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West: Welcome, folks, to today’s interview. And today, I’m very privileged to have with
us Mr. Bob Andersen. Now Bob has been involved in property development for a very long time,
over thirty years. And he’s in a conglomerate of people who control over $1 billion worth
of property. And that’s a super, super impressive stat.
What’s more impressive is Bob not only has a personal portfolio but he’s also doing
it day to day and he’s also teaching people how to do it. So we’re very lucky to have
Bob with us today. And I want to welcome you to today’s interview, Bob.
Bob: Thanks, West. Great to be here.
West: Absolutely. Now tell us, Bob, when you speak to people and they ask you what it is
that you do—because I know you’ve got such a range of skill set—what is it essentially
that people need to know about you?
Bob: Well West, primarily, I’m in the property investment, property development area. But
ultimately, what I do is I use property development more as a vehicle for getting property investment
at cost price whether it’s for myself or for investor clients. Property development
is really a vehicle to accumulate the asset class of property, primarily residential property.
So yup, I’m a developer but there’s a reason for being a developer.
So what do I do? I’m a developer and I’m an investor and my clients are all investors.
West: So a lot of people who are kind of thinking of getting into development but maybe they’ve
only done a couple of residential or maybe they haven’t done any property and they’re
looking at getting into something on a small level, is that something that you help people
primarily and teach people how to do as well?
Bob: Yeah. I heard Mal saying, “Never pay retail.” So myself, that’s part of the
reason I got involved in property development, really. It was a vehicle for getting property
investments at a—well, not wholesale price—but absolute cost price.
So people, sometimes they haven’t done a development at all and they’re investors
with one or two investments of their own and they see that potentially property development
could be a great way of accumulating property investments fast and at cost. So with those
people, I have a whole property development education program for those people who want
to make the next step up from property investor to just more property developer.
West: Wow. And I think there’s a perception in the public that you’ve got to be some
sort of sophisticated, right up there and have done hundreds of deals before you can
into development. I mean that’s kind of—when I was going through—at least, that was the
perception. I mean if you look at a lot of the property work out there and books and
tapes and seminars, they always show you a progression where development is like the
ultimate goal. But you’re saying that people can—with some knowledge—get into property
development and make it work for them.
Bob: Yeah, they can. I think one of the first things that people need to do is to know why
they want to get involved in property development.
West: So find their reason.
Bob: Yeah…and a good reason. I was talking to somebody last week. He actually wanted
to become involved in property development. So I put the question, “Why do you want
to do this?” And they say, “Oh, I see property developers and they’ve got big
fancy houses, they drive red Ferraris. They often have young women hanging off their arms.”
And I say, “Well, that’s not a really good… It makes me sound very unsuccessful.”
You know, I’ve been married for thirty years. I don’t drive a red Ferrari. And I haven’t
got the biggest house in the suburbs.
But I think you have to go in there for the right reasons. And initially, as I said it’s
a vehicle. It’s a way of accumulating wealth. It’s a way of accumulating property. So
for those people, get the reason right first. And that’s important…having the right
reasons.
Then the next question is ‘well, how do I get involved?’ And really, just like everything,
you have to be educated. You have to gain knowledge and increase your knowledge for
leveraging off people with far greater knowledge.
West: Absolutely. And you’ve got to learn from people who are in the industry and doing
it and are the real deal. I mean, there’s kind of a lot of pretenders out there and
obviously, I’m not going to name names or anything but there are people out there who
don’t walk the talk and there are people out there who don’t actually do what they
claim to do or say they do. And you have a record that just speaks for itself with all
the developments that you’ve done: resorts, hotels, government buildings and all those
kind of things that do that.
So how can people, I guess, identify who to learn from and what kind of signs can they
look for when looking for a means or looking for someone to actually leverage from?
Bob: I think they’ve got to do a little bit of their own due diligence, really. In
my case, I’m a real developer. I have a development company, Positive Property Strategies,
where we’re involved in projects all the time. Even currently, you know, retirement
villages, combination projects, townhouses, units—we’re always doing projects. And
so I’m a real property developer, therefore, I have the ability to pass that knowledge
on.
