Has anyone ever dealt with Empower Wealth?

Discussion in 'Property Experts' started by Marco Bon, 27th Aug, 2016.

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  1. Marco Bon

    Marco Bon Active Member

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    4th Aug, 2016
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    Location:
    Melbourne
    G'day folks,

    I am a regular listener of the 'Property Couch' podcast, which it was recommended to me by another user.

    I have found out that both hosts are part of Empower Wealth and wanted to know more about YOUR personal experience with their services as I am currently 'shopping' around for property investment advisors.

    Please feel free to pm me as I would love to chat about it or to recommend me professionals that you know.

    I look forward to reading your posts.

    Ciao for now,
    MB
     
  2. D.T.

    D.T. Specialist Property Manager Business Member

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    Adelaide and Gold Coast
    Yes but not directly. A couple from melb have bought here in Adelaide using them which I subsequently manage.

    I met with their BA when they came over to Adelaide to buy. They seemed to know what they were talking about and bought nice properties.
     
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  3. Marco Bon

    Marco Bon Active Member

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    Melbourne
    Thank you DT, I hope you are well! Cheers
     
  4. Colin Rice

    Colin Rice Mortgage Broker Business Member

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    I also listen to "The Property Couch" and from what I have heard their advice is sound.
     
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  5. MTR

    MTR Well-Known Member

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    There is a thread on this group, do a search

    Unless someone has used their services I would take it with a grain of salt. Always do your own research
     
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  6. Jake Milne

    Jake Milne Well-Known Member

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    Glad you're enjoying the podcasts!
     
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  7. Gonz45

    Gonz45 New Member

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    7th Sep, 2016
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    Sydney
    Hi all,

    We've just finished a process with Empower Wealth for portfolio planning and unfortunately were very disappointed. We're a young family with a small portfolio so were keen to get some direction with our portfolio and map out a plan for next 5,10,20yrs. I'd sat thru loads of seminars, webinars and researched posts like this before I decided to go ahead with Empower.

    The process started out ok, very comprehensive in terms of data they ask for. I can understand from a budgeting perspective why this happens. What disappointed us were a few things:
    1. the extended time it took - after 5 months into the process we hadn't heard from our consultant for 6 weeks before we finally had enough (we were initially told 4 or 5 meetings, 2 weeks a part).
    2. Each meeting with our consultant they just read information off their spreadsheet. Any questions we had outside of that seemed a bit too difficult. No prep done for any meetings.
    3. Even after we voiced concerns and asked for a refund (which we'd been told initially was available if we weren't satisfied but turned out not to be the case) we still have not had one phone call from our consultant or anyone at Empower to discuss our concerns.

    I really dont like to give negative feedback, but I rely on forums like this and other investors experiences given it's so hard to get good, unbiased advice on property investing. I'm happy to pay a fee for good advice, thats why I initially went to Empower. It's just disappointing that we seemed to be left on the sidelines forgotten about and even when we made some noise nobody bothered to pick up the phone and talk to us.
     
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  8. Ted Varrick

    Ted Varrick Well-Known Member

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    Gonz, maybe @Jake Milne in the post above yours might be able to help you out with that, and then you both can provide a bit of summary as to how your issue was resolved to the many, many varied PChat members who might view this thread....
     
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  9. Jake Milne

    Jake Milne Well-Known Member

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    Melbourne
    Hi Gonz, the planning side of things is a seperate team to mine but I'll have a chat to Bryce and Ben and see if there's anything that we can learn from your feedback. Feel free to get in touch with me and we can talk about this more and hopefully iron out any creases that remain :)
     
  10. Timothy Perry

    Timothy Perry New Member

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    11th Aug, 2016
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    Sydney
    Hi Marco,
    If you are looking to purchase in an area far away from where you live do some initial internet research first then take a week off and go and look and speak to agents etc. for yourself. When you are investing a few 100 thousand dollars I wouldn't put it in anyone's hands. A book i recently read called the Black Swan by Nassim Taleb highlights something I really think has some truth to it, the more people pretend they are a professional in an area - the more likely they are to get it wrong. Experience can embed the assumptions that need to be challenged. I don't think buying property is 'set and forget' i don't think its passive income I think you need to be in on the game and see where you can buy good property that you can improve to make a real return through adding value not counting on a boom every 10 years.

    I'd use a buyer's agent if I wanted to buy overseas but within Australia whats the point? The fee is not that much less than stamp duty and just impacts your overall yield and return - doing the job yourself is much cheaper, much more fun and will actually teach you. Learning has the highest return on investment.

    Good luck

    Tim
     
  11. Peter_Tersteeg

    Peter_Tersteeg Mortgage Broker Business Member

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    I tend to use BAs when purchasing interstate. I can get to know my local market over a few weeks fairly easily, but you've really got to be on the ground in the location you're going to buy and over a period of time to get to really understand the market. Then once you understand the market you've got to look at a lot of properties, inspect them, attend auctions, make offers, etc.

    It's not hard to imagine that the process can take every weekend over a few months. When you consider flights, a couple of nights accommodation, eating out, car hire, over 2-5 months a BA starts to look like a fairly good deal, even if you could do the job just as well. That's not even considering what the value of your own time is.

    I've also found that BAs are able to make better purchasing decisions than I probably would. They do know the market better, they are better negotiators and they don't have the same emotional investment most purchasers have. It's hard to quantify and prove but this is very real. For my last purchase there were a number of properties the BA put forward and I was keen to go, but then pulled out of the negotiation saying they felt that we could do better. The deal we ended up getting turned out to be amazing. A 4br house in a blue chip suburb, has out performed the market in terms of growth and was cash flow neutral at purchase (and interest rates where higher at the time).
     
    Last edited: 8th Sep, 2016
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