Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Get Invested: Sam Phillips on courage and conveyancing

Episode Date: December 11, 2020

It’s a time to embrace your discomfort, feel the fear and do it anyway – this is the gateway to change, learning and growth. Our guest Samantha Phillips is a great example of this.  Sam is one of the best conveyancers I know. Her knowledge, commitment, responsiveness, attention to detail and ability to come up with approaches and solutions that have both protected and saved our clients tens of thousands of dollars over the years is second to none. And you’ll hear some of her brilliant secrets and tips in our conversation today.  Sam is warm and friendly and one of the most understated and humble professionals around. Sam lets the exceptional quality of her work and her actions do the talking.  Starting her conveyancing business as a single Mum in the front of her home over 16 years ago, her tenacity, grit and resilience has led to the growth of her current conveyancing business Tuckfields where she is CEO of one of South Australia’s largest and most progressive conveyancing firms, leading a team of 16 professionals across three locations, servicing hundreds of clients and processing over 2,000 property settlements a year.  Tuckfields’ core business of residential and commercial conveyancing and eConveyancing is supplemented with land divisions, matrimonial transfers, deceased estate transfers and title name changes, in addition to offering Form 1 services to Real Estate Agents. So despite Sam’s somewhat shy yet always warm and welcoming approach, she continually and repeatedly embraces her discomfort and keeps stepping into new and challenging situations.  And today’s podcast appearance is a great case in point for Sam. As you know, public speaking is one of the most confronting and stressful things that most people face – it’s right up there with death and divorce – and talking to an unknown audience of thousands on a podcast is no different. Yet despite her fear and trepidation of being in the limelight and not liking to talk about herself, Sam has embraced her discomfort and agreed to join me today so I’m very privileged that she’s agreed to be part of this. So as you’re listening to her share words of wisdom today, put yourself in her shoes and see how comfortable you would be talking about your private life and inner feelings with an audience of strangers. Please join me in applauding Sam on having the courage to do this and send her thoughts of encouragement as she continues to move along the road less travelled. Because Sam has a wealth of wisdom to share with us in the other area of property that never gets the attention or recognition that it deserves – I’m talking about the importance of the conveyancer. In our engaging deep dive discussion today, Sam answers all of your questions including:  What are the keys to successful conveyancing? What are the biggest mistakes that people make around conveyancing? What are the biggest risks that need to be considered in relation to property settlement? What separates a good conveyancer from an average one? How can you eliminate stress around property settlement and conveyancing matters? And Sam shares a raft of great Conveyancing tips and tricks on ownership structures, land division cost savings and contract review learnings among many others. So to learn the ins and outs on the area of conveyancing that is the unsung hero of property success, please enjoy this great conversation with Sam Phillips. Sam's book recommendation: Everything to Live For by Turia Pitt Get Invested is the podcast dedicated to time poor professionals who want to work less and live more. Join Bushy Martin, one of Australia’s top 10 property specialists, as he and his influential guests share know-how on the ways investing in property can unlock the life you always dreamed about and secure your financial future. Remember to subscribe on your favourite podcast player, and if you're enjoying the show please leave us a review. Find out more about Get Invested here https://bushymartin.com.au/get-invested-podcast/  Want to connect with Bushy? Get in touch here https://bushymartin.com.au/contact/  This show is produced by Apiro Media - http://apiropodcasts.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just having those moments of going, oh, I'm limiting myself. Why? All the possibilities, things that I can do and achieve. It's wonderful. Yeah, I guess just taking that moment and then stepping into it, which is really scary. And, you know, in Fiji when we climbed the pole and jumped off, the metaphor there was you cannot move forward without taking that leap so whatever you want

is over there and you need to take that big scary leap to get there welcome to the get invested podcast where we share great conversations with experts from all walks of life to uncover their secret know-how where they invest their time their skills and their money and the benefits that this has created. You see, the truth is that everyone invests. Every minute of every day, we're investing our time, our skills, our energy, and our money in something. Some of us are investing consciously, some unconsciously, sometimes for good, sometimes for bad, sometimes for no impact. Get Invested will help you to start living by design, not by default. I'm going to help you to make it happen, not let it happen. You'll hear the top tips on how you can live with

conscious intent so that you can live more, work less, and leave a living legacy by investing now. Listen to the show to discover the top tips on how to get started, make the most of your investment journey, and ultimately to be living your dream, not someone else's. More episodes can be found on iTunes or at bushymartin.com.au forward slash getinvested. Thanks for listening, and now, let's get invested. Hi Freedom Fighters What's holding you back?

What are your fears? And how can you overcome them? Over the years, I've found that often our fears are unfounded and are actually much scarier than they need to be due to a lack of knowledge about the subject that we actually fear the most. By increasing our knowledge, we increase our familiarity and our comfort, the subject, and then the fear dissipates. Often our fears are magnified because we just don't know what we don't know.

So let's apply this to the world of property for a moment. As I've been saying over the last few episodes, at the time of this recording in December 2020. We're emerging from COVID and the recession that we decided to have. Residential property in some locations in Australia is on the verge of the biggest wave of growth that the country has seen for almost 20 years. That has the potential to be the biggest boom in property values that the country's ever seen. All of the future looking evidence-based lead growth indicators are pointing to this, despite continued negative gloom and doom headlines on the news. Now, we have a rare window of opportunity and limited time to take advantage of this.

Those that have the courage to overcome their fears by increasing their knowledge and embracing discomfort by securing property in the short to medium term are going to benefit. But unfortunately, the majority will allow their fears to paralyse them, only to be replaced by regret in the years to come when they realise that they've missed the boat. To help you join the limited ranks of the former rather than the latter, today I'll help you further bridge the knowledge gap so you can eliminate any secrets and surprises. It's all about being prepared and having the information to make fully informed decisions with both clarity and confidence.

In recent episodes, I've talked generically about approaches and strategies that take take advantage of the current opportunity, but I haven't drilled down into the nitty-gritties. So today, I'm going to get more granular and tactical about how to prepare for your next property purchase. And I want to touch on two important areas of property that are generally the least understood, while having the biggest impact and carrying the highest risk. They're also generally the last to be considered. I'm talking about finance and conveyancing. It still staggers me how many property buyers only consider financing seriously after they've bought a property and most don't even think about conveyancing until the real estate agent asks them who their conveyancer is when they're signing the purchase contract. This is exactly the opposite of how you need to approach these two critical areas to protect yourself, minimise your risk and maximise your outcomes.

let's start with financing as i've said before on many occasions property is a game of finance not just because access to credit and borrowings drives demand and property values but because optimizing your financing capacity will have a major impact on your property outcomes and i stress this because the world of residential lending has changed dramatically over the last couple of years. Lending money has never been so cheap but it's never been harder to get and there's no point having really low interest rates if you just can't get your hands on the money. In all of my years in property I've never seen the banks and lenders be more anal and forensic in their interrogation of borrowers financial positions. Given the increasingly

heightened legal responsibilities imposed on the banks by a raft of legislative requirements overseen by APRA, ASIC and other watchdogs, prior to and following the Royal Commission into banking, now more than ever, the banks are looking for any excuse to say no to a borrower. If you haven't applied for a loan or refinanced in the last couple of years, or you're about to get your first property loan, then you're likely to be in for a big shock. The level of forensic interrogation of your financial history and conduct rivals a university entrance exam or an IQ test. In response to successive and ongoing government pressure under the

responsible lending requirements, the banks continue to impose layer upon layer of examination and risk mitigation measures that has made it very difficult for borrowers to jump the multiple hurdles required to get a loan approved. And for most borrowers doing this on their own direct with a bank is like walking through a minefield wearing a blindfold. You just don't know when you're going to blow yourself up. And if you can navigate the nightmare you're often only able to borrow a fraction of what you're expecting. We've seen investors who could easily borrow an extra million a couple of years ago, who now can't borrow an extra cent under the current lending policy restrictions. In this restrictive environment, how can you

give yourself the best chance of maximising your borrowing capacity and getting a loan to buy a property? Let me share some of the little known or not very understood tips and tricks that you can employ to optimise your borrowing position. It's all in the preparation. This means that the first thing you now need to do is to start getting your finances and your money management in order a minimum of six months before you're looking to apply for a loan. Why? Because some lenders may scrutinise your last six months bank statements with a fine tooth comb to analyse your actual living expenses and your discretionary spend to see if they're prepared to let you borrow

and how much they'll let you borrow as your actual living expenses impacts on your borrowing capacity. Let me give you an example of the impact of this. One of our recent KnowHow Finance Broken clients is a lawyer on a good stable income with low liabilities other than his home loan. He was looking to secure his first investment property, but because he enjoys the finer things in life and eating out regularly, his discretionary living expenses were considered too high by the banks

and he wasn't able to secure a big enough loan to purchase the property. So if your bank statement showed too many Uber Eats, Netflix costs, eating out at restaurants, overseas or interstate holidays, even one-off expenses for a medical operation during the six months prior to you applying for a loan, this is likely to impact and restrict your buying capacity substantially and potentially limit your ability to secure a property at all.

The message, live lean and spend less in the months prior to borrowing money for a property. Secondly, you need to be extremely diligent with your financial conduct prior to applying for a loan. Again, in the six months prior, you need to ensure that you have no over-limits on credit cards, no late payments or missed payments on anything as any one of these can be knockout punches.

We've seen loans decline just because a home loan payment was a day late or a credit card was over the limit by just a few dollars. So keep your payments squeaky clean. Next is to ensure that you're managing your credit report and your credit worthiness. In the current world of open banking where lenders have free access to your financial records and credit report, there's nowhere to hide.

So you need to manage this very carefully as it can make or break your ability to secure a loan. To check your current credit score, you can get a free copy of your credit report by going to Equifax. That's E-Q-U-I-F-A-X. Just jump on equifax.com.au and go to their Get My Equifax credit report and you'll get that for free.