We’re like talking about people who may be trying to pass knowledge on that are not
property developers but they’re outs… look, you’ve got to do your own due diligence
on the subject.
West: So you’re a developer first and you’re teaching people afterwards. You’re not teaching
people first as your core business and then kind of trying to do property development
on the side. And I think there’s a big distinction, a big difference there.
Bob: Yeah, exactly. And I’ve developed this course. It took me quite a long time to develop
it. It’s basically the culmination of nearly thirty years of experience that I’ve put
into in my course. And I think that shows for anybody who really sees it.
West: Absolutely.
Bob: Credibility’s everything, really.
West: Definitely. And I definitely like to chat a little bit about it later because,
you know, before our interview today, Bob was actually giving me a little sneak peek
at the course. And it’s really exciting to see what he’s put into it. It seems like
kind of a labor of love that he’s actually put almost everything into his brain that
people can follow in a blueprint.
But before we get to that, Bob, why don’t you tell us maybe a couple of strategies that
you recommend in today’s volatile environment with regard to property development? How can
someone get into property if they don’t have, you know, a million dollars in the bank?
And how do you specifically help people would be a really good addition to how people get
in.
Bob: Yeah. Well look, knowledge is power. So first thing people need to do is actually
to educate themselves—make an investment in their future. And that requires spending
some money. That’s fine because the greatest asset is you have is yourself. So you need
to invest in yourself. And there are sources of knowledge out there.
When I started, when I originally sort of moved from, if you like, from a short period
in real estate into property development, there’s nothing out there. There were no
books, there were no courses, there were no mentors. I did it the hard way. I made a few
mistakes along the way. So increase that level of knowledge.
And then ultimately, you know, you have to make the first step. Some people keep accumulating
knowledge, accumulating knowledge but they never make their step. Eventually, you have
to make that move. I always say you don’t have to have an IQ of 150, you don’t have
to be a multi-millionaire, you don’t have to drive red Ferraris to get into property
development.
So start small. You might be looking at something like a duplex, two townhouses to get or maybe
a triplex of three. You can get into that fairly readily. If you have no cash at all
and you’re building up this experience, you can look at more creative ways of getting
into things—joint ventures. I’ve done a lot of joint ventures and there are so many
different ways of structuring joint ventures. You might look at joint ventures as a way
of bringing in somebody with some money…
West: And you provide your time.
Bob: …and you provide your time and the knowledge that you’re building.
There are all sorts of things out there. There are things like using fancy stuff like call
options and building equity into deals and that sort of thing. There are creative ways
of getting in that requires knowledge of that. And also, look, at the end of the day you’re
going to do some work.
So there are creative ways of getting in. But finance wise too, on the smaller projects,
some of the banks are coming back in and starting to lend retail finance going for twos and
three townhouses at higher LVR’s. So there are some too good opportunities to get in
on the ground floor.
West: Absolutely. So even if you don’t have any money, you can still get your hands dirty
and get some experience. And once you find some really good information that you can
act on and find, I guess, a strategy that suits your personality, I guess—in a way,
Bob—I mean, you were saying before that there are so many different things you can
do but some people like to do something that’s more attuned to their personality and their
risk profile I guess.
Bob: That’s right. Some people are more entrepreneurial. Basically, I’m a property
developer or a property investor. Also, do you make entrepreneurs… there are things
to suit people’s personality. Some people are more creative than others. But, you know,
there’s a deal around the corner for everybody to fit everybody.
West: Absolutely. And I think, even that mindset in itself, people are saying that there aren’t
deals out there. And someone like Bob who is day in and day out… there’s always
a deal.
Bob: Yeah. And look, if you miss out on a deal of the year, the next one’s only a
week away.
West: Absolutely. Absolutely. Wow. That’s powerful.
