Bryan Loughnann from Propertyology tells a success story about Callan who, as a young person, had a rocky start to his investment journey when he stumbled across a ‘spruker’.  He has since recovered and is happy to share his experience.
Transcript:
Kevin:   Our success story in the show this week is all about a Melbournian by the name of Callan, who was very dedicated to the idea of property investment from a very tender age – in his teenage years, actually.
In fact, he was so keen to get started on the property ladder, that he saved about 30% of his wage when he was an apprentice electrician, diligently putting away about $100 a week. He watched it grow over the years.
By the time Callan was 23, he was ready to buy his first property, but he does admit that his desire to buy outweighed his knowledge. We’re going to get a little bit more information about that now from the man who helped him through that journey, Bryan Loughnan from Propertyology.
Good day, Bryan. How are you?
Bryan:  Good Kevin. How are you?
Kevin:  It must be inspirational to work with young people like Callan and see how they’re willing to make those sacrifices in the early days to get on to the property ladder.
Bryan:  Absolutely. It’s always good working with anyone who’s interested in getting in the property market, Kevin, but yes, someone as young as Callan it’s great to see.
Kevin:  Did he find it confusing doing the research and understanding what he needed to know? Because I said in the introduction there that his desire outweighed his knowledge.
Bryan:  Yes. I suppose fortunately or unfortunately, Callan actually put his toe in the water for the property market before he came and met us and secured an off-the-plan property, an apartment in Melbourne. He felt he went a little astray with that and was led a little astray with that.
He then started getting a little bit more involved in the research or trying to understand it, and that’s when he came across us and we got involved with his second property.
Kevin:  We’ll deal with his second property in a moment. What did he find? What were the pitfalls of buying new like that off the plan?
Bryan:  I think he just felt that he was sold to. I don’t know the exact details of who he was dealing with, but he certainly told us that he felt very much like he was being sold to by a spruiker of sorts and felt he paid a premium for a property that may or may not turn out to be a great investment down the track.
Kevin:  Does he still own that property?
Bryan:  He does, yes.
Kevin:  What’s his intention with that? Is he going to have to hold it for a little bit longer?
Bryan:  Yes, he’s going to hold that for now. I think as we can all see, that apartment market in Melbourne is one that is certainly has quite a bit of supply in the market at the moment, but he understands that it’s a long-term asset class property, so he’s happy to hold on to that one for now.
Kevin:  Yes, when you buy like that, longer term that sometimes is necessary. I think, too, we have to realize that quite often these intermediaries stand to profit quite a lot, anything up to $50,000, which is really added to the purchase price.
Bryan:  Absolutely. The developers aren’t giving those sort of rebates, $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, as you said, up to $50,000, they’re not doing that out of their back pocket. That often gets added on to the purchase price. And you combine that with just because you’re buying brand new, everything is going to be shiny and everything is new, so you’re not going to pay a premium anyway. You add that on top and it takes a long time to recoup some of those costs.
Kevin:  Let’s take us into looking into what Callan did from there. He understood that he made that mistake; he’s holding on to it. Where did you take him to from there, Bryan?
Bryan:  We spent a lot of time with Callan. I suppose we had to regain his confidence to some degree. He had felt like he was misled initially. So, we did spend a lot of time with Callan getting him to understand why actually drives a property market and what was he trying to achieve and talking him through that. That’s a big part of what we did with Callan.
Kevin:  Of course, Propertyology – and we’ve discussed this with Simon Pressley in the past – great believers… You were the first people to tip that Tasmanian market – more particularly, the Hobart market – as being one to watch.
It’s interesting; I did an interview just this week and they’re still tipping that Hobart is the market is to go to, but you guys were there a couple of years ago.
Bryan:  Absolutely. I was talking about this with Simon previously, but we started buying in Hobart about four years ago. Callan was probably one of our first clients who we assisted in the Hobart market. He’s had the benefit of the full upswing that we’ve seen over the last couple of years, which is really exciting for him, and I have no doubt that his property that we purchased for around the $370,000 mark or maybe a little bit under that has probably already seen about 20% to 25% growth over that period of time.
Kevin:  So, from there, what’s his strategy for the future, Bryan?
Bryan:  Callan spent quite a bit of time overseas in the last 12 months, so has probably put his next investment on hold for a little while, Callan is still young. He’s in his mid to late 20s, so he wants to continue buying. He ideally would love to build an asset portfolio over the next 10 to 15 years, which might see him exit the workforce by the time he’s 40 or in his mid-40s.
Kevin:  I know it’s a very scary prospect for a lot of people who are looking to get into the property market, particularly young people, they look at the Sydney and Melbourne markets, which are really very, very expensive, but there are good regional opportunities, aren’t there, Bryan?
Bryan:  Absolutely. If you actually break down the average property price across Australia and then you look outside of those major capital cities, there are a lot of people who live in major regional centers. And we’re not talking about 5000 population, mining dustbowls in Western Queensland here, Kevin; we’re talking about major regional centers.
People who live in those areas actually think those of us who live in capital cities and sit in traffic for an hour or two each morning and each afternoon, they think we’re the crazy ones. There are plenty of opportunities out there, and markets that over time, history has shown have performed very strongly, if not stronger than some of the capital cities.
Kevin:  Bryan, great talking to you. Congratulations on the work that you’re doing. I’m sure that Callan will be joining me in thanking you as well.
Bryan Loughnan has been my guest. Bryan is the head of Property Acquisitions at Propertyology. You can contact him by using the link on any one of the pages right here on Real Estate Talk and also having a look at their featured channel.
Good on you, Bryan, and we’ll talk to you again soon. Thanks, mate.
Bryan:  Thanks, Kevin.