Q&A session with Paul Glossop – more questions answered! - June 2017

You’ll hear all of this and much, much more in this episode of The Smart Property Investment Show!

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Full transcript

Phil Tarrant: Oh g’day everyone. It's Phil Tarrant here, the host of The Smart Property Investment Show. Thanks for joining some of the podcasts. Always a pleasure to have you listening in. Quite happy also that we're getting quite a lot of reviews on iTunes so please do keep them coming in. It's nice to know what we're doing here is resonating with you. So, if you've got any questions about of what we're doing, make sure you get in contact with me, [email protected] and if you do that and you ask some questions, what typically happens, is that we can answer them on the show, which is what we're going to do today. So, I've roped in one of our regular guests onto the show to help me answer some questions from listeners, and I've got Paul Glossop from Pure Property Investment here. Paul, how you going?

Paul Glossop: I'm very well, Phil. Thanks for having me again, mate.

Phil Tarrant: Now, you came in about three months ago to answer some questions -

Paul Glossop: Yep.

Phil Tarrant: - and the feedback we got, I think people were quite happy with the way you answered their questions. So, hence the reason why you're back.

Paul Glossop: Good. Good to hear.

Phil Tarrant: So, you must have done a good job. So, let's press ahead. I've got three questions here today and we'll try and get through them. If we don't, I'm sorry. If we do, well there's lots more here so we'll try and answer them, but it's a good mix of questions and I think, I guess the backbone of the Smart Property Investment Show is I like story telling so I like to uncover how everyone else is getting on and investing in property and, you know, I'm a journo at heart and uncovering people's stories is what gets me excited so I like questions because it pretty gives a window into the way in which people are thinking and, if I was a psychologist or a psychiatrist, you can tell a lot by the way of the questions people ask and the way they choose to frame stuff.

So, I've got Sam as our first question, and Sam, I'm sorry Sam, I don't know if you're a boy or a girl, but Sam says they love the podcast, listen to it every week. Thank you, Sam. I do appreciate that and, Sam Wright, I'm gonna call Sam a "he". He says, or maybe he's a girl, I don't know. What do you think? Let's go girl. Sam says, "I'm 24 and I'm wanting to know, as a first home buyer, is there a particular mortgage lender that would be the best for myself? I've been renting for nearly four years and I'm wanting to get into the property market so that my money is going towards an investment and not a black hole." Which is what a lot of people think about when they rent, dead money. "I am eligible for the First Home Buyers Grant." That is in place in Queensland. "Do you think this is something I could use for a deposit, as I only have a small amount saved currently?"

So, let's make some assumptions. I don't like to assume, but I'm gonna assume this person's in Queensland, right?

Paul Glossop: Yep.

Phil Tarrant: Sam. He's in Queensland. So, how's the work at the moment, Paul, with the First Home Owners Grant in Queensland? I know it changed all the time and every state is different, so make sure you do check out the Office of State Revenue, or relevant body in your state, so you know how it means to you. But, let's talk about Queensland in particular.

Paul Glossop: Yeah. It's a good point. I think most of that information's usually pretty readily available and if it changes, it changes pretty quickly on their website, so feel free to get your fingers ready to do some investigation online to make sure you're up to date with it. But, from specific Queensland perspective at the moment, as of most recent changes, the First Home Owner's Grant in Queensland for buyers who are going to be building or buying a new property has increased by $5k recently so that's at $20k as far as a grant's concerned for first home buyers. So, Sam would be entitled to that $20k if he or she was to buy a new or off the plan, and also on top of that, there is also an $8,750 Stamp Duty Exemption up to that amount, on top of that. So, if you bought up to the maximum amount allowable on a first home buy in Queensland, new or off the plan, you'd be entitled, if you were gonna buy it as an owner/occupier, entitled to up to $28,750.

The unfortunate part on that side, is if you're gonna buy established. Essentially, the First Home Owner's Grant is abolished. So, it's only applicable for people who are buying new or off the plan, but you still get the Stamp Duty Exemption so there's still incentive to buy and get into that new home, as an owner occupier at this stage. So, that's the first part and I think there is some definite incentive and it's one of the most incentivized states, at the moment, to be able to allow investors, sorry, new home buyers, not investors, to get into those properties.

