Linz’ Musings – May 24th, 2019

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G’day all

Happy Friday! So, its done…it appears that ‘ScoMo’ has pulled off the “Steven Bradbury” of politics…winning the unwinnable election. Question I guess for the much more politically savvy than me, is that did the Libs win or did Labor lose it…?

I kinda feel is more the latter than the former, but the markets certainly were happy with the result – the USD/AUD jumped up over the weekend (short term rise though); ASX, and particularly banking stocks took a nice short term rise as well. The Labor loss will certainly allay the fears of many investors, particularly in Real Estate, with Labor’s proposed changes to Franking Credits, Negative Gearing, and Capital Gains tax now confined to the Recycle Bin of history.

With APRA also finally seeing the light and allowing the banks a touch more leeway when lending (they have released the tough constraint of rating serviceability at equivalent rates of 7% when its clear our interest rates will not be back near level for a LONG time) and the Fed Reserve chalking up two rate cuts this year (one is pretty certain to be next month) this should see an easing in the financial markets and make lending more accessible for everyone. Throw in the Liberal Gov’ts “First Home Buyers Grant” which is not really a grant, more like a bonus, and I think we are in for a nice period of growth again in property in the months to come. It will take some time to see this in pricing (up to 6 months possibly) but soon could be a good time to start looking to set up offset loans against property here, and get some high cashflow from the States!

If you need help with the strategies of where to start, or how to set this up, sing out, we would love to help.

Have a great weekend all and Happy Investing…!!

Cheers,

Lindsay

Linz’ Musings – May 17th, 2019

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G’day all

Happy Friday! In this election version of our newsletter our country will be headed to the polls this weekend to vote for who we believe should be leading us forward for the next few years…or considerably less, if recent history is any indication…

With that in mind, and irrespective of your view or political alignment, I believe everyone would agree that Australia lost a legend of Australian politics this week in Bob Hawke. Labor’s longest serving prime minister, the Hawke’s government did a lot for the economy of this country and helped put us in a great global position. From creation of Medicare, to deregulation of the financial sector and floating the Australian Dollar, much of this was pivotal in shaping economic Australia. One of Australia’s greatest Prime Minister – RIP Mr R J Hawke.

On the other side of this particular political coin, we have struggled in the past 8-10 years to have any consistency or leadership in the role. This election does seem to have a larger impact on the property market in Australia than elections of the past. It will be interesting to see how Labor’s concept of scrapping Negative Gearing (one of the most overused, and overrated strategy in our market in my view) will effect the market; with Morrison’s implementation of a new First Home Buyers (FHB) Grant, where essentially if the first home buyer can save 5% of the deposit, the government (read taxpayers) will fork out the remaining 15% of the deposit so the FHB can avoid mortgage insurance… interesting…

I do feel that with the FHB Grant probably imminent, irrespective of which party wins, and an interest rates cut imminent in June as well (the banks are already starting to pass this on, thats how certain it is…) that we may start to see the bottom of the property clock, particularly in Melbourne and Sydney and prices start to pick back up again, but lets watch and see

Anyway, I would wish the pollies all the best in the election and say “may the best candidate win” but I am not certain the “best candidate” is even running…but that’s another blog for another day…

Have a great weekend all and Happy Investing…oh and voting!!

Cheers,

Lindsay

Linz’ Musings – April 12th, 2019

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G’day all

Happy Friday! As Easter draws near, the US have started their Baseball Season and football and Hockey is shelved for another season. Here, we are well into our football, AFL or NRL, pick your poison and go <Insert Your Team Here>!

Its great to see the passion a great many have for their sporting teams. Watching the games, the sports news and discussion shows, listening to talk back radio, its a big thing! Then the week at work, all the discussions around how the weekend went well (or didn’t go well depending on the results!). In my family tipping competition, i have gone from last years champion (reigning premier yeah!?) to having trouble tipping a hat at the moment.

