Using Data to Increase Property Profit with Tommy Segoro

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Tommy Segoro has used his background in I.T. as well as his developed passion for property, to become the proud owner of a growing portfolio and a buyer’s agency business in Perth, Western Australia! Not only buy and hold investing, but also renovating and making property profit through many different strategies and has even been able to help his clients achieve the same success when purchasing.

Join us in this episode of Property Investory as we learn about the big move Segoro made on his own as a young boy from Indonesia to Australia, how he found himself in I.T. and how he made his way into property. We’ll also be delving into the way Segoro utilises his skill set in I.T. to filter and search through data regarding property, how his ego clouded his investing judgment, why a six year hiatus from investing couldn’t stop Segoro from investing later and much much more!

Working as a buyer’s agent in Perth, Segoro is quite experienced in the field of property purchasing and investing..

I’ve been investing, [and] I mean in the business itself as a buyer’s agent — it’s only entering it’s six months. I’ve purchased 10 properties so far. Um, however my investing journey went back since 2006 so I’ve had more than I guess 10 years [worth of] experience investing in property. Um, yeah, and I’ve got a software development background as well. I came from an IT, I guess I’ll call it a background. I’ve been in IT for more than 15 years. And uh, and yeah, I guess, I guess that’s what gives me the edge of being a buyer’s agent is being able to apply my IT skills, um, you know, integrating with various systems like RP data and stuff to give me the information that I want.

With a skill set like this, helping clients find property is part of Segoro’s daily routine…

As a buyers agent my job is to find property and to help people buy property. So, I’ve got, I’m serving for some buyers on occupiers and investors. Obviously every market segment has certain requirements, um, on occupiers and first home buyers are more into, you know, helping them, finding the coffee that suits their requirements and um, that is in a good location as well. But for investors it’s more about the numbers. So I’ve got various strategies that I implement for them to give them, I guess financial advantage.

Tommy Segoro’s Personal Story/Background

Born overseas, Segoro shares how he found himself in Australia…

I came from Indonesia. I was born in Indonesia. Um, I’ve been in Perth for, well since 1998. I came here when I was in year 10 and went into a boarding house.

I’m from a town called Surabaya, which is just an hour away from Bali. It’s in Java island, but it’s just an hour flight away.

And why he moved at a young age…

As, as a boy, I guess back then I was really shy and so my parents were like, oh, it’s not good if, you know, for a boy to be in Indonesia all the time, being close to, to his parents. So we need to send him somewhere that is far away from the parents so that he can be, I guess more independent. So that was my parents intention back then.

While not a common thing to be done, Segoro shares that his parents’ decision to move him to Australia was for his own good…

Generally people in Indonesia, we tend to be very, I don’t know what the word [is], but we tend to be hesitant to express our feelings and what not. So we tend to not be confident as a person. It’s just the culture I guess. But as far as sort of motivation sending their children overseas often a lot of them are for education. Um, but for me, number one is for that, for confidence. And number two is obviously for education and future.

So growing up in Indonesia, tell me a little bit more about that. I’m curious to learn, like what things did you do in Indonesia? What kind of, um, what was the upbringing like in Indonesia? Like what was your childhood like?

My parents didn’t come from a rich family background. They work really hard and I think, you know, I can actually speak about a lot of people who are in the same boat as, as my parents. So because of that it has been a lot of us are taught to save a lot, right. Um, to have a good career. Just so that we are not as the children, you’re not going through what the parents were going through. Um, and, and I think if you want to talk about property specifically, um, a lot of us tend to buy cash back in Indonesia because obviously property prices are a lot cheaper in Australia. And secondly is because of that, I guess culture background. I mean a lot of us came from a poor family background. So to us cash is king. Um, my parents always tell me, you know, if you want to buy anything, car, whatever it is, try to have the money first before you know, don’t have loans if possible. Um, especially on depreciating assets. So that’s how I’d been raised. Um, [inaudible] it doesn’t mean that I’m good at saving, it’s just because me as a person in nature, I’m not good at saving. So I’ve been taught a lot and that’s how I’ve been raised.

