 Hi guys, my name is Nicolette Mashile, I'm also known as the financial bunny and it is great pleasure that I am joining the private property show this year once again. Now of course I've been doing this for the last I think three years if I am not mistaken. But obviously when COVID struck us, we had to shift things around so we're doing this virtually. So welcome, welcome, welcome and it's really great to have you guys here today talking about probably one of my favorite assets which is of course real estate and I always hone in on the property side of things. You know it's always such a funny thing whenever I speak about property because my journey within the property sector really did not start off well instead of rocky. So if you know my story you will know that I tried to buy a house and then not knowing that an OTP which is obviously your offer to purchase becomes a legally binding document when all the clauses within the OTP are actually fulfilled and I ended up rejecting one of the offers that was given to me by one of the financial institutions and of course unfortunately because the real estate agency had a grant come in from the bank they said the suspense of clause had been fulfilled and I was now obligated to buy the house and because I had declined the offer from the bank I ended up having to settle out of court because the real estate agency said that they were charging me on potential loss of income when they took the house of the market. So it was not a great start and I think it was not a very intentional start if I may put that out there to invest in the real estate market right specifically in property. When I started investing in the real estate market I did not have a cooking clue of what it is that I was doing. I think what you do what happens with a lot of people is that they find themselves they find themselves in a situation where we are told you've got to invest and then you find yourself with a little bit of money and all of a sudden you think okay maybe property is something that I can invest in purely because it seems a little bit more easier to invest in property if you do have the money but also because if you look at the banks what they do fund you for is to buy a property of all the asset classes that you would invest in property is one of those where a bank does not mind actually giving you money or financing you to be able to buy that asset if you look at the other asset classes of course it's equity which bank can you go to that's going to give you money if you say to them I want to borrow money because I want to buy shares of course unless you borrow as a person alone or you use your credit card but so and so to actually say to them I'm looking for a credit facility that allows me or finances me buying shares there isn't commodities the only commodity that you can actually finance for is if you are financing for a car yes a car is a commodity for some people that you might not know a car is something that you can sell for a profit right the other asset class is your bond where can you go and actually say I want to put in a loan for a bond credit agreement or something like that and of course you then have your real estate which property is one of those assets that you can get financing for that is specifically designed to actually finance and of course the last asset class is your cash right yes you can get cash in a person alone but we all know personal loan and credit cards do attract high interest rates so in actual fact property has always been seen as the land of milk and honey so a lot of us we run to property but I think also coming from a very painful past in South Africa where at some point black people and women in South Africa were not allowed to actually purchase their own property in their own name in actual fact if you are a woman in South Africa a couple of years ago you needed to be married and your husband needed to be part of you buying a property and also if you were black at some point there were certain instances and spaces in South Africa where you were not allowed to buy and purchase and acquire property so coming from a very painful past a lot of our people are landless a lot of our people are homeless a lot of our people are finding themselves in a situation where they don't have access to to opportunities where they can actually make money to be able to give themselves access to the real estate market or to property so property for a lot of us also comes from being a a a legacy issue being something that we've a dignity issue being something that we buy not because we even think of the numbers and an investment but we buy because we want to restore dignity in a family we buy a property because we want to have ownership because we know ownership is also a big thing that helps in really rectifying some of the mistakes of our past in South Africa so I think this is important for you as a person to understand who you are understand your identity so you understand why you want to move into the real estate or property market I think it's very important for you to be able to open up and have that difficult conversation with yourself because this will always dictate how you are going to buy property unlike all the other asset class is one of those way you've got to really thoroughly think about the beginning and the end you know with other asset classes I'll take equity for instance equities always totes it as one of those asset classes where you can buy and just hold and hope to God that something great happens within the market and eventually at some point you wake up one day and your shares are costing quite a big amount of money right what is with property because we know how the market can play out your property can actually get devalued you can actually lose money from a property that you buy today in the next couple of years so it is important that when you are going to be investing in property you've got to understand what is your why and the reason