Now, on your credit file, which is held by Equifax, which was formerly known as Vita Advantage, if you've heard that name before, there's a score which compares you as a borrower to the rest of the Australian population. This is known as your Equifax score or your Vita score. And it's one of the factors that lenders consider when they assess your mortgage application.

Now, the score provides you with a good indication of your strength as a borrower. So what's considered a good Equifax score? Well, any score above 700 is excellent. Any score between 600 and 700 is good. 550 is the average score. Any score from 400 to 500 is bad. And any score below 400 is very bad. now your Equifax score is ultimately a score of all the details of your credit file that includes

consideration of all of your listings for things like the type of credit provider that you've applied with now there may be different levels with each lender for example a small credit union may have a higher level of risk than a major bank or a lender also the nature of the credit or loan For example, home loans and your help debt are seen as lower risk than car finance or payday lending. Then there's your credit inquiries, loans that you may have applied for in the last five years. There's also defaults, which are loans or accounts where you're more than 60 days overdue. There's court writs, where a court writs a formally written document that's issued by the court, usually because someone has lodged a court case against you.

There's court judgments, which are judgments listed when you are unable to come to a suitable agreement with a creditor, and there's bankruptcy history, including what's called a Part 9 history. Now, bankruptcy or entering into a Part 9 agreement will essentially bring your score to zero. Now, your Equifax score or your VETA score now takes into account the following. The date a credit account is opened The current limit on credit accounts

The nature of the credit The date a credit account is closed And it includes 24 months account payment history which will tell the bank whether you paid the minimum amount required on your financial commitments each month or not A default is listed on your credit file for being late by 60 days or more and for amounts you owe over $150

and this will remain on your file for five years. So how do the lenders use the Equifax score? Well, many lenders have Equifax score fed directly into their own scorecard that they use to assess your loan application. Now, this is somewhat of a black box art with no one really telling you on what basis or how much credit scoring affects your ability to get a loan. Others ignore the Equifax score and just use the data from your credit file.

and whilst your score with Equifax will not be the only factor that lenders consider, it will make a big difference to the lender's own credit score and the outcome of your loan application. Now one of the most important things you need to manage carefully on your credit report are the number of credit inquiries that appear on the report. An inquiry is a record on your credit file which details any loans or credit that you've applied for and includes the amount, which financier that you applied with and the date of the application. Each inquiry listing doesn't mention

if the loan was approved or not or if you proceeded with the application. Now, our finance breaking team gets a lot of phone calls from people who are in excellent financial positions with really good income but they start by going direct to the bank and still get declined due to the number of credit inquiries on their file.

Now, you may not be aware that it's quite common for people to get multiple credit inquiries from simply calling several banks and asking them what their borrowing capacity is. Unfortunately, bank branch staff often don't know or care about the effect of inquiries on your credit score, so they simply lodge an application

so they can work out your borrowing capacity. The end result is that most other banks will not lend to you because you've got a really busy credit file. Unfortunately, as few as one or two inquiries on your credit file in the last six months can be enough to make you fail the credit score of a number of banks. The lesson here is that you should only apply with a lender that you actually intend to

get a loan with. Don't put in multiple applications in the hope of getting an approval, because this is going to be doing you more harm than good. And we see the same issue occurring where clients have applied for a number of credit cards or car and personal loans with a number of providers. so why are the inquiry so important while most people are aware that a bankruptcy court riddle defaults will have a large effect effect on your Equifax credit score few are aware that just applying for a loan can damage your credit file as well each time you apply for a loan the lender

checks your credit history with Equifax and Equifax records this as an inquiry on your credit file. Now this data, and I'll repeat, has a surprisingly large impact on your score. In particular, Equifax takes into account the following. Firstly, the number of inquiries. So, as I've already said, too many inquiries makes you look like a distressed or desperate borrower. Secondly, the type of credit. If you apply for a mortgage, then this is a low risk, whereas someone applying for multiple credit cards is seen as high risk. Thirdly, the type of lender. If you're applying with lenders of last resort,

then this will have a bigger effect on your VEDA score than applying with a bank. Then there's your shopping pattern. Applying for three credit cards over three years can be seen as normal. However, applying for three credit cards in one go is seen as a high risk. So the number and frequency of credit inquiries

can lock you out of lending. So manage this carefully. and I strongly suggest reaching out to a savvy mortgage broker in the first instance as they can give you confidence about which lender is the best to suit you without racking up countless credit inquiries. It's also important to know that each lender has their own credit scoring system so each will have a slightly different result. Some lenders don't consider a high number of credit inquiries to be a risk

while others will decline your loan outright simply based on the length of time in your current job. It's also worth noting that although most of the major banks and lenders' mortgage insurers use credit scoring to assess loan applications, there are still some lenders that use alternative forms of credit assessment. This doesn't mean that they can or will approve every loan, but they can use common sense to approve loans that should be approved. Now, our know-how finance brokers have been able to assist many borrowers in this regard, So reach out to a savvy mortgage broker to help you navigate this maze.

To strengthen your credit score, make sure you pay off any debts you have outstanding and avoid applying for too many personal loans and credit cards 12 months prior to applying for your property loan. Whilst we're on the subject of open banking and credit reporting, one of the traps we see many borrowers unknowingly fall into is to forget to declare or disclose all and every type and form of credit that you have. For example, it's not uncommon to take out an interest-free period purchase through someone like Harvey Norman some years ago and completely pay off the item but not realise that these interest-free schemes are actually credit contracts that act like credit cards. So you may have a zero balance, own nothing and not have used it for years

but in the eyes of the banks and lenders this is still a credit liability. so if you don't list it in your loan application and it gets picked up on your credit file then a lot of banks consider this an undisclosed debt and they may decline your application because of the perceived deceit in hiding this information so find out if you still have these types of credit facilities still open and pay them out or cancel them prior to applying for your property loan. And remember that car loans, personal loans, credit cards, afterpay or any buy now pay later credit facilities that are open have a significant impact on reducing how much you can borrow for a home loan. And the banks base their assessment on the limit on these forms of

credit, not the balance. So you may have a credit card with a $10,000 limit but with a zero balance and you haven't used it for years but the $10,000 limit will reduce how much you can borrow by between four to seven times the limit depending on the bank. One of the other factors that can significantly reduce your capacity to borrow are your dependents. Banks consider your kids to be financial liabilities and in exponential fashion, the more kids you have, the much less you can borrow. So if you're looking to secure a property in the near future, don't have kids until your loan is approved as this has a potential double whammy effect of reducing your income as well as adding a liability and this combination can totally shipwreck your ability to get a

property loan. Now when it comes to a successful property loan application there are several other factors a lender is likely to take into consideration including your employment instability, your income, your savings and your age. So the next thing you need to manage carefully is your employment and income stability and security. If you're a permanent employee you need to be in your current job for a minimum of six months before you'll be considered for a loan. If you're a full-time or part-time casual or a contract employee, many lenders require you to be there for at least 12 months. And if you're self-employed, then most lenders won't consider you until you've had an ABN for a minimum of two years, together with

two years full financial showing consistent gross declared taxable income at the level required to secure your loan size. The challenge here for self-employeds, particularly in the early years of building a business, is that a good accountant will make sure you are not declaring too much taxable income in order to minimise your tax, even though you may be enjoying a really good cash flow. However, this will bite you hard when you try to apply for a loan. And most banks don't just look at the most recent year's financials, they look at your declared gross taxable income across the last two years to determine how much you can borrow, often taking the least income of the two years to determine how much

you can lend. There are a couple of lenders that'll look at 12-month self-employed financials income, but these are few and far between. An important takeaway here is not to change your employment any time before your property loan is actually formally approved, as this again will shipwreck your property plans for at least six months and probably longer before a bank will reconsider you. And while we're talking about income, lending criteria has also tightened for employees in terms of the type and amount of your income that they will include to determine your loan service and capacity. For example, since the

advent of COVID, many lenders will only use your base income and will no longer include overtime payments, commissions and bonuses in your servicing income, which can then again severely reduce how much you can borrow. And if they do include this additional income, many lenders shade it, which is a fancy word for reducing the percentage of this income that's included. And while we're on the subject of COVID impacts, many lenders have decided to stop lending to at-risk sectors and or occupations, or to restrict or reduce the amount that they'll lend to those sectors that have and may continue to be affected by the contagion. For example, retail, tourism, travel and hospitality are all sectors that most banks are gun-shy

on lending to. Now, during the COVID contagion, banks have also started to further shade or reduce the amount of income they'll use from other rental properties to determine how much you can buy. In many cases, this has dropped from 80% of rental income, dropping down to as low as 60%. Again, this has contributed to significant drops in your borrowing capacity. A further recent potential trap, if you're looking to borrow money to secure a property, surrounds those that have accessed their super during COVID or taken advantage of the federal government's JobKeeper to support their cash flow during the pandemic.

Both the superannuation access scheme and the income support scheme were set up for those that are supposed to be experiencing financial hardship. So if you then go and apply for a loan within six months of accessing the support, many lenders won't support you because you've effectively signalled that you're experiencing financial hardship. In these ways, these schemes can prove to be two-edged swords. There are some lenders that won't take this approach, and again, a good mortgage broker will help you to know how to avoid this potential trap. Another recent change that you need to consider is that banks are now utilising what they

call your debt to income ratio or DTI to establish your borrowing capacity thresholds. For many lenders now, if your DTI is higher than 6, meaning that the level of your total debt including your existing home loans together with credit cards and your credit limits on the credit cards, your personal loans, car loans, store cards, after pay, etc. If these add up to any more than six times your income, then you won't be able to secure the extra property borrowings. Investors' borrowing capacities are now further being limited and their ability to add to their portfolios whereby the level of rental income from properties can't exceed the level of their work income, which has actually hamstrung a number of multiple

property investors. In addition, loan-to-valuation ratios have been reduced for certain types of borrowers and loan types. For example, where a first-home buyer can still borrow 95% of the value of the property plus lender's mortgage insurance with some lenders, investors looking for interest-only loans are generally restricted to 80% of the property value as their maximum borrowings, with a select few banks still allowing investors to borrow up to 90% of the property, including the lender's mortgage insurance, which really means you're only borrowing approximately 87% of the property value. This means that investors generally have to find much larger deposits from savings or from available equity in existing properties to extend their portfolios.