What we need to do is also ensure we use the same passion on the other areas of our lives. Imagine how different our society would be if we also were out for a few drinks on the Friday night and chatting to our friends about how well our career/business/relationship/life was going; friends listening intently and giving hints and tips on how to get better… But alas, it seems we are rather more intent on judging and making sure we don’t “get ahead of ourselves”. We even feel or justify to ourselves that by keeping our friends or family “grounded” we are doing the a favour…hmm….

So we stick to sports as an outlet, rather than have the passion across all areas of our lives. We often get so caught up in one area, we start neglecting the others. It may not be sport it might be business, or career, or even health. Now, any of these areas certainly deserve our focus, our passion, but not to the detriment of the others?

What if…Monday you made a goal to spend at least 15-20 mins focusing on each of the 6 areas of your life every day – Family/Relationships, Social, Health, Finance, Career/Business, Intellect. Imagine then, in a months time we are at the pub having a couple of Friday frothies and talking about how each area is going? Would it be better? Would you find you have more passion across the board? Would be an interesting experiment to test out…

Have a great weekend all and Happy Investing!!

Cheers,

Lindsay

Linz’ Musings – April 5th, 2019

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G’day all

Happy Friday! April is upon us, and its almost time in the Southern states to put our clocks back to normal. I will admit I am a fan of daylight savings to a point, the extra daytime in the evening is fantastic during summer periods, but I do think it goes on a bit too long. Getting up at 6:30am to head to the gym is certainly not early compared to a lot of people, to be still dark in March is crazy really, and even this week, still almost dark when I finished at 7:15! Wow. Anyway, as they say, change your clocks, change your smoke alarm batteries!

I was reminded this week by our wonderful neighbourhood Facebook, of a seminar I attended two years ago in Sydney and was able to see Arnold Schwarzenegger speak and meet him. Probably a highlight for me as he as been one of my heroes, with what he has been able to achieve. To have reached the pinnacle of success in not 1, but 4 completely different industries – Bodybuilding, Real Estate, Acting, Politics is incredible. I guess it does just show that whatever you put your mind to, no matter how different, you can achieve.

During the seminar he spoke about his 5 Rules for Success and elaborated on each. Funnily enough, a week or so ago, Facebook also showed me a video of the same speech he had done elsewhere (this is not a recording of the Sydney seminar i went to but another). I posted this on our Facebook site but here it is again below if you didn’t catch it, just click on the photo. This is a cut down version, only around 7 mins, so I definitely recommend you watch it when you can. In brief, his 5 rules are:

1. Find Your Vision

2. Think Big

3. Ignore the Naysayers

4. Work Like Hell – he uses slightly different terminology 🙂

5. Give back

Go ahead and watch this and he goes into each one briefly. I love the quote right at the end, and am going to put this on my wall:

“If not us, who? If not now, when?”

Wow!

Have a great weekend all and Happy Investing!!

Cheers,

Lindsay

US Property Investing – Mar 29th, 2019

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G’day all

Happy Friday! Wow what a week its been! For us, we have seen some unprecedented growth in the past few months and have now just brought on a business coach (big shout out to Ben Slater!!) to help us grow the team and business effectively. Exciting times ahead – watch this space!

I must admit I absolutely loved one of his diagrams on the balance of life – the YIN and the YANG essentially. How so many of us sometimes focus on the masculine side of the YANG (business/career, wealth/finance, intellect) but so often miss or forget the feminine side of the YIN (health, social, family). It’s so easy to do.

Only though, when you have all 6 of these areas in balance, do you really achieve the elusive 7th – Intimacy. Now essentially this is referring to Intimacy with life, which you may translate to happiness, fulfillment or even peace and often if you are finding that you do not have this, look to the other 6 areas and see which of these maybe you are neglecting?

