Client Success Stories

I first made contact with Destiny's Adelaide office in 2009 after reading one of Margaret Lomas's books that was lent to me through a friend who was a Destiny client. The book's content made so much sense in its reasoning behind finding positive cash flow properties that I wanted to learn more. I work as a Project Co-ordinator for Veolia Water in Victoria.

After reading the first book and contacting the Kent Town office, which at the time was undergoing new management, I attended my first seminar with Margaret Lomas in Adelaide. This again made perfect sense in the reasoning behind buying near or positive cash flow properties. I met Chris Sedgmen the new Adelaide Branch Manager, during the same evening. Soon after I met with Chris at the Adelaide office, where Chris explained how I could fund my property portfolio and complete a financial plan. I soon after became a Destiny Client eager to learn more and invest wisely in the property market.

Our first investment property was purchased some six months after joining Destiny and attending Destiny's property education course and attending the property action team meetings on a monthly basis. I completed vast amounts of research in trying to find the "best" investment property for me and my family that would give us financial freedom in the future. Finding the areas and the properties was one thing, but actually making the next step was a massive hurdle for me, as I had always tried in my life to pay off my debts in particular my mortgage, so the thought of increasing my personal debt was alien to me. I overcame my fears in realising that my actual debt remained the same if you subtracted your assets from your debt. I now to date have three investment properties with a fourth going through.

My advice for Destiny clients is to always consider your investment properties as just that. You will never live in the property, or may indeed never visit them. Treat them as you would with say, stocks and shares - you would never visit the blue chip companies. Take all the emotion out of your investment research. When you are putting an offer forward put not one but multiple offers on many properties, that way your emotion is removed, you are not concentrating on one property. In that way, you will end up paying less and can decide which ones you wish to go through with.

I'm Graham Binder and my wife is Jan Henderson. We wanted to invest in real estate for many years, but felt we couldn't afford to as we were both raising children as single parents. When we were finally able to get together 8 years ago, we liked the idea of investing but didn't have the income as Jan was at Uni full time, working towards a doctorate in Psychology.

Once Jan was earning though, the opportunity presented itself; however we didn't have much of an idea how to go about it. One day, quite by accident, I was leafing through books at the local library when I stumbled across "The Truth about Positive Cash Flow Property." Scanning the introduction, Margaret explained how you can use debt to make money through property investing. That was the pivotal point! In those few paragraphs I understood the concept that debt wasn't something to be feared but used as a tool. I discussed it with Jan who thought investing was a great idea.

We had no plan on how to start with property investment so we paid Destiny Joondalup a visit. They drew up a detailed analysis report and we were delighted when we discovered we had enough equity in our home to start investing immediately. We were thinking of a single property but the financial report ambitiously recommended 6 in the first year! We must admit we were a bit sceptical. After attending the Destiny introductory sessions, we learnt the basics and started searching the internet for cash flow property. It was still a big step to make, but the Destiny team were there with advice and support when we needed it.

Getting our fist property was still a scary experience - a bit like stepping off a cliff. We found a little 2 bedroom home in Mildura that ticked all the boxes and in August 2009 we were on the first rung of the ladder. That was the hardest purchase.

In the next 12 months we purchased another unit in Sydney, a house in Kempsey and 2 townhouses in the Logan Shire, Brisbane.

Our latest project is building a home in Mandurah which will keep us busy for the next 6 months or so. Although we are confident this will be a valuable addition to our portfolio, it was a surprise how much effort and chasing about is required just to get the first brick laid. What we hadn't realised was that it has soaked up our equity, preventing us from getting any more property until it's completed. It's frustrating not being able to take advantage of the current buyers market.

We are delighted with the progress we've made in the past year and can't wait to get moving again. We have 3 pieces of advice:

1. Watch Margaret's TV property shows each Sunday on Sky Business Channel. They are excellent and a gold mine of current information.
2. Make sure you use her '20 Must Ask Questions' to sort the wheat from the chaff.
3. Don't get fixated on a property and always stick to your budget. Remember 'the deal of a lifetime comes around every week'.

My wife and I have been travelling around the world for some years, and as a result we did not have much in the way of pension funds. We needed to do something for our retirement and one of the things we thought of was property. After going to various dodgy investment seminars, with the odd property investment shark, my wife happened to read Margaret's Twenty Must-Ask Questions book and really liked it. We then visited a Melbourne Destiny branch where we met Louise and her team. From that first meeting we were both very impressed by the people we met and what they had to say about investing in property.

Through being Destiny clients, with all their mentoring, support and coaxing, we have been buying wisely in a fairly short space of time. We own five good investment properties and three months ago we paid off our home loan. If I was told we could achieve this two years ago I would not have believed it - but we did!

