Empower Wealth experiences?

I never did get a private message from

Thanks Mitesh - We hope they help educate!

 

Does anyone have any experience with EW in general, or more specifically for this plan, with advice to share?[/QUOTE]

I have just recently used both their property plan services & Full BA service....

to give a balanced view, the property plan was approached in a detailed way, truly using your personal circumstances & goals & can highly recommend Ben.

However, for the BA service with Bryce, it has been the worst money i have spent & lost in my property investment journey, and will be that 'mistake' I do not make again.

But of course, i have to explain this: when you start and do a 'fact find' and have a 'set to buy meeting', they get a grasp of your circumstances & if your strategy is growth or yield based, which is good.... but then your told your expectation should be no more than 7% growth p.a (which is average & safe) & are asked qualifying questions: do you worry about money? how much do you know about property? how good are you at analysing a market and selecting the right property?.... questions i wouldn't consider to be there to help tailor & best serve the client.....

The main frustration that you should be aware of is what & how they have been recommending properties to me (yes in an agreed blueprint):

• average locations, 50m from rail lines, few kilometers from the direct landing flight path of a major airport (otherwise general flight paths are usually ok)
• not doing comparative sales analysis
• sending something through asking what i think it is worth & if it is a good investment, followed by a general sales pitch on why this property is the one & he knows the agent. not much logic, analysis, true indicators that the recommendation will outperform....

3 properties have fallen through due to truly poor building inspections with water damage, structural damage, re-stumping of piers needed, maintenance repairs at 30k+.... all of which were inspected by Bryce & his team & still recommended to me without mention of any maintenance or condition issues would be red flags....thank god for P & B inspections - which is money i have been forced to waste at this point on top of the BA fee.

It is your right if you want to use their BA service and should make your own decision at the end of the day with all info you have available.........plz if it is an older property, heavily investigate the condition, asking Bryce to point out all visible issues with the property, take photos of them all, factor this into the purchasing strategy & if your in doubt, reject it, don't just trust the experience of the person recommending (like i did)....

I started off trusting the value of professional support, now i am a 'Questions Machine'!!![/QUOTE]

I used their BA service too and I was happy with the process in general but I must agree with some of your comments here. In hindsight I was also surprised that for that money B&P was left to your discretionary judgement and cost... If you are new to investment this is where you can easily make mistakes.. No guidance there..

..take photos of them all, factor this into the purchasing strategy & if your in doubt, reject it, don't just trust the experience of the person recommending (like i did)....

I think this is quite common and I did the same but you are right always question what is given to you. I remember I had some doubts due to the vacancy rate in the areas chosen and the answer was a bit of "I know what's best".

With property only time will tell whether it was worth it or not. For that money you would expect the property to outperform for sure.

Regarding the plan with Ben, I would recommend it to anyone especially if they are starting.. The level of detail he goes through in those plans is excellent. Good stuff.

Cheers

 

I have just recently used both their property plan services & Full BA service....

to give a balanced view, the property plan was approached in a detailed way, truly using your personal circumstances & goals & can highly recommend Ben.

However, for the BA service with Bryce, it has been the worst money i have spent & lost in my property investment journey, and will be that 'mistake' I do not make again.

But of course, i have to explain this: when you start and do a 'fact find' and have a 'set to buy meeting', they get a grasp of your circumstances & if your strategy is growth or yield based, which is good.... but then your told your expectation should be no more than 7% growth p.a (which is average & safe) & are asked qualifying questions: do you worry about money? how much do you know about property? how good are you at analysing a market and selecting the right property?.... questions i wouldn't consider to be there to help tailor & best serve the client.....

The main frustration that you should be aware of is what & how they have been recommending properties to me (yes in an agreed blueprint):

• average locations, 50m from rail lines, few kilometers from the direct landing flight path of a major airport (otherwise general flight paths are usually ok)
• not doing comparative sales analysis
• sending something through asking what i think it is worth & if it is a good investment, followed by a general sales pitch on why this property is the one & he knows the agent. not much logic, analysis, true indicators that the recommendation will outperform....

3 properties have fallen through due to truly poor building inspections with water damage, structural damage, re-stumping of piers needed, maintenance repairs at 30k+.... all of which were inspected by Bryce & his team & still recommended to me without mention of any maintenance or condition issues would be red flags....thank god for P & B inspections - which is money i have been forced to waste at this point on top of the BA fee.

It is your right if you want to use their BA service and should make your own decision at the end of the day with all info you have available.........plz if it is an older property, heavily investigate the condition, asking Bryce to point out all visible issues with the property, take photos of them all, factor this into the purchasing strategy & if your in doubt, reject it, don't just trust the experience of the person recommending (like i did)....

I started off trusting the value of professional support, now i am a 'Questions Machine'!!![/QUOTE]

I used their BA service too and I was happy with the process in general but I must agree with some of your comments here. In hindsight I was also surprised that for that money B&P was left to your discretionary judgement and cost... If you are new to investment this is where you can easily make mistakes.. No guidance there..

..take photos of them all, factor this into the purchasing strategy & if your in doubt, reject it, don't just trust the experience of the person recommending (like i did)....

I think this is quite common and I did the same but you are right always question what is given to you. I remember I had some doubts due to the vacancy rate in the areas chosen and the answer was a bit of "I know what's best".

With property only time will tell whether it was worth it or not. For that money you would expect the property to outperform for sure.

Regarding the plan with Ben, I would recommend it to anyone especially if they are starting.. The level of detail he goes through in those plans is excellent. Good stuff.

Cheers[/QUOTE]


I have my initial meeting with them at the end of the month. After getting some great insights from someone on this site its time to start doing- knowledge base is where it's time to put "skin in the game"

Seems the most beneficial service is the planning and cash flow and get other support for other people in your team- mortgage broker, accountant, BA etc

 

what costs/charges are involved in setting up the Business plan?

