Highlights from this week:
- How a transport construction project in WA will impact the market there.
- How much can you manipulate or influence a bank valuation.
- Everything you need to know about renovation
- How money CAN make you happy
- Where to buy in the USA to get great returns
Transcripts:
Getting the best bank valuation – Andrew Mirams
Kevin: Just how much can you manipulate or influence a bank valuation? My thinking was always very little, but maybe not. How can you actually get the best bank valuation?
Andrew Mirams, I want to ask you that question. Andrew is of course a regular contributor and also from Intuitive Finance.
Andrew, is it possible to manipulate a bank valuation? And how do you go about getting the best one?
Andrew: Hi, Kevin. Yes, great question. I’m not sure “manipulate” is quite the right word, but certainly, to get the best outcome and try to manage to get the best outcome. There’s a whole range of tips and tactics you can use and employ. Some of them are going to sound pretty similar and pretty basic, but it’s often the little things that matter when it comes to just getting the right result.
Kevin: I think I’ve come up with a better word than “manipulate,” because you’re right, it’s not the best word. But “influence” is probably a better word. Let’s go with that word, “influence.” So, how do we go about doing it? What are some of the tips you’ve got?
Andrew: Okay. The first one… And again, like I said, it’s going to sound silly, but just be nice to the valuer. They cop a raw deal from time to time, and everyone says they’re always conservative. But the reality is valuers are often out on the road, battling traffic, being in and out of houses all day. They might do anywhere between four and eight valuations in a day.
The harder you make it for them and the less helpful you are in terms of booking in and helping them with their schedule, it’s just those little things. It’s a natural thing that we all have feelings, so just try to be a little bit nicer to them right from the outset. It just doesn’t hurt. It’s not going to necessarily help, but it certainly won’t hurt.
Then when they get there, you know the old saying, first impressions last? Just clean the place up. Mow the lawns, tidy the garden. You basically want to have your house or property as if you’re going to sell it, so as if it’s going to go to auction tomorrow and you’re trying to impress all those buyers out there.
So, tidy things up. Neat entry, vacuum, clean. Don’t leave dishes in the sink. Don’t leave clothes lying around. Just make sure the bedrooms are made up and the beds are made. Because I can tell you the amount of valuations we get back when a figure will come in a little bit lower, and guess what the photos show? All of those things. They’ll highlight the things that don’t quite look right.
Similarly, when it looks spotless and immaculate, the photos look fantastic and it’s easy to get a much better result. So, again, a couple of little basic things.
The next one now is if you’re preparing or trying to improve your property, a lick of paint and things like that, and just having your kitchen and your bathroom up to date. You don’t have to spend a lot of money. If you’re preparing for a sale or you’re trying to do a cosmetic renovation, go to where it matters.
A lick of paint on the outside will look fantastic, the house looks brand new. And the kitchen and the bathroom, it might be just a new splash back, something simple like updating your tapware. And similar in the bathroom, you don’t have to completely gut it and redo it; just make it look modern, clean, and functional.
Another great one is lighting. If you think about the lighting in all sorts of properties, they all have different aspects. So, in the southern states, as we enter our winter months, lighting is really key – the natural light you can attract and things like that. In the northern states where it’s light, then it’s probably getting the right light and not being too warm.
And a little thing, like just in the southern states, having a fire on and burning and just trying to add to the ambiance of the property can make an incredible difference to just the warmth of the place and the feeling as a valuer walks in.
Remember, again, they are human, they do have feelings. Some people might argue that, but I know a lot of valuers, and they’re looking for the way that they can give you the best outcome.
The other thing, and the final thing, I think the most important thing is just be realistic. Valuers aren’t market makers; they’re market assessors. So, do your homework, get some comparables, have an idea.
And the comparable is not the mansion at the end of the street that compares to your one-bedroom apartment; a comparable is if your house is a three-bedroom house, get some local sales data. Just do some research and then be realistic – not what you think you might get if you’re going to resell, but where does it sit in with the rest of the other options there, Kevin?
I think that being realistic is a really important thing, because often, people will put a really high figure on their property because they say valuers are always conservative, and what we often see is they’re so far removed that it can come in at a much worse result.
Kevin: You make some very valid points. I want to ask one or two very quick questions. You’ve answered one of them, and that is about supporting material. Is it okay if I do some research on my property and get a bit of understanding, keep my feet on the ground? If I say to the valuer, “Look, I’ve had a look around. These are some recent sales. How do you think mine compares to this? Are they comparable?” In other words, ask his opinion. Is that acceptable?