One of the other challenges that we're seeing for investors that are looking to access equity in their own homes or other existing properties for deposits and other costs to help them with another property purchase is that bank valuations are proving overly conservative and are coming in well below expectations and with considerable variations. On a recent property, we got three independent valuations from three lenders

that came back with an $80,000 variation in the estimates on just a $500,000 property. Selection of banks and lenders who use realistic, not pessimistic, valuers can therefore be crucial to realising equity and your purchase price power. So your lender needs to be selected very carefully on this basis. Again, a good finance broker will be all over this. So far, I've just started to scratch the surface on the raft of lending restrictions and policy changes that have been introduced that have had a massive impact on if you can borrow and how much you can borrow.

Getting a loan now is a bit like getting Ray Charles to unravel a Rubik's Cube. It's complex, confusing, daunting and extremely time consuming with every bank and lender varying on their treatment, which also varies over time depending on their every changing appetite. So a no today doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be a no next week or next month. And a no with one bank doesn't mean it's really a no. It's just a no with that bank. With over 40 residential banks and lenders

and over 2,000 different loan product solutions available, you're severely limiting your options by just going to your current bank. Given this money maze that makes up modern lending, your best, easiest and fastest way to secure the maximum loan at the lowest cost in the shortest possible time is to engage a good finance broker. It's one of the main reasons we established the KnowHow Mortgage Broking Arm because access to credit has a massive impact on your ability

to secure property and to add to your portfolio. The only current light at the end of the tunnel is that the Federal Government has finally recognised that residential lending has been logjammed by the borrowing policy pendulum that has won far too far and is now actually restricting good quality borrowers from securing property. They're now proposing to relax lending laws in March 2021

in order to improve access to credit and the flow of credit so hopefully the handbrake may come off a little for future borrowers. Because now, more than ever, adaptability, creativity and the ability to take positive action in the face of uncertainty will separate those who will have from those who will not. Standing still and doing nothing is a vote to going backwards. Procrastination will be a killer. The rapidly accelerating change and unpredictable world

that we now live in post-contagion will wait for no one. You will either be on board and riding the crest of the wave or drowning in its wake. It's time to embrace your discomfort, feel the fear and do it anyway. This is the gateway to change, to learning and to growth. Start with little daily things where you start stretching your comfort zone.

Like I said in recent episodes, start having a cold shower in the mornings. Smile and say hello to a complete stranger as you walk by them in the street. Start humming or singing out loud when you're standing in line at the coffee shop or at the shopping centre queue. See how that goes. Just start leaning into things that you feel are difficult. Remember, it's the staff that stops most people. And a great example of this is today's guest, Samantha Phillips.

Samantha, or Sam as we like to call her, is the best conveyancer I know in South Australia. Her knowledge, commitment, responsiveness, attention to detail, and her ability to come up with approaches and solutions that have both protected and saved our clients tens of thousands of dollars over the years is absolutely second to none. And you'll hear some of her brilliant secrets and tips in our conversation today. Sam is warm and friendly and one of the most understated and humble professionals I know Sam lets the exceptional quality of her work and her actions do the talking Starting her conveyancing business as a single mum in the front of her home over 16 years ago

Her tenacity, grit and resilience has led to the growth of her current conveyancing business Tuckfields where she is now CEO of one of South Australia's largest and most progressive conveyancing firms where she leads a team of 16 professionals across three locations servicing hundreds of clients and processing over 2,000 property settlements a year. Tuckfield's core business of residential and commercial conveyancing and e-conveyancing is supplemented with land divisions, matrimonial transfers, deceased estate transfers and title name changes, in addition to offering Form 1 services to real estate agents. So despite Sam's somewhat shy yet always warm and welcoming approach,

she continuously and repeatedly embraces her discomfort and keeps stepping into new and challenging situations. And today's podcast appearance is a great case in point for Sam. As you know, public speaking is one of the most confronting and stressful things that most people face. It's right up there with death and divorce. And talking to an unknown audience of thousands on a podcast is actually no different.

Yet despite her fear and trepidation of being in the limelight and not liking to talk about herself, Sam's embraced her discomfort and agreed to join me today. So I'm very privileged that she's agreed to join us because I know how hard this has been for her. So as you're listening to her sharing her words of wisdom today, put yourself in her shoes and see how comfortable you would be talking about your private life and your inner feelings

with an audience of strangers. So please join me in applauding Sam on having the courage to do this and send her thoughts of encouragement as she continues to travel along the road less travelled. Because Sam has a wealth of wisdom to share with us in the other area of property that never gets the attention or recognition that it deserves. I'm talking about the importance of the conveyancer.

So in our deep, engaging, deep dive discussion today, Sam will answer all of your questions including what are the keys to successful conveyancing, what are the biggest mistakes that people make around conveyancing, what are the biggest risks that need to be considered in relation to your property settlement, what separates a good conveyancer from an average one, how can you eliminate stress around property settlement and conveyancing matters, And Sam shares a raft of great conveyancing tips and tricks on ownership structures, land division cost savings, contract review learnings, amongst a bunch of others. So to learn the ins and outs of the area of conveyancing that is the unsung hero of property

success, please enjoy this great conversation with Sam Phillips. welcome back freedom fighters now in today's episode we return to my passion for property and we talk to a specialist in the extremely important but highly underrated field of conveyancing because when it comes to purchasing and settling property 95 of the risk but only about 5% of the reward revolves around the conveyancer. To me, conveyances are like swans on a lake. Everything looks serene on the surface when they're doing the right thing, but under the water, they're paddling furiously and they're juggling multiple balls. So to discuss the increasing importance of conveyancing to securing your home or property, we're going

to do a deep dive with the best conveyancer that I know, Samantha Phillips of Tuckfields Conveyancing. So welcome and let's get invested, Sam. hello bushy great to be here thank you yeah now we've known each other for a long time and we've both grown and and gone in in great direction so i'm really looking uh and looking forward to to sharing some of that with the audience today but uh sam for those who don't know you can you sort of in your own words give us a rundown on who you are what you do and most importantly, why you do what you do. Absolutely, yeah.

So I am the business owner and CEO of Tuckfield Conveyancing and I started my own conveyancing business 16 years ago working from home and I remember starting out printing out my own flyers and driving around on the weekends with my then-husband and my three sons in the back, handing out flyers any time we saw a for sale sign, handing them to people as they came in or out of open inspections which is how I got my first client

and they thought I was absolutely wonderful because I had all the time in the world for them and they just come out to Australia from England so that was a fantastic first client relationship to start off with and 16 years on I've now got three office locations and a team of 11, awesome, awesome staff and a well-regarded, well-known business that's known for exceptional customer service.

And why do I do what I do? Well, ultimately, it's all about people. It's always about people. And it's about the people on my team. It's our clients. It's our business partners that we work with. It's providing that exceptional customer service and taking the time with people.

and I know that that's what my whole team, that's what we all find rewarding in what can be a very stressful industry. Yes, and we'll dive into some of that stress later on. For those that have either been through it or haven't been through it, you're right at the pivotal access of all of that fun activity.

But before we sort of get into some of that, what I'd love to do, Sam, if we can, is go back through your journey. I want to go back as far as you're comfortable and share with us what you've invested your time, your energy, your money in, what you've learned from that, where that's led you to, and how has that got you to where you are today? Yeah, sure. Okay. Well, when I was thinking about it, I was surprised looking back how many moments in my life have demonstrated my love for business. because I started my business when I was late 20s.

But before that, in high school, I remember doing business management in about year 11 and I absolutely loved it. And myself and three friends, we had to set up our own business, which we decided to be a pizza-making business to sell pizzas at lunch. And I remember this moment in front of the whole school assembly, and I was always quiet, shy Sam. And my friends were always, you know, the confident, loud, always, you know, sort of showing off.

But I was the quiet one. But I stood up in front of that assembly, and I gave this talk about our business, and I promoted it. We had a jingle on the old tape deck playing. um and i remember the reaction was like oh wow where did that come from you know um quiet sam and i just loved it i love the whole the strategy of business and and promoting it and you know that thrill of you know making a sale or looking after a client i love all of that so and there's been moments of that throughout my life and so um conveyancing was um oh goodness how did that come about it was um my husband and I sold and purchased property we sold our first home

purchased our next property and uh on the corner of that building was this an office on the corner of the house and I remember looking at it going I'm going to work from there that's going to be my business i don't know what it's going to be yet but i'm going to run my business from there how old were you how old are we what are we talking oh i was uh mid-20s yep yep and um and my husband at the time said to me well goodness we we paid that conveyance for enough money you should look at doing that which makes me laugh now of course you gotta be kidding me There you go, righty-o. And, but, you know, I'd always loved law, always,

and looking at the legal side of a, you know, a transaction. And so I looked into it and I always wanted to work from home, always wanted to be there when my kids were young and be available to them. And this really sort of ignited something in me and I went, oh, okay. I looked into it and it was a great business to run from home. and of course you're attending settlements at the land titles office which was you know at 11 30 so you know i could drop the kids at school go home and work go to the city for settlements come back and work pick the kids up it was ideal for that and i did that um and built the business

up over 10 years just myself yeah and then um uh my marriage ended which was a choice that i made and after that... Can I dig in there? Yeah. If you're happy to share that experience because I have unfortunately been there myself. Let's talk about why you think that happened. Was it just that you both had different directions

or was there pressure from work on you and your husband that created it? I'd love to understand a little bit about what happened and why that happened. Do you mind sharing that? uh no I don't mind um it was certainly yeah moving in different directions I have always felt um like I'm happy if I'm progressing if I'm learning new things if I'm um I can feel myself progressing and when I look back times in my life when I've not been happy it's when I've felt

stagnant and I I had all this this pull to do things I wanted to do things with my business I wanted to develop property. I wanted to, you know, really grow my business and make it into an investment. And so there was certainly a clash there of values and of taking risks and things that I wanted to do he didn't want to do. And I guess after our marriage ended, someone said to me they call it post-traumatic growth. And I felt just, oh, I'm free to do all these things that I've had in my head. And so, during that horrible time at the end of our marriage, my business was just coasting. Yeah.

