Your Property Isn’t Working Hard Enough

George Markoski There’s two prices you can pay in life, the price of discipline or the price of regret. Investing is hard. Saving is hard. Buying a property when everyone else is telling you it’s not the right time, when the media’s telling you not to buy is difficult. But once you start getting the rewards, and your property’s gone up, and you’ve made 100 grand, or 200 grand, or 300 grand, a million dollars, then it’s easy. It’s fun. It’s great. And that’s the beauty of it. Hard choices make an easy life. Easy choices make a hard life. I suppose having kids makes you more focused, because I know I’ve worked a lot harder- Definitely … since I had my son. It’s funny, because everyone goes, “It changed you.” It does. George Markoski And are kids going to be able to afford to buy property in the future? That’s the question as well. Okay. Hello, this is George Markoski, and welcome to the “Positive Property Show.” Your property isn’t working hard enough. Let me explain. The rules have changed. Basically, going forward, if you get the wrong property, you’re going to miss out on a lot of leverage, because leverage is really the key. So when it comes to investing in property, the old school way of thinking about making money is working hard, saving, and paying cash. How did it work out? Not so good. It doesn’t work that well. The new way of doing things, and this is what the rich do, is they use a thing called leverage. George Markoski And leverage is when you can multiply your results. And part of that is using other people’s money, using the bank’s money. And what we do is we get a deposit. You can use equity or a deposit, and then you borrow money from the bank, so you can invest in property, and you’re using other people’s money. So really, with $100,000 or $150,000, you can buy a $750,000 house. Because if you don’t have $750,000 lying around, like most people don’t. Now, the thing is, the other parts of leverage, there’s a lot of different parts that fit in. And what we’re going to look at is the tax, because the tax is a key component. George Markoski And what happens with tax is government creates different tax regimes, different loopholes to encourage different types of behavior. And what we call loopholes aren’t really loopholes. What they are is the government literally writing tax laws to encourage you to behave a certain way if you’re smart enough to know the rules. But being smart enough and knowing the rules puts you at an advantage, because a lot of people out there don’t know the rules. And if you don’t know the rules, you can’t use the rules in your favor. People call it loophole, but it’s really law hole if you ask me what you’re saying. So basically, getting the wrong property is going to be catastrophic in the future because you won’t be able to use the leverage. George Markoski Aside from that, what I want to talk about today is, today, I did my normal morning routine. And what I do in the morning is I go on Gojek and press a button and order some coffees from a place called Blacklist here. They make beautiful homemade cashew milk and lattes. I have those lattes with my newborn son sitting outside in the shade to give him his 15 minutes of vitamin D every morning, hang out with my wife. And then the nanny cooks us breakfast. We’re having breakfast today. We had eggs with a patty. Then usually, I go to the gym around 11:00 a.m. George Markoski Now, a lot of people talk about grinding and getting up at 5:00 and doing an ice bath and doing a sauna, and they’re going to the gym and all that. I’m just not really into that, and I’d rather be relaxed and go to the gym at 11:00 when no one’s there. Because you got all these people coming early in the morning that are going to grind hard and people after work. 11:00, the gym’s mine. There’s a few influencers around the place recording themselves, but then I can use it. And I’m there at 11:00 working out while many of you are stuck in traffic, your boss is telling you what to do, you’re answering emails you don’t want to answer, and basically working. George Markoski And the fact of it is, what I want to talk about, I want to explain this with a story, is by doing the work now, the hard yards now, you can save yourself from doing the work in the future, because the price has to be paid. So basically, there’s two prices you can pay in life, the price of discipline, doing something now, or the price of regret in the future. And I’ll tell you a little story. I get coconuts, young coconuts delivered to my house, and I normally order them, and they come in a big bag. And this young Indonesian guy drives up. He’s got a cigarette in his mouth. His teeth are a little bit yellow because he smokes a lot. George Markoski Indonesia’s actually one of the highest rates of smoking in the world. 