Client Success Stories

My property investment journey started when I took a package from work that meant I could take 12 months off. At that stage I wanted to find something other than another job that would have me locked in to a desk for the next 25 years. I decided that someone had to have written a book about how to create wealth. Despite not being a great reader I decided to start researching and reading. Interestingly, I read none of Margaret's books.

I read Kyosaki, Jan Somers, the 0-100 Properties guy's books. I went to the marketeering "Fly you to Queensland" meetings and had the clown in the suit pushing me to not miss out. Thankfully it all sounded dodgy to me so my wife and I passed. I went out looking for deals, not really knowing what to look for and still managed to miss most of the traps and pitfalls.

Our first pregnancy arrived and investment got shelved for a 'responsible' job as a recruiter. Another pregnancy, another postponement. A change of jobs - another delay. A third child - another delay. Change jobs once more - more delay.

Finally, eight years, a redundancy, two jobs and three kids later we were back at it. I was reading again, and again looking for something.

As Homer Simpson put it, "The answers are all on latenight cable TV". I was flicking on Foxtel and hit Margaret's show. Safe to say, this was bound to happen. My viewing habits included everything Sarah Beeney ever did, "Selling Houses", "Location - Location", and so on.

We decided to check it out. Had the introductory meeting [looking for more pitfalls]; but what I found was the first spruiker who made sense and wasn't trying to sell me anything. We signed up for the course in April 2010, finished the course and just had all our banking sorted and structured - ready to go. Then the mother of all delays…

My wife Bernie was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. Six of the worst months of treatment can really put things into perspective. What are you waiting for?

We bought our first investment during Bernie's treatment, while we both worked full-time with three kids under 7!

Warrnambool had some attractive returns and had really sound fundamentals. Another Warrnambool property jumped up six months later. We researched and found one in Bathurst after being gazumped on a great deal. Our most recent property we found after looking in Toowoomba for nearly a year - but when the numbers don't stack up you just can't buy. So we started looking in Brisbane, lots of offers later we picked up the best property yet in December 2012.

Where are we now? Bernie is healthy - the rest is just 'stuff' - but we own four properties [not including our principal place of residence]. I'm changing jobs again after six+ years with my employer. I'm making a career change and starting from scratch but risk is something you can get used to weighing up.

What have we learned?

- Read lots
- Ask loads of questions
- Educate yourself and then the answers will become obvious
- Delay and procrastination are just fear with a good PR team
- Once you know what you are doing a great deal is hard to pass up - no matter your circumstances.

Margaret's books are how I started my property investing journey. Her practical and down to earth approach really resonated with me. It's not a 'get rich quick' or a '100 properties in 100 days' approach, it's 'slow and steady' and it works. I contacted the Destiny branch at Clayfield, this was 2003 and the rest as they say is history.

When I purchased my first property it took 3 weeks to find a tenant and it was a nail biting 3 weeks for me. I started to wonder if I'd done the right thing! 10 years and 12 properties (across 4 states) later, I have much more confidence. One of the reasons for this is the great relationship that I have with the Gold Coast branch. I find them very supportive, particularly Carolyn. She's just a phone call away if I have questions or concerns and I know that she has my best interests in mind and that her advice will be valuable and helpful.

Destiny is both my property investing personal trainer and cheer squad. They've taught me how to invest in property and have provided support every step of the way. They keep me encouraged and focussed as well.

I'm confident that I'll be financially independent soon and be able to do what I want to do in my retirement. It's a great relief to know that I have options and that I can, and am, driving this.

If you're just starting out with property investing make sure that you have regular 'touch points' with other investors, this will keep you motivated. Surround yourself with likeminded people. Earlier in my investing journey I found it helpful to attend meetings with other investors, where we all had 'to do' lists and we depended on each other to complete those. Because I knew others were depending on me, I completed all my actions on schedule. Without this, I would most likely have found lots of excuses to procrastinate. At this point in my journey I find that attending a monthly meeting with other Destiny clients keeps me motivated.

No one ever told me that it takes time to build wealth. As a young person growing up in the 21st century the advertising says you can have it all - now. Bank loans for the cars and the bikes, credit cards to pay for holidays and the latest mobile phone on a payment plan. But what about a property - no chance!

About 2 years into my carpentry apprenticeship things got pretty tough financially. Living away from home was expensive, I took on some bar work and extra cash jobs. I was at night school to acquire my builders license in the hope of making a better income. Then I hit breaking point. It wasn't until I had pushed my health and wellbeing beyond the limit that I realized I had to change the way I was doing things. I needed a plan and I needed my money to work for me. I needed to invest.

After a lot of study I decided to focus on investing in property. I watched Margaret Lomas on Sky Business; the more I learned the more achievable my dream seemed. I could make this happen! Books, magazines, newspapers, television, although I didn't have the financial capacity to buy at the time I just kept feeding the dream. I started to tell my friends I was going to buy property, this motivated me to save even harder so they wouldn't think I was someone that made up stories.

The first time I met with Destiny Gold Coast I had been feeling a little low and I knew I didn't have enough savings but just talking to Carolyn reengaged my motivation. She gave me a target and six months later I was back in her office. The team at the Gold Coast branch went out of their way to sort out a few little issues that needed to be fixed before I could purchase and that was before I had even become an official client! The best part of my journey was the time I spent with my Destiny mentor, I learnt all the little tricks and everything was explained in a way I could understand. I have made it, first property purchased! I can breathe now, writing this now reminds me that when I'm ready to go again Destiny will be there.