And just to get through that. But after, I was excited again and I was feeling passionate again. I'm like, right, now it's time to take this business to the next level. So, again, it was just me still in the business, and I joined a networking breakfast group with the intent to grow the business to be able to take on my first staff member. And I remember I was crying. I was going home crying because I just wanted to lay on the couch and watch TV, but I couldn't because I had so much work, which was great, a great problem to have. but I didn't have the time to look for this staff member. Yeah.

And then, like I do with any goal, I broke it down and I took little steps to get that first staff member. And, gee, what a difference that made when I did take her on. And it just grew from there. So I grew – my business was Southern Property Conveyancing that I grew from scratch over 15 years and moved out of my home office, moved in with an agent for a couple of years and then moved from there into my own office, Main South Road, Moorford Vale.

That was a huge, scary step and then built the team up from there. Now, I guess just diving in here again, being effectively a single mum with some kids building her own business in a fairly male-dominated industry. I mean, it's not so much now, but it was a very blokey, blokey sort of industry way back then. I would have thought that would have been quite challenging and would need a lot of personal persistence and fortitude and self-belief, actually, to manoeuvre your way through that. Can you sort of share what that journey was like with us? Oh, my goodness, yes. My mum's always said, you're just always very determined.

um you just sort of set out what you wanted and then you just kept working towards that and so um i did i just kept plugging along and being consistent and working and and i loved the um the client service side of it i loved that and i and i still do i love that i have the knowledge and experience to help someone in what is quite a stressful transaction even though it may be exciting it's still very stressful and so that always drove me and i love to get that feedback and and know that i've helped somebody um with our clients and and our business partners our referrers and and know that we were working together for the same outcome um so always very driven and determined with my business so you like the i would call you the bp the the quiet

achiever the the one that just just head down really good at what you do uh nothing's an issue and you just get it done without fuss or without uh without headache uh have you you've always been that way sam has that just been part of you where did that sort of approach to life come from do you think um i think yes i think i have always been determined but i've always been like the quiet achiever um and I guess I surprise people um every now and then and and I like that um but I guess it has always just been a very strong there's always been a very strong work ethic there for me um and in school you know I I was never really academic um but I still enjoyed I enjoyed my schoolwork and my homework and I enjoyed presenting, you know,

a really good assignment or even though, yeah, I wasn't perhaps always the best academically, I enjoyed the process and presenting something that I was proud of. You strike me and I'm not, as someone who, there's a little bit of perfectionism in there and there needs to be and the industry you're in, it's very I dotting and T crossing and a comma or an apostrophe can make a massive difference to a contract. So you need to have that sort of approach to life.

Is that something that's, again, always been part of your DNA? It has, yes. Yes, it has. And always, and I'm sure a lot of people can relate to this, but that drive for being perfect or being so hard on yourself and not stopping to congratulate yourself and things that you have achieved. But that I have really got so much better at

in the last couple of years. Good. And taking that time to just look back and write down, you know, oh, goodness, look what's happened in the last year. And I have made myself a list of things that you've done that at one time you thought were impossible. and so when i i look at doing something and i go oh i don't think i can do that i'm not the right person i look back at that list and go yeah remember when you thought you couldn't do that

that and that and and you have done it that's awesome that's a great technique and and something i hadn't thought of it can you give me an example of something that fits that bill where you've gone no i thought that's impossible and you turned around and achieved it yeah it was um uh ending my marriage, which was a very hard process for me and took me a few years full of guilt to do so, which I'm sure a lot of people can relate to. It was, you know, buying my house. After my marriage ended, I rented for a couple of years and then, you know, buying my house and it was a house that I thought, oh, I can't afford that.

And then I found out, oh, yes, I can. Oh, okay. So things like, you know, I've attended a lot of Tony Robbins personal development conferences and events. And, you know, the fire walk in Fiji, climbed up the 50-metre pole and jumped off with a harness on. Those sorts of things that are very much out of my comfort zone. and I'm afraid of heights and jumping off that pole was something that I had to work towards with techniques and to get myself to that point. So I like to break things down and work towards it.

Yeah, it's a great way to do it. Eating the elephant in the mouthfuls because then you're only focusing on the mouthful, not the massive task that's in front of you. It's an awesome way to go. So that sort of passion for the legal side of the equation, you mentioned earlier on that you've always sort of loved the law. Where did that love come from, do you think? I'm not really sure, actually.

I think I always love, like, the legal shows on TV, and I guess I'm very much a solution-focused person, you know, look at the problem for one minute and then spend 59 minutes working on the solution to get that sorted sort of thing. So, yeah, and sometimes I have to remind myself of that if I'm dwelling on something too much. But, yeah, I think that's – I've always, yeah, enjoyed the law and just –

But I'll be right in saying, yeah, I think you're a really good problem solver is how I'd probably – again, looking in from the outside and having worked closely with you now for, you know, the best part of over 15 years, I reckon, Sam. Yes. You just, you summed it up. You're always looking for the solution and always looking at how we're going to make things happen.

Then you have the tenacity and the persistence just to see that through, which is a fairly uncommon trait, but the perfect trait to be a damp wood conveyancer in a very stressful situation. So, yeah, no, okay. No, that's really – I'd just sort of like to go down those rabbit holes a little bit on occasions just to sort that out. I want to jump into the future now and get you to paint us a picture of and make it as vibrant as you can in terms of what your ideal lifestyle looks like. What are you doing?

Who are you with? Where are you and when? Because I then want to sort of get a bit of a sense of, you know, how close are you to that now? you might be living it right now, and what have you and what are you investing in to help make that life's all happen? Okay. Well, I feel that I'm getting closer to that, and which is I look at my business as an absolute privilege

and an absolute gift that I have, and that I'm working towards that business providing me with freedom with freedom of my time and financial freedom, freedom to live the lifestyle that I want, which is to be able to know that I have a team, which I do, who look after that business so well with all our systems and procedures in place to support everybody and that they feel happy and happy to come into work

and know that you know they're part of a team um and uh so my life the lifestyle i'm working towards is is that freedom of time and money um with you know a nice new partner sometime in the future hopefully maybe um and you know to be able to just to travel to um to relax and um laugh and have fun and uh know that you know you um your financial um your your finances are looked after yeah i guess giving you the freedom to live that lifestyle yeah and obviously the business the business tuck fields that you're now md of is a big part of that uh are there other things outside of the business that you're investing in that's going to help you to get that time and financial freedom uh well um property development is something that i'm working

towards it was i was looking uh well my husband and i bought a half acre block um at morphe vale many years ago which we we sold but the um a half acre block in the middle of the suburb was you know um um an investment and the plan was to you know divide that up um and develop it but that didn't eventuate, we ended up selling that to a developer and they built 8 townhouses on it which

was sad but that's how it goes so I was then looking at investing in property when the opportunity came along to purchase Tuckfield Conveyancing and so that

has been my investment But I certainly have plans to purchase property in the next couple of years and start building that property portfolio. Yeah, brilliant. So my business is my investment at this point in time. And so it should be. It's the major cash generator and will fuel your property portfolio, which will then grow the wealth long term.

So it's a pretty good plan, I reckon, Sam. a very good plan yeah that's awesome okay sorry go on but just going into investment i think that the biggest investment that i've um taken in the last three years has been personal development yes and that's working on myself and that's attending tony robbins events and attending other personal development events and i remember um the first tony robbins event i went to and just having this moment like I was earning such a great income and I felt guilty or greedy to think about earning anything more and I just went but the possibilities of what I can do with that income and what I can contribute to other people and I just had this moment and went

why am I limiting myself and also with purchasing Tuckfields I would not have taken that huge step without Tony Robbins saying every event you go to he'll say find someone who's where you want to be in business or life and go pick their brain and I straight away thought of Tammy the previous owner of Tuckfields because I've been you know stalking her online for years and in the nicest possible way of course but you know and just seeing what she was doing and going that's where I went to get my business to and so I went to her for some mentoring and she runs, you know, monthly business groups and went to those and, you know,

and then she said to me, you know, oh, Sam, you should buy my business and I just laughed. Yeah, right. But then she came back to me and she said, no, I think people come into our lives for certain reasons and, yeah, I think you'd be a great fit and the team would love you. so yeah so my property investment went on hold and i looked at this opportunity and it you know for me it was a huge huge step out of my comfort zone um but you know uh is it richard branson who

says you know someone gives you an opportunity say yes and then work out how to do it um yeah i feel that that's what i did um so it's been a huge year of learning um um uh yeah and and feeling out of my comfort zone and i'm now feeling really good yeah let's touch on that there's a bit i'd like to dig into there if you don't mind sam because uh firstly just going back to those those early moments and when you said you had that moment with tony robbins and you were feeling guilty about money really just i'm really interested in why you felt that is that something you grew up with uh your upbringing your relationship with money money was seen as evil or being rich was, you know, one of them?

