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Building courage: it's all about mindset

Renovating, building and developing for profit is actually more a mindset game than anything else. Most of us understand the concepts of housing and improving value and while we might not know all of the ins and outs we do understand that:

• everyone needs somewhere to live
• over time property will increase in value.

In Australia, our home is our haven, our safety net, and many of us have been brought up with the great Australian dream of owning property?-?specifically, owning property that offers a passive rental income as well as capital growth.

We know we need to build wealth and that the way to do this is to invest (more to come on this topic). However, 2024 data from Michael Yardney's website propertyupdate.com.au reveals that only 20 per cent of Australians own an investment property. Within that 20 per cent the split looks like this:

• 71.5 per cent of investors hold one investment property
• 18 per cent of investors hold two investment properties
• 9.7 per cent of investors hold three, four or five investment properties
• 0.8 per cent (or 19?895) investors hold six or more investment properties.

To compound this issue, women are behind in the property ownership stakes.

So, if we understand the concept of investing and wealth creation, why are more of us not acting? The primary constraints that people tell us about at BuildHer Collective are:

• time to work on a project?-?we are all so busy
• money?-?capital to invest
• knowledge?-?knowing what to do!

Now, when you look at the investment percentages quoted above take into account renovations and developments for short-term profit; however, most of them will be long-term holding properties.

Long-term investing is the topic for another book. Our focus here will be to look at strategies to effectively manufacture growth and wealth through property development and renovation to increase the value of your property in order to build your wealth and capital quickly. Or relatively quickly, I should say, as I don't teach or preach quick, low-return flips, which are both exhausting, and risky when you have an educated buyer pool. We will introduce you to the skills that you need to develop properties, but this is only a snapshot of each area you will need to be knowledgeable in. Each project you complete has a range of scenarios and problems to solve, there is no one size fits all. What we teach is how to ask the right questions and to have a base level understanding which enables you to seek answers.

I will be looking at ways you can renovate for profit?-?that is, increase the sale price of a property by adding real value, strategically. There are many ways you can do this, including:

• cosmetic renovations
• structural renovations and extensions
• changing the use of a property
• subdivision
• plans and permits.

But before I begin with the detail, I need to start with the big picture. Why are you here and what are you looking to gain during this process?

Goals and financial planning

In this game, it's the destination that so many people lack a vision for.

What is the destination for you? I know we all often talk about what our goals are for the next year or 5 years, but what is the end game here if we start earlier? Is this only something that becomes important enough to think about when you have just 5 or 10 years up your sleeve before you retire? Or perhaps you might want to start the game early, when you have time to action it.

One of my favourite games is to imagine and plan what will be 'enough'. And yes, this is different for everyone. And no, I don't care if you are greedy here and you let your mind wander?.?what I do care about is the 'why' and the action plan.

But what is all this effort and planning ahead for?

For me and my family this is about knowing that we will be protected and have enough money to enjoy our future. To be able to look after not just ourselves but our children too. To know that we can age without the stress of money, and have the freedom of time. I love showing other people (especially women) that some of these concepts are not difficult, that a little effort will give a big reward. I also think there is so much competing noise that it can be hard to plan for the future when current lifestyle pressures are already a lot. We like to challenge the accepted norms that somehow we buy into without realising that we are doing so.

Are you going to spend your life working to pay off your home and then live off your super, which is controlled by the government? Are you planning to live off the age pension?

Here is the game: the 'What do I want and what do I need?' game. And there is a genuinely logical way to play it. Get ready to make your financial plan, my friends.

This financial plan is a simple one that doesn't factor in everything. It is not a replacement for a financial planner, nor is it a comprehensive plan; however, it will be a plan to get you started and to get you thinking!

Why do I love this? Because it is a base?-?something to build on?-?and it is so much better than the lack of a plan that most people have.

Your planning begins with a couple of questions. I'd like you to answer them quickly and without overthinking?-?you can always come back to them later if you want to revise and rethink your answers.

Answer these questions to work out a simple calculation:

• What is the value of the home I imagine living in (X)?
• What is the passive income I want to earn per year (Y)?

Now, divide the income (Y) by 5 per cent, and add the value of your home (X):

• Y / 5 per cent + X = the total assets you will need.

Let's work it out

• The value of the home I want to live in is $1.5 million.
• The passive income I want to earn, as a family, is $200?000 per year.

Here is the calculation (the result of this calculation is called the 'total asset base'):

Income $200?000 / 5% $4?000?000 Value of home $1?500?000 Total asset base to reach financial freedom $5?500?000

Now, do we know that we will get a 5 per cent return on my investments? No. It will depend on how you invest your money?-?that is, the outgoings and incomings. Your investments could be, and probably should be, a mix of shares and property. You will also want to deduct inflation from this stat, and, of course, the growth in the asset price would not be realised unless or until you sell the property. There are many factors?-?which you will need to work through when you are in wealth preservation mode?-?but for now let's just keep things basic to give ourselves a goal.

While we're talking about shares and property, here are some stats for you to ponder. The savings website reported that over the 20 years to December 2017, Australian shares averaged returns of 8.8 per cent per year, while returns on Australian residential property averaged 10.2 per cent per year. The annual inflation rate over that period of time averaged 2.47 per cent. So once you have earned the money, you can create a plan to passively grow it?-?and both shares and property seem good options based on those numbers.

Now that you have calculated your total asset base, let's change things up a bit.

Dare to dream of how it might be!

Let's say the value of the home you live in is $3?000?000 and the value of your non-income-producing holiday house is $2?000?000.

Let's assume you'd like an income that will allow you to have freedom, not think about money and travel the world?-?say $500?000 per year.

If we work through the above calculation, we end up with:

Income $500?000 / 5% $10?000?000 Non-income producing assets $5?000?000 Total asset base to reach financial freedom $15?000?000

Add the two amounts together to get $15?000?000 worth of assets, mortgage free. (Remember, you need to be mortgage free on your home so that it is not adding to your repayment load and allows for all of your income to be channelled into fun.)

Yes, friends, this is simplistic, but without having a crystal ball we need to plan where we are heading and what we want to achieve without getting stuck into the minutia. Along the way, we will adjust the figures as we close in on our goals to reflect the reality of your situation.

I'd now like you to ponder these questions:

• How does this make you feel? Is it overwhelming and hard to imagine? Is it calming to have...