'm out and about talking to people they know what i do um they i'm passionate about probably so i'm always talking about it

Starting point is 00:19:35 so they'll quite often um say look i've got uh you know my dad's selling his pro my my dad passed away so we're selling his property or my my brother's looking to sell his property do you have any clients and look i might not always have a client that matches up with that particular property but um you know it's it's getting access to those properties and then if all of a sudden i'm talking to somebody and i go oh you know what there's actually this property that is you know nearly going to come to the market we can get access to it so it's just being again it's that boots on the ground you can't do that from sitting behind a computer you need to be out and about talking to people yeah and those relationships you're talking about being active in the the

Starting point is 00:20:20 local community yeah those things are going to pop up so i know that's a that's a great chair um now one of the the the make or break exercises in the whole property piece is that that final negotiation uh of the deal and and given what you've shared uh with with your italian background and and uh clearly trying to squeeze uh the most juice out of a lemon what are your insider tips on negotiating a good property purchase? Yeah, the first thing is to do a market analysis. Understand what it's worth. And again, the more you know the market that you're buying in,

Starting point is 00:20:55 the easier that is. But if you can look at recent sales, understand that property to me is worth X dollars. When you're negotiating, you don't go above that. Or you can, and I call that the emotional premium, but you've got to be sort of willing to draw a line somewhere um that's that's when you know when you if you don't want to pay over market value but um yeah you definitely don't want to be just paying i say it a lot actually because of the market that i operate in people sell um

Starting point is 00:21:31 you know they might sell for for two million dollars in sydney and come up here and um and purchase a property and relocate and they might pay 1.2 or 1.3 and they think that's great i've just pocketed 700 000 and i've got probably a better home than what they had but they probably didn't even need to pay 1.2 or 1.3 they probably could have picked up for 1.1 so in that case that's where i say you know you need to understand the market and do a valuation but um yeah it's knowing yeah knowing what it's worth and then when you negotiate um you've got to understand what the other side wants as well so it's not always about price um you know a lot of the time it is and people just think oh cheapest price or you know for the buyer most expensive price for

Starting point is 00:22:20 the seller but sometimes it might be a longer settlement or um you know something else in in the deal i had a um a client that was purchasing an acreage property and there was an elderly elderly lady selling it her her brother had just been diagnosed with cancer and she couldn't look after the property anymore her husband had passed away yeah she didn't even live there actually she she um lived in elsewhere and there was a lot of rubbish on the property and so as part of the negotiation we actually said leave it as is we'll clean it up so rather than her have to clear out hire a skip in and hire, engage people to clean up the mess. We just said, you leave it.

Starting point is 00:23:03 We use that to our advantage to negotiate a better deal. I love it. And that's where asking the right questions to understand what's really important to the vendor in that sense is really key. And, you know, similar situations where the vendor might be trying to buy another place and if you can release the deposit early to enable them to do that, then that might suddenly put your offer in front of others who are just focusing on the price piece.

Starting point is 00:23:31 So I think you've shared something that's important there, that negotiation is not just about price, it's about all the other factors that are going to be important to creating a win-win outcome. So I love that. Michael, we've talked a lot about timing both today and in our chat on last week's episode. And you've written a really good blog on this on your website,

Starting point is 00:23:53 which I encourage everyone to have a read of. Can you give us a bit of a summary of how can we solve the perfect timing puzzle to unlock the right time to purchase a property? Yeah, so for me it's very much about time in the market, not trying to time the market, or time in the market. As I shared in last week's podcast on my own personal journey, the first property I purchased was in a very hot,

Starting point is 00:24:24 rising sydney market um the next one i purchased was in a softer market and it was about just getting hit at the end of the day if i was trying to wait um for uh for the perfect time there's never a perfect time and i'd still be waiting so um i don't think there really is a perfect time to buy it's just buy when you can afford to when you've got access to the to the finance or to the capital because that's another thing which i've really seen in the last 12 to 18 months a lot of people's borrowing capacity slash with rising interest rates which in turn the the property market even if it had um shifted downward in price didn't shift down as much as people's borrowing capacity so where they could only where they could buy a four-bedroom house in a suburb