He also explains the reason he migrated to Australia while he was a highschool student…

My parents felt that I was old enough to go overseas and I just said I somehow I had, I had the desire to as well, um, to explore, you know, might as well just, just start high school here. Because I heard back then that if you start directly in Uni, I think you’d have to study for English first and it would be a six months waste of time kind of thing. Whereas when I went to Australia, I actually gained six months because while you actually start in February and we actually start in July in Indonesia. So as you can imagine, um, I was Year 10 in February in Australia. If I had stayed in Indonesia I would not have been in year 10.

In terms of integration, Segoro explains whether it was easy or not to move and start a new life here…

I was crying during my first night in the boarding house cause you know, obviously I was homesick and I didn’t understand a thing. I mean I had done an English course for like many, many years, but because you’d never practice day to day and, and it’s just, I mean, you know, Australian has their own sort of, I guess what do you calls, um,

language and slang.

Yeah. So I just didn’t understand the thing for the first six months. I’m Tyrone. I mean in the class I was just almost falling asleep almost every time just because I couldn’t, I could understand a thing. But yeah, luckily after, after six months I was a lot more comfortable.

After highschool, Segoro took his parents advice and continued his studies, studying computer science at University…

Back then it was called a TER. And then after that I went to uni. Um, I just did computer science again, I mean this is the way you were raised. And so having Nasia is, is to have a good education. Don’t just do, I mean a lot of my friends were doing commerce, um, but my parents always told me, you know, make sure you, you do a course that has tenable career movement, right? Like if you do computer science, you know that you’re going to be a computer programmer, right? If you do engineering, you’re going to be an engineer. But if you do commerce, it’s like, what are you going to be doing? Are you going to own your own business but sort of industry or you’re going to be in. So that’s when, that’s when I actually chose to become a computer. I actually wanted to do engineering, computer engineering before, but my marks were not sufficient so I did computer science.

Completing this three year degree, Segoro shares that in hindsight his experience in Uni wasn’t exactly what he expected…

If I look back now, I would confidently say that I applied nothing in what I’m doing now.

Like I hate to say it, but I, yeah, I I didn’t, I learned a lot back in uni, but I applied nothing. Having said that though, I think it’s more of like the, the, the moral values that you get right there, the hard work and, and it just, that, that sort of skills, is what I picked up but the technical skills itself I didn’t quite apply what I was taking then because, um, at the moment in terms of IP on morning I sort of like the [inaudible] space, they can, those days we learn about more of like a, uh, you know, a computer programming and, and just sort of like a technical programming was just, just not applicable for me at the moment.

University education aside, how exactly was Segoro able to sustain himself with his family living in Indonesia while he studied in Australia alone?

I didn’t have to support myself financially. Um, so I was grateful that my parents had always have this, this is what they taught me as well is, you know, something like that like education is something that you just have to support your children with. Um, but they, they keep teaching me about make sure, you know, I was saving money. I was only getting, uh, maybe like 70 bucks, um, per week or something like that. It’s not huge at all for me to be just for my day to day.

So I, I had, I had few, um, uh, like a part time jobs in restaurants and what not becoming a waiter but that’s, that’s about it. Yeah, I think it was only when I graduated, that’s when I started my, I guess, programming journey.

Tommy Segoro’s Property Investing Journey

Following his university journey Segoro shares how he landed his first job in computer programming…

My first job was in a tending company as a PHP developer, funnily enough. So that’s how I started my career. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I was in that tending company for maybe one year and then I moved to my second job. Um, uh, I think, I think it was a recruitment agency or something. Um, so I was, I was still using PHP then but the company suddenly made a direction change to, to use Microsoft technology. So that’s how I was first introduced to Matt and Michael’s technologies, which I was really grateful because the NWA, um, as far as it goes into not pretty much Microsoft town.

While the skills gained at this job were useful, Segoro shares that he actually didn’t stay within that company for long, moving around up until his current position…

This is my 14th job. Right. So I, I moved quite a lot to be honest. Um, because picking the days, um, every time I move I can get 10, 15 k race in salary. So that made me, you know, get motivated, but not much just because of the money, but the experience as well. Um, yeah, so I think until like right now I’ve been, I’ve been in this company with this company for like eight years now, but prior to that I was like keep moving every six to 12 months.