 

I am currently doing the property portfolio plan
total cost is $4400
pd in stages

 

Would you care to discuss your experiences so far?

 

Hi robbo. It is quite a detailed process
ask as many questions as you want and i can answer speficically what u want to know

 

A few questions, no doubt i'll have more once they're answered!

1 - What sort of information do they need from you? Do they give you a sheet to fill in with all required info? Is this all provided at the start then they go away and work with it?

2 - You said it is paid in stages, what are these stages? i.e. initial consultation, info sharing etc

3 - How much contact time have you had with them?

4 - are you planning on using their BA service as well?

Thanks again!

 

Hi,

I would also like to hear what experience people have had with Empower Wealth. I did a fair bit of research and found a lot of good things being said about them and decided to go ahead and do the initial consultation. I filled out all the information on their online questionnaire and was contacted by someone from the company letting me know that someone from the team would get in touch with me shortly to set up a time for the consultation. Two weeks went by and still nothing so I sent them an email asking when I could expect a call and was told later that day or the following morning. A week later and still no phone call to set a time for the consultation so I emailed and told them not to bother about it. Not sure what happened there, like I said I've seen a lot of good reviews about this company so maybe this was just an unfortunate one off or they might just be super busy. Whatever the case it definitely made me doubt if it really was the right company for me to go ahead with if its that hard to even set a time for a phone call.

So now I'm really back at square one when it comes to companies to get in touch with for property investment planning. Has anyone had any other good (or bad) experiences with companies when it comes to planning and setting up strategies?

 

Hi Emma,

One of the other kind members informed me tonight of your post. Although yes we are experiencing record levels of enquiry within our business, it's completely unsatisfactory that we can't manage to actually return a phone call. I have looked you up in our system and sent you my personal mobile to call me on, as well as my personal email address. Although initially it does appear to be a system process error, there is simply no excuse for us to make 5 minutes to give you a call. For that I am sorry, as you have gone out of your way to complete our initial assessment to have your free consultation, yet we haven't been professional in reciprocating this back to you. Not good enough!

Further for your information, we are in the process of increasing our team size and number of advisors to accommodate the increased level of enquiry to help speed up our response times and service our ever increasing number of clients.

I look forward to hearing from you
Regards
Ben

 

1. you fill out a fact find which they use to give u a complimentary free 1hr session
it is online and is a detailed form about all your expenses, incomes future goals,children? etc
At the initial meeting it is more about hoiw they can majke a difference to the end game
It is worthwhile doing this exercise purely because it gets u to think about where is my money going
this forms the basis of cashflow available after expenses to purchase ips
if u do this first part, when u ring, request Ben to do it rather than an associate which is what will happen if you dont request ben. He is booked out for more than 1mth

2. payment in stages
$500 after initial appt if u decide to engage
$1000 when they start to plan your porfolio
$2800 before plan finalised

3. contact time i am in the middle of but 3hrs at least so far
they give u as much time and appts so that u r happy with the end result
I am requesting ben+joel(associate)together for each appt

4 ba services i will try out, but can't comment yet
my feeling is that they will be fine, however there r many good ba's out there depending on the area you r looking at and many of them post on this forum
My thoughts r that it is very hard for any growing company to replicate 100% what the founder has setup ie in this case Ben
Having said that, his property plan portfolio is worthwile
Just make sure u insist on using him + an associate
My feeling is that as they r getting busier, you will probably get less imput from him and more from his associate which i am sure, is not what u want
So whether one uses any company as a one stop shop or uses "specialised services" of different companies of well known ba's is another matter
I think i will try Empower ba service with Bryce Holdaway, but i hear he is quite busy also
If i cant try him,rather than use another less expereienced ba from empower, i would be more than happy to try other ba's with great reputations that r area specific
I am not a great believer of one stop shops, unless u can employ the dream team (and we know that only happens in the olympics)
I think in property at least, it may be better to have a team of champions rather than a good team as long as they can all communicate with each other
You get the specialised top advice on every level to create that master team

hope that helps

 

I look forward to our meeting on Monday Donna

 

Watching...

 

Hi guys,

Read their book: good. Really liked their perspective on property as an investment class. Got some pretty scenarios which are very relatable.

Listened to their podcasts: good. Very well spoken dudes, both understand their strategies inside-out - specialist doctors in their fields, both have their ideas are aligned and work together like bread and butter. You can feel their passion in property- hard to find.

Yet to use their services - still learning and understanding the mechanics before I call in the experts for assistance.

 

Thanks for the kind words Peter.
If there is any topic you want us to talk about just let me know
Cheers
Ben

 

I've been slowly making my way through the podcasts too and I would have to say it is the best out there on Australian property.

Also just started the book too which is excellent so far.

 

@DonnaR how did your chat go?

 

For anyone interested I have just started my property journey with Empower Wealth as a first time investor in my mid 40s. Hoping these guys can pull a rabbit out of a hat!
First completed a very detailed “fact find” information document. My wife initially thought that it was a bit intrusive, but I feel reassured as without all your relevant information I don’t see how they can formulate a detailed portfolio.
Had my first appointment with Dean, a newly appointed Mortgage Broker. He was extremely flexible with appointment times - 7.30 on a Tuesday night!
Very professional with a lot of experience and really good people skills as I can be a bit of a pain to deal with.
I have to line up a few ducks before moving onto the next stage - career change and moving house, but feel really comfortable so far.
Will post more when I have an update.

Cheers,
Daryl

 

Hi all,

I signed up to this forum just to give my praise on the podcasts and book. Outstanding lads. Keep up the great work!

Josh Sawyer