Having the best team behind you makes a world of difference when it comes to property investing. While it pays to be well informed, it is almost impossible to know it all. This is where your team comes in.
Having the right people that not only have the knowledge to help you succeed but have a clear understanding of your circumstances – where you are and where you want to be, is crucial to any success.
The people you need on your team include (in no particular order):
- Accountant – Make sure they know about property and all the tax implications around property. If they themselves are investors then fantastic. Find the right accountant and they can provide you with a wealth of knowledge and advice to make investing a breeze. Find the wrong accountant and you may well be missing out on valuable deductions and educating them on how the process works.
- Financial Planner – While an accountant takes care of your money year to year, a financial planner takes care of your money over a longer term. Financial planners can advise on investment strategies, superannuation, income protection, life insurance etc. From experience it has been hard to find a financial planner who is also a property investor, and most will try to steer you towards investing in managed fund.
- Solicitor / Conveyancer – Having thorough legal advice is important to make sure you are covered not just when everything goes right, but also when things go wrong. Very important when it comes to joint ventures or options. Your solicitor / conveyancer ideally should specialise in property investing.
- Finance Broker – A good mortgage broker will help you out in finding the best mortgage deals and how to structure your loans. A good broker will also be up to date with the current lending criteria and will be able to work through with you your current situation and the best plan of attack to get you where you want to be.
- Town Planner – Found a good site where you think you can add value by developing? Having a good town planner on board can mean the difference between a good deal and a great deal. A good town planner will not only know the rules and regulations for your site but also what relaxations or design changes could work in your favour to increase the site usability and your bottom line.
- Life Partner – Having your partner on side and supportive of your growth goals can make the world of difference. Even if they are not as active in finding and researching the properties as you are, just having someone who you can bounce ideas and thoughts off can make life a lot easier. If you are both committing to a property financially, you both need to be confident in the decisions you make.
- Property Mentor – A property mentor can really make the difference when you are not sure about deals. They are particularly handy when you are just starting out to give you ideas and suggestions on what to look out for or what you may have missed. A property mentor can be anyone from a support group (like Chicks and Mortar) or a 1 on 1 coach who is either a buyers agent or buyers advocate.
Remember, you are not an island. No one has ever achieved great things alone. All great people have a team working in the background to help make them great.
Now find your team, go out there and be great!
Until next time…
