My first property investment (Part III – Forming the right team)

My first property investment  – This is the 3rd series of my property investment guide (See Part I:The Introduction and Part II: Choosing the right property if you missed them out).

In a property investment, you can’t do it alone. You need to have a team and the team has to be a strong one. I’ll explain who do you need in the team and what to expect from them.

The people or team needed for property investment

(1) Consultant
This is probably the main person that will be in contact with you during the whole process. He/She will be the one who introduced you to property investing. You need to be able to trust this person a hundred percent. Most of your key-making decision will be highly influenced by your consultant. I trust mine 100% and since I have no knowledge whatsoever with property investing before, she is very important to me (luckily, she is actually a good friend of mine, which also affects my trust)

(2) Financier
This person should be in charge of your financial in and out. No, I’m not saying that you need to give him/her your bank account and ask him/her to take care of it. Your Financier is the one who will analyse your current financial situation: How much money are you making per month? What are your assets? What are your current liabilities? If you are going to invest on property A, will your financial suffer?

Everyone has a different “borrowing capacity”, i.e. how much money can you borrow from the bank. Since my financier is also my mortgage broker, he also helps me in finding the right mortgage plan from banks. You don’t want to go in a property investment only to find out later that you won’t be able to continue on.

(3) Solicitor
Once you have chosen a property to invest, you will be given a contract. You ARE NOT supposed to understand the contract. Trust me, I’ve tried! Unless you are studying law, chance is that you will see a lot of jargons in there. It’s the same thing when you are trying to explain what an Internet is to your mom or dad (assuming they are non IT illiterate like mine ). You need to find a solicitor to read and make sure that your contract is okay. When looking for a solicitor, try looking for the one who’s specialised in property investing law area. Preferably, the solicitor is also doing one and already owns a few houses. This way, he/she will know the game inside out. Oh, don’t forget to find a solicitor that charges you on a package rate too (charged a fixed amount of fee for the whole process), unless you want to be charged $200 per hour just by hearing him/her babbling around.
When something bad happens, the solicitor will also be the one that helps you in dealing with it (in regards to the contracts)

(4) Accountant
Last but not least, an accountant. You probably won’t need an accountant on the early state though. The accountant will be responsible on all of your tax return enquiries and he/she will be in charge in maximising your tax return. Just like a solicitor, it is preferable to have an accountant who already has an experience in dealing with property investment. You should only need to meet the accountant once a year, during the tax return. Assuming you keep all of your receipts and invoices in an organised way, the visit should be a short one.

Good luck in forming your team!