Every day, we need to ensure to nurture each of these 6 areas of life, just a touch in each is enough, but don’t let any of them slip away. Even if it is just a call to your parents or loved ones weekly, our touch base with that great friend you haven’t spoke to for a while. What are you doing in the Health aspect of life? Gym, yoga, Pilates or even simply a healthy diet – this all makes a huge difference. Yes we can help with the business or wealth side, but only you can look to the others (essentially Pillars of life) and ensure you are also moving forward in each.

Here is a copy of the image below. Save a copy or print it out and look at it daily! It was seriously a game-changer for me! And for any further information on this – look up Ben Slater and his LeadFlow program for the Seed of Life – wow! (or click on the image below)

Have a great weekend all and Happy Investing!!

Cheers,

Lindsay

US Property Investing – Mar 22nd, 2019

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G’day all

Footy season is back! For some of us it can be a very exciting time, chance to see your team again this year run around the park, possibly look to do better than last year. Others sigh, and prepare for a long 6 months of try to get your partner to watch something on weekends other than sport…

I have some great friends of mine coming from the US to visit our great country next week, and we are planning on spending some time showing them around Oz. Its a fabulous opportunity to show the best of our land, and can really remind us how much of a fantastic country we live in, and to some degree how much we take for granted.

In our day to day grind of life, sometimes we can lose sight of what is important; caught up with all the busy-ness of everything; the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. We need to always remember the reason WHY we are doing all this.

As quick as I will be one of the first ones to tell you all about the benefits of investing in the US market, property investing is just a tool, a vehicle that is designed to take us or get us to a destination. In my case it is the chance to see more of our country, to not just spend 1 or 2 days on a weekend out but whenever or wherever we want in this beautiful land of ours. Visit those wine regions (Barossa was fantastic by the way hehe), go to the Blue Mountains, hire a catamaran from Airlie Beach and sail the Whitsundays, visit Uluru or maybe is just being able to see more of your footy team play live. To me, its all about enjoying the great land we have.

Whats your WHY?

If you want to chat about helping determine an investment strategy including incorporating US property into your portfolio, jump over to our website below and book a call with me or jump on our webinar!

Have a great weekend all and Happy Investing!!

Cheers,

Lindsay

Is Investing in Rentals still good in a softening market?

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The current state of the market both in Australia and the US is always a big talking point when I meet and chat to investors. Just this week, we held a workshop in Brisbane (great to have met a lot of you!) and I was asked if investing in rentals was still a good strategy if the market is starting to soften.

My personal opinion is “Absolutely!” From what I have found over the years is that in a softening market we have a number of factors at play. Firstly home owners can sometimes get nervous, particularly if the softening is also being accompanied with rising interest rates (which is what is happening in the larger markets in the US). These homeowners can then sometimes sell, and rent for a while, waiting for the market to improve and didn’t want to get stuck with a home that the value had dropped and/or couldn’t afford (the GFC has made many Americans very gun shy on owning homes). This puts more people in the rental market often increasing the demand and therefore, rents.

Second factor is that as some of the areas soften, the cost to get into rentals can get cheaper, more affordable as well, and with rents rising, this gives even more increased ROI on your investments!

Here is an article written recently by Abhi Golhar from Forbes Real Estate Council on this exact topic…Enjoy!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesrealestatecouncil/2019/02/20/rental-real-estate-is-a-sound-investment-for-any-market/#60b7a5c72c26

For any more information on this or if you have any other areas you would like me to cover in these newsletters, feel free to book a call with me to chat!

US Property Investing – Mar 15th, 2019

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G’day all!

Autumn here and in some parts of the country you certainly wouldn’t know it! Just coming back from Brisbane and North QLD this week, with hot and humid temperatures and almost a heatwave in Brisbane, it was good to get back to a more temperate environment 🙂

As the US also head into their springtime, in a number of parts of the country the snow is clearing and sun starts to shine more. Daylight saving time has just commenced as well in the US and we here in Oz will look forward to ours finishing now, giving possibly a little more light in the mornings to us southern early risers!