Andrew: Absolutely. One of the first things we’ll do is we always ask our clients is “What do you think your property is worth?” And the reality is some people genuinely don’t know. It doesn’t matter that much to some until we’re going to do a refinance or we need to look at the equity or they want to buy another property or are looking to sell.
So, if they don’t know, we’ll often recommend they get in touch with a local agent and just ask them to give you an appraisal, but also backed up by three comparable sales. So, it’s not just an arbitrary figure thrown up in the air, pie in the sky stuff, but let’s try and get some comparables that actually give a realistic figure to what we think the property may or may not be worth.
The figures that an agent might say and a valuer might give you will always normally be different, because agents are on the ground day to day; they know exactly what the market is doing and what that assessed value is. Valuers actually assess sometimes about 3 to 12 months in arrears because they’re actually looking at the analytical data, not what’s happening right now today.
Kevin: Yes. I always say that valuers tend to look backwards, they look at the history, whereas real estate agents become a little bit more ambitious and probably think about where the market is headed, so that’s why you get that big difference.
Andrew: Absolutely, because the valuer’s job is to look at fair market value, not what they think you might get a premium at.
Kevin: That’s right, exactly. Mate, can I ask you one other quick question? Say the valuer turns up, we offer them a cup of tea or coffee or whatever – which I think would be a nice thing to do – and then you say, “Look, I have a few things I’d like to quickly talk to you about. I can do that at the end or at the start.” So, set the agenda. But when they’re doing their work, leave them alone. Don’t follow them around, because I find a lot of valuers get very upset when they have someone looking over their shoulder all the time. Fair comment?
Andrew: Yes, great point, Kevin. They’re there to do a job, not to make a new best friend. So, just being courteous and offering them a cup of tea, a coffee, or water or whatever it might be is absolutely not going to hurt your cause, but their job then is to walk around your property, take some measurements, take some photos, and be able to get a feel for its fair market value in the current market. So, yes, I think that’s a great point.
Kevin: Excellent. Always great talking to you. Andrew Mirams from Intuitive Finance. We’ll catch you again soon, mate.
Andrew: Pleasure. Thanks, Kevin.
Making money through renovation – Jane Slack-Smith
Kevin: Well, the good news is that if you want to get into renovation, the opportunity is there for you right now because the cart with the Jane Slack-Smith has just opened. Enrolments are open up until the 15th of June. Jane joins me to talk about it right now – Jane Slack-Smith.
Jane, thanks for your time.
Jane: Pleasure, Kevin.
Kevin: You’ve been doing this for a few years now, teaching people about renovations. And I’ll tell you in just a moment how you can get to enroll in Jane’s special course. But, Jane, the question I’ve got for you is, is renovation still relevant in this market?
Jane: Actually, Kevin, it’s funny you should mention that because I was looking at interviews that I’ve done over the last five years and since we’ve been running the Ultimate Guide to Renovation, and I’m always asked “Is renovation still relevant?”
I went back to when it was “Oh, the market has just started going up in 2014. Is it relevant?” “The mining boom’s about to come off,” and “Has the market picked since 2016?” and “With the lender changes in 2016, is renovation relevant?”
The beauty about this strategy is that it is timeless through all markets, and it’s almost the meat and potatoes of a good property investment. In uncertain times, I think more so we see it’s not a time to buy and sell, it’s a time to buy and hold, and it’s about manufacturing the equity that you have, and a beautiful way to do it is through renovation.
Kevin: Well, if it was that easy, where do people go wrong, Jane?
Jane: I think it really starts with the location. People don’t understand that you need to have a really good quality suburb with the right dynamics and have the right targeted property for that suburb, for the demographics of that suburb, but also then you’re having the pricing disparity between renovated and un-renovated property.
It all starts with the location and getting that right, and as the tide goes out, there are going to be a lot of people who are going look exposed because they’ve been gliding along on this great Mecca that we’ve had during a period of time, and it’s the ones who have the good quality suburb selection done and then the good quality properties within those suburbs that are going to be the winners over the next few years.
Kevin: Is there a magic formula? Is there a checklist or something we can do to help us make sure that we get the right area and the right property, Jane?
Jane: I spent a lot of time thinking about this over the years, and I’ve come down to like 30 filters where I’ve almost back-engineered quality suburbs that have performed the test of time, and some of it is just really obvious.