Starting point is 00:25:15 they can now only get a three, so they've got to, yeah, maybe compromise on some things. So, yeah, that's timing. Don't try and time the market. Just buy when you can. Yeah, 100% agree exactly with what you've shared there. Now, in terms of your own buyers' agency, the Central Coast Buyers' Agency, what's your approach to handling competing or overlapping client breaks

Starting point is 00:25:45 where you've got two people looking for the same thing at the same time, I've often wondered how a buyer's agency is going to disseminate which one gets the property that comes along first. How do you deal with that? Yeah, so with my buyer's agency, the way I've structured it, I only work with a few clients at a time. It is just me and the business and I intend to keep it that way

Starting point is 00:26:07 so that all of my clients get direct access to me. and the way i deal with that scenario is basically i'm just very open and honest in my communication and if i am working with a particular client and i start talking to somebody else that has the same brief i just have to i just tell them that they have to wait yeah yeah great don't take on two competing briefs love it love that that that's uh again that honesty comes through. What happens in the situation where you're working with a property purchaser and you can't source

Starting point is 00:26:46 or secure a high-quality property that's going to satisfy their brief in a reasonable timeframe? What's your approach to that one? Well, firstly, I try really hard to understand what their brief is as best as I can before they actually engage so that I can understand whether we're actually a good fit to work together and whether or not I can actually achieve their brief. You know, I've had to turn people away when they want the Ferrari

Starting point is 00:27:15 for the whole budget. You know, I have to just say, look, I can't actually hit that brief. I'm only going to, if I say yes and say, yep, let's do it, I'm only going to set myself up for failure and you up for disappointment. So, yeah, trying really hard at the start to make sure that the brief is achievable. the time frame piece i don't ever push someone to buy a property um just so i can buy it quickly and keep my buying time frames down the end of the day they need to feel comfortable and confident

Starting point is 00:27:45 that that is the right property for them i'll give them the data um and information around is to say it's an investment i'll give them the data around why i think that's a good property for their strategy or if it's a um owner occupier they really need to walk through that property and feel it if they don't feel it we keep looking and um so time frame is really dependent on them if they need to buy quickly i'll move quickly otherwise um i i really try and make make sure we take the time to find the right property rather than just buy the first one we look at yeah it's extremely well well said if we if we look at the end-to-end process in relation to the whole property buying uh piece uh are there any other key elements of of uh that process that

Starting point is 00:28:33 that you approach a little bit differently uh to what you see others doing um yeah definitely i don't know so much about comparing to others but with my approach is very proactive in the search phase of the journey um once i've got a client brief that i'm working with i'm very proactive in finding that property um or hunting that property down rather than just sort of waiting for it to pop up on realestateanddomain.com because if that was the case they can do it themselves so i rather i really try and be very proactive in that search um and then once we've found the property it's guiding them through the process to to successfully acquiring the property understanding what needs to be done when it needs to be done so that everything's really smooth and

Starting point is 00:29:25 seamless and um it's an enjoyable process for everyone then yeah yeah no and that communication piece is is really key yeah now little things uh like if a really good quality probably comes along that is going to be popular and it's likely to disappear quickly, how do you motivate and inspire a client and a potential buyer to move and not miss out on the opportunity? Look, I definitely let them know, you know, I can share other clients' stories of where they've missed out

Starting point is 00:30:02 or things like that and I can show them days on market for particular properties, things like that. But like I said, I don't push someone to buy a property. Sometimes they have to feel the pain and I have to go through that with them. You know, a lot of people did feel that, especially during the, you know, 2021 market when it was just, you know, very, very competitive. I can move quickly, but if the client doesn't come along

