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An introduction to Brett Alegre-Wood
One common factor I find with all of the new people I have helped over the years is this same dilemma: I know I need to get into property to secure my pension and retirement and I want to improve my lifestyle, but where do I start and who do I trust?
I imagine this is the very reason you are reading this book and it's exactly how I came into property. I grew up with the paradigm taught to me by my parents (and this is what they were taught by theirs): "Get a career, buy a house, pay it off and live happily ever after!" This was achievable, and it worked 30 to 40 years ago. Today it does not. Unfortunately, the government doesn't provide for us like it used to. Most people nowadays don't stay in one job their whole lives and one house is just not enough to secure a suitable retirement. So you need to plan for your financial future, and the 3+1 Plan is the simplest of plans. It's simple and easy because you don't need 100s of properties to create a fantastic lifestyle.
Everything in this book is about making it very easy for you to start to grow your property portfolio without the day-to-day hassles of being a full time landlord. The 3+1 Plan is a very clear destination. My Set and Forget Philosophy gives you the attitude and strategies to ensure that along the way you can live your life to the full, secure in the knowledge that your future (and present) is in safe hands.
The 3+1 Plan has given me something to strive for, but the Set and Forget Philosophy ensures that each and every property in my portfolio is set up so that I can forget about it on a day-to-day basis. We'll go into a lot more detail about how I achieved this in Chapter 6, but I've been able to sit back and watch my portfolio grow without lifting a finger. My property portfolio was set up so that someone else takes responsibility for each area and in return, I enjoy the lifestyle I choose.
I grew up in Australia, spending most of my early life in Melbourne until my father -- who was in the Army -- got posted to Brisbane. It was there that I grew up and spent most of my school years until I graduated from high school and also chose a career in the military. I spent a year in the army full time and then enrolled in university to study international business while still in the army part time. It was only after leaving the army that I moved into the lucrative field of management consultancy. I had the chance at a young age to work for many of Australia's largest companies as a consultant, and I very quickly learned that a high profile job had very little to do with financial security.
My interest in property first developed in 1994 when I trained as an estate agent with a local entrepreneur. As an estate agent I realised that although there was an abundance of people interested in purchasing property, deals would often fall through due to finance..
It didn't take long before I met Peter James -- one of my mentors -- who was also an expert in mortgages and insurance. Peter runs one of Australia's largest non-bank lenders. He inspired me to become a mortgage broker, and soon after I had a successful mortgage business and was training mortgage brokers across Australia. This eventually led to being accepted into the state committee for the Mortgage Finance Association of Australia.
During this time I began running seminars on how to build wealth through property. I noted that the majority of people attending my seminars were there for a similar reason: they had come to the realisation that they couldn't rely on their pensions or their employer to set them up comfortably for retirement.
On top of this, on their moderate incomes, all the scrimping and saving to put every spare penny back into the mortgage meant that what should have been the prime years of their lives were being spent slogging away at setting themselves up for a not-so- bright future. These people believed that there must be something more out there, a better way to do it. And they were right.
During my time in Australia, I learned how to buy property and renovate it, act as a landlord and listen to no end of tedious problems that would arise from tenants. It basically just felt like I had a second stressful job. Since then, in the UK, Spain and four other countries around the world, I have not used a single paintbrush, hammered a nail or knocked down a single wall. I haven't dealt with sourcing tenants or even worse, evicting them. I have bought only off-plan and newly built property, each time with considerable discount and structured it in such a way as to require only minimal capital outlay. Yes, I still have to pay my mortgages, ensure rents are received and pay the various charges but, for the most part, my portfolio is in 'Set and Forget' mode. I am free to live out my dreams and enjoy my life to the fullest doing the things that I am passionate about.
I moved to London in 2002 initially to fulfil the typical 'Aussie' tradition of backpacking around Europe for one or two years while using London as a base. But I soon realised that there was a huge opportunity in London property, an opportunity that still exists today.
In 2003 I published a letter to my investors explaining the current state of the property market in the UK and some of the tricks and sales tactics being used on people. This letter generated a huge amount of interest and led me to the creation of my free 'Insiders Tips & Tricks' weekly newsletter. In 2004, interest had grown so much that I created my Web site www.yourpropertyclub.com. Over 10,000 people receive the newsletter, and the contents of this book are the consolidated learning from all of those newsletters combined with the practical experience of mentors and clients and my own experience.
The book will teach you everything you need to know so you too can achieve the 3+1 Plan while being a Set and Forget Property Investor, and then all you will need to do is decide how you would most like to enjoy your time.
You will be guided through my processes, procedures, structures and strategies for developing and managing a property portfolio. I will do this by educating and coaching you with all my knowledge, experience and mistakes along the way - I've never lost money on a property deal, but sure I've had some hair-raising experiences; that's where I often learned the most! You could say I've been lucky; I've consistently had good mentors, people who have supported me in growing my portfolio. Now I can pass you the same wisdom that was given to me.
So what's in store throughout the rest of the book?
The first thing I should tell you - and I make no apologies for this - is that I am probably not your ordinary property investor and educator. Before writing this book I bought and read about 30 books available from high street book stores in London. To say I was disappointed was an understatement.
I am going to tell you a load of different stories, but I am also going to give you the basics of building a portfolio. Real strategies, time proven; not just the same old stuff on how to find the right property. While the property is definitely important, the experienced investor doesn't ignore the strategy and structure they use to purchase and hold the property.
Buy-to-let investing is a relatively new concept in the UK and this is also the reason that very few books cover topics of portfolio building and management. A lot of these strategies are commonplace in Australia where a buy-to-let market has been around for over 20 years. So it's almost a case of been there, done that! without blowing my own trumpet.
I once had a conversation with Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, a book that I recommend as one of the top two books of all time on financial matters. The other is The Richest Man in Babylon by George S Classon. I asked Robert about divesting out of property and into shares. At that stage, I owned a few properties and was beginning to see the profound change in my own finances. Robert said one thing that has kept me totally focused on property:
Every billionaire he knows has made their wealth through whatever means (property, a business, and shares) but every billionaire he knows holds their wealth in property.
Ponder this statement and you may find like me, the 3+1 Plan is a simple solution to the problem we all now face. So take the knowledge and experience I have acquired and use it.
Live with passion,
Brett Alegre-Wood