So what are some of the strategies that you give, Bob, to people who may have a little
bit of cash lying around and maybe come to see you for, you know, “How can you help
me, Bob?” What kind of things do you say to those people and maybe if you can give
us a case study of how you’ve helped someone or given someone some advice or a strategy
that has saved them some money or made them a lot of money?
Bob: One of the first things to do before you say, “I’m looking for a site,”—the
first thing you do is not look for a site—the first thing you do is have a look at your
structure. You need to get your structure right. And that will depend on what you’re
going to do. Are you going to look for a site to flick. Are you going to develop something
and sell it? Are you going to develop something and hold, the structure will vary.
Have a look at the finance and how you’re going to fund this thing: Are you going to
use your own cash? Are you going to use somebody else’s? How it’s going to be funded.
But beyond that, before you start looking for a site, is to decide on the answers to
those questions, then we have look at what sort of deal fits the person.
West: So kind of do it like a mini business plan.
Bob: Yeah, a mini business plan. Yeah, exactly.
Some people come to me that they’re already into development. They say, “Look, where
do go from here?” Some people will say, “Look, I want to get into it. Where do I
start?” Just start with the knowledge. Once you’ve got the basic knowledge, then you
can build upon that with a mentoring program or whatever’s the next step. Now at the
moment people arrive with a deal and a title. They already started. It’s amazing, you
know. You see something has started. It’s scary sometimes but actually some people are
actually in their first project and are quite lost. And I pick up people at various stages.
But as far as helping people in the deals, um, I mean you’ve met Ben Smith recently.
Ben runs my portfolio turbocharger program. Ben started off basically as a mentoring student
and I know he’d be right for the deal with a land subdivision, potential joint venture
for a 20 lot subdivision. And I was like helping him with that in terms of how to structure
the deal, how to structure the joint venture, how to make the win win with both parties.
That was a great outcome. It was a great outcome for the land owner. It was a great outcome
for Ben. And that was a 20 lot subdivision which actually, the way it’s financially
structured, meant no money into the deal for the actual developer—it’s a 20 lot subdivision.
Great outcome.
West: Wow. It’s crazy.
Bob: I often use that one as an example because it’s a very good deal of having… you can
actually get into a deal and create at least…
West: So Ben obviously didn’t know that by his own back. But he got into the game
and he came and saw you because he knew you were actually, you know, you know what you’re
doing and you were able to systematically look at all the different aspects of the deal
and put something together that was a win.
Bob: That’s right. That was a ‘no money down’ deal.
West: Wow. Powerful stuff.
So if someone is sort of getting—you mentioned before people kind of just dive in and they
don’t really know what they’re doing. And I was also reading in your book, which
we’ll talk about later, but what are some of the most common mistakes, Bob, that people
make when they try and get in their first property development deal and they just, you
know, they don’t know what they’re doing and they can potentially lose a lot of money?
What are some of the pitfalls that people can stay away from based on your experience
from the most common list of things?
Bob: One thing that scares me is that often with people starting out is they don’t know
that they don’t know. It’s a dangerous thing. It’s a good thing to know that you
don’t know but when you don’t know that you don’t know, that is very dangerous.
And sometimes I go in some of the large property forums and you go and you see people coming
up with a question, “I just bought a development site. What do I do next?” They’re asking
other people out there who have never done a development for advice. That’s pretty
scary stuff.
So where can they go wrong? Well, due diligence is a big thing when you’re looking for a
site. Some people just launch out, they believe a real estate agent. Nothing wrong with real
estate agents but caveat emptor: do your own due diligence.
I always say, first thing, get a little team together-be it an architect, be it a town
planner and do your due diligence on the site. It might be a site without a development approval.
What’s the zoning? What’s the likelihood of success on the development? What’s the
yield? What can we get on it—two townhouses, four townhouses? Some people just launch out,
buy a property without knowing and it’s quite scary.
So yeah, initially, the right sort of due diligence.