This is how the story begins, my first marriage ended in 1996, however, before it did my wife and I bought a 2bed unit in Bronte, Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. After we split up, I bought her share out, then spent the next 8 years overseas in the States working. It was there that I realised that property could be a way to fund my retirement, as I had NO Superannuation.

I returned home in 2004, and attended several different seminars, but they just didn't sit right with me, then I stumbled across Destiny, and straight off the bat, I felt this was the direction I was looking for.

In 2005 I dipped into some equity and bought a 1 bedder in Kensington. A few years passed and I then settled down with a secure job, it was there I met Adele. Several years later we were married. It just happened that Adele had 2 investment properties in Sydney's Northern Beaches, but unsure of how to take the next step in Investing, I introduced her to Destiny and, like myself, after being sceptical at first, she trusted her instincts and was happy taking the next step.

We attended a weekend course and realised we had exactly the same risk profile. This was going to get interesting! We started off with our next two properties, sight unseen, in Nowra. We now realise that, although they might not have been the best buys at the time, we had no one really to bounce things off then, as we do now with Jim. We have learnt so much from him, and as we become more knowledgeable, it's great to know we can still call Jim if we get stuck with something.

After we were invited to attend a seminar with Margaret in March 2012, she sat down with each of us and personally asked us what our property goals were and our plan to achieve them. No matter what excuses people were making in the room for not taking the next step, she had a solution for everyone. We found her to be an inspiration, which sent us off on a spending spree lasting the next 14 months and bringing us another 5 properties, which we bought in Queensland.

It's now Melanie that we are calling to find us more money so we can continue our spending spree. As our confidence and knowledge grows, we are finding more positively geared property, we are very passionate about motivating anyone who is remotely interested in property investing. After all we both stumbled into it.

Through meeting the right people who have mentored us and helped us on our way, we like to share our experiences and to encourage others who are also interested in property. To anyone who is thinking of taking the next step, but is a little cautious, you are not alone.

Thanks to the Crows Nest team, who are always there to assist.

Several years ago, we read Margaret's books and joined Destiny. We already owned our home in Windsor and an investment property in Bray Park. It took us a few years to get started due to career changes and health issues. After scouring the country and performing untold analysis, we settled on a house in Emerald. For those of you who are hesitating - it's just like getting pickles out of a jar, the first one is hard, and the rest come easy.

Then we bought in Whyalla just as the Gateway branch inconveniently closed but thanks to the team at the Virtual branch we got it over the line. After we met Carolyn and the Gold Coast team, the decision to transfer was a no brainer. At the monthly investment networking meetings we've learned many interesting tips and tricks from Carolyn and other investors. This has helped us source and decide on properties faster and with more confidence. Mixing with like-minded people is both encouraging and positive and keeps our goals focused and energised.

We both approach decisions about property, and everything important in life, from very different angles. So it's really important for us to have an independent advisor who's on the same page as both of us. That unique person is Carolyn and when all three of us agree on a property we know it's a winner and we act accordingly.

With each property we've gained more confidence in our decisions, in our research, in each other and in the team we choose to work with. In the last six months we've bought another house in Emerald and a unit in Newstead and we plan to buy another 5 or more before we retire (it's a long way off for Karen but only 5 years for Kerry… he wishes!).

Some words of wisdom? If you plan on investing in multiple properties make sure you set up a records management system that you and your spouse can both access. We agreed on a paper filing system and have clear responsibilities about who does what. Each new property gets a new file set up in the same format so stuff can be found easily.

About 10 years ago we started looking at property investment, but like many couples we'd heard horror stories and became too scared to take the plunge. When we moved to Victoria for a 3 year work contract in 2004 we bought a property thinking that it could become a long term investment once we moved on but this ended up a bad decision that set us back quite a bit. When we moved back to the Gold Coast in 2007 our accountant advised us to buy an investment property worth 'x' amount to reduce our tax, but he just couldn't help us with the where, when, how, etc.

Frankly we were frightened of jumping in and losing everything we'd worked so hard for and so we did nothing for years. Then we came across Margaret Lomas on 'Your Money Your Call', she made property investing sound much less risky than we had imagined and her 20 Questions had us intrigued.

We met with Carolyn Walshe at the Gold Coast branch and she explained what Destiny was about and how their program would give us the education and tools that we were craving. We started our Essential Property Education course in Feb / Mar 2011.

Our confidence grew rapidly during the course. Now we finally understood how we could use equity, how to run cash flows, all the facts and figures on house prices, rents, vacancy rates, regions, the risks and most importantly taking the emotion out of purchasing investment property. Before the course had finished we'd purchased a house in Andrews Farm SA and a duplex pair in Kearsley NSW. Since then we've bought another house in Gracemere, Qld.

The knowledge we gain every time we talk with Carolyn is priceless. We no longer feel that property investing is high risk for us because we're armed with all the information and support to make informed decisions and Destiny is always there to help us. We enjoy putting in the research when we know that our future will be more secure than if we hadn't taken the plunge.

Our advice to people is do it right - do the Destiny course, educate yourself. It's fun, it's a fantastic journey and the knowledge you gain is powerful. We're getting ready to buy again, just as soon as our house renovation is complete!