 But it's like any competitive business environment. All of us in our businesses have had to tighten our belts. We've had to cut anything that looked like fat. And we've had to look at turnovers. We're going to have to look at our margins. And I think landlords that have done that in their kind of way, in their property business, are the ones that I think that are doing well now. We are this evening in conversation with David Beach, who's a founding director at Corus Property Group, looking at how can landlords prepare for the new year. And I want to hear from the landlords at home how 20 times that you've picked up along the year. And of course, what have been some of the things that kept you afloat? David has already pointed to the fact that there certainly was the work difficult moments during this period. And there were instances where some landlords had to try and make alternative plans. Others, of course, have been going as far as selling the properties in their portfolio. Do you want to hear from me at home? Let us know if you're a landlord. What did you do this year? That certainly got you afloat. And that you found useful along your property journey. I can see some of the luck that we're getting on our Facebook page, Sarah Matetza, sending those green cards. Mouning kouta. Menzi butelezi. Queen Tarko, as well as uposo, chumelo. And ono menzi saying great heights. Well, we are back. Rent is also going up. Rent is not going to go up just yet. And I think landlords are going to be hard pressed to be able to find tenants who are going to pay a higher rate just yet because there's still quite a lot of stock on the market. And there's still prices that will say at relatively current levels and sometimes even lower than what we saw pre-COVID. So for many landlords in so many different areas, you're going to be hard pressed to be able to charge higher rentals just yet, even though we did see rates going higher. And also rates going higher in the past month actually can't be the determining factor for you increasing your rental because January rates rental today because of the recent interest rate hike that we've had. And this is of course also just assuming that you've had this property for a while. And even if you bought the property during COVID where we were already experiencing, interest rates, we already said that part of running your numbers is making the financial assumption or the numerical assumption of prime plus and certainly prime plus at the levels that we had in January. So if your landlord says they want to increase rent because we've just had an increase in interest rates, they don't know what they're talking about. That we can certainly say before to me. And I think, David, when we then look at some time, and this is something that we see from new landlords in particular, where the market shifts slightly. And I mean, an interest rate going up, especially by two and five basis points, given the history of sort of past couple of months and seeing the decreases, the action or even the strategy cannot go to let me increase rent because the numbers that you should have run or the due diligence certainly that you should have done would have indicated you would have run it on, let's say, prime plus rent, that's current prime, plus three, and you'd still be able to afford it if those were the rates, as opposed to running it on prime and prime being at 7%, nobody is doing that, especially when you reach that to that level. Because we knew we're not going to stay there for an extended period of time. Any tips for those landlords who are still not quite getting some of those in most residential properties of that rate is not that high. Certainly when we look at their property, when we look at at which point you then go about shifting the rental up, or certainly thinking about it because I think some think about it in isolation and not looking at where the market is holistically and other comparable properties in their area, or even in the same complex as them. I mean, look, some of the rent value is connected for CMA or comparative market analysis. Your rent is valued in comparison to the rents that are around in the same area. And that is really what the tenants are looking at. The tenants, unfortunately, as much as I am very, very sympathetic to the costs that increases that landlords have to bear, the tenants are not really cared about that. They just know that they can get a property for $500,000 elsewhere, and for the same property you may be wanting $6,000, your property for $6,000, unfortunately, is simply not going to be let out. So you really got to look at your interface and the market to value your rental. When you value your costs, when you look at your costs, be conservative, I agree, look at that percentage much higher, your bond percentage much higher than what it is at the moment, so that you are covered because when the interest rate goes up, unfortunately, you can't just increase your rent. First of all, your lease agreement won't allow that. And second of all, you're going to lose tenants and great tenants at that if you do do that. So I would highly propose that you do be conservative in your costings. Bear in mind is that the interest rates over the last while has been at record lows. Decades record