Chris: Investor

Chris, a teacher from the Gold Coast had spent eight months looking to buy an investment property. He’d spent his spare time listening to dozens of podcasts, reading around 10-12 books, and doing a deep dive into research with a desire to learn and understand the data that underpins buying quality investment properties. In Chris’s own words:

“The more I looked into it, the more I realized that the scales are tipped so much more heavily in my favour using a good Buyer's Agent, and it just helped me get my ducks in a row for my first investment purchase. A good gross yielding property was really important for us to find. Even with months of research and learning, I didn't think I had the ability or the time to get it all done.

I'm really good with numbers and finances and I had been doing all these exercises like looking up cash flows and setting up buffers, and all this sort of thing before even speaking with a Buyer’s Agent. So, I knew I could handle the finances but I needed someone to help me execute a purchase. It's such a big amount of money and if we were to screw up our first investment property and there's no growth, then there's no second or third property purchase.

I spoke to a few different Buyer’s Agents on phone/video chat including some of the biggest names in the industry, but I wanted to meet face to face. A lot of them weren't keen, they either weren’t keen or were too busy. And the fact of someone giving their time was a big tick for me - if we're going to pay them a shit load of money, the least they could do is come and meet me. So that was a big tick for me. I felt really comfortable with Boyd in the beginning, from our first meeting. I thought, ‘am I going to get swindled by a salesman kind of guy,’ but I didn't feel that way. I felt super confident and happy when I first met with Boyd.

The other thing that I liked about Property Navigation was that they solely focus on South East Queensland and that was the market I wanted to buy into. I felt like they were experts in the area that I wanted to target, that's the area their team focuses on, and I liked that. It means that they’re no jack of all trades, they’re a master of their area and for me that was a positive. And, their middle-tier flat pricing made it seem fair. So, these things got me over the line to engage them.

I formed a good working relationship with Boyd and Luke where I felt like I was talking to a mate. I really liked their approach, that was really helpful for me. I could message and ask all the dumb questions because I'm learning. I was like, ‘tell me if I'm being a dickhead here, what do you think about this?’ And they were so honest saying ‘yeah, you are…. You’ve got to stop thinking like that.’

Boyd is very honest, and he just picked the kind of person I am and knew how to communicate with me and I really respected that because I didn't want to have to formalize something. I just wanted to speak how I felt. He's a good communicator and he understood what I needed. That was the biggest thing that helped me because I feel like I've got knowledge, but there's big gaps in my knowledge and I didn't want to have to look like a smart person to him. I felt like I could say something stupid, and I wanted his feedback because I wasn't worried if he was going to judge me or not. So that was quite nice, it was good and that was big for me. One funny story I have is; I’d had a look at a house and sent it through to Boyd and said, 'what do you think' and he was like 'yeh man, super dumb.’ I laughed and was like, this is the type of feedback I need. I don't want formalized stuff. That's not the kind of person I am. It was good! Everything that I wanted from Property Navigation, I found, and it was awesome.