Phil Tarrant: So, I think by this question, this person's looking to buy a home to live in, so a principal place of residence.

Paul Glossop: Correct.

Phil Tarrant: And you need to be very careful cause I've seen people in the past who try and duck and dive and try to get around the rules, in terms of claiming the First Home Buyers Grant, and back in New South Wales many years ago, it was a huge amount and a lot of people would buy a principal place of residence. You'd live in it for six months and then you could rent it out as an investment property. But, from what I'm assuming here from Sam's note, it looks like they just want a place to live in. So, they're saying, "I don't have much money, but I'm paying rent, so I could probably show to a bank that I have cashflow to be able to pay for rent, and therefore, I should be able to service a mortgage." But, the problem here is savings, so they're trying to alleviate the savings issue by the First Home Buyers Grant.

Paul Glossop: By accessing the First Home Buyer's Grant, yeah.

Phil Tarrant: So, the First Home Buyer's Grant, you get it once it's all set and done. So it's a rebate back from the government so you still need to find the money.

Paul Glossop: Correct. You still need to be good for the cash. So, they're not just gonna give you an extra $20k on top of what you already have. So, for instance, if you're buying a $300,000 property and you've only saved a 5 per cent deposit and you need 10 per cent, that 20 per cent can't be tipped in to therefore make up the difference. You need to have genuine savings or equity or cash or someone going guarantor, effectively, to make sure the bank is going to be having security on what you're buying.

Phil Tarrant: And this Sam here is talking about, "Is there a particular mortgage lender that would be best for myself?" And look, I can't answer that question and by waive of disclaimer and all I sorta say when we do these Q&A's, is this is just really generic conversations around a particular issue so everyone's circumstances are different so please don't consider this financial advice. That said, my response to that is just go and speak to a mortgage broker.

Paul Glossop: Yeah, for sure. Speak to them and speak to a few and then ask them what their advice is and get comfort as well.

One thing I'd point out here, Phil, is the discussion, and this is where I think the new generation of property owners and property investors, as well, comes to the point of, it's all good and well looking at where your cash is currently working from a rental perspective. You're saying you're renting and you're sick of it because your money's going to some landlord who's actually making money, well you've perceived they're making money out of you, and you want to buy instead of rent. That's all good and well, as long as the numbers work in the long term and when I say that, I mean, you can go on rents and you can buy elsewhere and that money might be working better for you, and just cause there's a home owner's grant in Queensland specifically that's going to be incentivized, doesn't mean that's the best place for your money to start working because if you're renting and your actual investments gonna work harder than your rent is, then sure it makes sense to tip your money, instead of into rent, into your own property cause it's gonna go up in value.

But, a lot of people get caught in that trap. Just cause there's a little carrot dangled, they think all of a sudden, it's a licence to print money and instead of paying rent, they're gonna pay a mortgage, but if that property doesn't increase for five years, then you effectively probably would have been better off renting and chucking your money into an investment that's gonna work harder for you. So, oils ain't oils and do some research rather than just thinking, "Because there's a grant, that's gonna be twenty grand in my pocket rather than someone else's and all of a sudden I'm gonna make money out of it."

Phil Tarrant: I think it's a really good point, and Sam, I'd probably take heed of that. So, what Paul's pretty much saying is, just because you can get a First Home Buyer's Grant in Queensland doesn't necessarily mean that that's the best place for you to buy. Now, I would say you've only saved a small amount already, so I'd say, "Where's all your money going?" So, if all your money's going towards rent, you probably red-lining. So, number one, can you actually afford to live where you want to buy, in Queensland? You know, there's a lot to be said about renting where you want to live and buying where it makes the most sense for you.

Paul Glossop: Yeah, with both components of that, we'd both do it.

Phil Tarrant: Yeah, absolutely. You know, at 24 years old, I don't know what you're earning but you're probably early on in your career and your salary's probably gonna go up so you might want some flexibility in life. You want to be able to eat your smashed avocado, which is what everyone's talking about these days, but you can get into property markets, good property markets, probably outside of the area you're thinking about in Queensland, for maybe a lot cheaper. So, you can be in the game. You can realise the benefit of being a property investor and holding property long term. Potentially not put a lot of strain on yourself as well because if you need that First Home Buyer's Grant in order to have enough money to buy a property, maybe it's not the right time for you to be doing that.