lows. So this is very unusual at the moment. I think what's been the saving grace for many landlords over COVID over the last 18 months has been that the interest rate has come down and the interest rate is so low. Even help what the market would have been like for many landlords, or most landlords, if the interest rate was still what it was a few years ago. So, but these good times on the interest rate perspective, one needs to budget going forward on a higher interest rate. What we've also found is, and this has been quite something, is that good quality tenants, a low interest rate as landlords, we do like that because the bond's much lower. What it really has done is that it really has affected the tenant market and made it much tougher to find quality tenants. Because quality tenants can say, well, I can rather buy for the same price as I can rent because the interest rates are so low on the bonds. What we're finding now, as much as I don't like personally, the interest rate is increasing. With the interest rates now going up a quarter percent, probably a quarter percent a quarter, maybe that's what I've heard. I think even that changing, I think it's gonna make the tenant market a bit more competitive. I think you're gonna find less, slightly, hopefully less buyers in the market for landlords and more tenants. And which means that hopefully rents can slowly but surely can't start coming up again. And I think we're gonna see interestingly a shift on that. In the last two to three months or the first time in 18 months, we're actually starting to see some increases on renewals of leases, not every time and not the kind of increases we're at like, but we're pushing the 5% increases where four or five months ago that just wasn't even on the table. Now for renewals, we are looking to try and get a 5% increase and probably getting it two thirds to three quarters of the time, and that's a standard increase which we're all used to. And partly, I think it's an economic situation which is slightly better. And partly I think it's because the interest rate is not turning and you're gonna get fewer buyers, quality buyers in the marketplace and those buyers are not gonna be quality tenants. But as landlords, watch your costings and be conservative in your costings because at this moment, you cannot push your income. That's not a lever which is very easy to push at the moment. And I think that's such an important one to always bear in mind that you need to understand what's easy to push, what's easy to increase and decrease. And often rental is not the thing that's easiest to certainly increase, particularly in this economy. I think that there certainly was a time when landlords were as a standard, even doing double digits rental escalations. And of course we've seen that in the past few years that that has not been the case. So landlords really do need to be very careful and track the data of the respective areas that they have their properties in. This is not a thumbs up. You certainly need to do a market analysis and always be on the ball when it comes to your market analysis. But in the meantime, I want us to go for a quick break, see the lucky winner of the, I think we've got a thousand rounds now in the money bag this evening as we are of course giving away that cash every single evening right here, live on the show. And that is for the great competition that we're running on our Facebook page. If you don't know about it, go to the pin post on our Facebook page, comment as many times as you want. And you're certainly going to increase your odds of walking away with the cash prize. But in the meantime, let's have a look at who the lucky winner this evening is. And that lucky winner this evening, Tashy Combs, walking away, it's 1,500 rounds. That's actually in the money bag. So congratulations to you, Tashy Combs. Remember, you have to drop us a message down here below in order to claim your prize. And if you just, if you want to be just like Tashy Combs, all you have to do is go to our Facebook page, comment on the pin post on our Facebook page as many times as you would like. And of course, we are going to make sure that if you are watching us live and comment, then you're going to walk away with that cash prize. If Tashy Combs doesn't do that, we're going to have a roll over to 2,000 rounds tomorrow evening. But I know some of you always want a bigger money bag. And some people are always, of course, looking for the person to be watching live and to drop us that to take. We'll see if Tashy Combs is indeed watching us live and we will take it from there. Continue our conversation with David Beattie, founder and director at Coral's Property Group. How can landlords prepare for the new year? Now David, now that we've explored the year that was certainly some of the learnings, some of the mistakes that landlords have done. When we look forward to 2022 and also use the knowledge, the insight that we have picked up in the past 18 months, COVID era that has really changed somehow some landlords have even run their business. What can we anticipate for the new year? And what should we be planning for as landlords for 2022? Look, I think the first thing I can think of and the first thing which I've been talking to myself about is mindset. Look, the