65% of adult men smoke here, which is crazy. Anyway, so he’s smoking. He grabs the bag. He’s wrestling with the bag and struggling to take it to my front door. And then I walk up, grab it, swing it up on one arm, and bring it inside. And he’s always shocked, going, “Wow. How’s this old guy grabbing this bag of coconuts with one hand that I’m struggling with?” And basically, he hasn’t done the work. He doesn’t go to the gym. I do, and I’ve been going to the gym for a long time. I didn’t have to do it, but I did the work, so now my life is easier. George Markoski Traveling and putting things in the overhead and doing things makes it easier when you’re strong. Why am I talking about this? Because he’s smoking, and that’s the easy choice. But in 30 years’ time, when he gets sick or he’s getting cancer or he’s in hospital, then that’s going to be the hard yards. So it’s easy to have fun in your 30s and spend the money and buy a six-pack and buy a pizza and not save. But then when you get older, where do you go from there? It’s easy to eat whatever you want and do whatever you want, but then you pay the price. George Markoski And the fact of it is, if you do the hard stuff, the guy that spends the money to educate themselves, or the girl, I should say I The person who puts the effort in and invests now for the future, it might be hard now. Investing is hard. Saving is hard. Buying a property when everyone else is telling you it’s not the right time and the media’s telling you not to buy is difficult. And if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. But it’s the difficult things in life that are the rewarding things. It’s the hard things that you do. So literally, it’s a bit like this. Hard choices make an easy life. Easy choices make a hard life. George Markoski I want everyone to sit with that because it’s very important, because it’s true. And you’re watching me now learning about property, and Andrew just said, “Choose your hard”. And that’s exactly what it is. Beautifully said, Andrew. Couldn’t have said it better myself. And you get to choose your hard. And what I love about choosing your hard is because you can choose your hard and get to enjoy it. Because when you first go to the gym, it’s uncomfortable, it hurts, and you come home and you’re sore. You don’t like it. And then you go again, and you go again, and after a while, you actually start enjoying it. And now I go to the gym and I actually really enjoy it. It’s fun. George Markoski Feel I get to enjoy something that’s good for me. Investing is hard, and making those choices is hard. Saving money, the uncertainty. Signing up a contract on a property is not easy. It’s hard. But once you start getting the rewards and your property’s gone up and you’ve made 100 grand, or 200 grand, or 300 grand, a million dollars, then it’s easy, it’s fun, it’s great. And that’s the beauty of it. Hard choice is what it’s all about. Anyway, what I want to do now is I’m going to go to the state of the nation and talk to you about what’s going on at the moment. Okay, state of the nation. Migration has become the biggest issue neither major party can outrun. Have a look at this. George Markoski So it’s not the economy anymore. Polling now shows migration’s the issue driving voters away from both parties. And this is where One Nation are actually getting a lot more votes. You can see here, thinking about future federal elections in Australia, how would you vote for each of the following parties? One Nation, Pauline Hanson, 35%. Labor, 37%. Liberal Party, 35. Greens, would never vote for them. Oh, 45, would never vote. There you go. I got that wrong. Would definitely vote for them. One Nation’s 29, Labor’s 27, Liberal’s 18, Greens are 13. So you look at that. One Nation is more popular than Labor and more popular than the Liberal Party. This has never happened before in the history. Right? That’s the fact of it. George Markoski And it’s scary because it’s about one issue, and the one main issue that people are worried about is immigration. And why are they worried about immigration? Because immigration is ruining the standard of living of Australia and pushing property prices up. And that is the big issue at the moment. And people think Pauline Hanson might be the answer. Is Pauline Hanson the answer? I don’t think so. Because it’s clear that Pauline Hanson is also owned by the big gas companies, like all the other parties. So I’m not saying that she’s special, but she’s not independent either. She got a million-dollar plane from Gina Rinehart. She said taxing oil companies and the gas companies is not a good idea. And everyone saying that is not really saying their own thoughts. George Markoski What they’re saying is what the oil and gas companies are telling them. What I would love to see is a real independent candidate in Australia that actually stands up for Australia and not for the oil companies and the gas companies. Do I think there’s anyone there? No. I think there’s no one there at all. None of them. So it’s a bit sad. Anyway, let’s keep