#89 – Purchasing My Very First Investment Property

SUMMARY:  How to start investing in a property and the things to consider when looking for the first one.

 

[00:00:14] Stephen:  Hey guys, Stephen Esketzis here from StephenEsketzis.com and I am thrilled to be coming back to you and doing this podcast.  It’s been a hell of a long time.  I’m pretty sure the last one I did was after the growth hacking event or maybe it was in full audio.  Can’t remember, but it’s been a little while.  So, I’m glad to touch base with you guys and get back into the episodes.  It’s funny because I actually spoke at a growth hacking event in Sydney not too long ago, Melbourne one.  Well, Melbourne and Sydney.  And at the Sydney one, I had someone come up to me, “Look, Stephen, I know you well.  I looked up your stuff, I went through your podcast.  I’ve listened to all of them.” I’m like, “All of them? It’s like 80 episodes or something like that.” And he was like, “Yeah, I listened to them.” Damn.  So this guy’s gone through, pretty much knows my whole life and, you know, what I spill to you guys on my podcast.  And first time I’ve met him, you know, first time he’d ever heard of me and seen me in person and he pretty much knows me back to front, so that was pretty cool.

[00:01:12] But basically, yeah, it has been a hell of a ride recently.  This is more of an update podcast rather than a podcast for anything else.  But the biggest thing that happened, and you’ve probably read about the title, is I built my first investment property.  So, you know, usually I’m talking about web properties but this one’s a real one.  So, it’s a two-bedroom place and, you know, purely for investment.  I’m not going to be living there, and, you know, rent it out and in a great place.  So, you know, all things considered, very thankful and grateful for that, turned out really well.  I’ve got a bit of a background in properties, so it’s been on my vision board, let’s say, or my goal.  It has been a goal of mine for a while.  So, I’m very happy with how that turned out.  Couldn’t have asked for anything better or any way better.  So, yeah, very thankful for that, I’m very excited.

[00:02:02] One of the goals for me was to get — I think it was a property before — no.  Initially, so these are some of my goals not too long ago.  When I was 18, I think I was, I was like, I’m going to make $100,000 a year before I’m 21.  And then all the way I came pretty close but that was fine and, you know, did that and, you know, hit that goal.  The other one was, I wanted my first investment property in the next 12 months, so I think after being 21, and I just came short but I’m still happy because it’s still 2016.  So, I don’t think I’m just about too much.  I was going to get it while I was 22 but, you know, 23 now and we’re in December.  So, I missed it by maybe a month, so still super pumped about that, very happy.  And actually in saying that, I’m driving past it now.  Just super weird, that wasn’t planned at all.

[00:02:55] Anyway, so, yeah, that was awesome, you know? I’m very happy with that.  And yeah, going forward now, I kind of — we’re looking for towards 2017 now almost.  We’re that far through the year.  We’re in December now, December the 6^th that I’m recording this.  And a few things that come up now, you know, goal setting, planning, it’s kind of reassessing where you’re at and getting yourself on the right foot for the next year.  You obviously don’t take the rest of this year for granted, keep going with your work and go full out, but you also want to step back and reassess what your goals are and where you’re going for next year.  And for me, you know, like just in the last few years alone, I’ve hit some of the biggest milestones of my life and they’re only going to keep getting bigger.  And I think goal setting is a very big part of that.  You’ve got to have something that keeps reminding you day in and day out, you know, what you’re drawing towards, what your goal is.  It’s so easy just to get caught up and everything that’s going on that, you know, you just miss it then you don’t know where you’re going.  If you’re not still on the right path, if you’re not focused, I think it’s just too easy to get lost and you don’t move yourself further enough.

