Anyone used Wealth for Life?

Hi guy’s

I’m wondering if anyone has worked with the company - wealth for life, based in Melbourne who specialise in property investments (new builds).

What is your experience with them?

 

This tells me everything I need to know... to avoid them.

no experience with them. Never will. Wouldnt touch them with a barge pole.

dont believe it? Like their we can do everything in house including mortgages and building and property management and let us take care of everything because you are busy ‘service’?

meh why not. Gotta cull the herd somehow.

 

Can you recommend anyone?

 

No one who will do everything for you.

learn to do your own research, make your own decisions, hire your own experts. Understand how everyone is paid and what their incentives are.

 

Suggest learning basics first - read up here on this forum,
listen to the first 20 episodes of ‘the property couch’ podcast for some good fundamentals.
If you still want to go with someone in Melbourne, try empower wealth who will be fee for service to suit your circumstances and no hidden commissions nor focus on new builds.
Good luck

 

I’m not opposed to either new builds or established. Just the company I’ve quoted focus on new builds.

I simply don’t have the time to do my own research and am very new to investing, hence I’m trying to source reputable companies to assist with my journey

 

If you don’t have the time to research maybe property investment is not for you.

How will you know what’s a good deal, when to buy, when to sell? When do you turn over your property? Why property and not managed funds? Why not shares or fixed interest or number 26 on the roulette wheel? What % should you borrow? How long is the warranty? Is the area they sell in good for growth? Why buy from someone that specialises in investment, surely that means a flood of similar low quality property in the same area put on the rental market at the same time and badly looked after with no owners in the mix? If they sell property why are they not catering to owners, are their properties that bad? Or just poorly built.

But if you don’t have the dozens of hours to research you’ve got nothing to lose but the next few years net income after expenses, so go for it!

 

The problem with companies that focus on new builds is they tend to be paid by the developers. The payment per property is significant, I've seen examples of $20k - $40k. It should go without saying that this would be built into the purchase price. There are examples of people having bought through these types of companies being in a negative equity situation for years.

Marketing companies often have a closed circle of advisors. Finance, legal and sometimes property management. None of these parties are going to give you advice that conflicts with the recommendation to buy the property because their loyalty is to their employer. There's a general expectation that these third parties work for you, but this may be compromised by the business arrangements in place.

So what you've got is someone giving you and education on how to invest, but that will be strongly bias towards the product they're selling. The other advice you receive (finance & legal) is aligned to the interests of selling the product, not to the purchaser.

I don't know Wealth for Life at all. Perhaps they're great at what they do and getting excellent results. However they do appear to be following the business model of so many property advisory companies that I've come across which make me very nervous.

This forum is quite independent in the information given. Bad advice tends to be called out very quickly so the professionals that post here consistently tend to be very good at what they do and they genuinely try to act in their clients interests.

 

you dont think the rest of us have day jobs? If you think its worth learning, you would find time.

if you dont take it seriously enough to learn, you run the risk of getting killed by the sharks out there.

 

I can’t speak for the company - I’ve never heard of them.

From my experience - when a new client calls me wanting finance for a new build (especially off the plan) I start to get a little nervous. It’s not uncommon for valuations to come back lower than purchase price.

Its usually the developers that do well out of these transactions - rarely is it the buyer :-(

cheers

Jamie

 

Wouldn’t have thought it would be that hard to decide when to sell.

If it’s making you money then don’t sell. If it’s not, then sell. Am I missing something?

 

Some great advice there. Thanks for that

 

sydney was flat, sometimes falling, between 2001 and 2010 or so, and when rates were much higher, so you would probably be losing money. It really boomed between 2012 to 2017. The best time to buy would have been when it looked like it would go down, but turned out different.

when would you have bought? And sold?

 

I would buy when flat and never sell. Markets will always come up and down.

If I’m in the process of expanding my portfolio and a property is holding me back, that’s when I’ll sell

 

Kind of sums up my own observations.

 

Your not buying when flat, if your buying from a property spruiker let’s be honest. Your buying at a premium. People sell through spruikers as they achieve higher prices than possible through their local agents who charge a much lower commission structure, so I think taking if you work 80 hours a week as a chef, you won’t need the other 88 to sleep, so I’d invest an hour a day for two weeks and read up on the area your interested in, look at what properties sell for, what they rent for, what new properties sell and rent for, why you want to buy through a spruiker with a name that scares the bejesus out of me and why you don’t ring an agent in the area you want to buy and lay it straight with him. He’ll bend over backwards to get your business.

then when he shows you the perfect property, take it to another agent near by and say, I’m new to investing and I’m thinking of buying this, I’ve got finance, deposit and I’m ready to sign. If you can show me a better deal in the next 24 hours I’ll buy that instead.

that is the best test of a good deal.

 

I reckon they should rename the company to appeal more to the common man.

How about: Wealth 4 Lyfe?