market is tough. Things are tough as that I've seen in two decades. But I think if we have the right mindset and we are filled with hope and that we have had the right mindset to look at opportunities that are in the market best, I do think there's tremendous opportunities and I do think we can have a tremendously good year next year. Secondly, I think we've got to just get the basics right. The days are being passive or thinking that things are just going to happen. I think we're not in those days at the moment. I think we've got to focus on doing the basics right, be professional in our relationship with our tenants, be professional in our administration, be constantly looking at our cost cutting, making sure we could be dropping our costs, making sure that we're being aware of what's going on in the marketplace around us so that we can be adaptable, we can be flexible to react to the way the market is. But I do think the bottom of the value has been achieved. And I don't think that we're going to shoot the lights out next year, but I think that we can plan for a little bit of certainty, even from a political situation. I'm not sure when elections are or whatever, but at the moment, I do think there's a little bit of stability. It's not a great stability, but it's a bit of stability that we can actually consolidate and look at our portfolio, look at our property and say, how can I do this better? As opposed to white knuckle survival, I do think we should be turning our minds towards, how can we do consolidate what we've got and how can we do better so that I can build a system so that maybe I can even build my portfolio going forward? But we do need to maintain the disciplinary costs. We do need to plan as those things are not going to get much better. As I say, I'm not planning doom and gloom. I'm just not planning that because I'm going to automatically get my 10% capital growth next year on my property assets. Things are going to be okay. I need to plan that I'm going to get 0% increase on my rentals knowing that I may well get a few percent. I'm planning for my cost to go up a little and I'm going to consolidate. I'm going to work with my partners whether it's my rental agent or with my tenants to really just provide that excellent service because those landlords that are doing that are doing great business. And I think then, you know, David when we then look at mistakes to avoid for the new year whatever mistakes that we should avoid for the new year because I know that there are some people who are also going to use the insight from the past, you know, nearly two years and perhaps may want to change things up quite a bit and perhaps focus on the wrong things. So what are some of the things that we should definitely not do as landlords in 2022? I think we should not be distracted. We've got the, as a landlord we've got our first, there's four main needs of a landlord. Let's just talk about the first one. The first one is to focus on cash flow. So what you want to do is make sure that you know when your vacancies are coming up when the end of the lease agreement's up and you planned ahead when you're going to start marketing for that replacement. Number two is that you're making sure that your rent collection procedures are in place. So don't be reactive for the year. Don't make that mistake. Be proactive, put in your diary like we all offer our meetings for the new year. I'm really saying this is my diary for the new year. Do it for your property investment too. No, exactly on the 25th of the month are doing your billings. On the first of the month you diarise that you're checking your bank statement for your rent. That you diarise two months before the end of your lease agreement. In your diaries, you don't have to think about it. You don't have to worry about it before the end of the lease agreement. You're going to be in contact with your tenants. So be reactive. Set up a system for the year and you can get on with the rest of your life for the rest of your business and knowing that your systems are set up. Don't be reactive, be proactive. And that's such an important one, David. I think when we talk about using or getting a system in place there's certainly different kinds of tools. I use TPN for managing the majority of the properties and it gives you great triggers on when a lease is coming to an end and when to start communicating with your tenant, whether they're interested in renewing the lease or they won't be renewing the lease, be proactive as a landlord as much as possible. And there's certain things that you can really automate even in the way that you communicate with your tenants. So that's a really important thing to always bear in mind. Because we also don't... We want to eliminate certain admin because we're very mindful that for the most part a lot of landlords this is not your day job. You actually have a day job and you have perhaps a few properties that you self-manage or even work with an agent who manages them. But you're not... This is not the core focus in your day-to-day life. So you really do want to put in systems that are going to make it easier and very systematic for you to be able to deal with your portfolio. And David, as we slowly wrap up our conversation there are any tips for new