In the web development space for over fifteen years, at what time did Segoro start investing into property…

So it was 2006. Um, I remember that. I was 23 years of age and I earned my first six figure salary. Right. So, this is my story. And back in the days I can remember, it was because of my ego I bought property because I just wanted to show off to my friends that a 23 year old guy, was able to buy his own investment property. I didn’t, I didn’t do any research. I didn’t do it at all. All my friends were telling me where like, Oh, told me, you know, you earned this great money, might as well save tax, so why don’t you just consider a property? And I’m like, oh, that’s a great idea. Let’s buy a property, just buy anything. Right. It was a four by two house, pretty, pretty little house. Um, it was when I bought it, it was already like 10 years old or something.

So it’s depreciation was minimum and long story short, um, after my tax return, I still had to fork out about 10 grand annually close to that property. And that’s how I lost my 50, 60 grand is because I hold it for six years. So from 2006, I sold it in 2012. Um, I bought it for $440 000. I sorted at $450 000. Right and minus the agency fees, I’m going to even making maybe five grand day. Right. Um, but then throughout the period, obviously it cost me 10 grand. So it’s, it’s 50, 60 grand loss.

While the lack of research could have been one of the reasons for the little profit gained, Segoro adds that the timing of the market did also affect his investment’s appreciation rate…

Because I bought it I think in 2006 Perth has just gone through a major boom in property price. So I was at the peak of the market. Um, that’s why there was no growth at all. That’s why in six years, you know, it only went up from $440 000 to $450 000 because of that.

Despite these learning curves however, the results from that first investment didn’t actually stop Segoro from investing…

During that period, um, other than that, that property, I was partnering with a business partner to buy another property, another unit. Again, this is for us, this was just another bad purchase. Right. I mean, both of us didn’t know any better. Um, I still have that second property until today. It’s a unit and which again, it’s sort of in editing, it’s negative cashflow as well. Um, yeah, I was thinking of starting me during the mining boom, but my partner was like, um, you know, let’s just hold it a bit more. But here Yanna in the downturn, yes. I’ll still have that with me and the moon. Um, that’s, that’s, that was my second purchase.

Fast forward to today, Segoro shares that he has expanded his portfolio quite a bit…

At the moment I’ve got five properties and one principal place of residence.

Thinking about the properties in his portfolio, he delves into whether or not he has experienced a horrible investing moment…

A worst one. Probably not. I would say, cause I think the moral of the story was the Castro was just too bad. Right? I think a lot of people buy property, um, thinking that, did they always go up instead of east through in 20, 30 years time. But I think what we often fail to see is can we actually hold that long and we survived 20 years fine. Right. And, and because I had to sell for is just because every month I have to keep forking out almost one grand every month and, and I was getting married and stuff and it was just, I thought this is a headache. And because of that I had to sell early and I think I can speak, um, you know, uh, on behalf of a lot of buyers that I’ve talked to so far is we are in the same boat in the sense that they just have to sell early and never experienced that growth. It’s just because the cash flow is way too negative.

Having quite a bit of insight on situations like this, Segoro shares some valuable advice for people out there looking to invest…

What I would say is, um, just number one, first and foremost is calculate your cashflow, right? I mean, property investment is very much like a business, right? I mean, who wants to sell a burger that costs a dollar and is happy to just take 40 cents, right? If, if somebody tells you to buy property to save tax, just run away. I mean, if you don’t calculate your cash flow, that’s how you, that’s how you lose money is because it’s all the running costs. I mean, if you’ve caught a lot of money in your buffer, that’s great, but if not like me, I have to fork it out from my main bank account. You see it month after month. I’m like, holy Moly, I’m making this much money and this is only the money I get left over. It’s just because to hold that property, it’s just, it’s just very expensive

On the flip side, Segoro shares one of his better investing moment stories…

After those two purchase, I was, I was vacuumed from, from property investing because again, I don’t know, I don’t know if it’s human nature or not, but you know, rather than blaming myself, I blamed the vehicle, right? I was like, property investment. It’s not for me. I’m going to go out of the market for now. Right. Um, but then along the way, obviously I read more, I learnt more and that’s when I had my Aha moment. I’m like, oh, it’s actually not that difficult. Investing in property, obviously, property investing. What I like is it’s the kind of investment which you can actually just buy, set and forget kind of thing. Right. As long as the cashflow on paper doesn’t cost you any money, you can just hold that, you know, day after day without worrying about it.

