Property Investory
Why You’re Never Too Young To Invest in Property with Daniel Walsh
September 6, 2017
Follow Daniel Walsh’s journey as buyer’s agent by day, train driver by night! While many young adults spend every cent they earn, Walsh spent his formative years saving for his first deposit. You’ll hear how our brave guest began his journey in property investing and how being inspired from a young age gave him the drive and determination to start investing just before the global financial crisis, overcoming several speed bumps along the way.
Tune in to find out more on the importance of a good mortgage broker, how Walsh grew his property portfolio and how he made the most of the time he had.

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Transcript:
Daniel Walsh:
[00:11:01] I used to do skydiving back then, I had a parachute - it was worth probably about $5,000 and ended up selling it for $3,000 to be able to get enough money to put the driveway in. So that was one of the toughest moments of starting property investing.

**Intro music**

Tyrone Shum:
This is Property Investory where we talk to successful property investors, find out more about their stories, mindset and strategy.

I’m Tyrone Shum and in this episode we speak to Daniel Walsh - buyer’s agent by day, train driver by night! While many young adults spend every cent they earn, Walsh spent his formative years saving for his first deposit, whilst overcoming several speed bumps along the way. Follow his journey and be inspired by his drive and determination!

**End Intro Music**

**Start new background music**

Tyrone Shum:
For Walsh, he was inspired from a young age in property investing that gave him the drive and determination to start investing just before the global financial crisis. He tells us a bit about a typical day in his busy life.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:00:17] I started off as a train driver, have been driving trains for about seven years. From there I started my own business as a buyer's agent, so I do that during the day and I work at night. 

[00:00:42] My days pretty much consist of just really hard work - 18 hour days. Everyday is different for me. My roster changes, so I don't really have a set time like what I do. So I drive trains all night, work during the day, trying to get to the gym for at least one hour and I get about four to five hours sleep each day. 
 
[00:01:21] I have no kids, so it's my time to sort my work and work as hard as I can. [00:01:35] I even got to the point where I set my alarm clock so I might want to sleep more than four or five hours, but I set my alarm clock to make sure that I get up after four or five hours because I know that I don't have enough time during the day to be able to get everything done. So I have to be able to sleep less, work more.

[00:02:06] As soon as I started driving trains, I started working on the site, actually doing courses in real estate. I did my certificate for my buyer’s agency. I was doing that all while working full time and I was generally driving trains anywhere from 50 to 80 hours a week. 

Tyrone Shum:
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to drive a train, Walsh says it’s no simple task. With training and practice, it can take years to become a qualified train driver.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:02:40] It's completely different. I mean, it's very hard to sort of predict hills. You know, when you're even going downhill it took about six months to work out where I was going up or down. So it's a bit different. We don't have a steering wheel, so it’s not like a car. We've got three different brakes. We've got power. 

[00:03:01] It takes usually two to three years to get the hang of driving before you become a driver. So there's a lot of background into learning all the safe working and you’ve basically got to forecast what's happening a kilometer or two kilometers ahead, because these trains take two kilometers, three kilometers sometimes to pull up.

Tyrone Shum:
[00:04:14] I admire what you do because you know, it's not easy. I mean it's a lot of work. 

Daniel Walsh:
[00:04:19] Especially at night, when it's about 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning and it's quiet. And your body is telling you to go to sleep but you've got to stay awake for another five hours!

Tyrone Shum:
With such a busy schedule, Walsh always makes the most of his valuable time in order to help others to invest in property.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:04:37] Most people would be sleeping, you know, they'll work all day and sleep all night. I do the opposite. So for me, I work all night and then I work all day and I get about three or four hours sleep in between. And I literally do that for a whole week and then I'll get maybe one good sleep of around eight to 10 hours and reset pretty much every single week. [00:05:05] So I pretty much just make sure that I free up my time where I should probably be sleeping more and make sure I put that into property investing and helping others. 