If you’re going to have a buy-and-hold strategy, it’s about where the renters want to live. So I have a fundamental cut-off; I want to have over 30% renters in the area. It’s about having the typical properties, so not having a one-bedroom unit where everyone wants a three-bedroom house.
They’re some of the criteria. But I also look at past growth, I look at gentrification, infrastructure, household income. I have a real fixed filter system that I use and in actual fact, in the Ultimate Guide to Renovation, the Suburb Selector software that comes with that covers over 10,000 suburbs, and we have the information that’s coming through that monthly and updated. So, people can easily do that analysis and work out where they can afford and the suburbs that actually have those criteria.
Kevin: How do we get a hold of that list?
Jane: It’s about you’re own buying criteria. You might be able to afford a $500,000 property, Kevin, while I can afford a $350,000 property. So, it really starts with understanding what your criteria is and then coming down to that filtering system and doing the analysis on the suburbs, coming up to three to five suburbs, and then taking it a step further and finding out what streets in the suburbs are where the renters want to be, then the typical property.
In actual fact you can get down to property on the market at the moment with the current software and obviously our Suburb Selector software, within a day, you can really pull that out, which is fabulous. I know people spend months trying to find properties.
Kevin: Here’s a tip for you. Grab your pen because if you’d like to learn a little bit more about this, the website to go to is FreeRenoEvent.com.au or just use the link on the home page at RealEstateTalk.com.au. That’s opened only for one week, though, until the 15th of June.
Jane: That’s right. Yes, obviously, as we said, the location of property is important, having the renovation ability to make money and manufacturing equity, we get the chance to push the rents up, which is great – it costs us less to hold the property – but actually finding the right property is important as well.
So, if people go to that FreeRenoEvent.com.au website, they can actually see a video series that we’ve been running for the last couple of weeks, and the very first one is download the checklist that we have there and you can apply it to your own property inspections, but follow me on that property inspection and look at what I’m looking at and the things that would really trigger some problems.
There’s a great video series there that’s up until the 15th of June, and as you said, we’re open for enrolments for just a week until the 15th of June, and then we close shop and we bunker down, and we help all our students get to their success goals.
Kevin: The website again is called FreeRenoEvent.com.au or use the link on the homepage at RealEstateTalk.com.au, but you only have until the 15th of June to get in. You can get that information that we’ve been talking about today and also understand how you can get into renovation and make it work for you – the strategy that will work for you today.
Jane Slack-Smith, thank you so much for your time.
Jane: It’s an absolute pleasure. Thank you, Kevin.
How money CAN make you happy – Michael Yardney
Kevin: I remember growing up and hearing my parents talk about things like “Well, it’s not all about money,” and how filthy money is and “Money can’t make you happy,” and all that kind of stuff. I guess that’s all about conditioning, and it’s something that we’ve talked about in this show quite a few times, and that is the conditioning from your parents structuring you later in life.
“Five Ways That Money Can Make You Happy” is an article that’s been written by Michael Yardney, who joins me as a guest.
Good day, Michael. How are you?
Michael: Hello, Kevin. And you’re right; we were all told those funny things about money when we were young that makes us have mixed messages about money. I think we all recognize that you need much more than just money to make you truly wealthy. You need health, you need friends, you need spirituality, you need to be able to give back to the community, but a study has recently shown that, in fact, money can make you happier.
And Kevin, if it doesn’t, then you’re probably not spending it right.
Kevin: That’s the point, isn’t it? It’s not so much having the money; it’s actually how you use the money that’s going to make you happy. Is that fair?
Michael: Yes, it is, Kevin. That’s right.
Kevin: Let’s have a look at the five ways that money can make you happy, Michael.
Michael: This study found that the key to making you happy when you spend money is to understand the importance of spending it on things that make you happy as opposed to on things that don’t. Can we go through a couple of those things, please?
Kevin: Yes, please do.
Michael: The first one was buy more small things. Human psychology means that we tend to adapt so well to the stuff we buy that even making a big material purchase doesn’t always have long-lasting effects, but it also means the difference between buying something really big or making a small one interestingly is minimal and you can get lots of multiple pleasures for the cost of one big one.
I found that quite interesting, Kevin. It means you don’t need lots of money to buy one big thing when you can afford smaller things to make you happier and enjoy the journey along the way.