So I had that Aha moment and not just that. Um, so from 2012 to 2018 I didn’t buy anything. So came 2018, um, this was obviously — the mining boom in Perth happened between 2013 to 2015 and then after 2015 it was pretty much downturn. Right? And when I moved to this IP job, um, it was during the mining boom. So I had a — I was doing IP contracting as a contractor. I got paid a really good hourly rate and, um, and, and you know, I’ve been staying with the company for eight years now. And during the period of the mining downturn. Um, you know, when, when I ask around about salary off of the summer job, I was, I was, I would be getting maybe 30, 40 bucks an hour or less. That’s a good 70, 80 grand less in salary rights.

I was like, okay, I’m not going to move but come 2018 this is my aha moment. So it comes on the 18 I received this phone call from a recruitment agent and, and he was asking if I’m looking to move and I’m like, no, I’m not interested, but if you don’t mind me asking, can you tell me what sort of package are you offering? Came to my surprise, they were offering the same salary during the mining boom time. And I’m like, Ooh, is this a turning point for WA now are we at the bottom now? Right. I mean, because for many years, um, like I said, like I just mentioned him, we were talking 30, 40 bucks per hour, less and all of a sudden there was this company willing to offer the same rate as I was getting at the mining boom. And I’m like, you see the turning points. So couple that with all the skills and knowledge that I’ve been acquiring regarding property investing, I’m like, I’m to go back and something just spoke to my heart to certify you had to go back to the property market. So there ideas, I bought two investment properties straight away

It was after this moment that Segoro not only decided to continue investing but also to become a buyers agent…

The buyer’s agent, obviously it’s, it’s, it’s not new as, as an industry, but it’s new to a lot of people and especially in WA. But because of that, um, I would admit that my charts rate as an yearly is not that great yet. Um, so I, I’ve obviously the business, it’s always to the new. So through my IP job has allowed me to, to pay the bills and, and fortress for day to day expenses. So yes. I am still doing my IT as well as the agency work.

Increasing Property Profit Potential with Tommy Segoro’

Continuing from a previous episode to talk about the first few properties he purchased, Segoro delves into the story behind his third property and whether he resides in it or rents it out…

The third one is a house that we purchased me and my parents. They are living in. So I’ve got my stake as well in that property but currently my parents are listed there.

With a changing market and more properties to his name, Segoro shares the strategy he uses when it comes to investing…

My IP background has allowed me to sort of extract a lot of information from an IP data Start-Up right. This is how we then make that into useful information. So one of the information that I gather from doing my analysis was you know is there like in terms of growth.

You know people keep talking about like good suburbs bad suburbs but then from my analysis what it has allowed me to see is that there is no such thing called good suburbs on bad suburbs or units versus apartments versus houses I mean everything if you can hold for 15 years time you will always win in property, right? The question is can you hold that long? That has always been my rule of game is just can I hold that long? So my strategy obviously is for buy and hold it has to be positive cash flow on paper. So one of the things that I look at was rental yield has to be 5 percent or more at the very least. And that’s that’s what I applied with these two properties that are purchase one of them is just a standard single dwelling strategy. Buy and Hold. I think I’d buy the land for one ninety total build about 380 and I get at the moment if it’s rented at 10 and I rent it all by myself. So I didn’t use a property manager and I’d managed to secure a tenant who can rent that before for at least one and a half years. So I know that it would be a good five and a half percent yield return. And yeah and I’ve got a long term tenant so that lease that allows me to be you know that then there is positive cash flow and the second one I was purchasing was a two occupancy property which is you know you can build two properties all in one title, one landline title and I can land them. And that one is actually positive gearing. It’s not just cash positive cash flow. My understanding is cash flow is something that you receive after your tax return so it might be negative and then you get a tax return and it becomes a positive. But this one is positive gearing in the sense that the rent itself already covers the running costs.