**PERSONAL STORY/BACKGROUND**

Tyrone Shum:
Growing up, he was determined to be in a trade that he could fall back on. However after working with his father for four years as an auto electrician, he decided to change careers. The underlying goal was to save enough money for a deposit for his first property by the time he turned 19.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:05:38] I grew up in Camden, South West of Sydney and then when I was going to high school, we moved out towards Picton. So I was into all the typical dirt bikes and stuff like that.  

[00:06:45] After high school we still lived out at Picton, but I only went to Year 10. I was 16 years old, I needed a job. So I pretty much went and worked with everyone, I was doing electrician for a while. I did carpentry, plumbing. I didn't have a licence so I couldn't really go forward with any of those apprenticeships, so I ended up working for my father. And I did a four year apprenticeship and worked with him for about four and a half years as an auto electrician. 

[00:07:37] My father has done it for over 30 years so I've seen that sort of industry and what it was about. My dad never wanted me to be an auto electrician, he wanted me to be a plumber or carpenter or something like that. But it just so happened that I had no licence, so there was nothing else for me to do other than to go work with my dad, I couldn't get to work any other way. So I literally just fell into it, did four and a half years and it wasn't fun for me. I wanted to get a trade behind me so that I had some sort of backing before I went out and did something else. 

[00:08:28] I wanted to start another career. So I then went on the job seeker and I applied for the trains, went through their testing. [00:08:43] It was about six months after that I got in. And then I just went through the process over the next 2 to 3 years of learning to become a driver. So I was a second person for about three years and just learning off the drivers, how to learn the road before becoming a driver.

It was really around that time, I was about 19 when I actually started property investing. I'd already been studying property investing since I was 16. And I knew I was going to buy a house around 19-20, but I just needed to save a deposit to be able to do it. 

Tyrone Shum:
From there, Walsh took every opportunity he could to save for the deposit on his first property.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:09:28] When I was working as an auto electrician I was on poor money obviously, when you start an apprenticeship everyone knows that it's not that great money. So I was on about $250 a week when I started. Now, for me to get extra income what I had to do was pretty much stay back at night and I used to rebuild alternators and starter motors for my father. He used to give me $5 for each one. So I’d always stay back for two or three hours, get two or three of them done every single night for that little bit more income to be able to save. I used to work Saturdays for him, so I pretty much worked six days a week back then.

And then when I got to about 19, I wanted to buy a house. So I had to sell my car, went out and bought a $1 500-2 000 bomb and, yeah, pretty much put my money into building my first house.

[00:10:28] It was about a $34 000 deposit, I think it was. Back then you could do 5% loans so I ended up getting 5% together, just got enough money. Even when I was building the property, I got to the point where I had to put driveways in, grass and all of that. And I actually ran out of money. I used to do skydiving back then, I had a parachute - it was worth probably about $5 000 and ended up selling it for $3 000 [00:11:01] to be able to get enough money to put the driveway in. So that was one of the toughest moments of starting property investing. It was like week after week, I didn't go out and I had to put everything into building this property. 

Tyrone Shum:
With the influence of his parents, who were experienced in renovating and flipping properties themselves, Walsh was exposed to information about the market at a young age. This was a significant part of his choice to become a property investor.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:11:35] I was lucky when I was younger, my dad actually used to renovate and flip houses for a little while. They used to either build house and land packages, renovate and flip. So I kind of grew up around renovating houses. You know, I was out painting fences and stuff when I was a young kid, so I sort of learned young about the housing market. We were looking at houses every single week. 

[00:12:00] But it wasn't until I started work and I realised that, ‘Hey, I don't want to be doing this forever,’ and that I needed something to put in to generate wealth for me to be able to one day not have to work. So that was pretty much the moment where I went, ‘I have to start studying property investment,’ because I realised at that time that the majority of people's wealth when they die is actually their house. So I figured, ‘Well, why not study housing market and study why markets go up,’ and all of that sort of thing. So then, at the age of 16 literally put all of my time into studying property instead of auto electrician. 

