Auctioneer shares his funniest property experiences in over 15 years

“The boarding house was being used by escorts. I remember having the agent take me through the property. I had to look at each room, and it was like a 30-, 40-bedroom boarding house,” he said. “There were prostitutes at work there and they thought I’d come along as a client, and they told me to wait in line.”

This experience has been one of his constant reminders, both as an auctioneer and a property investor, to always conduct a formal inspection on a property before putting up for sale. On a different day a couple of years ago, Tom proudly invited every TV channel and every newspaper company he could get in touch with to cover a special property auction. As they are nearing the conclusion of the auction, rain and hail started pouring, leaving only two persistent bidders to vie for the property.

“I kept going and … people started leaving,” Tom shared. “In the end, a crowd of 350 ended up being me, the agent, and the two final bidders moving into the front bedroom. Just ourselves, drenched, fighting it out in $1,000 bids.”

“[It] sold well," he says, "It was always going to sell well because it’s a landmark property.”

Tom believes that property investors who want to succeed in the business of creating wealth need only to understand their goals and find the strategy that would work best for them.

Dedication and passion can help anyone go a long way in their journey – after all, it will never be possible to succeed overnight because, as in any business venture, property investment is a long-term journey to afford a more financially secure and stable future for yourselves and your loved ones.

“I factor that I’m going to spend a little bit of money in the house-hunting journey. That money is not a cost – it’s an investment. I actually understand that I’m going to invest money … to actually buy a property, but it’s going to buy me a better property. I’ll get the value of that property in the years to come,” Tom concluded.

Tune in to Tom Panos’ episode on The Smart Property Investment Show to know more about what many investors are doing wrong, how you can outsmart other buyers, and how to find and secure bargains even in hot markets.