Читать книгу Buy Now - Lloyd Edge - Страница 19

I own a buyer's agency called Aus Property Professionals, but being a buyer's agent isn't really what I do, and it's not what I tell people I do. What I offer my clients is the means to achieve an outcome, which is the end goal they themselves have identified. So when people ask me what I do, I tell them I actually create lifestyle choices for people by helping them to create the equity that will eventually allow them to realise their dreams.

This is about much more than buying property. From my perspective, property is just the vehicle. Property, the stock market, gold or oil — they're all just vehicles. It's the outcome that's important.

Success comes down to really knowing your why — what you're trying to achieve. What are your goals in life? What sorts of lifestyle choices do you want to be able to make in the future? Once you're clear on the truly important things, then we can talk about crafting a strategy to enable you to achieve those goals through property.

Clients often come to me not really knowing what they want or why they want it. They may have been to a couple of property seminars, but they haven't taken the plunge yet. They may say, ‘Yeah, I want to enjoy financial freedom through property’ or ‘I just want to grow a property portfolio’. I can tell you from firsthand experience that building a property portfolio is useless unless you know what it is going to achieve for you. How many properties do you want? More importantly, why? If financial independence is your key goal, what does that even look like for you?

Scan the QR code for a spreadsheet to help you set your goals.

These days I start the conversation by asking a lot of questions about my clients' motivations to get them thinking. Do you have kids? Do you want kids? Do you need extra funds to pay for their education or to be able to afford an annual family holiday without worrying about where the money is going to come from? Do you have a home mortgage? Is owning your home mortgage-free important for you, or are you aiming for your dream home and the ability to pay that off? And I have them put it all down on paper.

Working through all those ideas, and thinking about the whys that drive your life now and those you want to drive your future, will move your understanding one step forward. If you've never asked yourself these questions, the answers will give you the clarity you need to move in the right direction. When you know what you want, you become clearer about what you don't want.

If you have a goal of, say, $100 000 a year in passive income, or paying off your home mortgage, or putting your kids through a private-school education, we can work out how to deliver that and build a roadmap around that. Then we can start formulating the strategy that will get you there.