How this investor improved his serviceability to build a multi-property portfolio

“I’d say a handful – maybe eight to 10. When we talk about developments, it’s really two houses but that have the potential of being 10 townhouses. The numbers, there’s really no set number, depending on what we’re doing. I don’t really stress too much about my properties. I’ve always believed that investment should be something that’s not a headache. It should be a set and forget. So therefore if you buy something, leave it there, let it sort itself out, and it’s not too much of a headache on your personal life,” the investor added.

Many people would probably consider this feat a hard one – very fluid, with different things happening at the same time, and at different stages of maturity – but Hank was able to pull it off simply by bringing people in to co-invest with him.

According to him, this strategy, complicated as it was, helped him increase his borrowing capacity and provide greater serviceability.

He shared: “The big thing for me was that, when I started investing, I did it alone for the first two or three. Then finance, home loan stuff – you get maxed out that side of things, so you bring family on board. I’ve done a step-by-step process, it’s very hard to do it on your own. To do a loan, I’ve seen that it is hard, so when I did the first two or three, I couldn’t get the finance, I was having trouble. I brought my sister on board. Then, my wife came along so I brought her on board, too.”

Finding people with similar financial mindset makes for a good joint investment journey, Hank believes.

Since he started co-investing with some of his family members, he was able to get the opportunity to look at bigger projects, build a trust to get a company, and then build small developments.

“It is possible to do it on your own, but it will get to a point to where it will max out, and you will need to get other help as well. What I really want to say as well is that there is no wrong way of investing. There’s so many different tools, there’s so many different ways. So my way was to bring family in, because I’m a very family-orientated person,” he said.

While many would consider investing with other people an additional headache, Hank actually enjoys the “human interaction element” of his journey.

As long as everyone on the team is like-minded and focused on achieving the same goals, the property investment journey can definitely move forward smoothly.

According to him: “Everyone gets together, everyone makes a bit of money. You help your family, you help your friends, you leverage other people to help as well, and everyone together can make more money and look forward to retirement or increasing their asset portfolio.”

“When you’re surrounding yourself with people who don’t support what you’re doing, it becomes a massive roadblock to people, and they start questioning their decisions. I think if you’re in it with people, if it’s the right people, that can be a really good way to keep you on the right mental path,” The Smart Property Investment Show’s co-host Vivienne Kelly added.

Hank’s final reminder for anyone who would want to follow in his footsteps: Absolutely no emotions.

The property investor concluded: “You’ve got to find the right people—everyone just goes, ‘We want to make money, and we want to make double that money, and this is how we’re going to do it.’ Absolute, no emotion out of it. It’s just got to be logic and numbers. Let’s say the numbers don’t return a 20 per cent figure, everyone just goes, ‘Oh, that’s off the table. Bring something else.’”

Tune in to Hank Hong’s episode in The Smart Property Investment Show to know more about his tips on interest rates, fixed loans, co-investing, and how to build wealth through borrowing money.