Paul Glossop: It could be a golden handcuff situation so yeah, exactly.

Phil Tarrant: Okay. We've done pretty reasonable justice for that. The points I would make would be, just because you get something for free doesn't mean you should do it. A lot of people have found themselves in a lot of problems with first home buyer grants and, also, I've heard a lot of people who get caught out in the data matching around first home buyer grants is significant. So, if you think you can get your First Home Buyer's Grant and quickly turn it into an investment property, I'd definitely be speaking to an accountant and make sure you know what all the rules and regulations are around it because you don't want to be caught out and it's not the right way to behave. So anyway, Sam, anything more, you can contact me, Paul. I'm sure you'd be happy to have a chat with him.

Paul Glossop: Absolutely.

Phil Tarrant: [email protected] and we'll pass it on. Our next question is from Tom Topher. I hope I got that name right. Tom, thanks for writing in. Tom says, "Alright, I am at the start of my property investment journey." I like the fact it's a journey cause it's all about the journey rather than the destination, is it? I don't know what they say, something like that.

Paul Glossop: Sure.

Phil Tarrant: I read a book once as a parable.

Paul Glossop: Yeah, I'm sure you did.

Phil Tarrant: Tom says, "I'm thirty with $120,000 in savings," That's not a bad chunk of cash, "Have no properties, no debt, and a secure job. I can relate to the emphasis that you put on building a team around you and I am concentrating my energy on doing so now. I would like to find an accountant that is investment property savvy, that can be used as a mentor. However, I have no idea how and where to begin to look. Could you please advise a starting point process for this part of the puzzle?" Okay. Good question. So, I'll summarise this poor, how to find a good accountant that's gonna get me and help me realise my property investment goals, fair?

Paul Glossop: Yep.

Phil Tarrant: How do you find a good accountant?

Paul Glossop: That's a very good question and I think that if someone says they've got the best accountant in the country, they're lying. I think you base your accountant, their ability on a bunch of different things and I think you, no doubt, I assume, over your life, been through multiple accountants and now with accountants who you trust and know and have the relevant skills in what you're wanting to do and I'm very similar. I think I've personally been through four accountants in my life, that I can remember, and one of them was myself at the time. I'm not an accountant, I should say, but I actually did my own tax a couple of times.

Phil Tarrant: Those tax deductions?

Paul Glossop: Yeah, all those tax deductions when I was working at a pub.

Phil Tarrant: How many sunglasses did you buy a year?

Paul Glossop: I was a lifeguard for some time and I did go through quite a number of sunglasses, thank you very much. But, I think realistically, when it comes down to trying to figure out who's gonna be the best accountant from a property investment specific, if your accountant's gonna give you the right advice is, trying to get non-biased advice from people who either a) work in the industry, or b) have some sort of skin in the game in that industry and don't have any incentive to give you the recommendation for certain people and then substantiating why that person is going to be the right accountant for you. So, certain things such as they've been investors themselves and also, investors currently and in the past.

On that front, I would like my accountant to be someone who's readily available, can give me free information that they're not gonna charge me for and is happy for them to catch up with me on a regular basis, as opposed to that once a year to actually go through my P&L's or just my tax returns, PAYG's.

Phil Tarrant: So you don't want a transaction accountant?

Paul Glossop: I hate that. And, personally, I think it's like anything. You want a relationship and if they can't afford the time to give it you, personally, I'd say, even if they're really good at what they do, they're probably not the right person for you cause you just won't get enough time in front of them to get the information you need to make you better. So, time, and also, access to them as a readily available aspect as well, and on top of that, I mean, fees are something that I'd probably put – if I had a list of 100, fees would be number 99. I would always pay far, far more for somebody who's going to give me very, very sound advice and if you're starting to price them, based on what they're charging you for what they do, I think you're starting in the wrong order.