**PROPERTY INVESTING JOURNEY**

Tyrone Shum:
Embarking on his first property investing venture at a point when the GFC was about to hit, he took on a property around the area where he lived. After making necessary changes to the place, he knew he had made the right decision to invest in property.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:15:10] Back then it was really where everyone was scared of buying houses. It was back in around 2010-2011 and I remember when I was even looking for a house, people were saying I was crazy, that the GFC is going to hit. You know, ‘Why are you buying a house?’ I mean to me it made sense, it was, ‘Hey this thing is not costing anything to hold it’s going to make me money. Why not?’ So for me it was more so about, I knew the area, I knew what it was worth. For my first investment, it was just safer for me to do that because I knew exactly what that market was doing. 

[00:15:45] And when I’d seen this land come up, I knew it was quite cheap at the time and I knew what I could build for and what I could rent it for. So I just made sure the numbers worked out and once they did, I knew 100% that I needed that property.

[00:13:06] Basically what had happened was I bought the land - the land had been subdivided and I bought the block that was subdivided. So I pretty much built an eagle home on it, actually. I had to just do the finishes and stuff like fences, grass and all that landscaping. So I spent a good 12 months doing that and getting that first property up and running and then being a renter in there.

[00:13:40] It was probably that moment where I had that sort of light bulb moment, where I was actually making $100 a week in positive income. So for me that was that moment where, ‘Hey I was only $20 a week and now I'm $100 a week from something I'm not even having to go to work for.’ So that was where I really clicked into gear and was like, ‘I need to do more of this.’

[00:14:06] This [property] was actually literally around the corner from where I lived. So this was in Picton. I think it was getting about 7.5% yield back then. [00:14:22] The whole thing cost me all up $345 000, that was house and land. [00:14:34] I just got it revalued, because now I'm going to get some money out to go again on another house. The bank value of that is now $650 000. 

Tyrone Shum:
After purchasing his first property in Picton, Walsh chose to repeat what he had done and apply it to his second property. However for some time after that, he found that he could go no further and focused his attention on studying more about property investing.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:16:04] I actually bought one like three doors up from that other one - I thought an otherwise established house. This time it was a mortgagee sale. The guy had actually purchased it three years before me for $310 000. I bought it off him for $303 000. So that guy had actually lost money over three years and when I bought that it had to be fully renovated. So I spent all my nights in there, renovating that property, patching holes up and painting it doing all that sort of stuff. Then I got renters into that one and it was the same story; it was like a 7.5% yield, it was giving me money each week. So I literally just rinsed and repeated what I did the first time. 

[00:17:01] From there, for about a year and half I didn't actually do anything. I had run out of money by that time. The Sydney market started to go up and it became unaffordable for me, I couldn't buy those houses in the 300 000s anymore. So what I did was, for about a year and a half, I took a break and I went and studied. I wanted to learn how to buy interstate properties, how to build a team around me. So I went and got some mentors and pretty much from there, that's when I started building everything. I started purchasing in Queensland, in Brisbane and in 2014 I purchased three more properties there. 

[00:17:49] At the moment I've got seven properties and a block of land. 
[00:17:58] I’ve got three in Brisbane. I've got a block of land and a house in Carrum Downs in Victoria and I've got one in South Australia as well. 

Tyrone Shum:
He explains that diversifying into different states was about accessing different growth drivers and not placing all of his eggs into one basket.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:18:14] After my second house I realised at that time that I didn't want to put another one there, for the reason that if you put all your eggs in one basket - yes, things were going up at that time - but if something was to ever happen to the Sydney market I would be forced to lose a lot more than I would if I only had one or two properties in there.

So for me it was all about going into different states and accessing different growth drivers, so that at any one point when one market stops growing, another market starts growing. I wanted to access that so my whole entire portfolio was really well balanced. 

