Property Magicians Podcast

Episode 99: What happens when one discovers that property investing is not for you

In this week’s podcast, we talk to Cindy Dibete, an empty nester, an accountant by profession and a board consultant.

Cindy is the founder of Cosec 8, where she sets up statutory and advisory boards for medium-sized entities that want to break the glass ceiling into large businesses, mentor individuals who want to venture into Non-Executive Directorship and recruit non-executive board members.

Cindy and her late husband bought their first property within days of them deciding they were tired of renting and wanted to own a property of their own.

When their family started to grow, they sold the first property to raise the deposit to buy the second property.

She and her husband then bought 2 properties (2 units) for their child, so that their children could have their own property when they graduated. 

One day they went to an Airbnb to visit mom, and they were served "cremated" bacon so she told her husband to buy them a property so they can make their own bacon when they go visit her mom.

They bought a 16 sleeper and that property served as a guest house for her mother.

When her husband passed on and there were issues with some of the properties, Cindy decided property was not for her; she then sold properties (some at a loss) and bought shares on the stock market instead.

In today’s podcast, we talk about something different - what happens when you realize that property investing is not for you?

How do you pivot and find other means of investing that work for you?

Click play to listen to the episode and leave us a comment in the comment section below.

Episode 98: Building a property portfolio using predominantly cash

In this week’s podcast, we talk to Percy Singo; originally from Venda, he studied Civil engineering at Vaal University of Technology and works for a municipality in Gauteng.

Percy bought his first property because he was tired of renting. So in 2015, he bought a stand-alone house in a new development.

Although he took out a loan for the property, he was able to save R15,000 (US$1,000) per month between 2015 and 2018 and used that money to pay off the mortgage on his property in 2018.

When he started looking into real estate investing, he understood that he’d made a mistake with the property - the land on which the property was built was too small and he needed a bigger yard in order to build extra units and rent them out in the future.

He bought his second property (a 2 bedroom stand-alone house) with a bank loan and used his savings for renovations and construction. That property now cashflows at R30k (US$2,000) per month. 

He then saves the money that property makes and uses it to renovate the next property, as a result, Percy currently has 4 properties with minimal debt.

In this podcast, Percy shares how he has been saving and using his own savings (cash) to build/ renovate the properties he purchases so he can grow his property portfolio.

He understood early in his real estate journey that it wasn’t enough for a property to pay for itself - it also needed to make a profit.

We hope you enjoy today’s podcast.

Click play to listen to the episode and leave us a comment in the comments section below.

Episode 97: Growing a property portfolio using different investment strategies

In this week’s podcast episode we talk to Lebo Grass, an entrepreneur, real estate investor and property mentor.

Lebogang studied communication science at Unisa (University of South Africa) and bought her first property at the age of 25, in Protea Glen, Soweto for residential purposes.

One day a friend introduced her to the Steyn Family, which sells building supplies to hardware stores, advised her to build properties in her backyard so she could practice being a landlord and make extra income.

Luckily, she had an entrepreneurial background and had seen her grandmother and her friends make money from back rooms, so he used that knowledge and experience to build and run her property.

That extra income helped her pay off her property faster.

Lebo currently has 5 properties that are registered under her name and bought through home loan financing. In this podcast, she shares various financing strategies that she uses to purchase property.

She explains that she believes in trying various investment strategies and shares how she has now ventured into short term Rental on Airbnb and Booking.com

The other strategies she wants to try out for next year are Property Wholesaling, Property Flipping and Aparthotel properties. 

This is another jam-packed episode, get your pen and paper because you are in for a treat.

Press play and leave us a comment in the comments section below.

Episode 96: How to build an international property portfolio as an African

In this week’s podcast, we chat to Tiritoga (Tiri) Gambe who lives in Zimbabwe and defines himself as a student of wealth. 

He learned about property and wealth creation from his dad who put the first home they had in a trust, so he has always been a property owner (since age 3).

Tiri is a wealth manager with Carrick wealth and he focuses on helping people figure out their behavioural biases so they can identify their own money behaviour and build wealth.

We brought Tiri onto the podcast because he helps people get properties in various countries like Europe (UK, France, Portugal), Mauritius and the Caribbean (Grenada and St Lucia) so they can diversify their property portfolio and get a second passport.

In this podcast we Tiri explains the advantages of currency arbitrage and how once you have a property in the UK, it's so much easier to use that property to get other properties internationally.

We also learned that anyone can own a property in the UK, depending on your source of income - if you have an income of 25,000 - 30,000 pounds (salary slip from anywhere in the world).