going. Half Australia’s migration intake tomorrow, and it would still rank among the highest per capita in the developed world. So what we’re looking at here now is the developed world rolling annual national migration rate as percentage of population. Because that’s the important thing. Because if you’re a bigger country, you can bring more people in, right? But you look at Australia, we’re at 1.12%. Right? George Markoski So really, Portugal is the only place that’s higher than us at the moment. And you look at everyone else, they’re a lot lower. And Canada now is actually minus, which is fascinating. Canada used to be like Australia. And I like to look at Canada and New Zealand as Australia’s little siblings because we’re similar. We’re similar in size, we’re similar in our policies, and everything else like that. And basically, what happened is Canada and New Zealand had a very big problem with housing where it kept going up, rents kept going up, prices going up. And what they did is they cut immigration, and it eased everything right off and made it more sustainable. Where Australia, we’re just not doing that. George Markoski Even the government’s own target is three times too high for voters. So the current intake sits at 301,000 immigrants a year. The government’s own target is 225,000. 79% of Australians want to cap of 100,000 or under. Even 75% of migrants think there’s too many migrants coming in. That’s the fact of it. And I personally think immigration’s great for the country, but it needs to be measured and needs to be not too high. We need to be able to- Get people into our country so they can join Australia, become Australian, become productive members of our country, and add to us. I’m not of the view that I want to save all the people of the world and get them here and just pay them money to live in Australia. George Markoski I want people that are willing to come to Australia and work hard, like my parents did, like a lot of people that came to Australia did in the past. Because a lot of Australia was built on migration. My parents are migrants themselves, so I’m not against it, but they came and they worked hard for a long time to make this a better place, and that’s the sort of people we want here. There was 28,000 people, Australians, that backed One Nation’s campaign to fire the government, and they got $5 million. So housing isn’t just changing lives, it’s changing elections. And basically, the Federation, the Coalition lost Farrah. And you look here, One Nation are very big here. You got the renters, 27% One Nation, owned outright, mortgaged. George Markoski And that’s primary vote by housing tenure, which is interesting. So you look at Labor, people that are mortgagers voting for Labor. Then you look at Liberals, the Coalition, they’ve just lost a lot of voters everywhere all around Australia, which is amazing. And then you got the independents. So the great Australian wealth machine is breaking down. Now, regional Australia rivals America’s most expensive markets. So if you look at this, housing price to income ratios, and you look here at regional New South Wales, regional Queensland, regional South Australia, regional Tasmania, and you look at Miami, you look at California and San Diego, and you look at us. Even regional Australia is kicking ass on the world stage. You can see regional New South Wales has gone up so much. George Markoski But a lot of people aren’t seeing what’s happening, and this is what I’ve been talking about for a while, is this is called the great tsunami. And what’s happening is a lot of baby boomers are retiring, so they don’t need to live in a big city. And what they’re doing is they’re going to some beautiful coastal towns, and that’s why regional New South Wales and Queensland is doing so well, is they’re going to these beautiful coastal towns and buying up property near the beach for lifestyle, and that’s what’s really happening. So, basically, rural used to be an escape route for the expensive cities. Now it’s becoming part of the whole Australian market. George Markoski And what’s happening is because of Zoom and the internet, and you can work from anywhere, it’s made capital cities not as pivotal or important to have your job anymore, and that’s the big difference. Because in the past, you couldn’t really live rural and have a job. Now you can. But also the retirees can live there anyway. But now you can live anywhere you want really, and get a job and work. I’m in Bali half the year and I’m working from here anyway. So HSBC, the bank, sees more pain ahead. So they reckon the current correction is over. Banks expects national home price to fall between 2% to 6% in 2027, with downside risks approaching 8% if it gets catastrophic, and that’s if high interest rates continue to pressure the market. George Markoski So this is a big signal. What’s going to happen is the property market is going to have a correction. And I’ll tell