Tyrone Shum:
Walsh admits that being unable to move forward in the aftermath of buying his second property was the most disheartening part in his journey to becoming a property investor. However, he was able to overcome this through seeking help from mentors.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:19:20] So I bought my second property and I went back to the banks and I wanted to buy a third. One of the banks literally denied me and said, ‘You've got too much debt now.’ I was carrying $600,000 worth of debt. Wasn't earning very much. I couldn't go forward. So I met with a sort of setback. I was like, ‘What am I going to do? This is what I want to achieve - a portfolio of maybe 10 properties,’ and I couldn't do it, I stopped at two. So it was at that moment where I had to go out and seek mentors to really overcome the barrier that I had in front of me. 

[00:19:54] So, I literally did that - I went out to seek mentors. And I learned over the last year and a half how to get around it. Then from there, I ended up getting around that sort of obstacle and building from like two properties to nearly eight properties. 

Tyrone Shum:
Through this mentorship, he learnt about where he went wrong and how to rectify the issue before beginning to uncover more about how to grow his portfolio.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:20:22] When I started learning from my mortgage broker, mainly on the finance side of it. So my mortgage broker realised that my first two loans were crossed collateralized, which was why I had to stop. I ended up having to uncross those loans and my broker then went out and found another bank for me to go to, as I was all with one bank. 

[00:20:50] I started getting that had to spread all your loans and your mortgage over different lenders, to be able to borrow more money and to be able to access different banks at different times so you can go back and read. It's one house or another house with the different banks, get more money and go again. 

[00:21:08] So this is the reason mainly that I started working six years ago - I started thinking it was probably the biggest influence on me and growing my portfolio. He had 19 properties at the time and so I knew that he was somebody that I wanted to work with. I worked with him very closely and learned from him exactly what he did to be able to grow that portfolio even larger than life. 

[00:21:42] [His name is] Mark Salmon, he is at Performance Mortgages. He runs it and I still work with him, he actually is a part of my business and he does all of our finance for our clients. He's extremely in touch with what's happening, knows what's going on with the market and he's really good at advising clients on where to go, what to do and how to build that large portfolio. 

Tyrone Shum:
Walsh says it’s vital to find a mortgage broker with investment experience, as they will be more likely to think about the long term goals.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:22:24] With a mortgage broker I speak to contribute - to success they’re like 60-70% to contribute to a successful portfolio. Because they're the ones that are going to allow you to go out and buy those properties. If you have a mortgage broker that doesn't understand your goals, they're not going to be able to think forward five years ahead. So with me and Mark, we’re very good at strategising what is going to happen in the next five years and being able to work to a plan and being able to establish where we have to go, what banks we have to go to to be able to build that larger portfolio. Whereas a lot of brokers that don't have an investment background say they're just thinking about the next deal - they're not thinking about three or four years ahead. 

Tyrone Shum:
As he mentioned earlier, Walsh thinks back to the time where everything fell into place for him - when he bought his first property. 

Daniel Walsh:
[00:23:28] That time where I bought the first one and it was making me money and I thought to myself at that point, ‘Hey, if I've done this once I think I can replicate this 10 times over.’ At the start, it was pretty much my theory behind everything and I still use it today - if I bought one property and paid it off over 30 years, well then after that 30 years I own the property but I can't retire or anything like that. 

[00:23:59] But then if I had bought the property next door - which is pretty much what I did - and those properties doubled in value, I could eventually sell one to the other one. And I'd be asked to do that in probably a 7-10 year period, so I figured, ‘Well if I can own one house in the 7-10 year period, why not replicate that by 10 houses and then eventually sell down and own five? If I could do that I can do much more.’

So it was sort of that theory behind a different way of thinking from what my Mum and Dad and everyone else's Mum and Dad did - tell their kids, ‘Go and get a mortgage, pay that over 30 years.’ My way of thinking was, ‘Go get as much debt as possible. Wait for that to double, sell out half of it and your own half,’ that you'll be able to do that in half the time. 