But how exactly did Segoro manage to find a property that would not only provide him with a stable income but would be able to sustain itself through rental costs?

I looked for areas where rental yield is high. So I looked at the comparison between property price and the rental income. If I can find a suburb where you know generally property median price is sort of — can give you that sort of 5 percent rental yield then that then that’s how I filter down the areas. So that’s number one and number two is obviously I have to make sure as well that the area is not just a dodgy area right but it’s an area that has growth, is close to amenities, close to work and jobs, close to transport.

So that said I tried to search for those opportunities.

Purchasing properties mainly in Perth, Segoro shares whether the abundance of these types of properties have dwindled or not…

You’d be surprised there’s there are still a lot of them. There is another one. Yeah there’s another one let me tell you about this one. So this one it was presented to me because the seller was almost assessed by the bank. Right. And this is just just a really good example is because at the moment the property is rented by an investment company that pays you about 450 bucks a week. Right. The property itself is a villa it’s a brand new villa which you can actually purchase for about $340 000. So as you can imagine fifty three for this there’s almost maybe a seven percent return already. Haven’t you spent a comparable analysis for in the area actually sold sold for 417 to 430 K so as you can imagine between 340 and 430 K that’s already an instant equity so you’ve got you’ve got plenty of opportunities like that at the moment in Perth, if you know where to find them.

With an almost balanced portfolio consisting of positive cash flow properties and otherwise, Segoro explains whether he’s bringing this portfolio back to a neutral setting or not…

I think I’ve had enough buy and hold for now. The next one that I would like to buy is more like a flip something that I can cross equity quicker customer liquid because I’ve actually bought a couple for my clients that had helped them doing that but I haven’t bought one for myself so maybe for the next one it will be something that I can flip.

Expanding on the idea of flipping houses, Segoro walks us through the process he goes through when renovating while giving us an example of a flip he’s done for clients in the past…

I’ve thought two for different clients, two examples. The first one is for fifteen thousand four hundred fifteen thousand dollars four by one property. It’s an old — really old property [built in the] 1950s or 1960s, something like that but it is located in the middle-up suburb right. Four hundred fifteen thousand dollars for four by one I know four by two in that area I can sell as high as $800 000.

So as you can imagine for 15 plus purchase costs 5 percent stamp duty and everything and then you add let’s say you add $100 K, renovation right, major renovation one hundred K so make it five fifty.

And then after that you can sell it potentially so 550 hundred K and if it includes to add another bathroom. So make it four by two. And now you have a potential offsetting $800 000 not so that’s just an example.

Having explained such a clever way to increase the profit from a potential property, Segoro explains why that specific property was comparatively cheap compared to other investments…

The owner the mum who used to live there is now falling sick. So I think it’s it’s not under the what you call the executor.

Ah okay so it’s like…

A real, real execute.

Mortgagee for sale or something like that.

Not even mortgage.

I don’t know if it’s her daughter wanting that too and then just split the money to pay for the medical bills so that’s why they were selling it for like pretty cheap.

I think when I was there for it’s open home, there were like 13 groups maybe coming because we know it’s a it’s a it’s a steal it’s just because I think a lot of people were afraid of purchasing it because they were looking at the property from the hindsight saying, it’s like a lot of work and stuff.

But how I see it is because okay that’s fine if it needs work but let’s say we’ve put in a hundred K net worth of work in that. Yeah it’s still it’s still feels going to be bringing you profit.

Yeah huge profit so that that.

With an increased value and equity on that particular property Segoro spills his thoughts on whether keeping that property to buy another one or selling it straight away would be a financially beneficial move…

Well it’s, it’s up to the investor.

I think if you if you tried to get equity out of it saying we only 80 per cent of the valuation right. Yes so let’s say let’s say that property is worth eight hundred thousand dollars you’re going to get 640 minus the remaining mortgage so you’re not getting or going to get as much as you would have sold it.