Even though there are also some huge differences between Australia and the US in relation to the property markets, in some cases many things can follow the same rules. With the US also enjoying market growth over the past few years (albeit a more steady growth than we saw here in AU) they are finding the more expensive markets starting to soften, as we are here in Australia. Now, while the US is seeing what I would suggest is a normal property cycle softening (some areas are still booming – like Michigan!) the Australian market appears to be more on the back of very difficult credit times – with the banking royal commission kind of a Straw vs Camel’s Back scenario.

I noticed just this week, that the government have done a back-flip on pushing the banks to removing trailing commissions for Mortgage brokers and I think this is a good move. The massive reduction in competition that the virtual demise of the mortgage brokering industry would have seen (really, not too many would have paid brokers thousands up front to find them a good mortgage even though it still could have saved them tens of thousands!) has now been avoided and banks will still need to keep the pencils sharp with their offerings! Ahh, fun times to be a global investor right now hey!!!

On the back of all this, we are seeing huge influx of new clients now, wanting to invest some funds into US property, to at least diversify the portfolios with the softening markets and I can say this is a sound strategy! If you want to book a spot before we fill up, jump over to our website below today!

Have a great weekend all and happy investing !!

Cheers,

Lindsay

Multi Family Property Investing Strategies

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I have been asked a lot about looking at Multi-family properties as options for investment, something that is relatively unique to the US. I have done a couple of articles here on this but also now going to run some small workshops on this topic on the East Coast. First one coming up will be Brisbane! We use an app called Meetup to manage these workshops, so if you haven’t already found us on Meetup under US Property Investors look us up! We have groups in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane so far and soon to open up in Adelaide and Perth!

Next upcoming workshop is in Brisbane on Monday March 11th, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm at the Novotel in Creek St Brisbane. We do a 50-60 minute meet and greet/networking to start then around 6:00 pm start the workshop with a 15 minute Q&A at the end.

If you want to come along, click on this link below and sign up. It’s free and bring your business cards to network! We also usually have some seasoned US investors or experts in each of the their particular areas come along and are there to answer questions etc.

http://meetu.ps/e/GpmVj/BHqNf/f

The following one will be in Sydney in late March, dates to be announced, then Melbourne early April! So jump in whichever group is best for your location and stay tuned for updates.

Brisbane – http://meetu.ps/c/3ZFQv/BHqNf/f

Sydney – http://meetu.ps/c/3ZFN3/BHqNf/f

Melbourne – http://meetu.ps/c/3wzf5/BHqNf/f

For any more information on these or if you have any requests for future workshops, feel free to book a call with me to chat!

US Property Investing – Mar 5th, 2019

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G’day all!

So, here it is Tuesday morning as I write this, I’m sitting in the beautiful Barossa wine region on a spectacular day, and thinking this is what it is all about. The ability to take time out of the busy lives and sit and enjoy life for a while. We often get so caught up in the day to day, urgency and busy-ness, that it is so easy to forget why we are doing this altogether. The old saying that “its easy to forget why your draining the swamp when your up to your neck in alligators”

The returns are nice, money is nice, but really isn’t what we are all after is time? Flexibility to be able to do what we what, when we want? If we want to work on some investment deals, or on the portfolio, we do, if we want to sit in the Barossa on a warm day and sip wine, we can.

When things get difficult and plans don’t always work out, it can be so easy to wonder why are we doing all this. It is the “why” that we need to keep forefront of our minds so that when difficulties arise we can push through, because we remember the “why”

I know a lot of people always harp on it, but the truth is we really need to find that “why”. It’s the why that is going to give you the strength to push through barriers, get over the obstacles, move on and keep going. If its time with the family, holidays, buying a winery in the Adelaide Hills…whatever it, find it, stick it on the fridge, up in your office, look at it all the time, keep it in the forefront of your mind and make it happen!

Ok, off to try another Shiraz!

Have a great week all and happy investing !!

Cheers,

Lindsay