Tyrone Shum:
Many property investors are aware of the challenge of saving for that first deposit. For Walsh, beginning his property journey at such a young age also made it difficult.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:00:25] What actually held me back was after I bought my second property, going into my third one and having to go interstate. That held me back because I had to then learn how to build a team around me to be able to buy interstate property - so that was probably the one thing that held me back from progressing my property investing portfolio quicker. 

[00:00:51] I mean it took me four years to be able to save the first deposit. Coming from a 16 year old kid at school, I obviously had no money behind me. So I had to save that initial deposit and in the early days I always had people with me was a struggle and getting one of my properties took me years; it took me four years just to get the first deposit to get my first house. 

[00:01:35] To be able to sign mortgage documents [you’ve got to be] 18. I did my first one at 19, so I just scraped over that barrel pretty much to be able to sign a contract. But I knew that I wouldn't be able to buy anything before 18 anyway. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't have been able to do it. So I had to really educate myself and it was good to take that four years of educating myself before doing it. 

Tyrone Shum:
So while his friends were out buying cars, he was thinking 10 steps ahead.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:02:19] It was one of those moments where I went and bought a house and I had money sitting there, it was $35 000 back then. I know a lot of people, friends and stuff like that at that age, who were buying brand new cars. So they were going out and financing a new car or buying a new car and I was going out and buying a house.

[00:02:42] So for me it was always a bit of a struggle within myself, like I wished at that time I could go out and buy a brand new car, but I didn’t. I sort of turned around and said, ‘OK, I've got a decade to be able to achieve my goals. I'm going to have to do this now and sacrifice buying the luxuries, so that one day I can achieve that wealth to be able to go and buy those luxuries and not have to worry about the money side of it.’

Tyrone Shum:
Now, he’s able to help his less experienced friends with their own property investing journeys.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:03:44] I talk about property so much today, I think they have to be interested. I try to keep my friends in a smaller group - I don't want to have heaps and heaps of friends, because I just don't have the time to have to message over and talk to everyone. So I just have a small friends group and I think that's the best way to do it, to keep in close touch with those people. And they pretty much were on board with it.

[00:04:09] One of the guys, he's got three properties - which is one of my best mates - and I've helped him buy his last two properties. So a lot of them have been on board with it. They may have taken a few more years later and a lot of them say, ‘I wish I had done this earlier.’ I get it. But I mean, it’s better now than never, they're still young.

Tyrone Shum:
His own goals for the future are to be able to do what he enjoys.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:04:56] Ideally when I started this it was like, ‘I want to be so wealthy so I don't have to do anything, I can go on holiday all the time.’ But it's sort of not in my DNA. My makeup is really to work hard, I just keep working, working, working. So for me it would be more about going to work and not doing the things I don't like doing anymore. 

[00:05:19] Also doing things that I actually enjoy, I’d rather help people invest and stuff like that. So that's where I want to take things.

[00:05:45] I think that also when you build wealth, what happens is your priorities change from having to make money to really buying back time. So instead of chasing the dollar, you're now buying back your time and then the time is probably more valuable than the dollar. 

Tyrone Shum:
In terms of mindset, Walsh maintains a consistent attitude towards property investing which has helped him to remain focused on his goals.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:06:14] I think my mindset is always probably been the same. I've been very focused on my goals, I write my goals down. I have plans for 10 years of what I want to do - and I update them, mind you - and I don't think anything really changes, I just stay focused and consistent. 

[00:06:31] You're going to have setbacks throughout property investing. Property investing is extremely hard and a lot of people can’t get through the process of property investing, long term. They go for a year or two and then give it away. 

[00:06:44] So to me it’s about being consistent and focused. So writing those goals down, it’s held me accountable for what I had to achieve. So for me, nothing's really changed. It's just more being able to stay focused.

Tyrone Shum:
Being able to reflect on his business plans for the future has allowed him to see things more clearly as well.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:07:22] My life is so busy, so sometimes it gets a bit hard for me to reflect on what I've done, what I’ve achieved and what I want to do next. So it was one of those things that I wanted to get away from technology, just sit down and write down my goals for what I want to achieve. Because each year, those goals change.