you what that means. What that means is certain property markets have been overheated and they’re going to cool down. They already started cooling down in Sydney, Melbourne. Now, we have to understand there’s 15,000 suburbs in Australia, and not all those 15 suburbs are going up or down at the same time. What does this mean? Well, this is what it means. Some overpriced markets are going to go down. But there’s still suburbs that are going to go up. So what the smart investors are doing now is they’re just being fussier, but they’re still buying. George Markoski Because the key to making money out of property, making money out of real estate, is actually owning real estate. And the best way to own real estate is to regularly buy in the market, no matter what the market’s doing. It doesn’t matter if the market’s going up or down. What you want to do is strategically build your portfolio going along, because you’ve only got a certain amount of time to build a portfolio. That’s the fact of it. Because the most important part of investing is time in the market, which means the longer you’ve got a property, the more likely you’re going to be successful, the more likely you’re going to make money. George Markoski So that means the faster you get a property, the longer you’re going to have it for, the better for you. But also the key where people get stuck is they buy a property and they’re like, “Oh, it hasn’t done anything in the last two years,” and they sell it. And most people, what they do, and this happens a lot, is they sell the property right at the finish line just before it’s about to hike or just after it’s made a little bit of growth, or it’s lost a bit of money and they want to leave. And those people are never going to make money out of property. They’re never going to be successful. George Markoski Because the people that will be successful in property are the people that stick at it, the people that just buy a property and hold on, and just don’t buy it. This is what I feel like at the moment, because a lot of investors are selling property at the moment. And I don’t know if you’ve seen That movie about William Wallace, Braveheart. I feel like him when he’s got the Scottish and they’re about to fight the English, and they’re all raring to go, and he’s on his horse. He’s there, and he’s like, “Hold, hold, hold.” Okay, if you’re a property investor and you’ve got a property, listen to these words. Do not sell. Please do not sell. George Markoski Because you’ve just got to hold, and don’t let the media or someone’s opinion scare you out of creating your financial future, which is just ridiculous. Australia’s household wealth is now at a record high. So this is what it is at the moment. The net wealth hit a record high of $682,000 per capita. So Australia ranks number two for household wealth. How amazing is that? We’re the richest country in the world and people are scared. We shouldn’t be scared when you’re that rich. So the hidden cost. Rents are outrunning wages and tenants are the ones absorbing the difference, and this is always the case. Tenants are going to have to pay the price. So have a look at this. Rents are outrunning wages nearly two to one. George Markoski So the annual growth in May 2026, rent growth went up 5.9%, wage growth 3%. So annual growth of rent has gone up nearly twice as fast as wage growth, and that’s concerning. Since 2019, advertised rents have gone up 50%, since the end of 2019. So over 12,000 added to the median rent, 12,000 a year. And May’s annual growth 5.9%, roughly double wages, and vacancy remains near historic lows. So what does this mean? Tenants aren’t just paying more, they’re being priced into group homes and smaller spaces just to be housed. I’ll tell you what’s happening. It’s supply and demand, which I keep talking about week in, week out, but I keep talking, and hopefully some of the politicians will actually hear me and listen to me and work this out. George Markoski When you have got too much demand and not enough supply, something’s going to break, and we can’t increase supply, and we’ve made it difficult, and now the government has actually abolished SMSFs from borrowing money in super. The ability to do that is going to end mid-August. Don’t know the exact date, but it’s somewhere around there. And the fact of it is, if you have a self-managed super fund and you buy a property in that, it’s actually illegal for you to rent it out yourself. So you have to rent it to someone else. So literally every single property that super funds have been buying have been used to house tenants, which is very important. George Markoski And the government, in its wisdom, have decided that they’re going to help people by stopping this from happening, and now the money’s going to move into the stock exchange. This is the most idiotic idea that I’ve ever heard. But when it comes to the Greens and idiotic ideas, that’s just the way it is. But they