[00:04:04] So, one thing that I did last year was 10Xing my goals and I’ll be doing it again this year and I feel that that has propelled me forward a lot quicker.  So if you guys are writing goals, first of all, that’s awesome.  Second of all, if you want to get to them even quicker and propel yourself forward, just 10X them.  So, you have an income goal, 10X the income goal.  You have an investment goal, you have a family, relationship goal, you have a business growth goal, you have — whatever it is, 10X it.  Because that’s what you really want to be looking towards.  It’s that 10X goal.  Don’t settle for the shorter goal, aim for the big one, because that works.  The Time passes anyway.  So, that’s one of the quotes I really alike, you know? Why settle for small when the time passes anyway? That’s definitely not how that quite goes, but you kind of get the point.  You know, like if the time’s going to pass anyway, we may as well just go full out.

[00:04:56] So, yeah, I think that was really important with the goal setting.  And yeah, I think next year’s going to be really exciting.  2017 I think is going to be a year of absolute mega growth.  And mega growth isn’t a word I’ve heard or use very often, but I really think that 2017 now, you know, a lot of people that I know, including myself, have finally starting to get their ducks in a row in terms of what they’re doing.  So, it’s really going to be, you know, all out.  I feel it’s going to be a really fierce competitive year.  I don’t know why my gut kind of tells me that.  So, I feel like there’s going to be a lot of people going for the same plate of success or going for that same meal.  So, I feel like it’s going to be quite competitive but at the same time, I think that, you know, it’s just going to be mega growth.

[00:05:47] We’re going to have to be putting up some really, really big growth numbers to start getting there because I think a lot of people are really switching on this year.  I think that this growth is — if people take it for granted, you know, they’ll rock up, they’ll do a bit of work and they’ll go home.  But, you know, I know for a fact, this year I met some people that are working ridiculous amounts of time, doing ridiculous hours and they’re crushing it.  And so they should be.  They’re working that long and it’s something which I think, you know, just keep reminding yourself that you’re never too good to work hard and work for a long time.  Of course, have everything balanced, you know, family, personal life, health, you’ve got to have a good balance but I just really think that you can’t underestimate the pair of just some good hard work, sitting there, doing the work and pushing through.  And the other thing which I think is massively, massively under talked about and underutilized and undervalued is small steps.  This is what I think a lot of people kind of misunderstand, is that, you know, building a business, it’s not formed on having one big success and then you get there.  It’s the continuous small steps.  That’s probably my biggest takeaway from 2016.  We did that very well.  I’m super proud to say that, you know, within my company, we’re very good at continuously giving small steps.

[00:07:17] So, I think that having the small steps come through and just continually executing, executing, executing on everything, even if it’s a little bit small, it’s where all the big value adds up in the end.  And people underestimate that.  They want to see big quick results and those results, they might happen, one in a million or one in a thousand or one in a hundred but at the end of the day, that’s not what’s going to lead to the growth of your company.  And you’ve got to remember the small ongoing, recurring little efforts of moving a little bit forward, a little bit forward, a little bit forward.  They all add up at the end of the year, you know? At the end of the year, everything you do, all the little things add up.  So I think that’s massively underutilized and people don’t really think of that when it comes to the end of the year, when it comes to working during the year.

[00:08:04] So, that’s my two sense, guys, for 2017.  I hope you’re having an amazing 2016.  It’s not over yet.  So there’s a bit of time to go, you know, don’t sell yourself short just yet.  But it’s time to wrap up, time to at least start being aware and start being conscious of the fact that this is coming to an end.  What did you do well? What did you not do well? What are your goals for next year? How are you going to hit them? And yeah, it’s going to be a fun ride, I can tell you that much.  If you’re in the States and listening by the way, I’m going to be there from February to March, a whole five weeks.

[00:08:44] So, going to about 10 or 11 different places, so make sure you let me know if you’re there and you want to catch up.  When I connect to a lot of you in the next coming few months, so let me know.  But in the meantime, I’m sure I’ll get another few podcast episodes out before the end of the year.  But I just thought this has been a bit of a reflection, bit of a mini celebration and I hope you guys are doing awesome.  So, that’s it for me.  I’ll talk to you soon.