What kind of investor are you?

Property guru Michael Yardney scans the audience and asks for a show of hands from those who want to have “fun” with their investment property portfolio – almost everyone, it seems.

“Wrong,” he says. “If you want to have fun, go bungee jumping!”

Michael is the author of How to Grow a Million Dollar Property Portfolio in Your Spare Time, now in its 3^rd edition, and founder of Metropole, a multi-faceted national property business.

In Perth at a one-day seminar, he outlined the need for a planned strategy – and talked down non-mainstream approaches including buying in new developments, renovating to sell, apartments off the plan, remote mining towns and National Rental Affordability Scheme properties.

If you’re considering buying investment properties, you’ll need to have the right landlord protection insurance to safeguard you against loss of income and property damage, among many other pitfalls of owning property. Landlord building and landlord home insurance will help protect you against people making a personal injury claim as well, along with other assorted legal fees involved in the risk of owning property.

He divided Australians into four categories of investor:

• Level 0 – Spenders, including some high-income earners, who don’t invest.

• Level 1 – People who save, but only to consume not to invest.

• Level 2 – Passive investors who rely on financial planners and sales people for advice.

• Level 3 – Active investors.

• Level 4 – Professional investors who treat property investment like a business and, as a result, have a “cash machine” affording them financial freedom.

Michael said that with fixed mortgage rates below 25-year averages, he was switching some of his debt to fixed rates – but he warned against fixing all investments for the same time period to avoid the risk of sudden changes in cash flow in future.

Another way to protect yourself is to consider a landlords insurance policy if you live in Queensland, NSW or anywhere else in Australia.

While careful to point out he had no properties to sell the audience, Michael was of course selling something – in this case membership of his “mentorship program”.

Our advice about insurance is provided for your general information and does not take into account your individual needs. You should read the Product Disclosure Statement and Policy Wording prior to making a decision, these can be obtained directly from EBM.

Article supplied by EBM.
Standard home and contents insurance will not protect against many of the risks that landlord’s face. Whether it be loss of rent due to an absconding tenant, malicious or accidental damage, or a whole range of other circumstances including tenant hardship, the RentCover range provides peace-of-mind to property owners like no other policy. And has done for over 20 years.

For more information, or to quote or apply online please visit www.rentcover.com.au.