got it through. They really worked hard to get this one through, to try to stab all the mums and dads with self-managed super funds in the back in Australia, and they got it through. So what does this mean for tenants? Literally, they have to live with other people, and people have to get a one-bedroom instead of two-bedroom, or two-bedroom instead of three-bedroom to try to make ends meet. Because the landlords have to pay. George Markoski They’re going to have to pay their mortgage. They just have to get more tenants in their properties to help them pay more rent. Now, this is the sort of thing you’d expect in London. And we’re lucky we’re not there yet, because it can get worse. So in London, you can literally rent out half a bed because that’s how tight it is over there. So we’re still better off in Australia. So what does it mean for investors? Well, a repricing market rewards investors that invest smart. Whichever way the migration and tax debate goes, one thing won’t change. And this is, at the end of the day, Australians still need somewhere to live. Rental demand doesn’t evaporate just because policy changes. It just moves to wherever supplying is being built. George Markoski The policies keep shifting, but the fundamentals still stay the same. One, we’ve got a chronic undersupply. We’ve got high household wealth and property, a rental market at breaking point. That is exactly the market for a well-polished positioned portfolio to be built. Okay. Now, let’s talk about a case study tonight. Okay. James and Steph Bouterakos. This is James and Steph getting their orange belt. This is their first investment here in Beaudesert. Two bedroom, one bathroom, one car. Details of the property. They paid a 10% deposit using equity. So really nothing. It settled in May 2025 for 444,000. The current market value today is 565,000. The current profit is $121,000 in one year. $121,000 in one year, pretty good if you ask me. That’s great. George Markoski Now what I’ll do is I’ll talk to James and have a bit of a chat. Hi, James. James Bouterakos George, how are you? George Markoski Very good. Yourself? James Bouterakos Yes, good. First of all, Christina’s back and Bubs is doing well. George Markoski Yep. Christina’s back, finally. It was quite the challenge because Christina ended up- James Bouterakos Yeah George Markoski … having a pulmonary embolism. James Bouterakos Oh, geez. George Markoski And what happened was she was in absolute agony, and I ordered some blood tests for her, because after having a baby, C-section, you might lose a lot of blood, you might be anemic. So I got those ordered and she was like, “Man, I need to see a physio. I’m in pain. I’m in absolute agony.” I’m like, “I’ll book you into my physio.” And then her blood tests came in, I looked at them and said, “No, I’m actually booking you into hospital. Your blood test is terrible.” S**t. So I booked her into hospital. We went there, went straight to the hospital, and they’re like, “It could be an infection,” because she had a high mark of CRP. We go there and I go, “Okay, great. Let’s find out. George Markoski Let’s get a blood and test her for any bacteria.” They start injecting her with antibiotics, then they go, “Oh yeah, we’ve got the test for the bacteria.” Too late. You think you don’t have to micromanage a hospital, and this is one of the best hospitals in Bali. Do an MRI, don’t find anything. I’m at home chat Claude, doing my thing. Right? And Claude’s going, “Okay, it’s these four things. I’ve put all in.” Right? “And this is what you need to work.” So I go in there, I go, “Okay, we need a contrast CT scan to rule out a pulmonary embolism, because that’s the only one thing it could be 11 days postpartum because of this, this, and this.” Right? George Markoski I gave them all the evidence and they’re like, “Nah, you’re wrong. We’re not going to do that. We’re just going to do a normal CT.” They did a normal CT, didn’t find anything. Then I’m talking to them again. Took me five days to get that test. They even had the cardiologist say to her, “Don’t be silly. You don’t have a PE.” No. Then guess what it was? A PE. Could’ve died, but lucky I- James Bouterakos Well, lucky you persisted, yeah. George Markoski Well, not only that, they wanted to put her in ICU, because they kept putting her pain meds up. And I said, “Guys, obviously what you’re doing is not working. I don’t want her in ICU. Change the pain meds. Don’t just increase…” Right? Because they were giving her fentanyl- Yeah … in massive doses. And I wanted to keep her out of that. So I said, “Look, why don’t you try some ketamine, reduce the dose, and do a mixture?” Anyway, they did it, worked beautifully. Stopped her pain, didn’t have to go to ICU. James Bouterakos Dr. George now. George Markoski Yeah. Claude cowork, I tell you what, we do a lot of work. Anyway, enough about me. But I thought I’ll just quickly get this off my chest, and you finally gave me