As seasoned property buyers, we spend a significant amount of time discussing purchases that align with our clients’ long-term goals.

Most clients have a detailed long-term plan that they work towards diligently over the years, often decades.

However, many inexperienced investors take a more pot-luck approach. This may be driven solely by a desire to improve their financial futures by purchasing an investment property or two but they haven’t taken the time to research which properties and locations best suit their individual circumstances.

Each person has a different risk profile, income level, and life stage. For example, a single person in their early 30s often has better cash flow and market cycles ahead of them compared to, say, a couple in their late 40s or early 50s who may still have teenage children at home and have yet to buy an investment property at all.

Investment strategies should be holistic, and tailored to fit individual circumstances and future goals. This is why I always emphasize that there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach, which is often promoted by spruikers.

Just as every person is unique at the beginning of their property investment journey, they will also be unique at the end.

Our goals for later years vary; some love their work so much that they continue working into their 70s, while others may wish to retire at 55 or 60 and buy a yacht to sail around the Pacific Islands. But when you ask them, most people would like the option to work, they don’t want to have to work.

Exit planning

To achieve any of these financial outcomes, though, developing an exit strategy early on is important. This plan needs to be rigid enough to keep you on track, but flexible enough to handle life’s ups and downs along the way.

This is where professional advice comes in, whether from a qualified property investment adviser like myself, or a financial planner who understands property investment as a wealth creation vehicle. The latter can also give you that more holistic advice around super and how you plan your retirement.

By collaborating with experts early on, you can ensure that you receive the right advice throughout your investment journey.

As I wrote in The Female Investor – Creating Wealth, Security & Freedom Through Property, when I was a newbie property investor many years ago, I made some mistakes. I learned from those mistakes and never repeated them, but I knew that I needed to rectify those errors to keep my retirement plans on track.

Rectifying those mistakes involved selling a problematic property and resolving some unhelpful lending issues.

I’m not embarrassed to admit my early mistakes because, back then, property investment didn’t have the same level of professionalism or educational opportunities as it does now – plus, I told everyone about it in our book. No secrets here!

Working with a financial planner gave me the push and confidence I needed to remove (sell) that problematic property from my portfolio, as my other capital growth property investments more than compensated for it, so, all it was doing was stopping me from moving forward.  

As a result, my retirement plans remains intact and will likely be even better than originally planned, thanks to the necessary decisions I made along the way.

So, I understand from my own lived experience, that accessing qualified expert advice early can have significant financial ramifications later on down the road, which is why developing an exit strategy as soon as possible it non-negotiable. This advice has been invaluable and certainly worth paying for.