why I wanted to talk about this today is because I am very biased towards first-time buyers they are my favorite group of people to speak to because I always feel like although I'm in house number seven I'm still a first time buyer because every single buying experience has lessons that you're going to learn from it and it's funny because despite that that one house that I went to try and buy I had bought an apartment before that but because my condition of buying looked different from the new buying conditions when I was buying the house that I ended up having to settle 125,000 ran out of court for now all of a sudden there was quite a big change in how I needed to think about the my big purchase that I was making so as a first-time buyer it is important that you know what your buying strategy is but of course if you look at what a strategy is a strategy is a high level plan basically so it's you saying this is what I want to do this is why I want to do it and this is how I'm going to do it if you remember in English class or any other literature grammar class you always learn about the the five W's and the one H it's your way what why where what who why when and then it's your how right so with property I always say also try and always apply those five W's and one H but the most important is the why the what and the how how are you going to do it what is the actual plan often I hear people saying to me Nicolette I'm going to buy my first property in 2022 and then I'm like okay how are you going to buy it they're like I don't know I'm like but you can't say you're going to buy a house in 2022 if you don't know how you're going to do it are you going to need financing are you going to raise a deposit are you going to actually partner with someone on a joint bond account are you going to buy it on your own cash so which means you've got to save the entire amount so it is important that before you even consider buying property you sit down and have an honest conversation with yourself on the how the what are you buying the why are you buying it the when are you buying it the where are you actually buying it that will help you start to put together your buying plan a buying plan is very important because a buying plan allows you then to also look outside of your own situation what I always find is that people look at their own situation and then they say okay I'm ready to buy so I'm going out to buy don't forget and I speak a lot about this in my book which is called what's your move it is a number one base seller in the country right now so you can go out there and buy it at the major retail bookshops which is your exclusive books and your bargain books you can also find it and take a lot but one of the things I speak about in a chapter where I speak about how much I hate my house is the fact that you know the the finance space is not black and white it has quite a lot of shades of color and I think a lot of people think that if they can get one thing correct then everything will fall into place it doesn't always work like that which is why one of the other things that I always say is that your lifestyle goals and your financial goals need to have a conversation they say who's that guy who wrote that song the combos are communicating so your lifestyle goes and your financial goals need to communicate because that's really important let me tell you why I say this because you can't plan let's say for instance you've been planning to buy a house for the last two years right depending to buy a house for the last two years boom this is your year to buy a house and then what happens March we get hit by a hard lockdown let's say you lose 50% of your salary or they say to you gonna take a 50% salary cut all of a sudden everything has now changed the market has changed the conditions in the market have changed let me give you another better example let's say for instance you've been planning so my birthday wasn't the 14th of September let's say I've been planning my birthday for the last two months and I've been saying ah my birthday is coming we're coming out of winter we're going into spring so on the 14th of September I'm going to be rocking a nice summer dress because it's springtime I'm going to have a garden party because you know what it's springtime baby so let's do this and then what happens is that on the 13th when I check the weather report it says it's going to rain can I really really still go ahead with a garden party in a summer dress I am fostering mentors and you mustn't for Stella so it's important to remember that yes you may plan and you may plan very well but we do know that within the market that our asset classes operate in there are specific market conditions that need to be okay for you to go out and actually purchase what it is that you plan to purchase especially if you're looking to purchase a house so for a lot of people COVID happened on one side by the way don't get me wrong on one side it was an impeccable time for people to buy on the other side it was a terrible time for some people to buy why because market conditions don't always speak to all of us market conditions need to speak to your specific situation so you've got to ask yourself the question do the market conditions speak to me and do the market conditions speak to the strategy that I've already put down remember I always say it's important that when you're going to buy a house you need a 12-month lead time why because there are certain things that need to be in place to ensure that you create a conducive environment for buying you don't just wake up one day and think oh I'm about myself a house no it doesn't work like that you've got to actually plan first do your five W's and your one H have a solid plan after doing your five W's and the one H you then move to making that buying of that specific property into a smart goal now you're looking at whether or not it is actually a goal that you can achieve and you now put a timeline to