Having said that I mean my client is happy with the area. He might be considering to live in the property so depends depending on what he wants to do yeah.

Moving onto other property types Segoro shares whether developments or subdivisions are investment types he plans on carrying out in Perth…

This is a challenge with. I mean a lot of investors they just oh I want to be a developer because they reckon that’s where the money is. Well not so much from. From how I’ve seen it so far. Because as soon as the seller recognizes this property can be subdivided, he bumps up the price by like 50 hundred k. Because of that, if you’re the investor buying that property you’re not going to make any money. Even if you try to flip because remember when you tried to let’s say you want to build on that land it’s going to cost you close to two hundred thousand dollars per building. So the question is now you know if they bump up the price by 100k you’re losing 100k straight away right then and there. And the second question is the current market can you actually sell that property easily, because if you if you have to keep paying for like holding costs. Yeah I’ve been approached by a few developers who were just like losing a lot of money because they just failed to calculate the holding costs. They think oh you know I just I can just sell this. And yes on paper.

If you can sell it you can make money. But what if you can’t sell it? I mean some of them can’t even sell for more than two years. I’m not even kidding.

So they can’t even offload the property for more than three years and it’s just holding cost after holding cost after holding costs.

On top of holding costs, lengthy building timelines and a potentially fluid market, Segoro shares that there’s a lot to take into consideration when it comes to development.

What I see as well is the selling price right. This is the dilemma if you want to be able to afford development then you have to buy in like a low to medium sort of suburbs right because prices feel pretty cheap like 400 300 K, but the selling price is also low. You know if you build a duplex if you probably sell about 250 300. There is no money to be made right. I think for development if you want to make money you have to do it in a blue chip suburb because the building cost may be the same but the selling cost is way higher but then it will take you a lot more equity as well. And I’ve spoken to a lot of agents who are selling in the blue chip areas. If I’m them in the current market it’s harder to find a buyer because as you can appreciate it we’re talking about a million dollars of property. Not many people have that much money to spend. So yeah yeah that has always been the biggest challenge in development. I would be personally I think not enough but this to renovation properties I think I would rather do that instead because it’s less capital and you’ve got more return.

Speaking of the funds needed for investments, Segoro talks a little bit about the different clients he deals with…

I’ve got a couple on occupiers one for first home buyers. So out of the 10 that I’ve purchase I think three of them are owner occupiers the rest were investors. So.

And how he uses his IT background and access to RP data to complement his career as a buyer’s agent…

RP data is just data. It’s a collection of It’s a database that’s been there since I don’t know 1970 to 1990 or something like that right.

But then it’s up to you you have to first know what you want to get out of it. And then from there I’ve got that IT background, then because IP data has this thing called API which you can integrate with. So I can I can use my source code and connect with their API right. And then I can just literally do whatever I want. I mean in the API you can you can do a suburb search for example. So let’s say for example I want to be able to show me the median price of a suburb from 2012 to 2019. And then I can then from that information I can then make a judgement if this suburb in the downtown market is not an option market what about population and things like that. I mean data has all that library available for you to connect to so that’s how I do that.

Despite his search results allowing him to determine whether to buy in particular suburbs or not, Segoro adds that the results he gains isn’t actually always applicable to the investment strategy he wants to use…

I think for me again, when it comes to buying because I’ve got a lot of a lot of strategies to apply and not just buy and hold. I mean for buy and hold yes you can look at suburb profile and the growth and everything but something like renovation it’s it’s a second skill set of.

What I call of finding a deal. It’s more than just you’ve got the analysis skill yes that’s looking at the growth in everything but then you still have to have that second skill set i.e. finding the actual deal itself.

A suburb is just a suburb but you have to be able to find what property in that suburb that you need to buy.

If you do get the best profit. So I think something like RP data or analysis like that can’t give you the deal.

Right. It just gives you the information about a profile of a suburb but you still have to be able to go to a real estate dot com or a domain and be able to spot a deal and deal in that area.

