Today we share a sad story with you. Sandy wrote to me with a tale that we can all learn from. “BUYER BEWARE” as Sandy says.  We could also say that if it looks too good it generally is. We get expert comment on Sandy’s situation from Shannon Davis who says he sees this all too often.

We are seeing some alarming statistics about methamphetamine contamination in Australian properties.  In NZ, property screening has shown contamination in 50% of all properties tested. So, what are your tenants up to and how can you tell and protect yourself.  We get all the facts today.

Damian Collins from Western Australia is a guest today as we reflect back on that market in 2016, the lessons that came from it and Damian tells us that there is some good news on the horizon.

Have you ever been tempted to broaden your investment horizons by getting into commercial property? Well anyone who has done it will tell you it is vastly different from investing in residential property. Michael Yardney gives us the lowdown on that and tells us about some of his personal experiences.

We are joined by the queen of renovation – Cherie Barber - who last year predicted that the inner ring cap city markets would be more subdued and her recommendation was to take a ‘cookie cutter’ approach to renovation. She expands on that this year and tells us why we should be the last ones to get bored with a uniform approach to property renos.

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Transcripts:
A sad spruker story - BUYERS BEWARE - Shannon Davis
Kevin:  I’m going to feature a question that came in – well, probably not so much a question as more a comment or a statement from Sandy, who shares an experience with us that I want to share with you because I think there’s a lot of lessons inside this.

“Kevin, just writing about an unsuccessful investing experience.” This is Sandy writing this message. “I really enjoy the success stories of others but here’s one from the other side.

“I’ve been interested in property for about 10 years and currently have 11 properties. It sounds reasonable on paper and could be marketed in a magazine as a success story if you stopped there. But the reality is I’ve hardly any equity in those properties and all of them have underperformed in terms of their equivalents in even good markets like Sydney, and the majority are in dismally performing areas.”

“How did I get myself into this situation?” asks Sandy. “I got spruiked. I blame myself and not the spruiker. Buyer beware, although I feel like there was a breach of trust in this process. I joined a well-known real estate mentoring group and was sold what I now realize overpriced, undesirable developer stock. There was little transparency in the process of the commissions the sales agent posing as a real estate mentor received.

“I’m now in the process of taking a $250,000-plus hit to steady the ship and start again, this time in the inner ring areas of the four major capital cities and most likely pay a buyer’s agent a fee to find me something that ticks all the boxes – an expensive learning process and one that I would feel much better about had I chosen these properties myself, rather than pay for a mentoring program and then pay much more dearly for biased advice. Once again, buyer beware.”

Sandy says that she writes this as a warning to many of those looking at joining certain groups with underlying vested interests to sell you certain properties.

“Kevin, thank you for a great show. I listen to it regularly and religiously, and I find all your guests very interest