What you need to know about working with professionals

By getting myriad opinions, he was able to get a good grasp on the fundamentals of property investment—which essentially is the very foundation of a strong portfolio for wealth-creation.

He said: “If you're starting out on something, it's important to get those foundational aspects correct so you get a good platform to leverage off.”

“It's the same in sport. If you're not doing the basic things—fitness, skills improvement, strength conditioning or eating the right food and getting enough sleep—at some point in time, that will come back to bite you,” Mr Abood added.

Considering the important role that these professionals will play in your journey, he encouraged his fellow investors to take their time in building their investment team.

Forming your A-Team

One of the first professionals he sought after was a buyer’s agent. But before he could pick his perfect match, Mr Abood went through four agents.

While all of them are certainly great at what they do, he ended up picking someone that understood him as an investor—from his strategies goals to his personal financial capabilities and limitations.

How did he arrive at a final decision? Honesty.

The investor explained: “We had an open and honest chat about where I was and what I wanted to do, and I saw how they responded to that.”

Mr Abood believes that it is important to establish a relationship with your team and build on trust and respect for one another—and there’s no better way to cultivate that than to engage in honest and open dialogues.

His decision to employ a certain agent was basically grounded on how their conversations went: Can they see eye-to-eye? Are they on the same page?

He said: “The reason I liked the way that Steve, my buyer’s agent, responded was they planned out in pretty realistic terms [of] what my journey would look like and what we'd need to do to get to where [I] want to be."

“It was just very clear. I'm a big fan of being clear and having clarity on what you're moving forward on,” the investor highlighted.

Being in control

Of course, having professionals work with you does not mean that you can forego education and research, according to Mr Abood.

“It's not as simple as going and handing over all responsibility to someone. It's about nearly making the decision yourself but having those people come in and complement what you're doing,” he said.

Mr Abood highlights the importance of consistent and continuous self-education as an important ingredient to success, whichever career you choose to pursue. Property investment, in particular, is an ever-changing landscape with several processes that may or may not be set in stone, which means that there is always something to learn.

Your team will serve as your guide towards understanding the venture and navigating your way through its ins and outs, which could undoubtedly be complicated at times. But at the end of the day, you always have the final say.

His final advice for his fellow investors: Learn as much as you can throughout your journey, whether it be through resources like books, websites and magazines or through the wisdom of experienced investors and property professionals,

According to him: “You can never learn everything and that's why I'm always really keen to meet people like yourself and others that've been in the industry longer and have walked that path—learn what they're doing, why and how.”

“If you can sort of see what people have done before you and see how they're going about it, you can learn a lot. You can even benchmark yourself against those people to strive to where, to get to where they are,” he concluded.

Tune in to Matt Abood’s episode on The Smart Property Investment Show to find out how his sporting career inspired his values as a property investor.