What was that guilt about? Oh, goodness. I think I was at that point earning an income that I hadn't expected, I guess. Yeah. But, you know, I had absolutely worked my tail off to get to that point. um I guess it was it was guilt that you know why do you need any more why that's just greedy and um I mean you know my parents um you know it used to be I guess the sayings that used to come up were money doesn't grow on trees we can't afford that or um I guess mum saying oh don't tell your

dad I bought that you know sort of thing like it was a you know uh it was guilty you know she felt guilty to to spend money or um uh i think you know they were fairly standard sort of sayings my mum used to say exactly the same thing my dad was very different but mum was very much of that ilk i just just really interested in that in in delving in there because i you know i've got this this belief that true sustainable success is the intersection of self which is what we think and what our beliefs are our health in terms of the habits that we then start to perpetrate and build the discipline and then our wealth comes as a result of getting those two in the right place and investing in your personal development and spending the time with you know some of those

awesome programs that tony robbins runs they are they are second to none and changing your mindset to see money as an enabler not as something that's that's got any evil attachments uh it can be very liberating and clearly uh what i also love about what i'm hearing you say sam is that you're embracing discomfort as a way of challenging yourself but taking things to another level and one of the biggest concerns I have a lot of for a lot of hard-working Australians is that they sit in their comfort zone and we've got it very good in this country despite COVID and everything else we've come through we've still got an enviable lifestyle and it's very easy to sit in that comfort zone and not then extend yourself to really take things to the level that you'd

ultimately like to and and what I'm hearing you saying is that you are you're almost embracing discomfort as a way of of helping you grow to then achieve those long-term goals that you're looking to um to get to it would I be right in saying that absolutely I have embraced it I've yeah just having those those moments of going oh I'm just I'm limiting myself why all the possibilities things that I can do and achieve um it's wonderful it's um yeah I guess just taking that moment and then stepping into it which is really scary and you know in Fiji uh when we um climbed the pole and jumped off the metaphor there was you cannot move forward without taking that leak so whatever you want is over there and you need to take that big scary leak to get there

um and so i often think back to that um yeah and when i'm considering those big scary leaks yeah it's a great metaphor and it's uh if you can continue to take yourself back to that that time and and and you know doing what you've done and then giving you that giving you the courage to do similar things with what you're doing in your life and your business that's uh that's a great lesson there it's a great lesson Sam I love the subject of sustainable success and I mean

sustainable there's a lot of one hit wonders and overnight sensations that come and go but you know the true sustainable success like the likes of Richard Branson that you've already mentioned that's a long term journey what would you define as

sustainable success and what are you doing to achieve it in your own terms um sustainable success for me would be um continuous investment um investment in people um and investment in myself uh and setting up setting up systems um setting up systems and processes in your life that um support the lifestyle that you want so that it's not dependent on you being there constantly um for things to continue um and to continue to provide you with an income or um for thing for your business to continue and um yep no i'm sorry

i don't feel like i've answered that one i think i think i i actually think you just nailed it right there because it's creating a self-sustaining system that doesn't rely on you and that's exactly what you're doing with Tuckfields you're nurturing a close-knit family people who've all got their own got their back and if you've got each other's back and you're supporting each other then the client experience becomes very easy in that sort of environment because there is no internal competition you're all focused on one thing and that's helping clients to achieve the best and most stressless property purchase or related property manner they possibly can. So I think you underestimate yourself there, Sam.

I think you answered that extremely well. Oh, thank you. But now what I want to do now, though, is segue straight into something that, you know, a conversation that you're very comfortable with and something you do every day. And I want to delve into the world of conveyancing because, as I said at the outset, it. I think conveyances are very undervalued. The amount of work that you like a one-armed juggler on a monocycle at times, I think trying to negotiate your way through a minefield is how I would generally describe what a conveyancer does. And you do it with a smile

and you don't charge much to do it either, by the way. I think it's the best value professional in the industry when you look at the amount of work that you do. But unfortunately, a lot of a lot of property purchasers and or property sellers that are involved with conveyances don't understand the complexity and the number of things that you do until something goes wrong and which is you know an unfortunate reality but for those that that perhaps had a conveyancer involved or for those that are considering getting into purchasing a property or selling a property can you sort of give us a quick summary of what conveyancing is about and what a conveyancer actually does so they can understand the breadth and depth of what you do do?

Yeah, absolutely. So I do believe we are a very underutilised service and as you say, very important to the process of buying or selling property or any sort of change in ownership of the property. So our role is to act on our client's behalf. So if you are the buyer or seller, you need a conveyance attacked on your behalf. So we are looking out for you. We're looking out for your best interest in this transaction.

And everything comes back to the contract that's being signed. And so it's very important that that contract is drawn up succinctly and details the conditions very clearly of that transaction. So our role, if you're purchasing a property, we can look over your contract and form one during the calling off period. And, you know, we do that often. And it's really just putting the client's mind at rest to say, we've looked it over, you know, the timeframes in the contract all look good and are, you know, achievable and are in there to protect you.

and also the Form 1 document that you've received to advise you about that property. We've looked that over and everything in it all looks fine. Yeah, just jumping in there, for those listeners that are listening beyond South Australia, Form 1 is the vendor statement that really describes what the existing condition of the property is and what's included in the contract.

Am I right in saying that, Sam? Absolutely right, yes. So once you've received the contract signed by the vendor and you've got the Form 1 signed, you've then got your two clear business days calling off. So during that time, we can look over those two documents and advise you. And as I say, either put your mind at rest and say, yep, all looks good, or just point out things

that you may need to be aware of or make some further inquiries about perhaps, you know, contact the council or other government authorities and just make those further inquiries during that calling off period because that's what it's there for. So our role then is to take instructions from you. So we'll take instructions with regards to the ownership of the property and confirm who's to be registered on that title,

be it individuals or a company, if you're buying on behalf of a trust or a super fund. So we take those instructions and we draw up the documents to legally transfer that ownership from the seller to the purchaser's name on the day of settlement. And during that timeframe between contract signed and settlement, there's so much more that we're doing. We are checking over contracts and form lines,

taking instructions, preparing documents. There's adjustment of rates to be done on the property, which we calculate. so that's the portion between the settlement date and when the rates are due. In the last couple of years, there's been so much that's been added on to the conveyance's role by the government

in terms of GST withholding, foreign ownership clearance certificates and different grants. there's been a lot so there's there's a lot that as you say that goes on behind the scenes with the you know the lovely swan sitting on top of the water and the legs underneath going um just from my own experience i often describe conveyances as a orchestra leader that is is really understanding what sort of a symphony the client wants to sing in relation to purchasing a a property and translating that into a contract, but then liaising with and coordinating the

input of the purchaser's bank, often the seller's bank, the seller's conveyancer, the finance brokers that are involved in the process as well. There's a whole stream of people, surveyors if it's involved in divisions and other elements. So there's a whole stream of people that you are coordinating the input on and bringing it to a head on the day of settlement, which can be very challenging given that you have responsibility for things that are often outside of your control, a la banks who don't know their left hand from their right and often end up with very stressful situations on the day of settlement because the bank hasn't got their act together and i know i'll dive into that a little bit in more detail

later but uh i just um just reiterating what you're saying there sam i think underutilized at the start there's a big need for and particularly with where australia is heading we're becoming much more litigious which means that if you don't understand what's in your contract and you haven't got clauses in your contract that are protecting your interests just relying on what's there and what's been handwritten in by a real estate agent isn't necessarily going to put you in a position that you need to be and it's only when the wheels fall off that you find out how good or bad the contract and or the conveyance you're using is.

That is correct. So quite often we'll go through to settlement and everything's all gone to plan, which is wonderful and that's what we all want. But as you say, where things don't go to plan, that's often when people understand the importance of our role because we are liaising with all the parties involved where there's clear communication needed,

there's negotiation skills. So we want to make sure that you're protected and also ensuring that you're carrying out your responsibilities under that contract and doing what's needed. And so, yes, we do liaise with all parties to bring about settlement. And the day of settlement is the day where the ownership is legally transferred to the purchaser and, you know, seller's moved out, purchaser moves in,

collects the keys from the agent, moves in. But also during that time up till settlement, we do deal with all the financial side of it. So we look at what needs to be paid at settlement and collect all the funds, provide you with a detailed statement to show what's being paid and any balance that you need to provide before settlement or for the vendor, you know, to show what's going to go

into their account on the day of settlement and what's being paid to the bank. And at TAPFields, we are very upfront and transparent with our fees. So we provide them in writing to our client and what you see on the quote is what will be on your statement. So it's very upfront. And I think when people inquire and call conveyances, as you said,

you know, they don't often know what we do. And so quite often the question is, you know, what do you charge? And so when I speak to clients and give them a quote, I like to ask all the questions and find out about the transaction and give them some advice to let them know that, you know, that is our role. That's what we're doing. We're looking out for them.

Yeah. And the fee, it's not about the fee. It's such an important service. But I guess it is just educating because people don't understand what we do, so they're not sure what to ask. Yeah. I want them to go away with a feeling that they've been heard and understood and got some valuable advice,

that's going to help them. Yeah, and absolutely spot on. It's helping them to understand actually the complexity of what's involved in a property transaction and where the conveyancer fits in to actually orchestrate all of that. And when you look at everything you've just spoken about, and there's a lot more that we haven't touched on, the fees that you charge I think are very cheap,

And particularly in South Australia, we're very fortunate to have conveyances that don't have to be solicitors. I mean, if you look at the eastern states where a solicitor has to be involved in the transaction, lawyers charged by the seven-minute increment, and the cost of the conveyancing is generally substantially more than what you're paying in South Australia. So I think you do a lot of work for the money that you do get paid. I'm surprised that people actually question that but it comes back to that understanding

I think if they understood exactly the complexities of what you're dealing with then no one would hesitate around the very small fee that you do charge for that what I'd love to do now around that because I bet you could write books on some of the experiences that you've had with conveyancing along the journey

would you mind sort of sharing with us some of the biggest mistakes that you see people making around what you do? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Okay, well, we deal with a lot of marital transfer transactions, which is when a couple have decided to, you know, split ways and the property is owned in both their names and they're looking to transfer it into one sole name.

So from joint names to one name. And our advice in that circumstance would always be to have a court order drawn up. The court order, both parties have agreed on, you know, how that property is to be split and the funds and such. The court order is drawn up and it's really, it gives both of those parties protection. It means neither party can come back and contest that transaction

in the future. and it just makes it very clear to everybody involved, this is what you've both agreed on. Yeah. And so I do remember one young couple and advised them about getting a court order, and the property was being transferred into his sole name, and he said, oh, I just can't afford it.