[00:07:51] I want to start helping other people invest and build their portfolios. And for me I was just blown away, reflecting on what I've achieved and then looking into what I really want to do and having a clear vision on what I'm going to do in the next five to 10 years. 

[00:08:21] I'm not sure if I’d leave train driving altogether. I might even do part time or casual and just drive trains when I want to. But being able to have the decision to be able to say, ‘Hey, now I get to have a choice of, do I want to do this part time or casual or do I just want to give it up?’ was my whole goal from the start. So if I will do my buyer’s agency full time, I want to build that business up to the point where I have a few employees helping me out. 

[00:08:52] But I really don't know yet. I don't know whether I would give up trains or not. I actually enjoy the job, so it’s one of those things at the moment that I think I’ll do a bit of both and I'll do that for as long as I can. But once I build up that business a little bit more, I’ll probably naturally just start to go more into that and put more time into my buyer’s agency.

Tyrone Shum:
Discussing mentors who have aided him with his property investing dilemas, Walsh connected with many people in order to glean information that he could apply to his own strategy.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:09:43] Over the years I had connected with people that were like-minded, that were property investors themselves. Some of them had one property, some had 30 properties - I think you can learn from anyone. It's not one of those things where you seek out somebody that's got $5 million or $30 million, it's talking to everyone in your field about what you want to do, taking a little bit from everyone and being able to put that into your own strategy. Work out what you want to keep with that information and what you don't want to keep.

[00:10:18] I did have people like Chris Gray and Margaret Lomas and who I watched on TV. I reached out to them, sent them messages and connected with those two as well. To be able to answer some of my questions and clarify some of those questions that I had four or five years ago.

[00:10:37] So to me it just connect with everybody and makes sure that you do you as well, you've got to do your own style, your own strategy, but learn from others as you go.

[00:11:03] These days we have social media - we have LinkedIn, we have YouTube. There’s no reason why you can't connect with someone. We’re not 15-20 years ago where you own in your own neighborhood. Now you can connect with anyone in the world and I think there's not enough people that are doing that and the people that are doing that are the ones that are going to become successful.

Tyrone Shum:
The most inspiring advice Walsh has received throughout his journey is to generate passive wealth and to become successful through associating with successful people.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:11:40] One of them was - I've actually got it all over my business now - it's called “make money while you sleep,” and it's one of those things you want to be able to make money while you sleep and not have to go to work and put your time into making money. So you want to free up your own time and make money while you sleep, which is why I started properly investing. So that's probably one of the things that I got taught at an early age and really helped me out. 

[00:12:16] The other thing is “you’re the average of your best five friends”. So whoever you keep around you is pretty much who you're going to become. So if you hang around with five successful people, you'll become successful. If you hang around with five people that do drugs, you’re probably going to do drugs.

**PROPERTY INVESTING STRATEGY**

Tyrone Shum:
Becoming involved in property investing from a young age, Walsh’s strategy of being able to buy and hold is still an effective one.

Daniel Walsh:
[DanielWalsh_01] [00:25:22] A lot of my strategy is buy and hold. So being 26 years old, I realise that building a larger asset base and excess in compounding interest over the next 20 or so years, I couldn't flip properties and be able to make as much money as I could by just buying and holding that asset.

[DanielWalsh_01] [00:25:42] So for me it’s about buying and holding. In the future my mind might change and I’ll sell a couple down just to create more cash flow. But at the moment, it's about holding as large of an asset base as I can for a couple of cycles. And those couple cycles with rent rises, in that I probably won't have to sell anything in my portfolio.

Tyrone Shum:
Being able to ask the right questions when researching a potential area to invest is something that Walsh uses to his advantage in his property investing strategy.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:13:16] Over the last six or seven years, I've gained more knowledge of what I'm looking for in a property and what I'm looking for mostly in an area.

