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Investor in focus: Guy Williams, part one

Announcement posted by Ripehouse Advisory 16 Dec 2016

Prolific DIY property investor Guy Williams has amassed an impressive 35-house portfolio since he started his investment career, 20 years ago in September 1996. Combining a shrewd business mindset with patience, he has worked hard to accumulate significan

Property Investment Psychology  

For Guy it’s pretty simple, he treats his property portfolio as a business. Each property perform in regards to income (rent) and growth.  To achieve this end, Guy entirely removes emotion from the equation, to the extent whereby he has not even laid eyes on a number of his properties.  Instead he chooses to focus purely on the numbers, a strategy that has led to tremendous success over his journey.  

A Sure Strategy

We sat down with Guy to try and understand his success and learn from his process: Guy’s strategy revolves primarily around diversifying risk, capital growth and clever positioning. Purchasing at the sub- 300K mark, Guy wouldn’t consider buying, ‘one property for $1 million dollars’, but would rather choose to ‘invest in three at around $300k each’.   The rationale being that whilst a boom in the market may yield quick, high returns – even a slight dip can impact a $1 million property considerably and the loss is much greater than on a $300k property, which tends to hold its value more steadily.

When asked what is most important to Guy in terms of rental yield vs capital growth, Guy is sure in his property investment strategy, arguing that ‘while capital growth is lovely, it always crystal ball stuff. Rent is real.  Rent is today.  For me, I’m looking for positively geared properties, with at least 6% rental return.’

It’s a business, nothing more… 

Guy sees the his investment property portfolio as a business.  As a business he wants each investment property to increase in value but as he doesn't know how long this will take, is is also important to him that is pays an income (rent) as he is waiting for this growth to occur. 

Guy isn’t interested per se in property but rather wealth creation.  He is ‘not interested in finding tenants, collecting rent or cleaning carpets’. He pays property managers to take care of all this - they are his employees. So for Guy, if say the property manager isn’t performing then it’s simply a matter of managing them out.  Similarly, if the property isn’t performing in terms of rental increases and yield, he would have no find problem in selling.  His connection to the property is objective, based on the financials and not emotion. This being said, however he has never had to sell any of his 35 investment properties.  Guy suggests that if you look at the property market in these terms, then you make decisions on what’s best for the business (capital growth & return) rather than it being reactionary or holding out for a ‘lotto win’ mentality. 

Very slowly

Guy believes that the “house market provides a good product”, ultimately due to the abundant availability of positively geared properties, and clear historical evidence of growth over time.  Guy has confidence in his diversified portfolio where any fluctuation in the short term isn’t representative of the landscape 20 years from now. It’s an unemotional transaction whereby his purchases are made purely on the basis of whether the ‘numbers stack up’. His ability to successfully diversify his portfolio comes down to deliberate research - his properties aren’t in one locality or ‘one industry towns’ and are all at different stages of their growth lifecycle. So where one area might be slowing another is growing. Again, the reassurance for Guy is if he concentrates on the bigger picture, he doesn’t need to sweat the small stuff, which will generally pan out in the wash.

Creating a future not a passion

Guy has true vision and commitment to his family’s future. His children are his top priority and he talks passionately about how his strategy is creating generational wealth. He hasn’t entered into the property investment realm overnight with the intention of making a quick dollar so that he can ‘go sit on a beach’ – in fact it’s quite the opposite. Guy owns and operates a successful corporate training business, which he loves.   It’s his passion.  His property investments are in the background, a sideline if you will (albeit a very lucrative one) which takes up a very different thought process.  A process he suggests however might not be for everyone, he states – ‘if you are looking to make money quickly, then my strategy isn’t for you’… 

Stay tuned for our next interview with Guy where he talks about how he overcomes his fear, makes confident decisions when purchasing and how he has ramped up his property portfolio to purchase 10 properties in the last 10 months.


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