Kevin: Interesting, Michael. In a recent podcast, you and I talked about some of the lessons we can learn from Donald Trump, and I do recall a lot of that was all about how he uses money. He also looks at things like experience, and that was, I think, lesson number two about money making you happy. Is that right?
Michael: You’re right, Kevin. Research has found that people reported greater happiness when reflecting on an experience rather than buying something physical or material. The reason is that we tend to adapt to physical, material things quickly, so buying a shiny new toy will bring you some happiness in the moment, but after a day or two, sometimes it becomes an everyday item that we use.
In contrast, an experience takes you out of the everyday, and if you do it right, it actually can leave a lasting impression, something that makes you feel good for a long time. Imagine that trip that you did to Auckland skiing or something like that. That leaves a lasting impression, Kevin.
Kevin: Actually, you’d find it very hard to ski in Auckland, I think.
Michael: I realized that as I said it. It’s Queenstown everyone goes to skiing in New Zealand. You’re right.
Kevin: Sorry to correct you on that one. I couldn’t let that one go by, I’m afraid.
Michael, right at the front, we talked about it’s how you use the money. Is spending it on other people one of the ways to make you happy?
Michael: That’s right. You’re right, Kevin. We’re social beings. We appreciate and enjoy quality relationships and so therefore, spending it on others, on your loved ones, will also make you happy as well as them. That’s a nice way to do it.
Kevin: I know that you love to travel. I love to travel, as well. One of the things that I really enjoy is the planning process. If I’m going to go away on a trip, to know that we’re going to do it in six months’ time, just the excitement of that event coming up is another way that money can make you happy, Michael.
Michael: Exactly right. It’s actually looking forward to and anticipating something in the future. There have been lots of studies talking about delayed gratification, and it’s clear that those people who know how to delay gratification for the future are successful in all elements of their life.
In other words, they don’t spend all their money today; they know how to save and eventually then maybe buy the investment property or in this context that we’re talking about today, maybe they’ve just saved to be able to have that holiday six months down the track.
We think it’s going to make us happy having satisfaction right now, but in actuality that’s not true, Kevin. We tend to be happier when we’re eagerly awaiting something.
Kevin: And the final point, Michael?
Michael: Many people have big dreams – they want to buy a big house or have a big property portfolio – but if you keep wanting those and forget enjoying your day-to-day little successes, wins, the happy times, you’re going to miss out on the big picture. So, treat it one day at a time.
To be really wealthy, you have to feel grateful for what you have today. If you’re happy and grateful for the things around you – we’re living in the best country in the world at the best time in history to do that, and we have somebody to love and somebody who loves us – then you are a very wealthy person already, Kevin.
Kevin: I guess the bottom line, Michael, is that wealth alone is not going to provide you with a guarantee of a good life; what really matters a lot more than a big income is actually how you spend it, how you use that money.
Michael: Very correct, Kevin. It’s an interesting concept.
Kevin: Wonderful stuff. Michael Yardney from Metropole Property Strategists. A bit of a different take for you but how you can use money to make you happy.
Thanks for your time, Michael.
Michael: My pleasure, Kevin.
Where to buy and where NOT to buy in the USA – Steve Earl
Kevin: How often have you heard those horror stories about buying overseas, buying American property? We do know that there is some very, very good buying, but selection criteria becomes absolutely critical: who you deal with, what sort of property you buy, where you buy it, and how it’s going to be managed after you bought it.
Well, we might have the answer for you, because joining me now to talk about this, Steve Earl who has a company DoneForYouRealEstateUSA.com. That’s the website and a lot of great information there for you, too.
Steve, thank you for joining us in the show. You and I had a chat off air. You answered a lot of my questions, which we’re going to go into a little bit more detail now, but thank you very much for joining us.
Steve, the first question I want to ask you about is American real estate: is it still suffering like it was we heard a few years ago?
Steve: As you know there is a big crash in 2008–2009, and generally speaking across the U.S., the market has recovered significantly. Many of the hardest hit areas, like Arizona and Nevada, have actually recovered almost to their pre-crash levels. And then generally across the U.S., things have improved significantly to where the real estate market is in more of the normal part of the cycle right now. So, there’s been quite a recovery over the last six, seven years.
Kevin: Well, that’s good news. We did hear some horror stories. I think it was Detroit where we were seeing a lot of property being advertised or promoted as being very, very cheap. Is that still the case?