it right remember your smart goals need to have a timeline to them you don't remember what smart stands for the acronym smart stands for the first one is the goal needs to be simplified don't make it difficult it needs to be simplified so it stands for simple the M stands for measurable isn't a measurable goal can you actually measure it do you know how long it will take you so can you put a specific measure matrix on it the A stands for is it attainable is it something that you can attain you can just say oh I'm gonna get myself a private jet is it attainable for you to get a private jet right now might not be for all of us we might not have the muscle the financial muscle to be able to buy a private jet so the goal needs to be something that is possible it mustn't be something that you put in your mind and you like you know what something that I want but you know what I know I'll never get to it so I'm not even gonna think about it right and then you've got your are is it realistic but also is it relevant is it relevant for the bigger picture of Nicolette's financial goals because that's important because you don't make a financial goal that doesn't speak to your lifestyle goals that doesn't speak to your lifestyle so you can't out of the blue say oh I'm gonna go by myself a van where are you going to use a van if you have no goals to be a farmer you have no goal you want to buy a van because your next-door neighbors got a van no so your financial goal also needs to be relevant to your life but it also needs to be realistic one right going back to attain a whether it's attainable or not and then the t stands for time it's got to have a timeline to it there must be a time horizon as to say gonna buy myself a house oh and I'm gonna buy myself a house in the next two years what do I need to be able to buy myself a house in the next two years I need to make sure that my credit score is in order I need to make sure that I put together my deposit I need to make sure that I've got my transfer fee money so all those things come back to now becoming what we call the implementation plan of your initial strategy remember the initial strategy is that I know my five W's and my one H I know what I'm buying I know when I'm buying it I know where I'm buying I know how I'm buying and I know who I'm buying it for then you move to it making it a smart goal and putting a timeline on it then when you're done with that you now do your implementation plan and your implementation plan is all the small things that now need to come together to make sure that this bigger picture that you want to achieve is now something that is becoming a reality and it's something that you can do remember what I said in the beginning when it comes to property buying you've got a thought at the but at the beginning and you're gonna go to the end you're gonna know why you are buying what you are buying and you're gonna know how you're going to use it and then when you are ready to dispose of the asset you've got to know how you are going to dispose of it very very important now going again back to one of the things that you've got to also consider is again as I said the market conditions right so you've got to consider the market conditions how are they because remember and this is something that is often spoken by Tony Robbins writes about this in his book right money mastery code and he say oh it's money mastery actually and he says that asset classes all have a different season where they are going to bloom so let's take a plant for instance plants don't grow most plants don't grow throughout all the seasons they are in preparation to be able to bloom at a specific season so even yourself don't assume that whatever asset class you're putting your money into is going to bloom all year around remember that it is important for you to remember that an asset class will bloom in certain market conditions so that is something that I want you guys to always keep at the back of your mind when you are strategizing how to buy your property now other tips that I would give you in terms of putting together your strategy is really being very very intentional about what property what asset class you want to buy where am I buying this property because remember that despite the fact that you may have everything done correctly there are instances where you will have to compensate for when life happens take COVID for instance what happened in COVID is something that one could not predict for but in your strategy you make room for being able to pivot let me tell you a story of a young gentleman by the name of to me pike now to me pike owns Zenzel fitness gyms now basically what they've done is they've created this fitness gym which is a normal gym but their target audiences are btb so he goes to a state he goes to office parks and he sets up this gym for the employees over the residents of an estate now when the hard lockdown happened they said close all gyms because we don't want the we don't want to transfer a corona right we don't want to transfer corona virus we want to make sure that people are safe distancing so gyms are just not going to work so instead of doing me and his team sitting back and saying oh my goodness how are we going to make our money if we do not have people that are actually coming into the gym what they then decided to do was to pivot and they created what is called a kayak home gym so they've put together this big kit for you that you can purchase and it's got all the same or similar equipment that you would find in a traditional gym now you can jump in the own privacy of your own space you are in no danger to contract any type of covert or any other disease that might potentially be trying to caution yourself from this is what we call pivoting this is what we call foresight this is what we call being able to maneuver from the strategy that you've got but staying within the bigger picture at the end of the day what Zinzela fitness does is that it