I can't afford it. And so the property was then transferred into his sole name, and he came back six months later because he was selling the property and he had paid to his ex-partner an agreed amount. But then he sold it and sold it for actually quite a lot more than was expected and his ex-partner found out and was then able to come back and contest that yes. And so when he thought that he couldn't afford to have that court order

drawn up to give him that protection, it then seemed like a very cheap alternative to... Exactly. I mean, he probably cost him thousands in terms of the split at the other end, but a court order would have been in the hundreds of dollars, I would have thought, in general terms, depending on how much argy-bargy there is between... Getting the court order, no matter how amicable it is at the time, it certainly does give both parties that protection because, you know, you might agree now, but, you know, when people repartner, things change.

And obviously I can't give legal advice here, but it's just something that we see that is such a simple solution. And it also, there's a stamp duty exemption in certain circumstances, and so which would be like if it's your principal place of residence and you are or were married or de facto for more than three years, or have a child together so in those circumstances there's an exemption on the stamp duty for that transfer of ownership however if you're then transferring the residence plus one or two other investment properties between the couple then there's stamp duty payable on those investment

properties which can be quite hefty and so with that core order it provides that exemption on on any property that's noted in that core order. So for the cost of having that drawn up, it certainly saves quite a few thousand dollars. And we're talking multiple thousands of dollars. If we're talking a couple of properties with stamp duty, we're talking at least 10 grand generally and up to 20 grand depending on the value of the property.

So it's a great investment. That's awesome advice. Let's start at the beginning of the process because one of the areas that we've touched on already is I just don't think conveyances are used enough in actually reviewing contracts, either during the calling off period or in the preparation thereof. Some of the clauses that you see need to be in or shouldn't be in,

have you got any experience or any thoughts on, you know, one of the thoughts I've sort of picked up over experience are obviously subject to finance if you're borrowing money and particularly in the current timeframe because settlement dates are blowing out enormously given the forensic detail that the banks are now going through to approve and process loans. Obviously, a building and pest inspection,

they're obvious things to put in. And being very specific about those in terms of who does what, by when, who pays and what's the consequence or outcome rather than just subject to pest inspection because the wording is really important there. and making sure that the goods and chattels are actually in working order on the day of settlement so that you're not then inheriting something that might have worked when you did the inspection but might have broken down in between.

Are there other things that you're seeing in contracts that either should be in or shouldn't be in? What's your thoughts around that, Sam? Well, obviously the finance condition is extremely important and ensuring that the timeframe for that finance is more than sufficient. So talking to your broker, talking to your banker before you sign that contract to see what sort of timeframe they're going to need for your finance application. It's always better to have a longer timeframe in there because often we see a very short timeframe which causes so much stress

for all parties involved, for the purchaser and the vendor because, you know, they're expecting finance by this date and settlement that date, but it's just not enough time for the bank and so it blows out, you know, approval dates and settlements. Yeah, and that's a subject that's close to my heart, obviously, given our finance-breaking arm. And what frustrates me and continues to really are

particularly selling agents who still think that it's easy to get a 30-day settlement. And we're seeing banks that will take 60 days to pick something up, let alone do something with it. So for those listeners that are tuning in now, what we normally suggest to people these days is a six-week finance approval clause and at least then two or three weeks post that

to actually see to the settlement. So we're talking an eight- to ten-week settlement if we're going to be realistic around making sure because we're in an environment where the bank lending policies are almost changing by the day and continue to do so. And what quite often happens is a purchaser will think he's going with one bank

and for whatever reason he steps on a landmine and can't do that and has to go to bank option B or C, well, that's not going to happen in 30 days. So that timeframe is absolutely key, and there's generally no great – unless the seller has locked themselves into a settlement on another property within that timeframe, then if you go in reasonably and all parties understand that, then the whole transaction becomes a lot less stressful. It certainly does, and much better to have that longer timeframe. And if the bank is ready earlier and both parties agree, we can bring settlement forward, but without all that stress in there beforehand of not meeting the dates. And I have had a couple of clients recently just say, oh, yeah, we've, you know, they've got a two-week timeframe in there for finance. And they said, that's okay.

Like the agents just said that, you know, that can be extended. well yes it can if the vendor agrees but depending on every contract is you know there's different contracts but the the general clause is that um if you don't have your finance by that date then it gives the vendor the option to terminate and so um you know if they've got someone with a another offer um and perhaps more favorable conditions and then they can terminate and sign a new contract um whereas if there's a longer time frame in there um you know it's it's just allowing all parties um sufficient time to do what they need to um so yeah if the agent is saying that's all right we can extend it if needed um i would say how about we just put a sufficient

time frame in there right right up front yeah um so and and just managing everyone's expectations up front rather than, yeah, creating that angst. Totally agree. The assumption gets everyone in strife. Talking around that period of time, another issue that I often try and avoid like the plague, if at all possible, either simultaneous settlements, in other words, a property will – two properties need to settle on the same day

to make something happen and or same-day occupation. So they settle on Friday and they expect to be in on Friday night. I tend to warn people off doing that because you don't have to have many hiccups for that to become an absolute living nightmare. What's your experience around that, Sam? Yes, it creates this domino effect. But the other part of that transaction is they need the funds from the settlement to settle that purchase and so often it does have to happen

on that same day which is really hard but we certainly, you know, we do a lot of transactions like that and then if, you know, our client's got a sale and purchase and that's subject to, you know, someone else's sale and purchase, it does create this whole domino effect and And I guess with electronic conveyancing, electronic settlements, that has helped in some way because the settlements happen one after the other and everybody can see that there's linked settlements there, whereas I guess in the old paper way, if you were informed, then you knew, but you didn't always.

So I guess it's, again, setting those realistic expectations and being aware of what your requirements are if you have signed a contract for sale and purchase on the same day of, you know, what your requirements are on that day of getting out of the property that you're selling and cleaning up and being ready to move in and that sometimes it doesn't happen like that, that sometimes a purchaser will get to a property

and the vendor hasn't quite cleaned up and are ready to go. So, and then we get the phone call and it's, yeah, not very nice, but I guess it's just being aware that people are trying their best and doing what they can to hand over a property. But we would not settle until we've had instructions, you know, in that circumstance that parties are ready to go. What's your advice to the listeners who are either going through or will be going through that process sometime in terms of trying to minimise the risks associated with that situation? It would come back to the timeframes in the contract most definitely and allowing sufficient time for everybody's finance approval

for sale and settlement of their property and settlement of yours and we instruct our clients closer to settlement with the electronic settlements, what time their settlements are due to go through and when to expect a phone call and when to hand the keys over to the agent for the property they're selling. So I guess it is just being prepared as much as you can

but also that little bit of flexibility because, yeah, settlements with the banks, you know, there can be hold-ups and delay it, you know, on the day. You know, so it might not settle till later in the afternoon. So I guess it's being ready and prepared but having that flexibility for, yeah, for a couple of hours delay on the settlement. Yeah, and you mentioned the banks again

And I mean, I know it's easy to kick the banks, but unfortunately, given the size of some of the banks, the attention to detail and that there's so many links in the chain that things fall through the cracks. if there's one thing that I want the listeners to take away is to make sure that if you've got a good finance broker and you've got a good conveyancer on the case, that they will be well and truly nudging the banks involved

long in advance of the settlement to make sure that none of those hiccups do occur. And believe you me, and you would know this better than I, Sam, the number of times even after all of that effort The banks will be slow or they'll mess something up

or they'll come up with some last-minute requirement that no one knew about. Really can't emphasise enough the importance of really keeping on top of the bank because you're often dealing with two banks in a transaction, the ingoing and the outgoing bank on a title. If both of them aren't playing the same game, then that's where the issues occur.

And let's face it, most contracts incorporate penalty interest or some sort of penalty if you don't settle on the day. And even though the banks might be the issue, it still becomes your issue because it's your name that's on the contract. So have you got any further thoughts around that? And that seems very unfair. Yeah, and that's not a nice message to have to give to a client when, you know, the bank is the reason that it's held up but they have to pay the interest. So I guess to protect themselves, it brings up, as you've said,

the importance of having a great conveyancer and a great mortgage broker who are working together. And we had a very good example of this just last week where the bank was just not on the ball and the conveyancer and the mortgage broker just worked and pushed that bank to get the settlement through because they just weren't reading what was right in front of them, to be honest.

And so having those two parties working on your behalf and pushing the banks when needed and knowing when that's needed is obviously very important. And with interest, we would advise our clients, depending on the bank's requirements, but we would advise them that if interest has been charged and it has been a delay to the bank, you know, that they've had their sufficient times regarding, you know,

their documented requirements and timeframes and they're still not ready, then we would advise clients to seek a reimbursement from the bank post-settlement. To get settlement through, if penalties have been charged, we have to pay them most occasions. And then post-settlement, you would need to make that application to your bank.

Yeah, I know we're involved in the transaction. We'll get the bank to agree in writing before settlement that they will incur any penalty costs because once the settlement's been done and the transaction's out of the road it's often difficult to get the banks to come to the party but it's something that does need very careful communication and coordination

and it's being able to the real art here for the conveyancer and the broker is to know what questions to ask because they understand the process and who to be asking that question because if it's left to someone just ringing your bank and getting lost in the mire and you don't really know what you're asking them to do,

then it's pretty ineffective. Is that true in your experience? Absolutely true. And it's also that there's not standard process for every bank out there. They are all absolutely different. They all have their own processes and timeframes and requirements. And so, you know, we are aware of those. And to be honest, they change them without letting us know.

But until they do that, you know, we know when we need to push with different banks and different lenders. And, you know, knowing that some banks, you know, we can allow until sort of the day before settlement. And we know that they're going to be good to go, that that's just their normal process. but others we know we need to be pushing them like three days out for the information that's needed. So, yeah, and that's where the great conveyance that comes in is they know that with the different lenders and different banks what their requirements are and when they need to be pushed.