And how are you finding the deals for yourself and clients as well to go into the main sources or year building speaking to agents directly like to get off market deals regularly that kind of stuff?

I mean so far the off market deals I’ve got, they haven’t been great to be honest. People are like well you know one of the strengths of a buyer’s agent is you are able to source of market property to buy local property. There is a reason why they become off market is because the sellers don’t want to pay agency, right?

And because of that the price rise is not any cheap. I mean I look at all this off market problems all of them are extensive. There are unrealistic. That’s why they don’t want to go to an agent because an agent might say just being honest to them that you know you’re just unrealistic and that’s what I find that’s what happens. So, so far all the deals I found just to release the document and I mean I think for me is being able to know the area. Every suburb has its own median price. That’s how I look at particular suburb. I know, let’s say that the median price is five hundred K and then suddenly I spot a four by two for 415 k then I know that’s below market. That’s a deal and that’s how I do it.

Tommy Segoro’s Property Investing Mindset

Jumping into the mindset side of things, Segoro explains what it was that actually drew him to property and pushed him towards investing…

The why is because I learned from my parents I use again. So far my strategy has been buy and hold is because you know I’m planning to have you know my wife is pregnant at the moment and the way I was raised by my family as well is that they use property as a capital for their children. Right.

I think Warren Buffet once said you know you can be sitting under the shade right now because somebody planted a tree a long time ago.

So that’s what has been my mindset is the properties I’m buying right now, it’s just literally you know it’s for my children’s future.

Going back to when he first started Segoro reflects on the things that held him back from initially investing and why the current property atmosphere could also hold others back from investing too…

I guess mainly capital and secondly is it’s just banks at the moment are really tight.

So that’s why I think you have to you know we have to find like at the moment I’ve got the skills in property but my parents aren’t so much right.

So combining I can but I can use their money. They’ve got capital so they can we can we can both invest together. Yes. So that’s just an example. But what I’m finding hard and the money is obviously you still have to save to buy property and even if you have equity.

I’ve got a lot of strong buyers who have tons of equity. They’re talking about 200 under 500000 equity but they can’t access any of it just because they can’t service it. That’s how the banks are looking at it at the moment right. There are some things. It’s is how much money you can borrow and how much money you can service. So a lot of people at the moment are struggling with either one of them, either they don’t have the money or they just they’ve got high salary but not much borrowing power or they’ve got a lot of borrowing power but not so much serviceability.

Tommy Segoro’s Property Investing Habits

So knowledgeable about property now, Segoro shares that a lot of the information he drew from along his journey came in the form of not so much mentors but rather online resources and teachers…

I listen to a lot of property podcasts and videos and the various strategies that people implement different I guess different.

I wouldn’t say mentors per say because mentors is someone that you reach out to every now and then.

This is more of just I guess teachers I would say because I listen to them follow them read about them. From Dymphna Boholt, Mark Rolton,

Michael Yardney.

And then just just my parents friends as well who are who has been like a big property developer in Indonesia. And yeah just people who have been I guess successful in their investing journey.

When it comes to books, Segoro has educated himself in property not by following certain authors but just by reading anything he can access and keeping up to date with property news…

I do read books. I haven’t got a particular author that I’m following again it’s just I found them I just went to the Amazon Kindle and I just browse through I just in property and I pretty much just either buy or there are some free ones there and I just keep reading them.

Yeah or if not a property news use something like we were for W.A.

He adds to this his take on the problems of overeducating himself when it comes to property and why he keeps his reading lists full but not overflowing…

So I guess I’ve seen a lot of people they know too much.

And I think anything that is too much is not good. If we’re going I’ve got too much knowledge on property it might make me a very critical and very cautious. I never buy anything just because I live too much right.

Yes. That’s my opinion anyway so.

And why the best advice he’s received hasn’t come from any book or property guru, but rather from…

The best advice I’ve ever received is buy something that you can afford.

That has always been, this is what my parents have always taught me is nothing is expensive if you’ve got the money.

