Before acquiring any property, investors should carefully strategise, ensuring they are not blindly following broad advice from buyer’s agents while working towards their goals.

With many investors forming their property strategy around volatile, short-term data, Game Plans head of strategy Joe D’Agata said that to be successful, a landlord should craft thorough, calculated plans tailored to their specific goals.

In a recent episode of The Smart Property Investment Show, D’Agata and SPI managing editor Liam Garman shared how investors can form strategy-driven portfolios and why generalised advice can be a trap.

To ensure investors can be advised in the best way possible, D’Agata said that the Game Plans platform was set up to provide a portfolio roadmap to show buyer’s agents and their clients the likely outcome of their acquisitions.

“There’s no one-size-fits-all approach; everyone’s end outcome is different, and what everyone’s trying to achieve through property is different as it should be,” D’Agata said.

Across the market, D’Agata said he frequently noticed new investors blindly purchasing properties without devising a sustainable long-term plan.

He said one of the most common mistakes was when investors went all in and bought to the max of their borrowing capacity without thinking about the implications for their next acquisition.

“We saw a bit of a gap in the market there, where people were just going in and willy-nilly buying property blind and not understanding the implications that that has.”

D’Agata said another major issue was when investors opted for a generalised approach and didn’t factor in their own specific goals, urging them to think carefully about what they wanted.

“Are they chasing 10 per cent capital growth in the next two years? Are they chasing something a little bit more sustainable? Do they need a higher income coming through from the property?”

According to D’Agata, many inexperienced investors were indoctrinated to believe their goal should be to attain $2,000 a week of passive income, not realising that investor goals can vary.

“Right now, for some people, it’s wanting to be able to buy an owner-occupier – we live in Sydney, and the prices are ridiculous. For plenty of people, that is their goal,” he said.

“Consider – how is this acquisition going to get you closer to that end point, rather than being 10 years further down the line and realising it’s done nothing in terms of growth.

D’Agata also said the market knowledge of buyer’s agents was paramount in strategy planning, and Game Plans recognised that by drawing on their insights.

“We always lean on the expertise of the buyer’s agent, being the data experts, the ones who know the ins and the outs of location A versus location B.”

“We’re the numbers behind the operation. We’ll come in and go, what does it look like with a 3.5 per cent rental yield with your existing three assets in the portfolio, looking at a negative cash flow position of negative 60 grand, for argument’s sake.”

D’Agata said investors didn’t necessarily even have to acquire property through BAs, as many offered a portfolio planning service alone.

“Plenty of fabulous buyer’s agents have been doing this for decades and are really sophisticated, experienced, good quality investors.”

“They’ll actually sit in, give you their views and objectives, and we’ll build you that tailored one-on-one plan,” he concluded.

Listen to the full episode here.

This article was first published on Smart Property Investment, a sister-brand of Property Buzz.