the opportunity to thank you. James Bouterakos No, glad you did. George Markoski I wanted to do a rant. But anyway, let’s talk about you, James. Welcome. When did you join our program? James Bouterakos I think it’s coming up to about three years now. George Markoski Okay, great. So three years, you’ve been with the program for a while now. What I wanted to ask you- Yeah … before you even joined this, how did you decide property was the way? Why did you think property, not shares or Bitcoin or something? James Bouterakos Well, to be honest with you, property’s just always resonated with me. Shares and stocks I still don’t understand. I’m trying to dabble in it, but property just always made sense. Me and Steph bought a investment property previously coming onto Positive Property, and read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” like yourself and thought I knew everything, and went out and bought a commercial property. And look, it’s doing well, it’s just sitting there stagnant. But honestly, being with you guys, I’ve learnt a lot more. I wish I bought a residential property eight years ago instead of buying a commercial property. Just because of the growth. Obviously, the income of it has paid me well. But in terms of capital growth, yeah, not so great. James Bouterakos And the typical, “I’ll buy somewhere I know in Victoria.” Which is why I started searching for other ways to invest into property, and I came across you guys because obviously with your knowledge and finding, as you always say, there’s 15,000 suburbs, finding the top 100 really helps out. We got a little bit stagnant. Came onto you guys. Borrowing capacity was a big thing because we just had our second child. That’s why it’s been three years, only our first. But yeah, bought our first. Buying one in our self-managed super fund as we speak, so exciting. George Markoski Oh, excellent. You’re going to beat the deadline, hope so. James Bouterakos Yeah. George Markoski Please beat the deadline. Yes, I’m really pushing. The key is, as long as you sign the contract and the developer signs the contract before the deadline, you get to keep it. James Bouterakos Yeah. George Markoski Otherwise, you don’t get it at all. Crazy. James Bouterakos Yeah, Billy’s been on my back a bit, because first time doing self-managed super funds. We’re waiting for the ATO to get back for it to be set up. But no, it’s looking good. Still got time, so pushing. George Markoski Yep. So James, tell me about you and Steph. Where do you live? What do you do? You’ve got a family of two. James Bouterakos We’re in Victoria, Melbourne. I’m a plumber, I work for a commercial company. The wife hasn’t gone back to work just of yet, because I’d rather her raise our son than go to childcare. It’s not worth it. I’m working a lot of overtime, pushing it, just trying to get every penny that we can. Yeah, Steph did work in childcare, hence why it’s going well looking after our son. And yeah. George Markoski Okay, yeah look, I suppose having kids makes you more focused, because I know I’ve worked a lot harder- James Bouterakos Definitely George Markoski … since I had my son. It’s funny because everyone goes, “It changes you.” It does, because now- James Bouterakos It does George Markoski … I’m thinking 10 steps ahead. I want to work harder. You know what I mean? James Bouterakos Yeah. You want to leave them something. George Markoski Totally. You know what I mean? James Bouterakos Yeah. George Markoski It’s a gift. It’s a beautiful gift, and you want to do something. James Bouterakos Definitely. George Markoski And are kids going to be able to afford to buy property in the future? That’s the question as well. James Bouterakos No. That’s why we’ve got to do what we’re doing. George Markoski In Australia, I think it was 1966 when the most people in Australia owned their own home. Yes. I wasn’t even born. That was the peak in the whole history of Australia. And it hit that peak of 75%, now it’s going down, and it’s going to keep going down again. James Bouterakos Yeah. George Markoski Because what’s happened in most other countries, and we’re just following suit, is real estate is becoming a good investment And because of what’s happening in the world, real estate’s going to keep going up. A lot of people don’t realize that real estate was just so cheap everywhere in the world for a long time, and people just didn’t know. James Bouterakos Yeah. George Markoski And now people realize it’s a good investment. All the big companies now are buying real estate, unfortunately, and competing with us. James Bouterakos Yeah. George Markoski We’ve got to get in there a little bit quicker. James Bouterakos Well, it’s a tangible asset. George Markoski Yeah. Tell me about your journey. You joined us, and it took a while. So you worked with your coach for a while, obviously. James Bouterakos Yeah. George Markoski Because this is interesting, because you didn’t just give