The Property Professor’s Memoirs – Part 1: The inspiring journey from family home to investor to developer to helping the kids enter the market (Ep. 197)

This is arguably one of the trio’s favourite set of episodes. Taking a trip down memory lane was not only a thrilling chat for Pete, but a wonderful way to share some very important learnings with our listeners.

Pete has rigorously segmented his property purchase history into three components as follows;

Episode 1 – Getting Started. It starts back in 1984 when Pete and his wife purchased their first home in High Street, Ardrossan (SA) and spans the the purchase of their first upgrader home, as well as some early value adds and long-term investments that Pete embarked on.

Episode 2 – Property Speculation. Pete branched into purchasing value add properties and wised up to other ways that investors can value add, other than gaining a DA.

Episode 3 – Property Development and Construction. Pete started building and retaining properties in this particular investment phase.

For Episode One, Cate delves into Pete’s early days and asks all kinds of questions about his early influencers, his savings regime and some of the significant differences that he faced as a first home buyer back in 1984 compared to today’s new starters on the property ladder.

Interestingly, Pete’s driving force to purchase a transportable home Ardrossan related to a sensible look at the cost of ownership versus the cost of renting, particularly in a country town.

How did Pete fare with his negotiating ability with his first home? Tune in to find out what his bonus inclusions were!

The growth of Ardrossan was reasonable back in the 80’s and it equipped Pete and Mrs K to be able to leap frog into an upgrader home in Torrensville, Adelaide with their firstborn child in 1991.

Cate asked Pete about how much his father helped and taught him with his property knowledge. “It was all leant by osmosis”, was his telling response. But tackling how to explain investing and debt to his parents was a different type of challenge. Like many young investors, Pete had to be cognisant of his parent’s fears and concerns about his appetite for risk and wealth creation.

Why does Pete pay full price for a property? He offers a great explanation…

The trio chat about Pete’s early investment property experiences, including;

– managing cashflow,

– his aversion to battle-axe blocks,

– mistakes he made,

– investing with business partners,

– enabling a viable project with a clever JV idea, and

– interest rate pressure and other financial challenges.

Pete also chatted about a block of flats that he secured some forty years ago that are still in the family (…and it’s a great story!)

Cate probes Pete about his rationale for selling some outstanding performers and his answers are particularly grounded.

Pete is generous, humble and an absolute wealth of knowledge in this gripping first episode in this special trilogy.

Gold Nuggets

Pete Koulizos, the ‘Property Professor’s Gold Nugget: “Buying and holding is the best strategy to make money in property, but it’s not the only strategy.”

David Johnston, the ‘Property Planner’s Gold Nugget: Dave notes that having a longer term plan, taking some risks and making firm decisions can enable investors to retire wealthy. They don’t have to make many decisions, they just need to make good decisions.