[00:13:26] I think what people overlook is doing the research on the area as a whole and the council - is this council progressive? Is the population growth in that area going to be strong? Infrastructure, is it coming to the area.? What resources are in that area? What sort of jobs are coming to that area? I do the same thing every time I research an area and I go through the same steps every single time to identify what that next upcoming hot spot is going to be, before people even start talking about it. Before people even see it happen, I want to be able to figure out why it's going to happen. And I think that's really been the key to growing my portfolio, being able to get into markets before other people, being able to get to them without competition and just being able to do the correct research.

[00:14:17] I say to everyone you’ve got to go through the same process every single time and research the area and the council and make sure that it's a really progressive council. That your population growth is really high and all the fundamentals is what drives the market. It's all about supply and demand.

Tyrone Shum:
When sourcing properties, he advises against connecting with real estate agents.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:14:52] It depends on what I'm doing at this point, but if I wanted to seek out somebody or if I wanted to know a bit more about an area, I wouldn't go to a real estate agent as they're trying to sell me something - I'd go to the property management site. They know about the area but they're not trying to sell you anything. So I would actually interview half a dozen property managers and go through the same thing, select a lot of questions that I ask them and just find out about the area. Because you can do as much research as you want but you've got to get on the ground in the local side of what sort of market to buy at this point in time. 

Tyrone Shum:
When considering buying interstate, Walsh has an effective method for ensuring that it’s the right property to buy in that area, when he’s not familiar with the area himself.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:15:39] I don't go in there very often, I fly over once to identify an area or I drive around it. I want to know the best pockets of that area and I don't tend to fly in and out as much, because once I've done the research and I know what I'm doing I build a team around that area and then I have people that do everything for me.

So I don't have to go look at the property, because I have professionals looking at that property and they're looking at if it's structurally sound, what it's going to rent for, is it in the right location for people to rent it? So they look at all of that for me.

[00:16:17] No matter what, you can identify an area that you're not a local in or you haven't been there for 20 years, you do not know that market. Even if you drive around it every single day for the next week, you still don't know the market as well as somebody that lives there and has lived there for a decade. So I sort those people out and they're the people that are on my team; they're the people that help me find those areas.

Tyrone Shum:
To build teams that he could rely on, requires skill and Walsh shares how he did it.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:17:04] That came from generally my mentors, like over time a lot of these are people that had already built portfolios of 30 to 50 properties already had these of things in place. So for me it was learning from them and being able to implement that myself over the years to be able to do the same thing. Don't reinvent th
e wheel, it's already done. Jump on it. [00:17:27] So I sought out people that already were successful and then learned from them.

[00:17:54] When you're looking to get into property investing it's very hard to find information and really know how to do it, especially interstate. Not many people know how to go interstate. So seeking out somebody that knows and has done it before definitely limits your risk. Whereas if you go in there by yourself, you're spending $300-500 000 in a market and you don't want to mess that up. So go to somebody that knows what they're doing, learn from them and they'll teach you how to do that.

Tyrone Shum:
Walsh says that having sufficient time to study his intended markets before he began was an essential part of implementing his strategy.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:18:43] From the very first purchase that I did, I had already studied for a year and a half. I had a year and a half break from buying in NSW and I spent all my time studying interstate markets and also studying how to build a team around me, then building that team around it before I even bought in these areas.

[00:19:03] So it took me over those couple years, I've refined those skills to be able to build them a lot quicker and know what I'm doing when I go into a new market. And once you've done the correct research, it's just all about building your team around it.

Tyrone Shum:
In choosing the best members of his interstate teams, he looks for those who will take the time to communicate with him and actively search for potential properties in his absence.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:19:40] A lot of the time I even get property managers to go and look at areas and everything for me and when you seek out a property manager, you know straight away from the feel of talking to that property manager whether they are willing to help you or if they don't have enough time.