It’s like if I only have fifty thousand dollars I’m trying to buy off one million dollar property of course. You know that’s expensive for me but for someone who has a hundred million dollars one million dollars is nothing. So that’s what my parents always teach me is buy something that you can afford and that that’s the same case with property when I say what we can afford.

It’s more than just how much money we can put in but it’s like cash flow right. Can you actually afford that property to hold that? To do whatever you want to actually want to renovate. Can you hold, can you take on the risk calculated risk not just stupid risk just because somebody tells you to buy. Yes but it’s because you calculate and you know you can afford it to that. That’s probably the best advice I’ve ever had.

On another note, Segoro also shares with us the personal habit he has that he believes has helped him so far and will help him maintain his success in the future…

I never stop learning, I never stop working. I — this is what has struck me as well is a lot of what I wish on which so that I can just retire. Buying a house facing the ocean can just sit and relax every single day.

And yet we see someone like Warren Buffet instead of working in you know and he’s 88 years of age right. So I think I think it’s a mentality. I reckon if you have a poor person mentality, it’s that kind of mentality where you’d want to retire and just not doing anything. But I think I until I die I want to keep growing, I want to keep learning. I believe that I still have a purpose in this earth until I’m completely gone. So that’s it.

I mean you know people are like oh you know I wish I’ve got a lot of money I could just go travelling.

I don’t enjoy travelling too much. Like after two weeks of travelling I’m tired and just want to go back to working again.

Looking back to the past and knowing what he knows now, Segoro shares the advice he would have given himself ten years ago…

I would say to myself, ‘Get yourself educated. Cash flow is still king. Nobody can see nobody has a crystal ball to be able to predict capital growth. You know it’s coming but until then you just have to make sure you can afford the property.’ That’s what I’m going to tell myself.

Going forward five years, Segoro walks us through what he’s most excited about in his upcoming property journey…

Well I would like to execute strategies that aren’t executed before. So I think again to fight for a client. Well I think it’s going to fade thankfully. But I haven’t been in that journey myself. But having said that, I mean that properties is our project manager anyway. But I would like to be able to go to just be in a bet that somebody should be able to execute strategies that I haven’t executed. Another one is property options for example. I would love to be able to be able to control a property without putting down a single cent to have things like that is what excites me.

That’s what I’m going to be doing.

Looking forward.

He adds that whether it be developments or otherwise, controlling a property is the main goal he’s working towards right now…

Either way as long as I can control that property I can do whatever I want right. I can benefit it can developer fees and things like that. So yeah yeah. Because at the moment I think it’s a lot of people I’ve talked to so far they are open to the idea because you know they haven’t done a deal well I would rather doing it. We so just trying to break into that market yeah it’s something that really excites me.

Having given so much insight in regards to property investing and the like, Segoro ends by putting his interesting spin on whether he believes skill, intelligence or luck has been the catalyst for his success…

My intelligence contributes to something that I can control. Things like finding a positive cash flow property that’s that’s due to my intelligence and hard work obviously because I literally browse thousands of properties almost every day to really say so what I did I just type in a suburb with some criteria. And it came back with some thousands you know results and I just literally go through one by one and safety in my database the one that I think is good. So that’s that’s that’s due to my intelligence but luck I guess is something that I can’t control. Things like being able to find a tenant in two weeks time, who would expect that right?

I’ve got friends who can find the 10 following six months or let’s say property price.

I mean you know property goes up and down. Nobody can control that. That’s right. So things like that is this is I guess luck I would say. You can, I mean let’s say you look at a suburb that is down trending. You were like oh it’s a good time to buy but you never know. Next year it may go down even further. Right.

So that that is where luck comes in.

With so much more to share, here’s how you can get into contact with Segoro…

All my clients came from social media. So as you can imagine I’m active on all social media, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter. So you’re going to always find me there. Easy Buyers Agent. That’s that’s my business name or you can go to my website which is easybuyer.com. You can call me as well. 0 4 0 4 4 5 7 7 5 4. Or you can email me again all the details on my website.

This episode was produced by Ashlyne Ocampo with narrations and interviews conducted by Tyrone Shum.

Originally published at https://propertyinvestory.com on August 19, 2019.