Phil Tarrant: You're probably quarrelling over a couple of thousand bucks anyway -

Paul Glossop: Literally. And what they're worth in the long term, and when you talk about things such as capital gains tax on properties, at the end life of a property, when they can start to assess, when you should sell, what year you should sell, the difference of what that's gonna make will be potentially be tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, in that ten, twenty, thirty year timeframe. So, the fee side of things, I think, please disregard that but really, understanding them as a person.

How long they're gonna be around for is another thing that I think people don't necessarily think about. If you've got a 55-year-old accountant, and no offence to people who are 55-60 years old, but they might be thinking about they're gonna transition to retirement, sell their business to someone else, and if you're hitching your card to someone and you're a young investor, Tom's 30, he's gonna invest in for thirty years. I'd want someone who's probably gonna be in the game for at least ten to fifteen years to be able to give me the right advice for that time so they can impart their knowledge. I mean, I'll be far better as an investor down the track so I probably can utilise a lot of the information at that point but that's something I'd think about as well.

Phil Tarrant: So, does the accountant you choose to help you create wealthier property? Tom says, as he goes down his property investment journey, do they need to be an investor themselves, do you think?

Paul Glossop: A hundred per cent don't need to be. I don't think any of us need to be that, but I would say, if they've got experience in say, there's a multitude of things you can do in property as far as buy, develop, subdivide, sell, renovate, flip, etc. If they don't have experience in a) the implications on tax for each one of those, and b) state-based examples of how and when and what they've done over the years, and also, how that relates to them, then it's hard for them to be able to give you the best advice. So, I'd say it's definitely gonna help and I personally would put that at a higher priority for me to say that they're investors. And not just one property, or two properties, that they've been investors for a period of time and they understand the different markets and what they need to be aware of. And, secondly, they don't have ties, financial ties, to anyone who's gonna recommend that you speak to them or buy a property through them. Non-biased advice, perfect.

Phil Tarrant: So, if your accountant starts recommending some guy that can sell you an off the plan property, is that the sort of accountant you need?

Paul Glossop: I would highly doubt it.

Phil Tarrant: Okay.

Paul Glossop: And if it is the case, I would exit that conversation very quickly.

Phil Tarrant: And on that basis, and I have a conversation like this quite a lot, people always say, "Oh, Phil, you know, how do you find a good accountant" and that, you need to make sure you're comfortable with the person that you're entering into a relationship with, is your accountant.

So, I don't see my accountant as much as I should do, but we meet quite regularly and we chat on the phone. But when he's coming in to see me, and he comes and sees me cause he's a good accountant, I get excited about the idea of him coming in, cause I sit there and I start thinking a lot more critically about my portfolio and where I'm going and where my goals are and, you know, there's that whole accountability piece and I get excited about seeing him cause I go, "I know after this meeting, I'm gonna be re-energized, rejuvenated, I'm gonna have more clarity." And, most of the time, he gives me good news because I've got a good portfolio but if things aren't tracking well, he's very good at explaining to me what might not be working very well and what the outcomes of that are and what are some ways to mitigate that. I like spending time with him is what I'm saying.

Paul Glossop: Yeah.

Phil Tarrant: Whereas, I know a lot of people, they think about, sort of their accountant and having a meeting with them is like going to the dentist, right?

Paul Glossop: Yep.

Phil Tarrant: And if you're not very financially literate, and for a lot of people, if you're investing in property, you obviously like creating wealth, but a lot of people don't like talking about money and they get very apprehensive about talking about money and I think of some people who hate the idea of talking about money. But, if you're meeting with your accountant, you've got to enjoy talking about money, you've got to enjoy learning about finance, you've got to enjoy learning to be more financially literate, because if you are, you'll become a property investor. But you want to find an accountant who is happy to spend time with you to improve your education. This goes back to the point of if it's just a transactional accountant who says, "Give me your rental statements, let's look at cash in, cash out. Bang, here's your things. Sign here. I'll see you next year." As a property investor who is looking for long term growth and building a proper portfolio, it's gotta be the other way around.

Paul Glossop: I agree. I completely agree, mate. Well put.