wants to make people healthy wants to keep people healthy so they operate within the health and fitness space they didn't pivot into a different industry they have pivoted within their industry so the bigger picture is still being realized so even when it comes to you involving property as part of your asset allocation it is important that it still speaks to your bigger picture so when a thing like COVID happens and all of a sudden you are being told at work that you actually need to take a 50 percent pay cut instead of pivoting into taking your money and putting it somewhere else because you are going to buy a property but now you can't buy property because you actually cannot go into a new credit agreement how do you pivot you put that money away perhaps maybe into shares perhaps maybe into property shares perhaps maybe but you stay within the real estate asset class I'm hoping this is actually starting to make a little bit more sense to you because it is important that when you are a first-time buyer you do have a strategy as I said when I started buying my first property I had no strategy whatsoever actually remember the day when I bought that first property we were going jogging for the love of God I don't even know what I was thinking but we were going jogging and as we stepped outside in the building that I was in at the top floor it was a loft there was a sign by Pam Golding to say we have an opening I went upstairs I fell in love and I bought the apartment and luckily I had the money cash so I signed the offer to purchase the transaction was so smooth that I never envisioned myself ever having buying property issues and of course the lesson came after that when I tried to buy a house using financing which is another thing that I want to speak about it is important that if you are going to go into the property space you understand as intimately as possible how the property buying process works you need to understand about additional payments that you're going to have to make because these are the small things that end up frustrating you and then you've got to exercise what is called emotional intelligence because let me tell you when you've never owned a property in your life as a first-time buyer and you are getting excited about buying your first property you become a yes ma'am to everything and a yes sir to everything and because we always have a very skilled relationship with people that work within the financial sector including you know your real estate agents bond originators we've got a very huge relationship with them we often see them and put them on pedestals because we think they know better than us and generally for a lot of us our first time buying experience is one of lack of information or lack of knowledge or uncertainty and doubt so the person that works in this space always seems to you like the the person that knows everything but don't forget at the end of the day you are part of the transaction which means it's important for you to know the buying process in and out that's why I say intimately you've got to know the buying process intimately so that you are not thrown with any curveballs the moment you are thrown with a curveball and you are uncertain it is okay for you to say I want to take a double take I want to put a pause on this so I can go back and ask and consult there are many instances where people get thrown off they are buying strategies simply because a real estate agent said something like yeah but this house has an extra bathroom so that's why you shouldn't mind paying an additional hundred thousand rent oh you know what we will knock off a hundred thousand rent from the price so buy a house that still needs a little bit of work no don't do that to yourself if you did not plan on buying a refurb in the first place do not buy a refurb because the price looks good because you are not an engineer you are not a building inspector which means that you do not actually know how much more money you are going to pay to be able to refurb that house so I would say rather take a double take and saying sorry can I please go back and consult because now you are being thrown off your actual strategy so it's important that you understand the buying process and most importantly you understand the tricks that the buying and real estate agents have because they've got many at the end of the day they may not call them tricks excuse me for using that word they may call them tactics they may call them industry tactics they will use industry jargon it is a very very important that you know what those things mean and when you don't know do not be afraid to ask what does that mean ask for clarity because often I realize that when I look back to the errors and the mistakes that I made when I was buying property a majority of them was because I never took the time when I heard them say something to say stop can I understand what it is that you actually saying because I'm not clear when you speak about food suits what do you actually mean can you explain it to me in layman's terms because a real estate agent that is got your best interest at heart a true and an ethical real estate agent will not be impatient as to not wanting to explain those things if they truly want an ethical sale or transaction and they are not trying to scam you they are not going to rush you through that process so that's why if you are if you want to make sure that you'll cover yourself make sure that you do have a conversation with the real estate agent and I always say take a friend with it does not hurt you know sometimes when we buying properties we want to make it a very personal journey we want to go and view the house on our own or with a partner and and we don't want to involve other people because what happens if I actually can't afford it you don't want the embarrassment of somebody saying yeah you're looking at homes you actually cannot afford where papa what are you doing but the reality is that sometimes two