Frequently Asked Questions
What does Smart Property do?
Smart Property is a new kind of property research and property investment firm that works with both regular and SMSF investors to create and execute a data-driven property investment strategy, tailored to your current situation, goals and risk profile.
Most property investment companies are little more than commission-based salespeople for developers – often the developers who pay the most commission.
Smart Property is different – we’re not allied to any one developer or project, but instead scour the Australian marketplace for the best properties available to suit your situation.
How do you help property investors?
We help investors build a sound, tax-efficient property investment strategy. Then we help you execute on your strategy by acquiring high-performance investment properties according to your plan.
We believe an effective investment property plan needs three components:
1. The right structure: the correct ownership structure is often much more tax efficient, lower-cost and flexible than alternatives. By contrast, buying property in the wrong structure can be extremely costly and inconvenient to unwind.
2. The right funding: almost all property investors use debt funding to help build their portfolio. The right funding approach can be more tax efficient, more flexible and much cheaper in the long run.
3. The right property: most investment properties are, by definition, average. We use a broad range of data analysis tools and approaches to help locate properties that we believe are likely to outperform the broader market and deliver outsized returns to investors.
How are you different from all the other property investment companies?
Most property investment companies have vested interests that aren’t aligned with your interests as the client. For example:
1. some subscribe to only a single strategy (e.g. “positive cash flow”, “negative gearing” or “renovation” — and shoe-horn all clients into that strategy, regardless of whether or not it is appropriate for their circumstances.
2. others only sell properties for certain developers… which may be the developers that pay the most sales commission, leading to over-inflated prices.
3. still others provide advice or strategies, but they really only deal with one piece of the puzzle because they can’t actually connect the dots toward property with a strong prognosis to outperform the market as a whole.
On the other hand, Smart Property has been designed from the ground up to be completely aligned with investor success:
1. we do not subscribe to any single property investment strategy. Rather, we choose the strategy to fit your situation and goals.
2. while we do hand-pick properties for the consideration of investors in order to save you time and money, you are not limited to properties already known to us – in fact, we give you access to any property on the market in Australia via our buyer’s agency service.
3. we provide you with professional structuring and finance advice to ensure your entire property strategy is optimal. The right property in the wrong structure can deliver a poor result.
Why do you focus on data-driven property investment?
Some property investment advocates say, “just buy property – it always goes up in value”.
We don’t subscribe to this view. Some property may be an extremely poor investment. For example, if you bought apartments in mining towns at the peak of the mining boom, you may never recoup your investment.
So it’s not enough to just “buy property”. You have to buy property with the highest chance of outperforming the market as a whole.
To identify such property, we don’t rely on gut feel – we employ a range of data sources to identify, shortlist and validate our assumptions with the goal of helping our clients buy property that outperform median house price growth by at least 2% p.a.
We do all the number-crunching for you, and present you with our findings so you can reap the benefits.
What kind of clients do you work with?
Our client base is varied, but in general our clients meet some or all of the following criteria:
Already like property as an investment class: most of our clients feel some affinity for property already. They’re not looking for us to “convince” them they should invest in property – they’re looking for the right way to go about it.Time-poor: many of our investors are business owners or busy professionals who spend a lot of time and energy on their careers, with too little focus on building wealth and real assets.Feel they pay too much tax: Australia’s tax system is very hard on highly productive people – with a top marginal income tax rate of 49%. The right property investment strategy can significantly ease your tax burden and get your money working for, not against, you.Where are your clients based?
Our clients are based from all over Australia, plus Australian residents living abroad. We are used to liaising with clients via phone and email, as well as face to face.
How much do your services cost?
We offer a range of services, with differing fee structures.
Where we act as a property investment advisor and introduce appropriate property(s) to you as the investor, we are paid by the property vendor according to standard industry rates.Where we act as buyer’s agent, we charge a percentage fee based on your search instructions and success criteria.Where we act as development manager for prospective investors who want to manufacture equity, we charge a development management fee and/or success fee.We disclose all fees and charges up front in a completely transparent way.
Will your recommendations interfere with what I’m currently doing?
Far from interfering, we aim to align with and enhance your existing investment strategy. However in many cases we find that clients either don’t have an active wealth creation strategy in play, or they are have a sub-optimal strategy that needs revising.
Whatever your situation, we aim to help you reach your goals in the most efficient and effective way possible.
Do you tend to work with new or established property investors?
We work with both new and established property investors.
For new investors, often the biggest hurdle is taking the first step. We’re here to walk you through the process and make it easy, lucrative and fun.
Existing investors may have more complex situations and/or a different set of concerns and challenges. In this case we look to build on what you already have, and potentially offer you more in the way of property investment and development options.
What’s your process for working with a new potential client?
We always start with a low-key exploratory chat to discuss your situation and what you’re looking to achieve. We’ll answer any questions you may have, and if we think we may be a good fit, explain more about how we might be able to help you.
Then if you’re happy for us to do so, we arrange for you to speak with a property structuring specialist who is also a chartered accountant, and also speak to our finance specialist to determine borrowing capacity and the optimal funding strategy.
Once we’ve done these things, we shortlist potential investment properties that align with the outcomes of your structuring and finance discussions.
Then once you’re completely happy with what we propose, we execute what we have agreed in an efficient and hassle-free manner.
Ready to find out more? Contact us for a free, no-obligation exploratory chat.