Phil Tarrant: Yeah. So, how that actually helps you, Tom, I have no idea where you live, but irrespective of that, I'd get on the phone, I'd jump on the web. Do the digital interviews, what it's called these days. You want to be finding an accountant who you can find information about, you want to see them giving away their IP, writing articles, showing that they're connected and engaged with property investors, they know the game, they know everything there is around it. So, find those people who you can do a good digital interview on, Facebook, Twitter, their websites, and from that starting point, I'd start making some phone calls and most accountants will probably do an obligation-free first meeting or something, I'm not sure how it works.

Paul Glossop: Yeah. You'd like to think that there's a good meet and greet and that's basically just to go through some top-line questions about where they're at, give them an overview of what you want to achieve and then get a feel for them. Like you said, you want a partner. You want someone who you can pick up the phone to and also is available to pick up the phone to and a lot of is personal gain and it will never be lost. And the problem, we're in the digital age, people think a lot of stuff, they can do themselves. Absolutely you can, but you just truly don't know what you don't know in the property space and the accountant space and there's so much that goes behind the scenes that makes a very, very detailed portfolio.

Phil Tarrant: Yeah. You trust your gut. If you like someone, you're gonna want to be doing business with them and spending time with them so, if it's not the right feeling, keep shopping round and find someone else but, Tom, let me know how you go mate. I hope that helps out. Again, [email protected] if you want to follow up. There's some exceptional accountants out there and I'm sure you'll have no problem tracking one down.

Our next question is from Mario, and Mario writes, "Dear Phil and the team at SPI. Firstly, thanks for the fantastic podcast." Tom, you're on my Christmas card list. Oh sorry, Mario, you're on my Christmas card list now. I like when we get good feedback. He says, "I listen to them in the car in my way to and from work. Also, a website..." I won't go into that, he's just giving me a big head so I'll leave that alone.

Paul Glossop: You've already got a big head, Phil.

Phil Tarrant: Yeah, it is quite large, isn't it? Well, if you don't know me, I've actually got quite a large head, physically. A lot of brains there is the reason why.

Paul Glossop: Grey matter.

Phil Tarrant: Anyway, Mario says, "I have a question relating to software options for managing a property portfolio. I currently have seven properties and I'm absolutely terrible at keeping stock of what's going on with each of them." I won't go into details here but Mario talks about headaches at tax time, about the process of actually trying to get all his information in there, etc. He talks about some different platforms he uses. So, I'll summarise Mario's question as, "How do you manage your portfolio? How can you concentrate on the good stuff, which is buying more property, or managing your property more effectively, and letting a lot of the numbers take care of itself?"

We're fortunate these days, Paul, that there is a lot of very good apps around that helps you manage you portfolio, which makes it easier to hold property, and if you run a good, tight ship administratively, your accountant will probably like you more often because it makes the process of saying, hey, let's get all the numbers together and let's sort this out, much simpler. So, what do you use to manage your portfolio, or how do you go about it?

Paul Glossop: Personally, I am very old-fashioned. I use a spreadsheet, but the reason why I can do that, and this comes back to, I think it's horses for courses, but look, I've got a large portfolio of property that's been with me for some time, and I'm adding to it, and for me, it comes down to making sure that ... There's a few things that we don't think about when going choosing a bank, funnily enough, because oils ain't oils, and sometimes when you choose a bank who actually has a very, very good online presence, you typically can get reports of your end of financials as far as all the interest paid.

But, a lot of the cut-price opportunities don't have those same services. So, some banks do have online opportunities to say I want to go look at my, for instance, financials year 16/17, interest repayments for Property X. I'll go hit that, print PDF, there's number one and I can get a raw number at the bottom saying here's all the interest I paid. From that side of things, I'll jam that into a spreadsheet and I'll also get my end of year financial statement from my property manager for that property. I divert all expenses for every property to my property manager's account; rates, any repairs, ongoing maintenance, etc, so they've consolidated all of that saying, "Here's all the rent I've collected, here's our expenses, here's the net number." So, I've got my interest, I've got all my ins, all my outs, and then I might have additional things, such as depreciation schedules, which I just plug in there as well.