Know the structure before you enter into a contract. Some people just launch into a contract
signing their own personal name with intent of developing and holding and then they find
out, Well, I don’t really want it in my own name after all. And it’s an expensive
business to try and take it out and sign personal name back into a trust or a company—whatever
the structure is. So get these things in place early.
West: Absolutely. So I guess it all comes back to educating yourself and making sure
that you have at least a base level of education. Personally, I actually respect people who
dive in and do stuff but I think when there are things at stake, such as people’s lives
and people’s families, you’ve got to actually have that base foundation. And I think a great
step, as we’re talking about before, is going to Bob’s site and getting his eBook.
I just spent the last few days reading it a few times and it’s an amazing, amazing
resource. If nothing else, it’s free. It just teaches you everything…all the basics
of property development.
And so Bob, for people who want to know a little bit more about your book, how did the
structure come? And I’m guessing, over the years, you’ve thought, ‘How can I Put
together something that just teaches people the backbone of what I do.’
Bob: Well, I wanted to get the basics out there because I was bumping into people all
over the place, I was seeing…
West: You’re always getting the same questions probably.
Bob: They’re all the same questions and you know, as I said, you go into some of the
property forums and you see what they were really doing. So I thought, ‘Look, at least
let’s get some basic information out there about the development process, the sorts of
development you can do, what are the risks or basically the advantages of doing property
development. It’s about a 41 page ebook and it’s free. So that helps as well.
West: And it’s pretty damn good.
Bob: It just gives people a bit of a feel for property development: what it’s really
about, what some of the advantages are, what the risks are, how you can get into deals.
Obviously, here you can get a lot of wealth from it as well. So it’s a good first base,
if you like, to go to.
West: Absolutely. And one of the things I noticed about it is people can start doing
this in their spare time. I mean they don’t have to quit their job tomorrow and start
going full—you know—full time property. They can actually learn and kind of do it
on their weekends.
Bob: Look, I don’t want to make property development sound like it’s really easy.
But it can be. With the right help, it’s relatively easy.
Look, very often people have done a course or start to mentor or have what I call a day
job. And most of them are quite happy or quite comfortable to do, say, three townhouse projects—let’s
say that’s an entry level: 2 or 3 townhouse project—in their spare time while they‘re
currently in a full time job. A lot of that comes from two areas. It comes from getting
the right help when you’re doing it. And then getting the right team of people around
you.
And look, the thing is, once you start doing it, once you’ve done your first project,
like you might do a 3 townhouse project—let’s say it’s a moderate but a successful one—you
might pull, let’s say, $70,000 profit per townhouse. At the end of 12 or 18 months,
it’s $210,000 worth of profit. But it could be a cash property if you sell them. It could
be even better if you decide to keep some, because then you can hold it as a long term
investment. And because you don’t pay tax unless you sell it, you’ve got this accumulating
asset that you can still harvest the equity of. So all of a sudden, you know, the property
development part time thing is making 3x or 4x as much as the day job. So the temptation
is whether to do it full time.
West: For sure.
Bob: Some do it sometimes. Some people are happy to do a little project every couple
of years. Use that to build their property portfolio with a long term goal, whether that
long term goal is…it’s usually retiring early, change their lifestyle. Some people
might develop three every 12, 18 months, 2 years. Sell one, keep two. Sell two, keep
one. Use the extra cash.
West: I guess that’s all part of their strategy. Like the overall strategy that you were talking
about before—putting down on paper what it is you want out of it. I mean if you want
to travel the world for the rest of your life and drive Ferraris, you’re going to have
to probably work a little bit harder than someone who just wants to be able to live
and have their expenses paid by their investments.
So on that note, I was reading one of the principles you were teaching Bob, (in the
book) where you teach people how a property developer saves way more money than a retail
investor for exactly the same deal.
Bob: Yah.
West: Give us a really quick summary of how that process works. I thought that was really
fascinating.
Bob: Okay. Let’s take a little three townhouse project, let’s say three or four townhouse
projects. Just to make it easier to understand, let’s break it down per townhouse, okay?