Starting point is 00:30:31 and hesitates, then I'm not a pushy person. So if they need to learn that lesson, then I'll just be there with them and feel that pain with them. Yeah, no, extremely well said. So sort of bringing this all together, what's the profile of property buyers and investors who are and also aren't the best fit to work with you and Central Coast Buyers Agents? Yeah, so from an investment perspective, it's definitely I'm limited

Starting point is 00:31:03 to who i can work with mainly from a budget or a price point perspective so um you know people approach me investment property for four or five hundred thousand i just can't um can't get properties at that price on the central coast not for the type of property i i think is good like yeah you can buy units and townhouses and things like that but it's not really my strategy for an investment and I'd much rather see someone go a little bit further afield or interstate or somewhere else that fits in their price point but they can buy a much better quality property.

Starting point is 00:31:42 So, yeah, definitely that's – and so really it's someone probably looking for a bit more growth, capital growth. You can achieve cash flow, like I said, with my strategy of natural income piece. So you can get a bit of both, capital growth and cash flow. Um, but yeah, mainly the investing profile is someone that's looking for good, good capital growth. Um, there's a lot of new properties being developed and land releases.

Starting point is 00:32:11 So there's, uh, good depreciation benefits if people are interested in that as well. Um, but it's probably sitting between that minimum six, ideally 700 to a million as a, as a purchase price for an investor. that's probably the ideal price point to purchase a really good quality property with good growth prospects for the owner occupier or holiday home buyer it's really down to their personal preference where where they want to be they need to you know if they know they want to be on the central coast then you know i can help them find a good property in a good location that ticks their boxes um price point is yeah similar similar it could be

Starting point is 00:32:55 you know, $600,000, $700,000 and upwards into the millions. But, yeah, it's really around whatever they desire. But they need to know they want to be on the Central Coast. Yes, yeah, yeah. And let's face it, it's a beautiful part of the world. And, again, I think you make a very good point that the whole price points have shifted substantially post-pandemic. You mentioned the sort of $600 a mil mark.

Starting point is 00:33:20 I'm seeing that pretty much across the board with investor clients that are looking at properties in different states. Very difficult now to get a growth property for much less than those levels. Those days are pretty much long gone now. And while you might be able to get cheaper properties, they're not going to have those growth drivers that we spoke about earlier,

Starting point is 00:33:42 which is ultimately really what we're doing to invest in property to grow the nest egg and then converting it to cashflow at the other end of the journey. So love you, Sue, there. So given you're as active in property and have a passion for it as I do, what's your read on property conditions in the medium term and where and what do you think are the best

Starting point is 00:34:02 investment opportunities, particularly for growth investors in your area and beyond? Yeah, so, crystal ball again, great question. But, yeah, look, I think looking at a few of the key indicators, I think we're set for another period of growth again. Just simply there is not enough supply and there is continued demand. Rental vacancies are shrinking again and yields are starting to push up. So I'm seeing a lot more interest from investors, whereas the last sort of six to 12 months that interest has been a bit quieter just due to a number of factors, you know, rising interest rates, changes in policies around government policies and things like that,

Starting point is 00:34:52 which investors are not liking. So there's been a bit of a pullback, but that's starting to come back again. Areas, well, look, obviously I'm very biased and only focused on the central coast, but, yeah, there's definitely suburbs within the coast that will have better growth than some others, and so it's knowing which ones they are and why, and that's something I share with my clients.

Starting point is 00:35:21 Yeah, and I love that. And, look, I really love the wisdom you've shared with us on that whole area, that there's a growing interest in the buyer's agent's profession, given that a lot of people are time poor now and people are much more prepared to be borderless in their approach than they used to be because of the fact that we're much more technology-enabled now. So, yeah, certainly for anyone who has an interest

Starting point is 00:35:45 in the Central Coast, it would be well worth them having a chat with you, Michael. And now I want to switch into the round two of the ambush fast-forward series where I give you the blindfold and the cigarette and I ask some quick questions. So to kick that one off, what's your favourite quote and why? A quitter never wins and a winner never quits. And that was the first round in the book Think and Grow Rich,

Starting point is 00:36:16 and that's an awesome book. um but yeah that that for me very much uh sort of resonates with with my my goals my strategy to achieving my my uh ideal lifestyle and basically there was just nothing that was going to stop me and i did whatever it took to to um yeah achieve yeah well your your life Orthodox are a living example of that. Now, I want to return to the literary field for me. You've mentioned a couple of books, the Robert Kiyosaki Rich Dad Poor Dad and the element you just mentioned there.