You make a very good point because I'd go as far as saying every bank is different in terms of their process, in terms of their timing, in terms of their people and that is an art form, just even being able to understand that to make sure that you are getting the right result. What about the issues around, and I'm sure you've seen a bunch of these as well, the names that are put in on the contract? So have you seen, I'm sure you have, you've seen issues where the wrong name,

wrong spelling and or nominees gets used willy-nilly to try and cover all sins, which doesn't necessarily achieve that. Can you relate some experiences and some advice around getting the right name on the contract? Yeah, and it seems such a very simple thing but when I talk to clients and they say, we're looking to sign a contract soon and I will say, ensure that your name is in full and spelt clearly

and I get that funny look or that pause on the end of the phone You know, it makes a difference. It's your correct name needs to match what's on your finance application, needs to match our instructions, what's going to go on the title, needs to match your ID documents. And so if something, if your name, if a name is missed out, such as a middle name or is spelled incorrectly, there's repercussions for that.

and the bank needs the contract amended which takes time and our instructions need to match with regards to the ownership, need to match your bank's instructions with regards to ownership. And so we complete an identity check which came in a few years ago which is a formal ID check and that is where we as your conveyancer are meeting you face-to-face and confirming that, yes, you are this person and that everything matches with your ID.

And that's a very, very important part of the process. We cannot complete settlement without that. And it has been, I think it's been a very important and very, you know, a great step forward in the conveyancing industry to be able to now have that requirement to do that face-to-face ID check. When you think back to what we used to do, we used to send documents out by post. Someone would sign them, someone would witness them and send them back.

And we had, you know, this was quite a few years ago, but we had no idea who was signing. Whereas now the requirement is we have to formally identify that person. and the government requirements on that are very strict of what ID needs to be provided and it needs to match and, yeah, it can cause some angst because until people really look at their birth certificate or their passport, they haven't realised

that actually there's something different on there. Differences, and that happens a lot. I mean, you would say, we certainly see it in the bank application process as well. The passport will have one name, the birth certificate's got another and quite often the driver's licence will have something else. And it's like, guys, you've got some homework here or you're going to be bracing off the science stat decks

to cover this up because everything's got to be consistent from the contract through to what you're presenting, otherwise the wheels fall off. Absolutely. And it's amazing, as you say, how often that happens. Different government departments are issuing all this ID and then it comes to us and the government's telling us these are the requirements.

But, yeah. different departments have issued ID completely different. Yeah, it's amazing how often that happens. It is, it is. Now, just while we're talking about ownership, I wouldn't mind having a little tangent here around joint tenants versus tenants in common because, again, there's some ramifications there

that a lot of people are probably unaware of. And, you know, most people, if it's a husband and wife or a couple that are buying a property. They don't even think about their subject. They'll just sign as joint tenants because they think that's what it's all about. But there are options, particularly with tenants in common, where you can alter the percentage of ownership

to perhaps favour your accountant might be advising that for tax reasons, if you slant the ownership in one party's favour, that that will help in relation to tax position or you might be looking at asset protection where you're wanting almost to remove one party that might be much more financially exposed than the other. Can you talk to us a little bit about your experience

around the joint tenants and the tenants in common exercise and what the implications of those are? So any time we are acting for purchases where there's more than one purchaser, we get written instructions. We provide written information about joint tenants and tenants in common and ask our client to complete a form and provide that to us.

But we also speak to them verbally over the phone or in person to explain. So joint tenants means that you both own that property equally together. And as you said, it's most commonly used by couples. So then upon one person's death, that title is automatically owned by the other person on the title. the other option is tenants in common and so tenants in common means you can hold a distinct share which still could be 50 50 or it could be you know 40 60 80 20 90 10 and it means that your distinct share in that property is then dealt with upon your death pursuant to your will

so it doesn't automatically go to the other person on the title and so that would most commonly be used if it's an investment property so it might be a couple buying investment property and we would advise them to seek advice from their accountant or tax advisor as to the percentage of ownership that each of them should hold and as you say may provide some tax benefits there or help them avoid some tax implications. Tenants in common also with family members or different family members or friends buying property together. And so then they hold that distinct share which they would go upon their death as per their will.

And there's a very important thing you've mentioned right there. If you don't have a will, and we say this to all of our clients, if you're going to go down tenants in common, you must have a will because otherwise upon your death where you thought the property was going to go may not go because it can be contested because it's not actually spelled out clearly who's going to whereas in joint tenants which is almost it automatically goes with the surviving title holder.

So a very important distinction there that you've mentioned there, Sam. Absolutely and that would be the next part of our advice. tenants in common is to ensure you've got an updated will and it's usually here one of those things that people go yeah i'll get to that but you know it's so good i was done and it's empowering to know that you've just looked after that um and you don't need to worry about that any further but tenants in common is also very uh and having an updated will so important when it's couples who are on their second marriage um yes and uh if they're holding as tenants in common then to protect their child's inheritance, we see that a lot.

So having that updated will in that circumstance is so important. Yeah, and something else you mentioned sort of indirectly related to this earlier on, when we were talking about de facto relationships, the definition of de facto that you touched on then is a couple that's been in a permanent relationship for three years. Is that right? yes now that is um um in regards to the stamp duties act um for the stamp duty exemption on transferring um the principal place of residence so the definition for that stamp

duty exemption is um uh domestic pardon one who they've lived together for three years immediately preceding the date of the transfer of ownership um or they've um they have a child together um so if they meet that criteria and it's their principal place of residence then they would receive that exemption yeah okay that's that's awesome now jumping to the other end of exercise and when we're getting to the hot spot which is the settlement day uh one of the great pieces of advice that you gave me years ago sam was to make sure that the clients are actually putting a little bit extra into the trust account uh you know anywhere between and i often tell my clients. Let's just pop an extra $500 in. It doesn't matter what they're asking for. Let's

put an extra 500 bucks in there because if there's a one cent bank fee that's over and above what was anticipated or there's an adjustment in the council rates where you're paying a little bit more than you did and there's not enough money there, guess what? It's game over. That settlement doesn't go through. And then what you do very well is then transfer that money from your trust account back out to the clients with any surplus post-settlement. I just think that's just awesome advice because it de-stresses that potential exercise. Are there any other things around that that you think are worthy of talking about that the listeners might be interested in?

Yeah, with that, in that circumstance, that would be particularly helpful when we're getting close to settlement and we provide a detailed statement to the purchaser with everything added up, less the deposit they've paid, less what's coming from the loan and then what's not covered is the balance that they provide to our trust account before settlement. So sometimes the amount that the bank is providing does not get confirmed to us in a timely manner in some circumstances and so we only have an estimate to go by and so that's particularly helpful in that circumstance to say to the client this is the estimated balance but let's add a bit more on there so that they know they've got their funds in our trust account and they've done all they

need to do for settlement and then when the figures are finalised we provide them with a final statement and then any surplus that they've transferred over we transfer back to their nominated account. So that does alleviate that stress of waiting for the bank to confirm the exact figure they're handing over because you've got your loan amount, you're lending this much but take off their fees and then that's the amount they'll tell us that they're handing over at settlement and so we you know that's not something that we you know we don't know what all those fees are so until they can confirm that exact figure we can't confirm to you the exact balance so yes adding that little bit more on does alleviate that stress you know that you've

transferred the funds we're holding them ready to go and then we just refund any balance back to your account. Yeah, no, and it's worked extremely well for the, I mean, it's become part of the way we do business now. We automatically make sure the clients are putting a little bit of comfort money in there to cover any unforeseens or variations in some of those costs so it doesn't then create a no-go exercise on a very important day. One of the other things that I wouldn't mind just touching on as well, again, it's something that I learned from you some time back, where you've got a number of parties, and they might be related or unrelated, that are looking to buy a property that they're going to demolish and subdivide into a number of titles with

the intention that each of them, let's say there's four parties and there's four blocks, once it's re-subdivided, each party is going to get a title. You taught me something years ago where to avoid again stamp duty change of ownership from all four to the individuals once those titles are created if if there's a document put in place uh at the pre-purchase then that actually uh waives the stamp duty can you can you sort of elaborate on that a bit yes absolutely so uh we've got clients who are purchasing the property and their intent is to uh divide that property and for each of them um to own a lot each um so as you say like four uh four parties four friends purchasing they're going to divide it into four lots and all end up owning one lot each

and so um when they purchase the property all four of their names are on that that title as owners and then when the property's divided into the four lots, they all then are the owners of each lot and then if we were to then transfer each lot from four names into one individual, there would be stamp duty payable on the current value of each lot and the percentage of ownership that's being transferred. So I remember having that conversation with you a few years ago

and suggesting that in that circumstance that before they actually signed the purchase contract, if they signed a joint venture agreement to say, or a friend signed to say, this is our intent, we are purchasing this property and our intent is to divide it and provide like a basic plan of that division and our intent is for each of us to hold one individual or a lot than each.

and the important part of it is that it's signed and it's dated and it's stamped. So we stamp that document with Revenue SA before the date of the purchase contract. And so that then puts Revenue SA on notice that this was their intent right from the start. And so then, yeah, at the point in time where we're dividing and transferring the allotments,

we would then refer back to that original agreement to avoid the stamp duty being paid. And again, we're not talking dollars and cents, we're talking thousands of dollars here. Thousands of dollars, absolutely. So it's a very significant saving just by being careful around signalling and documenting the intent, which, as you say, needs to be signed, dated and stamped with Revenue USA

so they're aware of that actually before the purchase goes through. Now, that's awesome. Any other sort of learnings of a similar nature around what we've talked about that the listeners should be aware of, do you think, Sam? Well, I think calling your conveyancer as early on in the process as possible is so, so important. and it may be that, you know, we can just advise you that the way you're proceeding is all fine and great

and, you know, to let us know when the contract's signed and we'll look it over at that point. But calling us before you've signed that contract when you are looking at something perhaps a little bit out of the ordinary and looking at what your intentions are for that property can certainly save you a lot of grief, a lot of money and just getting that contract right from the start to ensure that it protects you.

So, you know, and that's just part of our service. There's no additional fee for that. Our role is to guide you and advise you and make sure that you're protected. So that is part of our role. So, yeah, utilise that. That's what we love. We love having that knowledge to help you through that transaction and hopefully save you some stress and some grief and money.