Steve: There’s still some of that going on, for sure. There are some groups that are still selling those types of properties, and I’d even suggest to unsuspecting individuals. I’m actually very familiar with those horror stories because back in the day, I purchased many of them. So, I also experienced and learned the hard way, some of those horror stories.
But in the end, it was a good experience that lent itself to myself and my company and the way that we now rolled out our company in such a way that we can help others avoid those types of real significant problems.
Kevin: Tell me a little bit about your company. How does it work, and what areas do you focus on? And how can we, as consumers, say, from another country, be sure that we are not buying a lemon?
Steve: Yes, super critical. As you I’m sure know and your many listeners probably know as well, real estate is very geographically centric – meaning it’s pretty tough to buy outside of your own backyard and be confident that what you’re buying is really good real estate, all the way from knowing that it’s good real estate to how do you find it, how do you manage it, how do you make sure that it’s going to produce a profit for you?
And so as a company, there are a couple of things that we have done to take geography out of the equation and to add a big component of predictability and consistency to the outcome.
Kevin: Could you tell us a bit how that works then?
Steve: The way that that works is we setup a system such that as a company, we’ve identified five different markets in the U.S. that we feel like a really good markets, and our philosophy is based on creating cash flow. Then we take advantage of equity growth when it presents itself. But the key is cash flow.
So we’ve identified by really good markets… There are more than five good markets in the U.S., but we’ve chosen five markets, principally Indiana, Tennessee, Florida, Charlotte, North Carolina. And then we’re also in Arizona and Nevada; we don’t buy so much in those two markets anymore.
We, as a company, we actually go in. We typically buy the properties at auction, we rehab them and get them ready to place a tenant, and then we resell those to our customers. But we have a very specific criteria for our properties.
We don’t buy any low-income housing. We don’t buy luxury-type properties. We don’t do multi-family housing. We do strictly single-family homes in middle-income neighborhoods. The properties that we purchase are median-priced homes – three bed, two bath, two-car-garage type properties.
We do that with a very specific reason, and the reason being that we want the largest group of people to be able to rent those properties to and then in the future to be able to resell those properties, too.
That’s why we stay in that median-home-priced area, and that’s a formula that has worked very well for us over the last eight, nine years. We’ve helped our clients purchase more than 3500 properties. We currently have about 2200 properties under management.
Kevin: A very sound formula and one that sounds very, very familiar to me. So, as I understand it, you buy the property, you rehab it, you then put a tenant in, and then you on-sell it, so we know as an investor that we’re going to be getting an income.
What sort of rental returns are they, and could you give me an idea about some of the purchase prices?
Steve: Yes. Our average purchase price is about $150,000. Our typical cash on cash return almost always falls between 7% and 14% – and that’s cash-on-cash return.
Then when you annualize that… We implement what we call a short-term buy-and-hold strategy, where typically our clients will hold on to a property anywhere from two to five years, and over the course of about five years, the annualized return is closer to in the low 20s percent return on investment. That’s because that includes the appreciation, but the cash-on-cash return is almost always between 7% and 14%.
Kevin: I guess the returns you’re talking about there are fairly contingent on getting finance. How difficult is it for, say, Australians to get finance to buy an American property? How do you go about that?
Steve: Now that part can be just a little bit tricky in terms of getting a loan here in the United States, unless you have income from the U.S. and you’re filing U.S. tax returns. The financing in almost every case will have to happen on your side of the deal.
Kevin: Given that’s the case and assuming therefore that any buyer out of Australia, as an example, or New Zealand can put in place their own finance, what about managing the property after it’s been sold?
Steve: That’s really a great question, actually, and that is the absolute key to any successful real estate investment. It’s kind of the scariest part because once you’ve bought the property and now the rehab is done and you place a tenant, now it’s all about managing that property, maintaining that property, and collecting rent on a regular basis.
We’ve actually become very expert at that. The way that we go back doing this is we actually identify property managers in the areas where we are purchasing properties and create relationships with local boots on the ground – individuals and companies that have a local experience and local employees and local licensing and so on – to manage the properties. And because we are bringing so many clients to the table to this individual property management companies in those particular areas, we have a lot of influence.
I would just point out real quickly that more than 50% of our business was repeat business in 2016. That’s just our clients coming back and buying more properties. It’s something that we take great pride in, and the key to having a repeat customer is not only a good experience but a good financial experience, as well.
Kevin: Yes, great talking to you on a very interesting insight there too, Steve. We’re going to leave it there. Thank you very much for your time, Steve Earl. The company’s called DoneForYouRealEstateUSA.com.