four sets of eyes are better than just one set of eyes two sets of eyes are better than just one getting a different opinion giving a different opinion or getting a different opinion on a property sometimes is very important because what you don't see somebody else might be able to see it so I always say it is important that yes have that that moment where you are going to buy and and and take the moment look it's a big it's a big it's a big ticket purchase it is a very personal journey because at the end of the day only you know what your reasons are for buying but at the same time do not allow that to deter you from asking for help when you actually need help another thing I've learned in the last couple of days which is very weird it might be weird for me to even mention here is that you know we all have different personalities you've got a different personalities you've got the different ways in which you do things you are motivated by different things it is also sometimes very important that you don't downplay certain processes that are happening in your life because of your personality and because of the way you are I know myself I am very I thrive on the next thing thrive on the next big thing thrive on the next big thing that sometimes I miss the moment sometimes I miss living in the moment sometimes I miss the fact that I have just purchased an asset that is going to assist me with my bigger overall strategy that I'm already chasing the next asset but what I miss out is the actual process of this asset playing its role in my wealth and wealth growth so it is important that you understand yourself and I always speak about identity and identity is one of those things that you've got to include in your strategy I know it's sounding weird I'm becoming a little bit philosophical but it's important that when you are a person you know who you are when you don't know who you are you get swayed by many things you get swayed by certain properties and I'll give you an example the house that I live in right now and as I said in my book what's your move I write about the house it's called I hate my house because I do because I bought this house really based on what I think people will say about the house then buy the house because I liked it but I bought it because it has a swimming pool I bought it because it's an upstairs if you're a black child and you being told about upstairs you know what he upstairs which I lay upstairs that's amazing right I bought it because it's in Brineston but when I look back at why I actually bought this house it's not about me it's about everybody else and what I want people to perceive about me so I did not know myself right now I always say to people the house that I really want is I want a house that is a smart house I want to wake up in the morning and the bathtub runs on its own I want to wake up in the morning and be able to pray some way and the kettle boils and I can get myself a cup of coffee when I get downstairs what I don't need is a four bedroom house I can only sleep in one room at a time what I don't need is a swimming pool because I don't swim girl I got a weaver I ain't trying to swim but it's all about identities all about knowing yourself that you don't get swayed by other people and what other people perceive of you so you've got to work that into your into your strategy into your buying strategy you've got to work another strategy I used to have when I was buying my investment properties was I need to buy a house that I can live into because of my fear one of my biggest fears was what happens if I lose my main house I need to be able to move back into one of my apartments and that means I gotta buy an apartment in which I am happy to live in but how does the market look the market looks like this a majority of the biggest buyers are at the bottom the triangle the higher you go the higher you go the higher you go the higher you go the angle the higher you go the less market you've got so again very very important that you understand who you are and where you are going at all times so that you don't find yourself being swayed by everything else that's happening around you very very important but yeah I think for me that is really important to remind any first-time buyer that a lot of things in life are ultimately in your control and that's really what my book is always about my book is about being able to understand that you are in control of everything that you do you are in control of your finances you are in control of what it is that you do with your money so the last thing I'm going to leave you with is remember you can negotiate you can negotiate for the interest rates and the terms and conditions that you are getting on your financing deal many people don't realize this but it is important that you work this also into your strategy right if you are going to be using bank financing make sure you've got all your ducks in a row so that the bank gives you the best deal if you're going to use your pension bank back lending make sure that you are ready to actually stay in the employee so that your pension back lending terms and conditions do not fall away when you find a great opportunity somewhere else so it's important that the way you are going to be doing things speaks to overall every single decision that you are going to be making when it comes to your big property purchase and with that I want to say thank you very much because I can speak the whole day but really I think today's talk was really surrounded around putting together a formidable buying strategy because at the end of the day that will become very helpful so that even when you don't get the results that you wanted because sometimes things happen in life you are still going to be able to be comforted in knowing that you do have a solid plan because all good plans eventually manifest into something positive thank you very much as I said my name is Nicolette Mashile and right now I am ready for your Q&A