Is Custodian Wealth Builders John Fitzgerald helpful?

Hello everyone,

I've become actively involved in attending property seminars just in the last few months. It may be because I'm paying attention to events that are geared towards property investment but I'm completely sold on the idea that property this year will do very well and continue to boom in the next 5 years.

The predictions for the next 5 years seem very favourable. The property boom is expected to be great given that the Australian population is aging and to compensate for the loss of workers to retirement, the Australian government is accepting skilled immigrants in record numbers! The fact that more migrants are coming to Australia has many more lenders offering home loans to migrants! I see this directly reflected in my line of work.

The population growth is coupled by a housing shortage in the four big cities, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. This is setting the stage for unprecedented growth in real estate in Australia.

I attended the Custodian WealthBuilders seminar hosted by John Fitzgerald yesterday. The impression I got from the seminar is that 1) John Fitzgerald has been in the industry for a long time 2) he's very methodical in building a system for property investment and 3) he absolutely believes in the power of education and repetition before taking steps to purchase property.

I'm wondering if there are people on this forum who use John or his method for investing. What were your experiences working with him?

Incidentally, was anyone else at the seminar?

Thank you all for participating!

Hi Ella!

I was actually at the very same seminar! If you are interested in attending more seminars and discussing them, I would love to exchange contact info! I have sent you a private message!

OK here's my impressions of the seminar last night!

John Fitzgerald’s Custodian Wealth Builders seminar was packed! As some of you following me on forums will know (I know I sound self-important but I’ve been writing heaps of articles!) I go religiously to property seminars! It’s bordering on the edge of being an addiction but I sooo enjoy the distinct approaches to property each mentor employs!

OK, so let’s start with the venue. It was held in Mercure, right across from the Central station. I so love this area, it’s young, hip, smart and professional all at the same time. The fact that it was held on a work night meant that the professionals would be attending after work. And this is exactly what the crowd was like!

They were smartly dressed professionals between the ages 30-40 predominantly with some younger and just a few older people.

The thing that bothered me with the other seminars was the fact that they seemed to prey on the desperation of older people who had little idea and common sense when it came to investing. They just showed them this rosy picture saying yes you can retire! And they were hooked. I find this a bit unethical. Not everyone can or will make money from property investments and not even with the right systems! Look at people who get duped and lose their money in the U.S. thinking they're getting positive cashflow bargains!

So John Fitzgerald came out and he said full stop 'no, not everyone will become wealthy in property'.

I suspect this was a ploy to get people thinking positively so they too could achieve the dream but in either case, his program relies heavily on education. His program only works if you understand compound interest, and rule of 72! If you aren't able to grasp these concepts you will probably not ever realize the full potential or losses you may face in property investments.

His other big thing is: Buy land! Land appreciates but buildings depreciate over time!
John Fitzgerald also ticks the box in the charity department. All these property people have a charity tie-in. I suspect this helps with tax deductions and also sells the program to people since who wouldn't want to support someone so charitable? Smart!

Also the take home message is: You have to build a system you can repeat.
The system is comprised of several parts that feed into each other and is in theory a perpetual motion machine.

So your capital growth on investment property gives you equity/leverage to buy more property that will increase your cashflow and feed your income and with growing income you can make renos, buy more property to make your capital growth even bigger! WOWWwww, what an engine!

So just like Anthony Robbins, Stuart Zadel, Steve McKnight, Dymphna Boholt, he's a huge proponent of setting a goal for yourself. Setting the goal is where you want your left and right brain to work together. You want to set a logical goal but you have to also visualise, touch, feel and smell it. This is pretty standard with all property seminars I've seen.

Unlike Dymphna's seminar where she tells you to go out and buy cashflow positive property, John Fitzgerald takes a smarter and more logical approach (in my opinion) in saying that positive cashflow property is high risk and you should steer clear in most cases. You must be able to turn your property purchase into a positive cashflow property by the end of 3 years! This is the rule.

