Well I am finally back home and the damage done by the flooding here is quite something.  It is the worst in 80 years and appears to have been exacerbated by the dams being released as they were over full. Nadi is simply a mess, it will be quite a job to get the shops open again and replace the stock.  The food markets basically have none, (food that is),  as all the root crops etc. were devastated.

I have long believed Fiji has a curse over it and this certainly appears to be increasingly true as they slide into trauma after drama over the last 20 years.

What never changes is their incredible spirit and love of life but to see so much damage knowing they can’t fix it quickly is harrowing to say the least.  They were without water for over a week and power is still spasmodic. Imagine that happening in NZ, it would have been investigations, criminal behaviour etc.  Here it is “life”

Stay Inspired and BE THANKFUL today!!  ~ Dean

Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus

It sounds like it still has a ways to go in lots of areas still. Which makes the whole property thing quite weird right now doesn’t it. We have many areas of Auckland doing sort of quite well, a couple of areas going off big time and other suburbs dead as a dodo.  And nationally it is even weirder.

One of my agents told me this week he had investors fighting at auction over stock and another is ringing people out of the phone book to try and get them to list as he has buyers but no houses.  And he is in what I would term a true scungy investor market. If you are risk tolerant there is even room for some trading right now, not withstanding the legal issues around it, however you would want to be quick on your feet and happy to hold if you couldn’t sell.

The banks relaxing more and more is an interesting upside allowing some investors back into the buy and hold space. I guess overall things are moving predictably, Auckland is the place to be investing, Christchurch if you are willing to put the work in to watch the demographic rebuild and keep the rest of the country on mild alert

Anyway back to Rodney, if you appreciate good quality information and accurate forecasting on the property market subscribe or at least sign up for his free reports!!

Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus

Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus

Enjoy:

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Previous Webinar explaining more about the fundamentals of the US market:

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I guess it is quite likely that Auckland and Christchurch will have a bubble through rebuilding and internal migration but all the coal face evidence remains pretty “normal to depressed” in most parts.  We recently saw 2 homes sell in our own street quite quickly but at what sort of prices?  In both cases there was pressure to sell so they might become statistics of a market doing OK and increasing sales but I am simply not convinced that this means a recovery is occurring.

The old school strategy of buying expensive homes in nice areas will certainly see a resurgence in this market and the “I told you so’s” will be thick and fast however most investors will never be able to buy those sorts of properties.  So for 99% of people who want to buy pure “investment” stock there is a long wait still before we see our markets genuinely recover I believe.

I see the same thing in the USA right now.  The bottom end of the market location wise is staying there. In fact some areas are getting worse and fast.  The only difference in the USA is one can buy nice homes in great areas for only a teeny bit more than a really bad area so there the bettter home strategy is sound.  (Speaking of which join me this Thursday for our next USA webinar HERE)

But in good old NZ I think we are going to be sitting tight for a long time yet, even with Uncle John talking things up

Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean

Now even though I was very sick most of my nurse interaction was pain relief and IV liquid food so the consequences of a minor problem were negligible.  But it made me wonder how many times similar mistakes might occur with real serious issues.

Given how hard nurses work and the unbelievably difficult people they have to deal with I am not saying they are the problem.

I guess what I am thinking is this:

Is it realistic to expect a service or system to be “flawless” when it is being operated by imperfect people??

Obviously if someone was given the wrong drugs and they died that would be tragic and I know this does sometimes happen.  But just because the consequences are more significant does not change human nature. We all make mistakes and will do as long as we are alive.

So when the recent stats on hospital misadventure was front page news I was reminded that we are trying to run a perfect system with imperfect people perfectly, which will never happen.

We need people who do their best, who are well trained and who are well rested when it comes to nurses.

I don’t know how to make all that happen in a society where nurses are poorly paid and many are raising families as well as working shift work.

One of those unsolvable puzzles I guess………

Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean.

And something I hadn’t seen before was many of the signs had the asking price emblazoned across them.

I wonder how long it will take for coastal markets to come back, especially in areas like Ohope.  Middle of nowhere and on the way to kind of nowhere.  Stunning location and beach but will people ever want to pay a million dollars to live/holiday again?

I guess the answer to that is yes of course they will, we are after all kiwis with short memories and a serious sand addiction.

But the last 4 years may mean it’s a long road before we see these markets get anywhere near their 2006/7 heights.

There is always an upside of course.  If you’ve been waiting to buy a house cheap at the beach, now is THE time!

Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean

Never make permanent decisions based on temporary emotions.  We can;t control our emotions, they just happen to us don;t they.  And most of the time we are being influenced by them because that is part of being a thinking feeling being.

Yet we often make decisions we later regret because those decisions are permanent and not what we would have done if we were less angry/sad/happy.

Think about it for a minute, from unwanted pregnancies to destroyed marriages and financial ruin.  Permanent decisions made under the influence of a temporary emotion.

To stop this damage I am learning how to make temporary decisions so that I can check my emotions out.  In stead of !$^&$^%#&$^ and ^%$#*!%&#)* to you too I now say:

“Let’s discuss this later on when I can think more clearly about it”.

Recognising our emotional barometer is a great place to start.  None of us are going to make rational decisions in the heat of an emotional meltdown so once we establish that as a fact in our lives we can learn to say to ourselves I must not make any decisions right now until I am calmed down, sober, whatever it may be.

This has been quite a revelation to me today, not sure why.
I guess as I get older I understand the word permanent a bit better

~ Dean Letfus ~

A Championship Team will always beat a team of champions.

Join our championship team HERE

I have spent a lot of my time over the last few years looking for answers.  Whether it’s how to help someone maximise their returns or how to dig someone out of a hole it is a constant search for solutions.
The recession pushed me into looking at things that I now regret, trying to solve the cashflow drama. The strategies were not necessarily bad ideas but the people attached to them in some cases were.

The one shining light in all of that however has been the US property market.  Many clients and friends are now reinvesting again because the numbers work, the problems are manageable and the results are better than anything to be found elsewhere. 2 years on it simply works!

Recently I discovered a legit way to basically 100% finance ongoing purchases by recycling the initial property purchase money over and over.

And being non guaranteed bank lending with high yield makes it, well as close to risk free as I have ever seen anything.

And the overseas fear of the market is finally giving way to an understanding that the Americans problems are our solution, providing you know what you are doing.

So with my clients it has taken 2 years of education and enough proof from third parties to shift the “culture” if you like.  End result is more and more people are solving their cash flow issues.

Now your problem might not be cashflow, but whatever it is, the answer may be found in exposing yourself to something outside your comfort zone.

I have often said you need to get out of your comfort zone because that’s where all the money is but the truth is that answers are often found in areas we have historically avoided.

It has been amazing to see people who would never invest in the US ringing me excitedly to add to their portfolios 2 years later.

So what keeps you awake at night and what have you overlooked/ignored/run away from that may hold the answers to your questions??

Now there’s a question

Dean

“A champion team will always beat a team of champions”,
We’d love you to be on our US champion team,  next US investing Webinar HERE