up. You didn’t say, “Well, we’re not going to get borrowing capacity. See you later.” You’d been with us for a while, and you got your property. What made you stick through it? How did the work go with the team? James Bouterakos Well, we did stick to it, obviously, but I was excited signing up with you guys. I really wanted to buy one. Speaking with Charmaine, my coach, and speaking with David from CLIP. Our first property, we got an EOI. It was out in, I can’t remember the town now, but it was out in Perth. I was really excited and spoke to David, and he squished us down. “No, you can’t buy a two-part contract. Your borrowing capacity’s maxed out,” blah, blah, blah. George Markoski Yeah. James Bouterakos Back to the drawing board. Then Bo David came on board. We were actually purchasing stage one, and then everything was going fine, and the bank hadn’t released the money. It was like, on the day, say it was a Tuesday, and Billy rang up. She was really distraught. She said that, “The builder’s going to pull the pin.” And my hands were tied. Everything was done. Billy said she’d done everything she could, and literally two days later, the money was in the account, but the builder said nope. So- George Markoski God James Bouterakos … picked up the pieces, went back in stage two, and ended up getting it. And look, here we are, 130K in a year. George Markoski Yeah. James Bouterakos And yeah, so got to look at the positives, George. George Markoski Yeah. How does that feel making 130,000 in one year? James Bouterakos Oh, fantastic. That’s me working my ass off, doing 12-hour days, overtime, and still not even getting that, so yeah. Like I said, I’m getting it- George Markoski Now you’ve got a property- James Bouterakos … at the cost of living George Markoski … that’s going to slowly build your wealth bit by bit, passively in the background. James Bouterakos Correct. George Markoski And now you’re getting your second one in superannuation, and you’ve got your commercials. You’ve got three investments. You’re doing better than most Australians. James Bouterakos Yeah. Look, I’m happy to hear you say that. I don’t let myself get too excited, I think, or keep putting myself down, but I guess that’s what drives me to keep pushing more, George. George Markoski Yeah, look, most people get stuck at the first property. They do one, and they don’t do it right, and they lose money and go, “O*, f**k it. We’re not doing it anymore.” And a lot of people don’t stick through it. But the thing is, James, with property, it’s just a matter of being persistent, like you have been, and you just keep going, and you get the properties when you can, because once you get caught up in borrowing capacity, time helps you get through it anyway. James Bouterakos Well, that was one of the things I took– I read your book, like in the first year, two, three times, and- … like you kept saying, you’ve just got to be persistent, keep checking, see when the borrowing capacity comes up, and then you might not get one for a year or two, but you might buy two in three years. So- George Markoski Exactly James Bouterakos … just got to keep checking and keep pushing, yeah. George Markoski Yep. And then what happens is, suddenly they change policies out of nowhere- … and rates go down, or they do something. And whenever they change something, I’m always on top of things, going, “Okay, how do we take advantage of this?” You know what I mean? James Bouterakos Yeah. That’s it. And that’s why I love being part of this beautiful community, is constantly learning. And obviously, the research you do is phenomenal. I couldn’t do it, but it’s just always great to get good feedback, new ideas, and yeah. It’s good. George Markoski Excellent. So what’s the best parts of being part of Positive Property? James Bouterakos Well, definitely the community. Obviously, I didn’t make Bali last year, but I went to Adelaide the year before. George Markoski Yes, I remember I met you in Adelaide. I’ve got a photo of you and your wife. James Bouterakos Yes. And we broke the wood, and yeah, that was really good. Yeah, the community’s fantastic. Obviously, your knowledge is top stuff. The one thing I do love about you is I obviously looked at a few other programs before coming on Positive, but you’re just so down to earth. I feel like you’re easy to talk to. Even in Adelaide, you went around to every table, spoke to everyone. You’re just humble. George Markoski Yeah, look, I’m a social person. I love the community, because when I retired, the one thing I found is I got bored because I was making money and doing nothing. And I did this more as a hobby, and then it became a business, and I love it. I really love the community. And that’s the reason I’ve built a community, because a lot of companies, you don’t get to see anyone else. You just join the company- James Bouterakos Yeah George Markoski … they get you a property. You don’t know what anyone else is doing. You