So, I can make it actually very simple. Literally, my spreadsheet might only look like, Property 1 has probably three to four columns, Property 2, Property 3, so on and so forth. Now, the accountant from my side is usually quite happy with that because that gives him as much information. Look, I'm the one who's responsible for it but I don't need to give him the spreadsheets, I don't need to give him the breakdowns, I just need to plug that raw number in. That's a very basic way of doing it. But for me, it gives me a very simple in and out number and he can apply all the depreciation negative gearing if there is any that's available.

There is software out there that's really quite handy for people who probably aren't that way inclined as well. So, there's things such as Somersoft software, PIA software for budgeting, and also just people who are looking at managing their money. There's apps out there, there's a myriad, too many to list, but MoneyBrilliant's a good one, that's a free app out there. I know, Phil, you've got a few that you've had experience with from your side as well. I think you were talking about something from the Destiny's website.

Phil Tarrant: Yeah. Destiny's stuffs quite good. I've had a look at it and, that's Margaret Lomas's business, they've created a pretty good platform for managing your money. For me, it all comes down to, why do you need this, right? You've got a compliance perspective so at tax time I need all this information to make my accountant's life easy so they can go about doing it, that's number one. So, that's a need and you need to deliver that as part of being a property investor.

Paul Glossop: Yep.

Phil Tarrant: You need that compliance component. So, you want to be able to aggregate all your information, a nice simple space, a spot, so at that point when you need to go and find it, it's there and it's not a headache to do it. I hate tax time. If your stuff's not together and all organised, it turns into an absolute nightmare so, if you maintain that over the course of a year and it's all in one spot, that's great and you can make that easy.

But, there's another purpose that you spoke about, Paul, so this is sort of budgeting and stuff. So, keeping track of your money. What are you spending? How are you spending? How, if you cut back and you can get some more savings, can you use that to buy some more property? So, budgeting, and there's some good apps around there that you mentioned but, for me, when I look at the management of the portfolio, I like looking at the indicators that I use to see how comfortable and confident I am to keep building that portfolio. So, if I can readily see, here's my LVR position, individually and aggregated. What's my risk appetite level around that? What's my cashflow position as a result of my portfolio and all these different properties?

For me, I'm a very visual sort of person. I have a dashboard so I can see at any point in time, how my portfolio's looking and, for me, I created my own spreadsheet that allows me to have that dashboard really quickly, which pulls in information from all over the place. So, that gives me confidence and satisfies my need to actually understand how my portfolio is at any point in time. Now, I went away and built that, and I say building, it's just a spreadsheet, it's a reasonably sophisticated spreadsheet, and my accountant says that it's one of the best he's seen because, what it is, it works for me, right? It reflects the way that my brain works and the things I need to know to give me confidence to keep growing my portfolio.

Now, there is things around that could probably also do that, right? You know, there is some very sophisticated things around that could probably also do that, right? There are some very sophisticated platforms these days out there that will pull all that information together and present it in a way which you want it to be presented. The only point I would make is that irrespective of what you do, what you use, some app or a big accounting platform, whatever it is you use, your information is only as good as the information you put into it. So, you can have the best app in the world but, if you don't have the information in there, it's a waste of time. If you're not updating it, it's a waste of time. So, don't get too focused on, is this gonna do exactly everything I need to do? It's about, do you have the time, effort, attention and the bandwidth to actually manage this? So, if you don't want to do it and you haven't got time for it, as you said, you can have some very, very simple metrics, then that's enough, right? Get good administration in terms of aggregating the information so someone else can do it for you but you gotta do what's right for you and a database is only as good as the information that goes into it.

Paul Glossop: Correct.

Phil Tarrant: And a lot of people forget that.

Paul Glossop: Yep. I agree.

Phil Tarrant: That's the way I see it but, Mario, I hope that helps. Look, if you're not into doing this, looking for software options to support you manage your portfolio, that's a good thing but, you're still gonna have to do the work, or someone's gonna have to do the work.

Paul Glossop: Yeah, someone's gonna have to plug it in cause it's always gonna change. Interest rates change, rent changes, your expenses for that year change, depreciation as we've just seen in the May budget, will change, everything will change. So, you effectively, as a property investor, you need to commit to the fact that you are responsible and you have to stay current.