So we might be cutting a three townhouse project into three or four townhouse project into
four. Looking at it on a per townhouse basis, so a typical townhouse, let’s say, might
sell on completion for about $500,000—normal bread and butter townhouse in one of the suburbs.
Now that townhouse is probably going to cost somewhere between $400,000 $425,000 to develop.
Now what I mean by that is all the costs are going to run up to let’s say about $410,000
$415,000. That cost includes the land, professional fees of the consultants, the approval process,
the finance, the counsel fees, all the bits and pieces. So what you’ve got on completion,
you’ve got a property that’s worth $500,000. What you’re going to do, obviously, you
can sell it at the end and you make a cash profit. You make a cash profit, it becomes
income tax paid. That’s great. You get a bundle of money, you pay your tax and you
move on.
The other thing you can do—and you can even do a mix of the two—is to actually hold
that property at the other end. Now when you’ve developed—let’s say it’s worth $500,000.
Now what’s the bank going to lend you? Well typically, a bank on an investment will say,
“We’ll lend eighty percent without mortgage insurance.” So they’re only going to lend
you $400,000 on a property that only owes you, let’s say, $410,000. So really, all
you have to do is leave $10,000 into that deal. And the other $90,000 is profit. So
the bank will lend you almost a hundred percent of your cost.
Now if there’s been even a smidgen of growth during that twelve month project, what was
$500,000 at the beginning or say even a five percent growth, it’ll be worth $525,000
by the time you complete it. So they lend eighty percent of that and it’s all your
costs. So really, all you’re doing is you’re leaving a development profit in as your deposit
on the finance at the other end. So the bank is fully funding all your costs. So the equity
that you put in on the front of the project to do the development, you can now take out,
leave your profit in and hold that property. And really, that’s how you accumulate wealth.
So all of a sudden, you’ve got a property where you’ve got a twenty percent deposit
which is just your profit. You’ve got your equity back out and you’re going to do the
same thing again.
West: Wow. So it allows you to essentially replicate much more than if you tried to do
it on your own.
Bob: That’s right. The normal way is to go and buy a $500,000 property for $500,000.
By the time you pay legals and stamp duty, it might owe you $520,000—it’s worth $500,000—you
get a yield of negative. So you have to put in your $100,000 from some of it—often it’s
equity over other projects like properties or whatever. But what you’ve got to do now,
of course you’ve got to wait for normal organic growth, you’ve got to wait for the
market to increase your properties in value. When they have you refinance, you harvest
your equity. So you’re waiting. You’re waiting on the market.
The other way you take control of and actually create that equity immediately is through
property development. And that’s the principle of it.
West: Just from the structure and the concept. Wow. That’s powerful. Really powerful stuff.
Bob: So you accumulate a lot of property quicker. If your goal is to retire, then you’re retiring
early.
West: Absolutely. Wow.
Bob: Or you’re retiring with more money.
West: Definitely. Definitely. And I think that’s a distinction that people would do
well to read about, go back to Bob’s book, check it out and really do some numbers. And
for the same deal, as I said before, you can get up to twenty, thirty, possibly more percentage
back on your money. And I think that’s really powerful.
I want to talk about one more concept before we start telling people how they can find
out more about you, Bob. Potentially, for more sophisticated investors watching this
interview, maybe they’ve got a little bit more money in the bank than someone who is
just starting out and they were wondering what they can do, how you can potentially
help them. How do you help people with a higher platform?
Bob: Well, a couple of ways. What we’re talking about, I guess, my whole thing’s
property development so it’s really property investment but my vehicle of getting me faster
to property development. So really, you can almost break property development into two
areas: You’ve got active property development.
And then you’ve got passive property development.
So active property development would be somebody who wants to learn the ropes, get in to developments,
do their own developments. Okay? So they have to educate themselves and need a hand on the
way through. And they become property developers. They may stay small developers or they may
become big developers. That’s active development.
