Empower Blog Property Portfolio

Top Seven Negotiation Tactics for Spring

With spring “Selling Season” just around the corner, I thought it'd be a good time to revisit some negotiating tactics we need to employ when we're looking to buy a property in this upcoming season.   The first one is: it's not all about price. We need to find out what the vendor really wants. It takes a bit of digging, and it takes a...

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Be a Farmer, Not a Hunter

Bryce appears again in Money Magazine ... this time in their Special Edition issue! In this article, Bryce talks about the importance of being a farmer, not a hunter when it comes to a property investing. The theory behind it is that you need to play the investment game for the long term, planting tree seedlings now so that you will sit, c...

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What Is The Biggest Expense A Property Investor Will Face?

As a property investor building a portfolio, the question often asked is, what is the biggest expense I will face when I build out the costs for the portfolio? For me, it's really clear that the biggest expense, bar none, is a vacancy. If you think about it, you're renting a property for $500 a week and it's vacant for four weeks; there's $2,000...

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The Three Hidden Mistakes That Property Investors Often Make

Today I want to talk about three hidden mistakes that property investors often make. The first one is wanting to settle on a Friday. This comes from the fact that when we're buying our own home if we settle on a Friday, we get the keys and we move in over the weekend. But the challenge is that 20% of settlements don't settle on the due date becau...

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How to Protect your Portfolio from the Inevitable Storms?

Today what I want to talk about is How do you protect your portfolio from the inevitable storms that you will face if you want to play this game for the long term? We've just had a world record here in Australia—we've had over 25 years without a “technical” recession, which means that no other developed economy in the world has actually do...

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Sky Business News – Your Money Your Call (May 2017)

Ben Kingsley returns to the SKY Business News Channel, Your Money Your Call (YMYC). Joining ‘temporary host’ Lisa Montgomery, Ben and Rich Harvey, discuss sustainable and sensible property investing in Australia. As well as diving into the current property market, the experts weigh in on: Is housing an economic uncertainty? Why do your ...

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Four Essential Levers to Building Wealth

So, I previously spoke about the fact that it's really important you know the number that you need to retire on. The actual income figure for you to live a comfortable retirement lifestyle and, therefore, the worth of an income-producing asset you will need outside of family home. Today, I want to have an extension of this because once I know th...

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Sky Business News – Your Money Your Call (February 2017)

Ben Kingsley is welcomed back on SKY Business News Channel, Your Money Your Call (YMYC). With Margaret Lomas away, Lisa Montgomery steers tonight’s discussion as Ben and Brad Beer talk Property Investment and how to make your investment work for you. Live from the studio, they answer a handful of emails and calls of interest, discussing: Wha...

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Is Your Property Portfolio Built On Sand or Stone?

Isn't it interesting to see the celebrations people have at New Year's Eve when we're seeing out the old year and welcoming in the new one? We tend to flock to iconic buildings and iconic bridges all around the world to capture the moment when the clock strikes midnight. If you think about Australia, everyone likes to flock to the Sydney Harbour Br...

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Variables to Consider when Modelling a Property Portfolio

In this advanced "How to..." session, I want to talk to you about all the sophisticated cash flow variables that any good cash flow management and property portfolio planning tool should have. So let's start from the top in terms of cash flow management. Naturally, we need to do our budget, and we need to assume that value of the money will incr...

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Defence: What is that?

What I want to have a quick chat about today is something a lot of property investors haven’t got time or the headspace to think about. And that is their position of defence. We talk about it in our business model: ABCD. The asset selection (A), the borrowing power (B), the cash flow management (C) and the defence (D). But let’s be honest: ...

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Pay off the mortgage or invest – How to do both?

Investors often face with one common question when their savings grow: Should I pay off the mortgage or invest? With interest rates at its all time low and an outperforming property market, some might think that it is an obvious choice but how sure are you? In this Money Magazine's August 2016 Edition, Bryce shares his point of view on how you can ...

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Should You Invest In Property Overseas?

As a Qualified Property Investment Advisor, I often get approached by clients asking me about investing in property overseas. They've been on a recent vacation, and they bring back a brochure telling me about this amazing opportunity they've got in Bali, Spain, the UK or in America. Ultimately, I try to dig into the main motivation for them to inve...

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