What PChat can do for you

As somersoft roles towards it's final post , I was planning a final farewell post .

Somersoft has totally changed our financial position , going from a somewhat average position to one that is significantly better . But Somersoft has also changed our lives and us as people . One of those changes made me realise that this forum was the place to post this post , moving on , into the future .

The biggest change has been in me as a person . I used to be an insecure ,somewhat anxious person who used to spend time worrying about all the mistakes I'd made . Now , I am a forward looking significantly more confident person .

Somersoft was the pub on the corner where I go to chat , joke and make smartar$e comments with friends .

It was the wise mentor , the considered financial advisory , the dreamer of what could be .

It was the game changer. The sub that came on at half time and turned a struggling team into a team of champions with motivational words and advice based on many life times experience.

My Recollection is that somersoft started slowly and built up over a number of years . P Chat has started with a bang , with many enthusiastic members who are keen to keep their specific dreams alive . Opportunity awaits .

What did somersoft do for me ?

When I joined we had a track record of buying a PPOR at the peak of the 88 boom and watching it go sideways for seven years . We had a large mortgage , minimal Super and three kids at private schools , which in retrospect we really couldn't afford . When I could afford a holiday we'd going camping ( nothing wrong with camping , but most of the time , it was all we could afford )

We were looking at buying an IP through a marketing company .

At the first somersoft gathering in Canberra I " won " the award for analysis paralysis .

15 years later we have bought and sold over 30 properties . We have considerable assets by most peoples standards ( even by somersoft standards which are higher than the general community ) . Every second weekend , we have a long weekend and go to our waterfront weekender . I could retire but choose not to .

I am confident in my ability to invest in property . Occasionally that old voice of doubt pops in and says "you're not being cocky , over confident are you ? " but that's pretty infrequent now days . I can look back at my track record of investing and say that almost every decision we've made has been the right one for us . Even the less than perfect ones have been ok .

We've bought deals of the century at the bottom of the market . We've bought properties when markets are just about to take off . We've bought good properties in good areas when the markets were starting to gently move . We tell our real world friends we're lucky , but here it's ok to tell our our property friends the truth .

This was the result of two things .The information on somersoft and hard work.

Any long term member knows I am a GP . Every day , many people I meet are struggling with one issue . The need to change . Very few actually achieve it .

My father worked , after a career in business including stints as the CEO of two major australian companies ended up as a professor in the AGSM where his area of expertise was helping companies and the executives change the companies and their own skill set .

I once asked him how many people are actually able to make significant changes in their lives . His answer " very few "

For me , that has been my most significant achievement since joining somersoft .

I have been able to change . Myself , my life and those of my family .

That is what Somersoft has helped me do .

So for all of those who are new to P Chat , if you want to change , yourself and your lives .

You've come to the right place .

Cliff

 

hope to go through similar process and result as you did Cliff. Somersoft sure did help me quite a bit for whenever im confused and need some sort of guidance, its the first thing that comes on my mind.

 

good on your See Change, and congratulations to your success,

you are one of the inspiring people on this forum helping and encouraging others to seek self improvement and secure financial future.

I also hoped that I knew SS/PC a few yearly earlier which I could be in a much better position.

 

Fantastic post, Cliff.

My story is a little different but I think even more transformative (see below).

Somersoft produced innumerable examples of this kind of transformation and PropertyChat picks up exactly where SS left off.

I'm already personally seeing early signs of these transformations taking place. Seeds are being planted, questionable ideas are being...questioned, great advise is being shared, gentle nudges in the right direction are happening and new folks are being treated with the utmost respect and care.

I'm doing my part to pay it forward and have already engaged in lengthy discourse with a dozen members via private messages, spoken at length on the phone to a few and will be enjoying a lot of coffee with others.

I quote one of my final posts on Somersoft below to share my journey. There will be a lot of similar stories here, I am certain.

------------------------------

Where to begin.

I stumbled across this place looking up a company whose property seminar I'd just attended.

I don't quite know what happened from there.

I was sucked into an addictive void of information, strange acronyms and wonderful people.

I asked a billion annoying questions and got a trillion excellent answers.

I asked a billion more questions.

Then I started knowing how to answer some questions.

Somewhere along the line, without intent, I ended up connecting with people. Most of them reached out to me.

"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear".

Seems the case.

This forum literally changed the course of my life, more than once, in the most significant of ways.

I met selfless mentors, found incredible role models, made close friends and have completely changed careers–recently commencing work as a mortgage broker to help others on their investment journeys.

Strange as is may sound, the best human beings I have ever known are from Somersoft.

I cannot overstate the significance of the impact Somersoft has had on my life.