don’t know if they’ve made money or if they haven’t. And we’re an open community here where you can see what everyone else is doing. James Bouterakos Yeah, that’s right. The proof is in the pudding. George Markoski Yeah. And I like it that way because it’s good for my marketing, but also, I just love it. I enjoy the community the most. It’s great. James Bouterakos Yeah. George Markoski So I appreciate you being part of the community. And just one last question. James Bouterakos Absolutely. George Markoski If someone was looking at joining Positive Property, what would you say to them? James Bouterakos Just do it. What have you got to lose? Because obviously, knowledge is power, and like I said, my first property, I got stuck, and obviously, being with you guys, I’ve learned now the rinse and repeat thing. But I’ve got equity sitting in the commercial property, but I just didn’t know what to do with it. And the way I structured it from Rich Dad Poor Dad, I put it into a trust, and so I actually lost out on the tax benefits on that as well. But look, lesson learned. But yeah, I’ll just say just do it. George Markoski Okay. You can actually change that now, by the way. James Bouterakos Pull it out of the trust? George Markoski Yes, without paying anything. I’m not sure about the commercial, but yeah, I think you can, yeah. So what’s happened- James Bouterakos Oh, really? George Markoski … is the government has changed the trust laws, and what they’re doing, and obviously, I’m not a financial advisor, but I was looking this up because I’ve got a lot of properties in trusts as well. James Bouterakos Yeah. George Markoski And it’s going to really bite me if I have to pay 30% tax on all these properties in trusts because the government has said minimum 30%. James Bouterakos Yeah, definitely. George Markoski But what they’re doing is they’re doing a window where you can actually change it to another entity without paying any stamp duty or anything else like that. James Bouterakos Oh, fantastic. George Markoski So what I’m going to do- James Bouterakos Well, thanks for that. I’ll have to look into it George Markoski … what I’m going to do is I’m going to do the research and probably present next week and explain it to everyone James Bouterakos Yeah, awesome George Markoski I wasn’t going to present it tonight because I haven’t got all the facts and figures, but I was looking at it today, because I’m always doing something nerdy in the background, trying to work out- Whenever there’s a new thing in the government, I’m always trying to work out, okay, what’s the loophole? What do I do? How do I get through this? Because if I have to pay 30% on all my other property, it’s going to be a lot of property, it’s going to be a lot of tax. James Bouterakos Yeah, definitely. George Markoski The other thing is, I’ve got a commercial property as well, which I bought, which is my worst property. James Bouterakos Oh, one in the same. George Markoski Right? I admit it. So, it’s my worst property, and currently untenanted, right? James Bouterakos Oh. George Markoski So, the thing is, I worked out how to convert it to residential. James Bouterakos Really? George Markoski Yes. So, once I convert it, I’m going to add over a million dollars on the price, just like that. James Bouterakos Fantastic. That’s awesome. George Markoski Yeah. So, I’m going to do that when I get back to Adelaide in October. But literally, I reckon I’ll add a million dollars value because the area’s good. It’s just that it’s a commercial property, and commercial properties aren’t worth that much. But as a residential, it’s worth a fortune. James Bouterakos Yes. Definitely. George Markoski So, I don’t know if you can do that with yours, but I’m always looking- James Bouterakos No, mine’s a factory, so I don’t think so. George Markoski Okay. James, thanks for your time tonight, man. I really appreciate it. James Bouterakos No. Thank you. Good chatting to you. Excellent. George Markoski Thank you. Okay. So, have we got any coaches on tonight? Charmaine, hello. Hey. How you doing, Charmaine? I can’t hear you. Charmaine Adam Oh, sorry. I was just saying I’ve got my daughter just snuggling in here as well. You see her? George Markoski That’s all right. I saw a bit of a head there. I was thinking, I feel left out. Do I need to grab my son and bring him up here? Charmaine Adam Have a kiddie party, the next generation of property investors. Yeah. So look, what we’re going to do is we’re going to finish our livestream and then go into our private group now. Just want to say to everyone watching, thank you for watching. I’m going to see you next Thursday. Remember, we’ve got a deadline now for SMSFs. So really, if you need help getting your super property, type in super. We might be able to help you. Might be too late, but this is your last chance. Thank you, everyone. See you next Thursday. Everyone else, please stay in the room. Let’s do this.