Starting point is 00:36:55 Apart from those two, what's the top book that you'd recommend we read and why? Yeah, so definitely Rich Dad Poor Dad would be my number one. And Think and Grow Rich, I think it's not sort of purely focused on property it's really that think and grow rich is more around any any goal you have in your life that you want to achieve or obtain um the other one i'd mention is um the richest man in babylon yeah it's um it's a book that um i read probably around 24 25 and so this was after i bought bought my first property and i'd done the um you know the subdivision by then and i was starting i was trying to to work out why i wasn't saving money i was just dumping all the money into the

Starting point is 00:37:44 property and just focus purely on that but i was like what am i what have i done differently from when i before i purchased it to to now that i own it what was that what have i stopped doing that there was something i'd done and i wasn't saving money like i was before um and then i read that book and that book basically the principle is you need to pay yourself first yeah um so that was a really good book and you know pick a percentage 10% 5% yeah yeah whatever it is that you can yeah afford based on your other expenses but you need to put some money aside for yourself and that money needs to go to investing whatever it is you want to invest in yeah it's a great reading and a reasonably small book but again very timeless and it's in its approach so well

Starting point is 00:38:31 worth having a rate of that one uh next question uh is one that you know a lot of aussies uh hate to pay tax so uh what's the the best tax saving uh tip that you can share with us and and what you've done to minimize the tax you pay i suppose the best the best tax saving tip is make less money i think you know it's inevitable we all know that you know there's no two of things more sure in life than death and taxes um you know of course i i um try to minimize tax where i can legally and and you know that's where i engage my accountant to and leverage his expertise and knowledge to to do that but um there's a little bit of a bugbear when i when i talk to to young younger people and and they say they've they've gone and bought a car because they're trying to

Starting point is 00:39:28 you know save on tax or reduce their reduce their taxable income and to me that that's not an investment it's not a great idea and i look at it and i say well you've spent a dollar to get 30 cents back when you could have just kept the dollar yeah and yeah so for me it's like i don't necessarily do things to to pay less tax at the end of the day if you're making more money you're to pay tax you try and minimize it where you can but that's uh that's my view well i think paying taxes don't actually indicate you're doing all right uh you should take it as a positive in that sense and i know my accountant says to me look if you want to pay less tax i can just bill you more uh so yeah well last question in the series michael what's a personal happy habit

Starting point is 00:40:15 or a daily discipline that you employ that you think's contributed most to your investment success today uh definitely the small consistent efforts or um what we what we call it in sport the one percenters yeah it's just doing those those little things that yeah their their effort they might not seem like it's um a big you know making a big difference but when you you look at it on the overall uh 100 one percent actions add up to 100 so it's just doing that small consistent efforts and you know back to that um scenario i gave with the compounding you just do those small things little efforts little efforts and it really adds up to something great at the end so that's uh probably been my my little happy habit or something that i've always tried to do

Starting point is 00:41:05 yeah i love that uh now if we look back on on our chat today and and last week uh what's a question you wish i'd asked you and and how would you have answered uh probably um you a question you sent me was something around mentors and and who have been the best mentors in my life so i'll probably take a bit of an opportunity to give a shout out to a couple um the first one was um his name was david he was the one i spoke to he was a valuer uh he was a father of a girl i went to school with i spoke to him when i was looking to purchase my first property and he he sort of gave me some advice around different locations that he thought were had good growth potential so he definitely was a big um you know definitely set me up for where i

Starting point is 00:41:56 ended up um uh i'm the mortgage broker that i engaged he was um a family friend and he of my dad's and when i purchased my first property and i i was had a budget of 500 and i was thinking should i try and you know maybe spend a little bit less and not not stretch myself too much or a bit bit uncomfortable with going all out and um you know he used some some other language but basically he told me to stretch myself i won't i won't say exactly what he said but um you know And he's done it on more than one occasion. Basically, the second time I went to purchase a property, it was quite a market and I was really negotiating it quite hard.