[00:19:57] So I seek out the ones that have the time to talk to me for an hour on the phone that will go out and look at properties for me. They're the ones that I want to see because they're the ones that will look after my property better. They’ve given time back to their client and they know that if they keep me happy, they're going to keep other people happy as well.

So when somebody wants to buy a house in Queensland, I'll refer them to my property managers. If you’re a property manager and you don't have the time to do that, well then you're going to lose a lot more referrals in the future. I think a lot of property managers realise that and they take the time out to be able to educate us.

**PERSONAL HABITS/BOOKS**

Tyrone Shum:
As Walsh mentioned earlier, writing down his goals has been a key contributor to attaining success in property investing as it reminds him of his motives in bad times.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:20:48] Writing everything down and writing down my goals, so holding myself accountable to everything. If you don't write it down, you won't hold yourself accountable because you’ll forget over the next six months what you were trying to achieve.

So I write down yearly goals that I have to achieve and two year goals. So for me just staying laser focused and writing those goals down is probably one of my biggest habits, to be able to create success that I have. 

[00:21:20] Especially when you go through those hard times, you’re going to get multiple setbacks. It's never going to run easy. You're going to get banks that tell you, ‘You're not going to be able to borrow more.’ You're not going to find a house sometimes that you want to find. You're going to lose that house.

So when you go through those struggles, it's key to be able to read over just why you're doing it. You know, you've got to have a ‘why.’ So if you know why you’re doing it, then you stay strong through those struggles and you end up overcoming them.

Tyrone Shum:
He also shares some valuable books which he would recommend to those on their own path to creating wealth via property investing.

Daniel Walsh:
[00:22:14] The first book that I read, or one of the first, was Rich Dad Poor Dad. I know a lot of people have heard about it but if you haven't, go out and get that book and it will literally change your mindset on money and on debt - what's bad debt, what's good, how to carry debt. So that was probably one of my go-to books.

Another one would be Chris Gray's book. He pretty much delves into the same sort of thing. So I like his book and also any of Margaret Lomas’ books.

Tyrone Shum:
Sometimes you just wish you had done things differently - so if Walsh met himself 10 years ago, what would he say?

Daniel Walsh:
[00:22:58] I'd say to just work harder and buy when you can. You know, I probably made the mistake back then when I was taking that year and a half break where I could have been buying more. But it's one of those things, you can't look back and you’ve got to just keep looking forward to what's coming next. If you're always looking back, you can't go forward. 

Tyrone Shum:
[00:23:19] Yeah definitely, that’s really good advice. And I mean when you look back at it, you would have been 16 years old!

Daniel Walsh:
[00:23:25] Yeah, I was probably playing video games or something.

Tyrone Shum:
Walsh shares’ what his most excited for in his property investing journey.

Daniel Walsh: 
[00:23:43] I think just building that wealth now to the cash flow side of it, building up enough cash flow to be able to sustain my lifestyle is probably what I'm really excited about. So then I can go out and do the things that I really like everyday, which is helping other people. So that's probably what I'm trying to do - helping other people invest, build their portfolios and sort of educate them on finance and all that sort of thing.

For me it's like giving back. I remember when I was younger, I got told, ‘No,’ a lot of the time and I would be reaching out to these people and a lot of them just wouldn't give me the time of day. So having somebody that will actually educate you and answer your questions via email, or Messenger, or Facebook Messenger, or something - I know it helped me a lot when anybody just wrote back to me and said, ‘Hey, this is what I've done,’ and then they get implement it themselves. So for me it’s just giving back to those people that are really trying to learn.

Tyrone Shum:
If you would like more information on how Walsh can help you through his buyer’s agency, or would like to connect with him, you can do so through

Daniel Walsh:
[00:25:07] My buyer's agency is Your Property Your Wealth, so you can either email me at admin@ypyw.com.au or you can just type it in and you'll find me on Instagram. I'm on Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. So go to any of those platforms, type it in and you'll find me.

**OUTRO**

Tyrone Shum:
Thank you to Daniel Walsh, our guest on this episode of Property Investory.