I would like to all leave you with this thought, due to migration and shortage of housing, the property market in Australia will be experiencing its biggest boom in the next 5 years to come. So hurry up and set your goals! I've got mine! I see me in a house on a hill overlooking the beach with a pool that extends out towards the ocean in an unending blue surrounding of the pool, sky and ocean coming together! Don't steal mine, get your own!

Happy investing!

Hello there Ella and JoJo,

I too was at the seminar yesterday! I've been investing in property with the same system as John Fitzgerald's 'locomotive' and it just makes good practical sense!

You absolutely need a mentor in investing! Be it investing in property, share market or a business, you must approach it with an end goal in mind and map out your journey!

I think property seminars are helpful but be wary of signing up to receive mentorship where you're stuck within one group of people.

I highly recommend finding a mentor, like my friend Tina, who actually works for Home Loan Experts!

Among your team of professionals you must have accountants and mortgage brokers.

I do agree with John advice. Here are the big mistakes that many fall into:

1) Working solo with no mentor or a team of professionals like accountants, solicitors, and good mortgage brokers
2) Using your own bank. You have to use different banks because banks will cross-collateralize
3) Old houses / property. This is a money pit!
4) Units
5) Cashflow positive property! Right now mining towns are cashflow positive because it takes way more people establishing a mine than sustaining it. When the mine goes into sustaining phase you will lose the demand for majority of the housing near the mining town!

OK, so that's what I have to share. If anyone woould like to get in touch for meeting up and attending semiinars just PM me!

Thanks all!

Ella wrote:

...
the Australian government is accepting skilled immigrants in record numbers! The fact that more migrants are coming to Australia has many more lenders offering home loans to migrants!
...

While I agree with John's philosophy of investing in property based on land value appreciation, population growth etc, the quoted statement above is misleading. Check out the immigration department's website, and you'll see that immigration rules are actually getting far more stringent (just google for SkillSelect)

Long story short, foreigners used to be able to submit an applications freely, but from July this year, they'll have to send an expression of interest to join a pool, from which the gov will review and select candidates it deems useful and invite them to submit a visa application. This is actually similar to NZ's way to choosing who can get in. Anybody with half a brain can see what kind of impact this is going to have on the number of immigrants coming here and, more importantly, why the immi department is introducing this extra barrier.

For you and me, the biggest question is: what happens to our investment property if migration numbers start to fall? Based on recent economic headlines, the AU economy isn't doing particularly well, RBA went so far as cutting rates by 50 basis points. While this is good to reduce investor's monthly interest payment, it also means prospects for wage growth and immigration is getting bleaker. The end result is that house price and rental growth will stall, which should worry anyone who has properties with a negative cashflow.

I'm certainly not saying we shouldn't invest in properties, just wanting to point out the facts so people won't see things only thru rose colored glasses.

jojoming wrote:

...
You must be able to turn your property purchase into a positive cashflow property by the end of 3 years! This is the rule.

...

That's certainly a laudable rule, do you by any chance know if custodian wealthbuilder publishes any results on how many (in terms of percentage) of their client's properties (purchased thru them) met this rule?

[Otto Dargan]

Hi bdjc I don't think they publish their results. Not many investment companies / gurus do. I'd certainly love to see them! Case studies are one thing, however showing their full results, warts and all, would be great.

Hi

First of all Custodian Wealth Builders charge a 3% DMA fee top of the purchase price eg.$500K investment property will cost you $15K. They state that this is a DMA fee or Development Management Agreement - basically that they will project manage the build of your property and also if when completed after a staggering 44 weeks they will cover the rent at 75% of market value if it is not rented on completion of your property.

Firstly, average house build time should be 16 weeks. By taking 44 weeks you are paying interest even though tax deductible with out receiving any income from rent. Secondly, that money could be better spent putting towards other things such as your next investment property, up grades giving you more rent such as aircondition ect. Steer clear of this DMA fee it is not worth it. There are some companies out there who will pay your mortgage payments for the first month if it is not rented straight away.

I say steer clear.