Starting point is 00:42:43 And he said to me, he said, how are you going with that purchase? Have you bought that property yet? I said, oh, no, they haven't accepted the deal I put on the table. And he turned around and said, if you don't buy it, I will. So basically, on a couple of occasions, and I'll never forget those moments, but he really pushed me to take action when I was fearful or mucking around or whatever else. But, you know, so they're two people.

Starting point is 00:43:10 But definitely my biggest mentor was my dad and, you know, a lot to him, a lot of who I am and the way I treat people and the way I think is definitely down to him. So a big shout-out to my dad, Joe. And I better give mum a shout-out too or I'll get in trouble. I love the family connection mate like you I was born in I was blessed in the family I was born into and sadly both my parents are now passed away but the the legacy they've given me and the head start they've given me and just in the way I approach life uh you know I definitely

Starting point is 00:43:46 wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if it wasn't for the the guidance and and support that they they gave me over over many years mate so uh respect your appreciation for your family there mate now that sort of brings us to bring this all together if you were to sort of summarize our conversation today and and last week what are your key takeaways and immediate actions that aspiring investors and property buyers need to take yeah so so our conversation i think has been really focused around um acting taking action and early um i know my journey i tried to act as quickly as i could and early in my life that's um really set me up to be where i am um but also just investing in in yourself um arming yourself with as much knowledge as possible and um giving

Starting point is 00:44:39 yourself the confidence to to actually take the action yeah yeah no that's uh beautifully said just to close it out then if i ask you to get invested what does that mean to you yeah look it's it is very much a holistic thing um as much as property and has been a vehicle for me um really was getting invested in all aspects of my life in terms of health education knowledge all those types of things um you need to put the you need to invest the time and the energy into those things and sometimes the money so that you can achieve whatever it is that you're looking to with you yeah beautifully said uh thanks michael and for those that are like myself who are listening in or watching us today and really resonated with your messages uh how can we find

Starting point is 00:45:32 out more and get more involved with you um yeah they can buy my contact details on the website or email me directly at michael at centralcoastba.com.au or they can just give me a call 0422 527 966 beautifully done we'll make sure we've got all of that in the show notes and i want to thank you again for the very very generous time you've taken to share all of your wealth and wisdom with us over the last two episodes michael and to keep the conversation going i want to encourage everyone just to join and jump into our property hub collective interactive facebook community by clicking on the link in the show notes and do that now because you're going to have an opportunity for Michael to answer any of your personal questions or queries and continue

Starting point is 00:46:20 to share his knowledge with you and other like-minded hardworking Aussies in a very safe learning and no sales environment so again thanks for all your time Michael and let's keep the conversation going. Thanks Bushy I've enjoyed speaking with you and your listeners thanks so much. Thanks for tuning in to Get Invested on the Property Hub podcast channel your home for property investment insights and inspiration. And don't leave yet until you've taken the next step towards living by design by getting my award-winning book, Get Invested, absolutely free when you sign up at knowhowproperty.com.au or bushymartin.com.au. And finally, make sure you subscribe to Property Hub to get your weekly dose of Get Invested inspiration, along with every

Starting point is 00:47:07 episode of Realty Talk, Australia's leading property show for red-hot property investing news and insights, direct from industry leaders and influencers. Remember to always get invested in your knowledge, and I look forward to seeing you next time.

Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Get Invested: Part 2 - Michael Olivieri on local investment

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