Now the other way is if you like is to get all the advantages of property development,
but passively. So what that means, a passive developer, for instance, may be somebody who
really doesn’t want to get involved in the day to day operation of the development. One
good example could be a brain surgeon. So he’s just too busy operating people’s
brains. So that’s a near enough to a 7-day a week job, 14 hours a day.
West: Yup. Absolutely.
Bob: So he doesn’t want to take his mind off that, thank goodness. So what he wants
to do, he wants to work his money.
West: Yeah. He wants to use property development as a vehicle.
Bob: Exactly. So he uses that, his asset base and his cashflow, to accumulate properties
passively.
So some of these high net worth individuals may come into a project with us. It could
be a joint venture structure. We have different structures where people can come in on a passive
basis. And that way, they can get the benefits of property development almost—well, not
quite as cheaply as doing it yourself because obviously, if someone’s doing it for you…in
our case they pay for that, but they can get—eventually into property way below retail price.
Like I say, I never pay retail. I mean I can’t pay retail for anything. Well actually, you
know what? I just can’t go out, I can’t buy a car retail. I can’t buy a computer
retail. I’ve got to find a deal. So I look for a deal with property.
West: And I’m really impressed by the fact that Bob takes that philosophy and it’s
part of his mindset, it’s part of what he believes in. One question I would ask you,
Bob, is about how you continue to cultivate your mindset and what are some of the characteristics
of the successful students that you have, mindset wise, how they’re thinking, how
they’re building their knowledge, what kind of philosophies are they taking into their
investments?
Bob: Well I think, first of all, most of the people that come on and want to do a project,
we only ask them why, what’s their motivation? Because if they don’t have the right motivations,
it’s not going to work. And if things get a little bit tough, they’ll give up.
So having an end plan to it, they may become motivated to achieve that end plan. So once
the motivation’s there, that’s the driving force behind it. So it makes them a lot more
So that’s the right sort of mindset: is to go into it for the right reasons and not
just for a red Ferrari. That can be a side road. A red Ferrari and a big house—that’s
a side road.
A little while ago, I was talking to someone about the characteristics of a good developer,
okay, in terms of being able to solve problems, being a reliable thinker. But as I said, you
don’t have to have an IQ of beyond 140 or 150; just an average intelligence but a drive
to learn and a drive to succeed. That’s a good work ethic. They’re the basis.
West: Absolutely. And I guess, obviously, when you’re looking at working with someone,
you need to make sure that those things are in place. Otherwise, they’re going to waste
your time and it’s not going to work. And obviously, time is money.
Bob: Yeah, that’s right. You know, if people move on beyond that or go mentor with somebody,
they need to have all the basics in place in terms of that initial knowledge through
the course or whatever and then that are of motivation because, you know, I wear a few
hats. I have a property development business to run and I can only take on a certain number
of mentorees, if you like. And it’s a matter of really choosing those who really want to
West: Absolutely. So on that note, Bob, I want to talk now about your mentoring programs.
You actually offer a few things. We’re going to talk a little bit about your upcoming product
which I’ve had the pleasure of previewing just a few minutes ago. But your mentoring
program, people can actually leverage off your knowledge and have personal contact with
you, is that correct?
Bob: At the higher level, yes. It’s all about… you know, this whole education thing
of being educated and building knowledge is about investing in yourself and then leveraging
off other people’s knowledge. You can knock five or ten years off your learning curve
by accumulating the knowledge of…
West: Well, you’ve had 30+ years of experience and people can get straight into that.
Bob: The initial thing that people need is they need to build their knowledge up of what
property development is, what it’s all about. Obviously, the more technical aspects, just
the processes of how it works and sort of people that you integrate with. I’ve got
a little saying to ‘what is property development.’ Well, what it is, it’s about managing people
and managing processes.
So we’ve got the procedural part of property development. We’ve got the processes to
go through whether it’s the purchase of the site, obtaining of the approval, finance,
project management or sales—whatever it is—the processes. You need to know those.