 

Life before SS was tough. Between us, we earnt very little and ran two businesses that ended up costing us our PPOR. We'd already got the first IP, although looking back it wasn't any specific skill as an investor, rather sheer luck that we went looking at the right time, before markets moved, as that first IP was cf+ from day one in Sydney & we lucked out with a gunn PM. If it wasn't such a great deal, we just couldn't have bought at all.

We weren't planning a large portfolio, in fact we weren't planning anything at all, not even the first one, as that only came about by default through me calling a 'specialist' to help pay down the mortgage. Cutting a long story short, I listened to everything they had to say & proceeded to implement their 'secret' myself without their fees.

I found SS while we were in dire straights with the Business. It must have been shortly after it started, and not too long after we opened the skating rink, and I remember well, spending hours upstairs in our sweatbox at the business reading all the posts before we began what would change our lives. If it wasn't for SS, we would never have had the courage to place the biggest gamble of our lives, because back then it was just that, nothing but a gamble.

The business was loosing money like there was no tomorrow & we were on the brink of bankruptcy when we hatched a plan that changed everything, and it was only really based on what I'd learnt through reading the forum that spurred us on.

We had a profit & loss spreadsheet that we'd taken to the bank to get the funds to open the rink, and on speaking to my lender they'd given the approval for more finance and we didn't need to submit any more documentation.

We'd also been extremely happy with our IP, which we'd had for a few years by this time and didn't want to sell it, but thought that if this one had done well, others might too and if we got out the other end without loosing everything it was worth taking a risk.

(Remember we were young & dumb when we did this. THIS IS NOT A RECOMMENDATION - DO NOT DO THIS!!!!)

Our plan (gamble) was:

1) Fly interstate & buy IP's using the funds bank would lend us. IP's needed to be 12% yield or higher, so Tassy, it was.
2) Sell PPOR
3) Move into cockroach infested disgusting rooms above the business
4) Put aside enough funds to tide us over for the 18 months we were tied to the lease
5) Buy a new PPOR using leftover funds as a deposit, but use it as an IP until we finished up at the business.
6) Hubby get job M-F while I ran the rink, I got job on Sundays while he ran the rink

When it was all done, we moved to Sydney, contacted Rolf and....well....I wouldn't say it's all been plain sailing, as we've had several hurdles, but it's just grown from there.

 

thanks for the post Skater. always enjoy your posts, actually speaking to you at the meet up were even better. it is the pioneers (like you and others) that on the forum (SS/PC) have led the way or have created visions these relatively newbies could gain confidence from, and could see how far we could look for or even dream the unthinkable. pls stick on the forum even after Bargain Hunter retires.

 

So are we going to sit around the fire and sing songs now?

 

Might have been the best award you have ever won..

 

It's like a drug. I'm hopelessly addicted, although I go through phases of complete addiction & then a bit of reform, & then I'm back again.

 

Yep! Your turn!

 

Inspiring post Cliff and Skater
Since joining SS and reading post like this from Cliff, Skater, Rixter, Deltaberry, Sasha, MTR has helped me to buy my first IP last month in Melbourne and would definitely say it wouldn't be my last one. If all goes well with this one

 

Is it time for Kum ba yah?

 

Nup . Not here . Maybe at one of the next meet ups .

Just more " how somersoft changed be from a perennial struggler into a ambitious achiever " posts .

Cliff

 

One thing that I think is critical is actual involvement in the forum . It's easy to read , but it becomes much more real when you actually commit to the forum , start asking questions and then giving advice .

Old medical adage is " see one , do one , teach one "

Same concept applies here and in most walks of live .

Commit to it .

Cliff

 

And hopefully enough of it so that those just starting out can see that this CAN and DOES work by some of us giving examples. Just don't expect it to happen overnight.

 

Yes, I think the jumping in and answering questions is critical. It not only cements the information that you've gathered, but it gives you more confidence when you start to realise that you actually KNOW some of this stuff. Then there's the intangible stuff on top of that. The friendships, the giving back. It's all valuable.

 

Absolutely!! Thats me over the past 10 years.
I was a lurker (from Jan 2009), then I joined (2011), and I then started contributing... Though I was on the site for many years (not as long as some posters, but long enough), I didnt really dive right in, I had this feeling, "oh, everybody knows more than me, and they can say it better"

I have less than 300 posts on SS but this new forum has opened me up, putting in my contributions, and laying out my experiences, good and bad....

 

Long time lurker and first time poster. I look forward to gaining much needed knowledge to gain financial independence! Great post btw Cliff

 

Hi Cliff
is it possible to join one of those meet ups

 

You learn more from your mistakes than from what you get right . There's a place for research , education , questions etc , but putting the ball in the other foot .

Some time you just have to

Do it

Cliff