Phil Tarrant: You are responsible for it. And, Mario, you've got how many properties, seven?

Paul Glossop: Seven. Yep.

Phil Tarrant: It's not a small portfolio. If you don't want to do this, Mario, but you want the information, pay a bookkeeper to do it.

Paul Glossop: Correct. And there's an option. Pay a good bookkeeper to go and say look, fifty bucks every insert, might be a month just to do an hour's work, and you just send them the paperwork for that month. A hundred bucks a month.

Phil Tarrant: Yeah. You tell them what you want, tell them what you want to see. And your accountant might have a bookkeeping service or, typically, if they don't, an accountant will have a relationship with a bookkeeper and they'll be able to refer you onto it. So, it's an administrative job, mate, and you've gotta get it right because if you want to go from seven to seventy properties and you don't want to actually do the admin, find someone who will do it for you. Anything to add, Paul?

Paul Glossop: No. No, I think there's a fair few varied questions there, which is always good. It's good to get the ins and outs from a lot of different people I think, the long and short of it is, it comes down to making sure that you understand what you're responsible for from the accounting side and for people who are starting out, make sure you get the right team together, long and short of it, before you even kick it off. Get your goals and objectives set up well before you start buying property.

Phil Tarrant: It's good. And I gotta get back to Sam, who was our original question here, who's looking to buy a property and I think there's a bigger picture. So, it's very current in the media today about millennials and Sam here, a millennial at 24, getting into the property market -

Paul Glossop: Not quite. Depends. There's Gen Y, there’s a cut-off.

Phil Tarrant: What's the difference?

Paul Glossop: I think it's 91?

Phil Tarrant: They're a Gen Y, and they're the millennial.

Paul Glossop: 91-92.

Phil Tarrant: Anyway, Sam, you're young. You're young, Sam. It's good that you're thinking about getting into property and my observations on this would be, and I'll pick up the point that Paul made, just because you get the First Home Buyer's Grant, doesn't mean you should buy in Queensland, and that's a message that every single property investor needs to think about. And, you probably get it Paul, in your business quite a lot, where someone goes, "I want to be a property investor. I live in Blacktown. I want to invest in Blacktown." You know, you want to get beyond those type of things and you want to come back to, what is the purpose in investing in property? Are you investing in property because you want to move up in value and you want to then generate an income, which helps you hold that property for as long as possible without costing you any money, right? Very, very simple. And that's not always next door.

So, for all property investors that listen, you need to do the groundwork to be successful in property. You need to be on the road, you need to be out there looking at places. If you don't want to do it, you can use a buyer's agent, but you need to do everything you possibly can to try to understand what you're trying to achieve in property and where the properties are best suited to meet the objectives you have in terms of investing in property and it's a great wealth so, go out and do it I reckon.

Paul Glossop: Absolutely.

Phil Tarrant: Nice. Paul, thanks for coming in.

Paul Glossop: Thanks for having me, Phil.

Phil Tarrant: It's always good. We'll get you back again. If you've got some more questions and answers, remember to check out smartpropertyinvestment.com.au. We're reporting on this stuff every single day so there is no excuse not to be educated in property investment if you go to smartpropertyinvestment.com.au. Self-plugged but do it. Go and check it out, subscribe to our newsletters. We're putting out stuff pretty much every day. Remember please, those reviews coming in on iTunes. I do look at them every single day and I get excited when I see reviews coming in cause it means that people are listening to what we are doing and liking it and we're ranking pretty well on iTunes so obviously something's working but let's keep at it. That's it for me, all the social media stuff, you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. You can follow me if you like @PhillipTarrant on Twitter. Outside of that, I think I've covered everything, Adam. Yes, I have, I'm getting a nod. We'll be back again next week. Thanks for joining us. See you then. Bye.

Disclaimer: The information covered in this podcast is general in nature and does not take into consideration your financial situation or individual needs and should not be relied upon. Before making any investment, insurance, tax, property or financial planning decision, you should consult a licenced professional, who can advise whether your decision is appropriate for you. Guests appearing on this podcast may have a commercial relationship with the companies mentioned.