The other thing is managing people on the way through. You’ve got various people to
work with…an architect. The good thing is, you know, property development, you actually
subcontract the areas of it. It’s a bit like renovating. You can go and renovate a
house. You can just get a builder in to do everything or you can go and then start organizing
one trade at a time. It’s been like that with development. You get a really good architect
and then if you like, organize some of the other consultants on your behalf and you just
control it.
But this knowledge base is the initial thing. So that’s what I call my property mastermind
property development course—
West: And where can people go to, to actually get into that? Is there a site or…?
Bob: Well, initially, if they go to www.propertymastermind.com.au, that’s my website where you can download
the free ebook. I think that’s a good place to start.
West: Absolutely.
Bob: Once they’ve downloaded the free ebook, then they’ll automatically be on my database.
Once you’re on there, when I have a launch, I’ll start to send out a few emails. So
I like to send out more content.
West: Just like this.
Bob: Like this, yeah.
West: Absolutely.
Bob: Another good, sort of, good content leading on to the course. And then the course will
be available for a period of time. People, if they want to, can purchase the course through
my website. It’s very easy to do.
West: Now the course itself, Bob, it’s a monster, of course, I’ll be honest. It’s
got twenty something CDs, one big manual and a support manual, four DVDs, software program,
retails for $400. Tell us about the actual structure of the course, Bob, and how it’s
going to help people take that next level from not knowing where to go into having a
blueprint to get into property development.
Bob: West, I built it in a sequential order I know that people need to know by now.
West: You were saying before people don’t know what they need to know. You know what
Bob: Yeah, I know what they need to know even if they don’t.
So what I’ve built into the Property Mastermind Property Development Course is all the knowledge
you don’t have to be brilliant. It’s all sequential. People that have done it just
say, “Look, it is really easy to follow. It’s detailed but it’s not difficult to
understand.”
It’s built upon lessons, about forty one lessons or forty one chapters of covering
everything from beginning to end. And within those lessons, I refer to a support manual
which accompanies the lessons. I have a 370 page support manual. It’s all the things
like check list and documents and templates of…
West: Exactly the stuff that you use in your business.
Bob: Yeah, but these are copies out of lots of my projects and the things that I use everyday.
West: But you paid probably tens of thousands, if not more…
Bob: I learned the hard way.
West: To develop.
Bob: Exactly. Yup. And that’s in the support manual saying Welcome to an area of lessons
and say ‘refer to the feasibility template’ or ‘refer to the due diligence template.’
You go to the support manual and there it is.
So we’ve got the lessons. We’ve got the support manual. And beyond that, I’ve actually
recorded this set of 20 CDs which is really the whole of the 41 lessons in audio. So if
you like, you can put that on to an mp3 player and play it at the gym, you can play the CDs
in the car. Because some people are more audio— they like to hear, they like to read.
West: That’s for sure.
Bob: So one can reinforce the other.
I put in as well a six-hour set of DVDs or live workshop I did with some of our investors.
It was a closed door workshop. We go through the whole development process but in looking
at different angles that aren’t in the lessons. Lots of Powerpoints. We’ve probably got
a hundred Powerpoint slides in there in the set of CDs as well. We go through a whole
heap of things: create a finance, the whole due diligence, the process. 6 hour DVD set.
Now beyond that, something new is I’ve done a series of interviews lately with my inner
circle of consultants. So it’s me interviewing them. So I’d interview my property accountant,
property lawyer, one of my builders, project marketer, commercial finance broker, my interior
designer—these sorts of people. So that’s me interviewing them. That’s in a set of
8 CDs.
West: I imagine—I mean—the experience you bring to know what questions to ask. I
mean you could put a newbie in front of these guys and they just wouldn’t know what to
Bob: No. That would be a 30-second interview.
So I dragged out all the knowledge out of them. And that’s valuable.