Steve, thank you so much for your time.
Steve: Thanks for having me.
What could turn the WA market – John Lindeman
Kevin: Well, of all the markets around Australia, the West Australian market is one that we’ve been keeping a very close eye on – many, many people concerned about what’s happening in WA. I’m going to talk now to John Lindeman. John has a website called 7steps2success.com.au – a lot of great information there for you.
John, do you share the concern that’s being expressed about the WA market?
John: I think, yes, we’ve all been concerned for a number of years in the falls that are occurring. It’s largely come about because of the massive over-development of housing, especially for first-home buyers, in the north and the east and the south of Perth. But there is something occurring that I think could radically change the way in which this market is going to perform in the next few years.
Kevin: What’s that, John?
John: That is the fact that we have a state Labor government in Western Australia, and they’re committed to dramatically expanding the Metronet railway networks. That’s the metropolitan passenger railway network in Perth. That’s going to provide a much needed demand impetus to housing markets where the stations are planned.
You can easily find out where they’re planned by just going to Google and putting in “Metronet,” and you’ll see where all these new lines are proposed to be built.
For example there’s a new railway line that is going all the way from Morley to Ellenbrook. There’s an extension of the existing railway line that is going from Joondalup to Yanchep. Now, I realize if you’re not from WA, these probably don’t mean a lot, but if you look on the Metronet site, there’s a map there and it shows you that where these stations are going to be built, it’s going to have quite a percentage of home demand because it will make the journey to the CBD in Perth much quicker and easier to undertake.
Kevin: I’ve been to WA on a number of occasions, into Perth and then travelled north and south, and the thing that’s occurred to me is that it’s all very close to the coast and therefore you have lots of these little centers up and down the coast. I would imagine that this rail network if it’s going to connect some of those is where you’re going to see all this expansion happening, John?
John: That’s exactly right. It’s a very interesting thing. If you look at the north-to-south geographic spread of Perth, it’s about the same as Sydney but it only has a quarter of the population. So, as you say, everybody is clustered along the coast, and even the northernmost suburbs such as Yanchep and Alkimos are built right on the coast.
We went there a few years ago, and there are all the sand dunes and now the housing estates. They’re beautiful occasions for young people to bring up families, and I think the extension of the railway line into these areas will dramatically increase the demand, and of course, prices will rise as well.
Kevin: What’s the timeframe here? Are we looking at five to ten years out, John?
John: The entire railway expansion is over the next eight years, but they’re bringing forward those lines that I mentioned, the ones to Ellenbrook and also the one north to Yanchep. They’re the first ones that are going to be built.
Kevin: Okay. It’ll be interesting to watch that. Are there any other locations around the country you think where this type of transport infrastructure development is happening that is going to impact the property market?
John: Yes, I think there are a number of examples. Another one I can give you is in outer Melbourne. If you go northeast of Melbourne, you’ll come into the end of the railway line at South Morang, and the government has now recently decided to expand that network up to Mernda.
Mernda is located about as far from the CBD as Dandenong is, so it’s quite accessible. It’s not far away. It’s a beautiful part of outer Melbourne, located near the Plenty Valley, so it’s a very desirable place.
It’s still very affordable, but the railway line that is going to be built over the next few years will mean that it’ll be very easy to commute from Mernda and the other two stations that are now being built and have now been located at Hawkstowe and Marymead. These are two areas that have a lot of potential, and you can buy properties – well established houses or new houses – for under $500,000 in those suburbs.
Kevin: That makes it very affordable. There are a number of locations around Australia where this type of infrastructure has happened in the last decade or so where we have seen a huge uptake. If you look just outside of Sydney, even the connection between Brisbane and the Gold Coast as a classic example, John.
John: Yes, they do have an effect, but it’s very important to wait until the construction is actually being undertaken, because as I always say, governments have a habit of changing their mind, so you need to wait until construction is actually underway. And also to ensure that you buy property that is located near one of each proposed stations.
You can do that again by Googling in the case of Victoria the “Mernda railway project,” and you’ll see exactly where those stations are going to be and then get in early and buy a property going from stretch and start and you’re sure to do very well.
Kevin: And the same in WA.
John, it’s great talking to you. Thank you very much for your wonderful insight. John’s website again is 7steps2success.com.au. My guest, John Lindeman. John, thank you for your time.
John: Thanks, Kevin, and thanks everyone else.