As an addicted Somersofter since 2003 I have had the privilege of actually meeting a lot of people who have posted on there and I really hope this continues on here. Why I got into Property I grew up in a very poor household and read as a teenager that the richest people in Australia made their money from real estate. Given that my mum had always dreamed of having her own house and never got too didn't hurt either. How I started in Property I started buying old Queenslanders in inner Brisbane in the low $100K range, repainting, polishing the floor and then renting them out as cash flow positive. By the time I was 30 I had 13 of them. I then moved into development, commercial and other more innovative things. Business I have started, bought, owned and sold numerous businesses over the years, most were not directly property related. The 2 I have now allow me to work in and talk about property everyday. I have no intention of ever selling PRO Town Planners or Certus Legal Group. I am no longer involved in the day to day running of PRO but talk to my manager everyday and consult regularly on the higher level stuff. I am the Managing Director of Certus Legal Group Conveyancing We have grown to have one of the largest conveyancing practices in Queensland and is the only volume practice that only uses solicitors to actually run the conveyances. Property Law We have a decent sized property division that looks after commercial property, leasing as well as subdivisions from 2 lots to broadacres and unit towers. Front End Commercial The practice also deals with a lot of front end commercial (trusts and structuring, business sales, business setups, commercial agreements etc). Commercial Litigation Running a lot of Planning and Environment Court work, property litigation and some higher level corporate and business litigation. Wills and Estates There is also a small but growing Wills and Estates side of the practice, we are about to hire our second solicitor in that area. Family Law We are currently establishing a Family Law division, not an area I thought I would ever go into but there are so many people who come through the property practice wanting us to handle property settlements that have been agreed outside of court (and therefore subject to full stamp duty) that we could help save a lot of money that we have decided to go there. In the final stages of recruiting a Senior Associate to run this area. Expansion We are also preparing to open a Sydney office to handle conveyancing initially. We have recruited an experience NSW solicitor who is an active investor and developer and previously had her own property practice in Sydney. There are early stage negotiations on a Gold Coast office also and we are constantly on the look out for expansion opportunities. Personal I have a beautiful (and very tolerant wife) and 5 kids under 12. I love what I do professionally, love property and absolutely love my family, I feel truly blessed.