Also, in my lessons, what I plugged in to the back of those is three case studies. So
three deals that we’ve done, three projects we’ve done, real offers— a subdivision
and two townhouse projects. We’ve absolutely pulled the deals apart, from how we came across
the deals, showed due diligence that we did, how we contracted the deals, terms and conditions
in the contract, how the deal came together, how we financed them, how we got the approvals,
the project management side, how it all came together, the marketing, the sales at the
backend on three of those. There’s no substitute for actually going inside real deals and see
how that happens.
And also looking at our early bird special, for those who get in an order early, is I’ve
done a series called ‘Under the Microscope.’ What I’ve done, these are sites that we’ve
looked at that were on the market for sale and we got in and pulled the lease apart until
about these are the things to look for in this particular deal. These are the things
I liked about the site, the things I didn’t like about the site, problems that could arise…
West: It’s almost as if someone was looking over your shoulder and accessing your brain.
Bob: Yeah, exactly.
And the things that people come back to me often and say, “What’s the hardest thing
with getting in your first project?” And people that are looking at getting into their
first project say, “…to know a deal when I see one. If I see a site, how do I really
know if it’s a deal?” So part of that is the due diligence analysis. And the other
part is the pure number crunching. So this is my, if you like, my due diligence analysis
of how I look at a deal.
West: Because, I mean, in thirty years you would have pretty much got it down to a fine
art. Would it be fair to say?
Bob: It would be, yeah. And all of that—the due diligence stuff—is in the course. So
that’s called Under the Microscope. I’ve pulled out five of those that I’ve looked
at probably the last six months with full analysis. Probably an early bird special.
Now there’s something else I’ve put in to the course. It has to do with the number
crunching. How you number crunch or feasibility analysis, all that’s in the course. We’ve
got four chapters just about how to do feasibilities.
But I put a software program in there. Not just a cheap little Excel that somebody has
put together. I’ve seen a few of them around and they’re just full of holes. This is
a proprietary software package which has been on the market for twenty years. It’s called
Feastudy. The deal is called Feastudy Lite. That’s the program. It’s an excellent
program. And the recommended retail price is $440. And it’s great value for $440.
It’s all you’ll ever need to do to do small development projects. I’ve put it
in my course because I really want people to have a professional presentation when they
put it before the bank or before a valuer. And also, it really makes the number crunching
easy. I mean who wants to work out interest in a deal the long way?
It’s a great program. It’s constantly being redeveloped. Been around for twenty
years. I’ve put that in the course.
West: Wow. Fantastic. So it sounds like, Bob, you’ve literally given the entire toolbox
that anyone would need to get into property development from point a to point z: everything
they’re going to need, the foundations they’re going to set. And we were talking before about
information and education being the first step into getting in without getting burnt
massively, and there’s literally no better way to get in from someone who’s done it
for so long.
I, for one, am excited about the release of this product and I think it’s going to help
many, many people avoid the traps and the misconceptions of getting into property development.
So I guess on that note, Bob, is there any parting words you want to say to people watching
the interview, a bit of a sage advice or anything you want to impart on leaving?
Bob: On leaving? Uh, other than no matter what endeavor you want to get involved in,
get a good ground. Look, it doesn’t matter whether it’s property or outside property,
there’s just so much knowledge out there these days. Do the right due diligence but
don’t be afraid to invest in yourself. The best asset you have is yourself and invest
in that, increase your knowledge. With knowledge comes confidence. And with confidence comes
the inner strength to take that step, that first step.
West: Absolutely. Beautiful. And on that note, just really quickly, if they want to get a
hold of Bob’s free report, it’s at www.propertymastermind.com.au. I highly recommend reading the free report
if you’re looking at getting into property development or even if you’re just looking
at learning about the industry or taking another step in the right direction.
You can read more about Bob’s course from the links included in and around this interview.
And I hope you’ve got something of value.
Bob Andersen, thank for talking to us. Hopefully, it’s added value to the viewers and I appreciate
Bob: Absolutely! A pleasure, West.
West: Cheers!
Bob: Cheers