After 10 years hosting Your Money Your Call, Your Property Empire and more recently Smart Investing for the final show on 24th Sept 2018 I wanted to bring the best tips gleaned after almost 500 shows. Here are my thoughts on the tips we’re sharing.

For the final show, I'm joined by Charles Tarbey, Chairman and Owner of Century 21 and Rob Southwell, Managing Partner of Pitcher Partners Accountants & Advisors 

Charles’s Tip 1: Call your Agent, don’t wait for them to call you – Good properties always well even in a tough market. Your ability to buy the best properties that tick all of your boxes comes down to the relationships you have with the local agents so take the lead and make sure they always think of you first when they list that perfect property.

Rob’s Tip 1: Use offset accounts to build a cash buffer – you typically only lose money in property if you’re forced to sell in the short term and so build a cash buffer to help you with any unforeseen drops in rent, rising interest rates, loss of job, strata special levies or maintenance issues. Storing it in your offset account helps to reduce your mortgage repayments

Chris’s Tip 1: Buy when you can afford to buy – You will never get (1) High growth, (2) High rents, (3) Low interest rates, (4) Easy to borrow from the bank and (5) Easy to buy property all at the same time and so buy (1) when you have the deposit and (2) the buffer to hold on to the long term. As long as you’re buying at a fair price, I wouldn’t worry about trying to pick the peaks and troughs of the market, as even the experts can’t

Charles’s Tip 2: Maintain relationships with Brokers and Bankers – Trying to get finance is one of the toughest issues faced by home owners and investors these days and so the relationship you have with your bank or broker could mean the difference between pushing forward or being forced to sell. Plan well in advance as things are taking 2 – 3 times longer than normal.

Rob’s Tip 2: Identify all your major risks and deal with them early – Most things in a property investors journey are controllable and so be prepared. If you buy the right property, in the right area, for the right price and you present in the best condition with the best property manager, you should always get paid 90-100% of what it’s worth. That rent should cover most of the mortgage. For any gap, make sure you build enough cash buffer so that when interest rates rise, if you lose your job, there’s a special levy or some major maintenance, you’ll have enough money to hold on. Find the best mortgage broker you can and have the ability to fix your loan if you really need to.

Chris’s Tip 2: Buy blue chip – We all now the phrase location, location, location and it’s been around for decades for a reason. The market is turning now with many properties dropping in value but many median priced, blue chip properties in blue chip suburbs are standing firm. If you buy quality property, it will often rise by more in the good times and fall by less in the bad times.

Charles’s Tip 3: Focus on Capital growth ahead of rental return – Whilst having a higher rental return does make it easier to cover the mortgage and the rest of the bills, it’s unlikely to make you rich as you pay tax on any positive income. Whereas capital growth or a property doubling from $500k to $1m or $1m to $2m will really add something to your retirement fund. Capital growth is only taxed when you sell and often you can extract the equity with minimal costs by refinancing and use that to continue to build your portfolio.

Rob’s Tip 3: Use multiple lenders – Many borrowers think that if they have all their loans with the one lender they’ll get a better deal on mortgage rates but it’s often not the case. It can actually be the opposite in that it creates a risk if one or more of your properties drop in value or you go, if they consider it too much risk when the market turns or if you sell one and they keep any profit to offset against the other loans.

Chris’s Tip 3: Always get a valuation – It’s very easy to fall in love with a home or investment and to pay the wrong price, especially if you’re competing at auction. By getting an independent full valuation where the valuer spends 2-3 hours inspecting the property and doing his research on comparative properties, you’ll almost guarantee you’ll never overpay for a property.

Rob’s Tip 4: Get good advice and follow it! – experts are experts for a reason – they’ve often spent over 10,000 practising and studying their subject to become that specialist. Half the country gets their advice from friends and family that aren’t qualified to give advice. The other quarter get specialist advice but then don’t follow it. And that only leaves 25% of the country that get the advice, pay for it and then heed and implement it. They’re probably the 25% most wealthy people (in time, freedom and money) in the country.

Chris’s Tip 4: Just Do It – you’re never going to know everything and so don’t wait until you’ve got perfect knowledge before making your move as you’re going to miss the market. Some education is very advisable as following a few tips will ensure that you’re not going to go too far wrong. At some point you’re going to need to jump in though. Sure, you might make the odd mistake but often it’s not that bad if and when it does eventuate.

In the last 10 years on Sky News Business, we’ve been joined by some amazing experts from around the country and from some of the best real estate and research businesses. Over that time, we’ve gone through booms and we’ve gone through a Global Financial Crisis. I still believe the market has been similar, especially in the median priced blue-chip market. There’s never been any stock and there’s always be a certain level of demand. Property is what you make of it and you can profit in any market.

Related reading:

House versus unit: Which is the better investment?

My advice to first time property investors

How to address the misconceptions of the real estate industry