We would both highly recommend Louise Lucas and the team at Destiny to any one keen to succeed in life, love and property. Thanks Destiny, keep up the great work!

We first visited Alex at Destiny Sydney in August 2008. Our aim at the time was to develop a financial plan, other than superannuation, and become less reliant on full time employment. We also wanted a plan we could stick to and which would not hinder our day to day lifestyle. Alex discussed with us the opportunity to build a property investment portfolio using the equity we had in our own home.

I had read lots of property investing books from various authors but I wasn't convinced that their methods were for us. However, after reading every Margaret Lomas book, I felt comfortable with her philosophy and systematic approach to creating wealth.

In the beginning, we found it difficult to settle on a region to focus on. The thought of making those first calls to agents was also daunting. After lengthy investigation online in different areas, we purchased our first property in January 2009 followed by our second in April 2009 - both sight unseen. Illness during the next 12 months hindered our progression. However, we're now back on track and have just signed up for our third property.

Diversification has been part of our strategy. Our first property was an 8 year old, 3 bedroom plus study home in Mildura, regional Victoria. The second was a new 4 bedroom plus study home in Point Cook, a suburb of Melbourne, and our latest one is a 3 bedroom townhouse off the plan in Oxley, a suburb of Brisbane. This will be a new experience for us.

We changed tact slightly from our original plan of buying more properties at lower value, as two of our investments are new. However, our total borrowing is similar. Our aim is to have a balanced portfolio of both positive cash flow properties with some high growth investments whilst ensuring we can service the loans. A key factor of this strategy is obtaining tax variations from the ATO. We look forward to continuing to grow our portfolio with the help of Alex, Sandra and the team at Destiny Sydney.

My name is Roz and I live in Albany with my husband Graham and our three teenage children. We joined Destiny about a year and a half ago after a family member recommended them to us. My husband and I wanted to create a way to provide for our retirement down the track and allow us to be able to eventually retire from our upholstery business. Being self-employed in a small business, we found there was not a lot of 'extra' income to put into a super fund. We knew we had to do something else to give us an enjoyable retirement. Maybe property investing was something that we could learn, do the research and ultimately become really good at?

We initially looked at another property investing group/club but it didn't take us very long to feel like the process was being taken out of our hands. They didn't make it easy for us to understand the whole process and we weren't comfortable with the system that they use. After reading one of Margaret Lomas' books, some through investigation and the recommendation of a family member, we found and started with Destiny.

We could see that our investment goals were well aligned with the Destiny program. We armed ourselves with as much knowledge and understanding as possible, and although it was a really hectic and busy time for us, we soon bought our first property which was a small block of units! I was very keen and wanted to surround myself with other like-minded people so I joined the Perth branch. The support from the team there has also been great!

We are currently finalising our second investment property in NSW and we are enjoying the challenges and learning curves of property investing.

My name is Adrian Fiorito. I'm 24 years old have worked for the past three years as a Radiographer. I also have an extra part-time job in the same profession. My second job is intertwined with my investment goals, as I saw fit to work hard while I can, and reap the benefits later.

I have been interested in property for as long as I can remember. I keep an open mind about investing, and therefore I am not afraid to endeavour into all aspects of it, but I took a liking to property investment because it seemed less subject to volatility than other asset classes. However, one thing that concerned me was liquidity. This is a concern that Destiny helped me understand. Many young or inexperienced investors get drawn in by promises of capital growth and rent returns. Few do adequate research into the area to discover sound growth drivers or calculate real returns. Destiny helped me to realise both. While my investment knowledge is still in its infancy, the Destiny team have also nudged me forward to research into areas that really interest me, like the macro-economy and Reserve Bank policies.

I look to the future with one word in mind - Liberty. The liberty to work when I want; the liberty to invest when I want; the liberty to do what I want to do, and when I want to do it. In order to achieve this goal, I must stay active as an investor, stay motivated by supportive people and become financially literate.

I am disturbed by my generation - that is generation 'Y' of today's times. Most will never realise the benefits of securing financial freedom by saving and investing. Most instead prefer to spend and consume; a practice that without doubt will never result in the future I aspire to. Most young people today look to cars and lifestyle, ignorant they are to what tomorrow may bring.

Fortunately I did some research before selecting investment advisers - Destiny proved to be the best in philosophy, research, and support by far in comparison to other companies in the field. I thank Destiny for the revision of my original investment strategy, from one of relying on projected capital growth and risk, to one of cash flow and security. As a result of this I have secured my first two investment properties in less than a year, and currently looking for more property to help to march towards liberty.