landlords. So those people who've certainly been watching the show for the past year and even longer who now have the right tools and confidence to get that first investment property in New York. Any tips and insights for them in terms of what to do, what not to do as a new landlord and what they should get right from the game go. That's certainly going to set them up for success. Yeah, I think one of the first things is to make sure you've got some rentals around you. Really do reach out. Yeah, I've been talking to some new landlords and I've sent them a book or I just make sure that they can call me any time just for the quick question. So make sure you've got those around you, whether it's an attorney that you're dealing with or for advice. Second of all, just make sure your customs are done well. Buy at the right price. Don't buy on emotion. And I'm talking to myself here. You've really got to... You've really got to... It's not about being emotionalist. It's about keeping to the disciplines. Be disciplined in a business perspective because many years ago when I started out on property I could buy on property and automatically made money. But I thought I was a superhero and I thought I knew what I was doing. I actually was stupid. I actually didn't know what I was doing. I was just lucky. Nowadays, you can actually be a success by doing the right things. Yeah, and I think, you know, David, one of the big things there is to make data-driven decisions, right? And that's how you also easily don't fall victim to the FOMO because there's certainly quite a lot of FOMO where property is concerned. We've seen a lot of it, particularly, you know, during this lockdown period. And so when you make data-driven decisions, it's so much easier not to fall prey to the FOMO because the data will be fairly clear on whether that's a good deal or whether you've just hyped yourself up and the numbers just don't stack up. And sometimes the numbers don't stack up and it doesn't make sense for you to pursue that particular property. Yeah. Don't be driven by ego. And those that keep the discipline, I just want to encourage those landlords that are starting out. I've been in the business for 20 years. I've seen landlords start out and I've seen them fire for 10 years later. And you'll be amazed, are you so succeed? You do the basics well now. One of my landlords started with one property is now got 2.5 billion under management. It's possible. If you do the right things and you're learning and you're curious and you listen to your podcasts, those kind of things, those are all really good advice with a strong mentality, with lots of hope, with perseverance, you will succeed. And it's not much more complicated than that. But I've seen too many success stories to know that you can make it if you do the basics right. And I think that's actually just such a great note to leave it on that. You can make it if you get the basics right. And we've certainly explored what the basics are with David in other episodes and of course other episodes throughout. So do go back to some of those great episodes. Don't make ego driven decisions. Make sure that you are making data driven decisions. And don't fall prey to the formal. It's there, it's a lot of it. And sometimes we as landlords post the joys of being a landlord and don't post the drama and also just the boring side of being a landlord. So I think be careful of getting a really good holistic picture of what you are signing up for. David, it was such a pleasure to have you on the show. It's always so great. Thank you so much for joining us this evening. And of course, for joining us throughout the year, it's been such a pleasure to have you with us. Zalma, it's been my pleasure to absolutely and it's such a joy to see the success of this program. Because I think it's in such incredible use and need in our marketplace because of the people I deal with every day. Thank you. David B2 was a founder and director at Forest of Property Group, wrapping up the Thursday edition of the private property podcast with myself as I'm a don't want to malo. Well, unfortunately, our winner, Tasha Perms, did not raise their hands and claim that price. So we're going to have another roll over, 2,000 rounds available for tomorrow. Of course, that is the competition that we are running on our Facebook page. I'm going to wrap it up with a comment from Omenze Boutellez, saying, because of the nature of my job, I let the bulk of the work we've done by the agents, dropping their range, got me the tenants I have. I'm fortunate to still be making a positive cash flow. The tenants are very responsible. And I think that's one of the adjustments, they make those adjustments because they certainly do go a long way because they end up getting good, responsible tenants. We know how expensive getting new tenants can be, or certainly how expensive having the wrong ones and having to get them out and getting good ones tends to be. So don't make rash decisions where that is concerned as well. Well, that's it for myself as I'm a don't want to malo. I'll be back on your screens tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. But do say tune for the farming podcast with Omenze Boutellez at 8 p.m. Until then, hope you're staying home and staying safe.