Yeah, and it's money not up front either. It's often money that comes down the track. As I often say to people, a contract is a document to an unknown judge. So I always assume the worst and then expect the best. And what you've got to think about is if the wheels fall off and it ends up in a judge's hands, is this contract going to protect me or not? And if you're not spending any time thinking about that

and you're not getting someone who understands contracts and can advise you on that, you're actually exposing yourself to very significant risk. So I can't emphasise enough how important that is. One final thing before I jump into the ambush round, Sam. title insurance now i know uh yourself and good conveyances offer title insurance a lot of people scratch their head around you know what is it is it worth it and what are the risks and you quickly just sort of give us a a quick rundown on uh what it is and why you think it's worth considering

absolutely so title insurance is uh is different from your building insurance and we advise every single purchaser that this is available to them and it's not compulsory it is entirely up to the purchaser whether they choose to take the insurance out however it's it's so valuable it other unlike any other insurance you're not paying every year you pay just once at settlement so you pay once and that could be depending it it's calculated on your purchase price but from about for a unit $380 upwards so a standard house sort of around $450,000 say would be about $485 fee for title insurance so you pay it just that once and it'll cover you the whole time that you are the owner of that property so if you own it for two years or 10 years you're covered and it'll

cover you for any issues that come up with the boundary so if you know you've settled you purchased the property and settled and six months later the neighbour comes knocking and says I think the fences are in the wrong spot or perhaps the neighbours built a structure that's encroaching on your boundary or something on your property's previously been built that's encroaching on the neighbour's property that would be covered and it will also cover if the council came knocking and said we've noticed a structure on your property that didn't get council approval that should have by the previous owner so that's covered so they're all very costly things if they do come up if if the council came knocking and said the big pergola veranda out the back didn't

have council approval um uh then you'd have to put in an application with the council in retrospect um for approval they may came back come back and say you need to modify it or you need to take it down and rebuild it um so all of that is covered under the title insurance if you have to move fences um which is um move fences or the more costly option of having to change boundaries if structures have been built and they can't physically be moved and you have to change um boundaries on on two titles very costly so all of that's covered under that insurance um we also had a client who bought some some land uh to build their dream home and And it was then found out after settlement.

They did take out the title insurance policy, thank goodness. It was found that there was an easement right through the middle of the block which was not noted on the title in any of the searches and they weren't able to build the house that they wanted. And so that was covered under this insurance. So for a one-off fee, yeah, it certainly is a lot of protection. It's like conveyances fees, cheap when you look at the value of it. It actually protects you in the process there, Sam.

Thanks for talking that through because it's something that gets raised and I don't think people, one, know it exists and, two, know what it does. And any of those things, and believe you me, boundary variances, encroachments with, you know, sheds, pergolas, you know, overbuilt, overhanging or structures on a property that haven't been approved by council like sheds, like pergolas, like any of those sort of, It's actually very common. So worth protecting yourself in that advent to make sure that you're not going to be out of pocket if and when that gets unraveled at any time while you own the

property. So that's pretty cheap insurance to reduce that risk. Awesome. Okay. Now, I want to jump into what I call the ambush round, Sam, which are the five quick questions that all the listeners love to glean your words of wisdom on and the first of those is what's your favorite quote and why my favorite quote is the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek joseph campbell it's one of my favorites i love that yes oh really and and i i read it it was only probably 18 months ago and i found it and i went yes so all the the big steps that i've taken have all started with fear um but i've all led to something wonderful um and and that's how as i've said i always look back at things that i've done and how scary they were but what they've led to and so i love that

quote it's a cracker i've uh i use it in one of my i did a keynote presentation last year and that was the close of the presentation was that quote to inspire people because you're absolutely right. The cave you fear to enter holds a treasure you seek. It is an absolute cracker. What about on the literary front? What's the top book that you'd recommend people read and why, Sue? I love, love reading.

And I love stories of, you know, real people's stories that are inspiring and hearing, you know, what they've gone through and how they've dealt with it and overcome it and what they've gone on to do. So, to repeat, I love her books. And the first one she wrote, Everything to Live For, I just found that so inspiring to hear her story of what she went through when she was caught in the grass fire

when she was doing that marathon. And the burns to a majority of her body and what she's just gone on to do and the mindset that she would need to get past that and to continue to grow and live the life that she is and smash her goals and her dreams. Yeah, I just love that. That gives me goosebumps. Amazing story.

Just incredible courage and persistence to go through what she did, Just to live through it to start with, but then to go on to do what she's done is, yeah, really, really motivational. Totally agree. Different subject, but one that a lot of Australians feel that they pay too much tax. What's the top legal thing that you've done to minimise the tax that you pay, Sarah? i i would have to say um finding a fantastic accountant has probably been the well it has been the most valuable thing that i've done to um and just looking at uh the entities that i have and the structure uh and making sure that they're all set up correct uh is it just makes such a

difference and, you know, having that person who has that knowledge to advise you and look at, yeah, your structure and what you can do to change that to minimise tax. Yeah. It's invaluable. Totally agree. It's experts for experts and oils own oils. There's good and bad conferences, good and bad accounts and there's good and bad finance brokers.

Make sure you get a good one in every case. Yeah, love that. But what's the – coming back to the investment topic for a minute, what's both the worst and the best piece of investment advice that you've ever received to date? Worst investment advice, I couldn't think of something specific, but I think it's more about playing it safe. You know, all the naysayers over the years,

no, don't look at doing that. No, just your comfort zone and play it safe. You know, I'm certainly not a huge risk taker, but, you know, I calculated this and, yeah, so I would say that's the worst investment advice. Best investment advice has been to pay myself first. And, oh, my goodness, I wish I had known this in my 20s and been doing it for all these years, but to always pay myself first.

So when I get paid, automatically a percentage of that goes out of my account. I don't see it and it's just accumulating to then invest. So, you know, paying yourself at a minimum 10% of your wage and looking at it like it's a tax. You know, if the government suddenly put on a new tax and you had to pay it, you just, you know, adapt. And so, yeah, just paying yourself first has been huge.

Yeah, I love it. That's a really good one. It's simple to do, but simple not to do, and most people don't. So it's powerful in relation to the position that you can put you in if you do it early enough and just, as you say, allow it to accumulate. Now, I love that. Back on the personal subject, and you've done a lot of personal development, what's a personal habit that you believe contributes most to your success to date, Sam?

A personal habit is meditation. and I've, you know, on and off meditated but it's being consistent with it that has made such a huge difference and that's probably been in the last eight months. So each morning just taking that 10 minutes to meditate and focus my mind and set my intent for the day. So, you know, at least two things that I want to accomplish that day because I find that once I get out and, you know,

into the office, there's so much to draw your attention. There's emails and phone calls and staff. And so just having that intent because I was finding I was just getting through the day and feeling like I hadn't got to what I wanted to do and accomplish. So if I get to the end of the day and I've completed those two things it feels great yeah love it love it i'm exactly the same and i i i there's i do three things a day that i must must do but i but part of the meditation i i

imagine them going really well and so i actually put a very positive intent on those whatever those things are during the day those events or those things i need to do going extremely well it's amazing how often that that that occurs so yeah visualizing them already done yeah yeah it's powerful it's very powerful it's again 10 minutes doesn't take long and not many make that time but you make that time and you you watch the difference so it's great to hear you getting those sort of results as well sam sam final question and it's a big question if i gave you a microphone that spoke to every single one of the 7.7 billion people in the world that are alive today, and I gave you one minute to talk,

what would you say? I would say every day take a moment and think of three things that you're grateful for, write them down, I mean, really focus on them and be grateful. It's very hard to be angry, to be sad, to be upset when you're feeling grateful. And so taking that moment, be grateful for three things and think what's limiting you and what's beyond that

and looking at something bigger and making those small steps towards it. So breaking it down and making small steps every day. so that it's not so overwhelming. Well, I think you're living evidence of exactly what you've spoken about there, Sam. You've achieved great things by breaking it down and then just working your way through it. And clearly there's some gratitude that's attached to helping you to get there. I really appreciate you spending some time with us today.

What's next for you and Tuckfields as we close? Well, it's been just over 12 months since I purchased Tuckfields and it's been a whirlwind 12 months. There's been a lot happened, and it's been such a huge learning curve for me. And so I'm really feeling excited and looking forward to the next year of actually stepping out more

and embracing what I'm taking on and showing myself more and getting out and seeing people and becoming the face of Tuckfields and doing a lot more promotion and really embracing it because I feel like I've sort of been stuck in my head for 12 months of learning and just go, go, go and do, do, do. Of course.

To get a lot done. So I'm very excited about that and looking to employ a new team member down at the Morfitt Vial office and, yeah, there's lots of exciting things. Love that. So if you're in Adelaide and you're looking for conveyancing, you can't go past Tuckfield. So I can personally vouch if there are listeners who have a need now or are likely to, how can they get in touch with us, Sam? they can call so we've got the office at Vale Park which is 8344

8344 3448 sorry or Morford Vale 8326 5294 or our website tuckfields.com.au or email me at sam at tuckfields.com.au

brilliant look you've been very generous with your time and shared some great learnings today that I know the listeners who are contemplating or going to get involved in property will take a lot of gold out of what you've shared today. And it really does reinforce just how important a role a conveyancer does play.

So we really appreciate you sharing your knowledge and wisdom today, Sam, and look forward to keeping in touch. Thank you, Bushy. I really appreciate your time. Thanks, Sam. Talk soon. Thanks.

See you then. Bye-bye. Bye. Well, Freedom Fighters, how good was that? To get a summary of all this investment gold in the show notes, just email me on hello at khgroup.com.au. It's H-E-L-L-O at khgroup.com.au. Or check us out at www.bushymartin.com.au forward slash getinvested.

I look forward to joining you next week for another episode of the Get Invested podcast. so thanks for listening and as always dream as if you live forever and live as if you die tomorrow