Should you ‘DIY’ your property portfolio?

“I wish it was that simple… There’s never enough hours in the day to gather all the information you’d like to gather, and then interpret it, and then go digging to find answers to more questions,” he explained.

The managing director understands that property investment could not simply be a hobby; it’s a profession.

“We could all do our own tax return or be our own lawyer, but you often get what you pay for, especially with the important things in life,” he said. “We could be a DIY doctor and try to self-diagnose a pain in the stomach or get on doctor Google and the symptoms would range from indigestion to bowel cancer. One of those possibilities is pretty significant, the others will pass with a bit of Panadol.”

It could be tempting to build a property portfolio without the help of any property professional, especially considering the amount of information available for free nowadays, but it takes picking the best quality of information to actually succeed in property investment. The best way to jump-start one’s property investment journey, according to Simon, is to partner with the right professional who understands their goals as well as their capabilities and limitations as an investor.

“How do you know what’s a good quality information [or] what’s been written with a vested interest or what someone’s reputation is? The most important decision a consumer can make lies in [partnership] with that right professional,” Simon said. “If there’s a really important decision for [me] to make, I’m going to focus on finding the most skilled person I can to help me make that and then support them… Results tend to take care of itself after that.”

Smart Property Investment’s Phil Tarrant, who is an avid investor himself, agrees that investing in professional services is one of the best decisions he has made as a property investor. According to him, he was able to build a good property portfolio because his financial team helped him make the best decisions.

“Your portfolio’s only as good as the underlying assets that sit within it,” Phil said.

While property investors absolutely have the freedom to build their portfolios by themselves, Phil reminded them that it takes commitment to be able to acquire the knowledge necessary to make good and smart decisions.

“My recommendation to my listeners that want to do it by themselves is [to] digest as much data as you can… It’s all available on our website and all over the place, but as Simon said, this is data that has happened. You’re not forecasting into the future,” Phil said. “Go and have some fun and burn the shoe leather, [but] you’re going to have to commit to it; that requires committing to your education first and foremost, and then using that education to translate into buying decisions.”

Tune in to Simon Pressley’s episode on The Smart Property Investment Show to know more about the inside track on current market conditions as well as a forecast for what’s to come.