You can get a 50 - 65% mortgage from banks if you are buying a buy-to-let property. 

Tiri also answers some important questions with regards to building an international property portfolio:

•  What are the ways of using the ailing South African Rand (ZAR) to buy properties beyond our borders?
• Give us an example of what ZAR can buy in the UK
• Tax implications of buying property in various parts of the world and how best to deal with those

This is another jam-packed episode, get your pen and paper because you are in for a treat.

Click play to listen to episode 96 and leave us a comment in the comments section below.

Episode 95: How Commercial Property Management is being changed by Covid

In this podcast episode, we talk to Nkuli Bogopa, the COO Broll Property Management, Africa’s leading real estate company. 

She is the immediate past Vice-President of the Black Business Council (BBC) and Founding member of the BBC’s Women’s Alliance and immediate past President South African Institute of Black Property Practitioners (SAIBPP).

She is also the Technical Committee Member for the Property Sector Charter Council and is responsible for the policy formulation and Property Sector Codes.

Nkuli started her journey in property management 20 years ago when she was interviewed by Drum Magazine for her work as an architect working on Melrose Arch; during the interview, she realized something was missing and that she wanted to know what happens to the people after they move into the building. 

Luckily, she had a mentor who worked in the property sector and he was able to guide her into corporate real estate management. 

In this podcast, Nkuli shares how we are affected by the walls around us, whether consciously or unconsciously, we are emotionally impacted by the spaces we occupy. 

She explains the importance of working with a property management company and why developers hire property management companies at the development stage and how that can help a developer secure bank funding.

We also learn how Covid has changed the funding process in the commercial property sector - banks are slower in terms of approvals so developments stall and it's created uncertainty in the industry and how property management companies have had to be agile and innovative in order to create new income streams.

In this podcast, Nkuli also shared the impact of the July riots in South Africa on the commercial property industry and how property management companies responded to the riots.

You’re in for an amazing podcast.

 

Click play to listen and leave us a comment in the comments section below.

Episode 94: Life- changing lessons for building a successful property investment portfolio

In this podcast episode, we talk to Retha van Rooyen, entrepreneur and co-founder of M5 Property Addicts.

Retha bought her first property in 1998 as a protest to rentals. The property was a 2- bed townhouse that cost R127,000 (US$8600) at an interest rate of 24%, 5 years later she, sold the property for R550,000 (US$37,226) and used the profits from that sale to buy a new property and ended up living rent-free and started seeing the power of property.

At the time she was still employed (by Accenture); one day the company sent her to a mindset training which led to her launching 3 businesses in different industries. The businesses didn’t work out, but the training got her wondering about the career path and if that was for her.

One day someone at work told her about how they were buying a distressed property which led her on the path of property. 

She refinanced her house and bought 4 properties at once - it was a property with 4 properties that needed fixing.

In this podcast she takes us on the journey of starting out in property and the learnings from there:

• how the builder said the properties would take 6 months to build but it actually took 2 years
• the challenges of completing the property - with Documentation (outdated plans), ran out of money and change of legislation (Spluma) 
• How her relationship with her best friend fell apart because bought in the wrong structure and didn't have clear job descriptions
• The importance of communication when working with other people
• bringing other people with you on the journey 

She also shares how she met Taurai Jack and how they ended up teaming up to start M5 Property Addicts and growing the business to where it is.

 

This is another jam-packed episode. 

Click play to listen to this episode and leave us a comment in the comments section.

Episode 93: How to ensure that the wealth you build through real estate is passed down from generation to generation

In this week’s podcast, we talk to Shillyboy Mothiba, a Chartered Accountant by profession, he is co-founder of Intergen Private Wealth, a company that specialises in Trust and Estate planning for property investors.

Shillyboy started off building houses before finding himself in estate planning.

He explains why estate planning is so important and how we speak a lot about economic transformation but very few people understand the principles of economic transformation, which are to preserve and retain wealth. 

The misconception is that estate planning is about death, but it's about wealth transference, wealth is often transferred from generation to generation, not just created. 

In this episode we dig into:

• The importance of property structuring and how that can help us optimise tax, pay the right tax and protect our wealth
• How to make your descendants capital beneficiaries and how you can become an income beneficiary
• What are the tax benefits of being a property investor are and how to tap into that
• Why you need succession planning and how trusts save you the issue of estate duties

This is a valuable podcast for anyone learning how to build and preserve generational wealth.

Click play to listen to this episode and leave us a comment in the comments section below.

Episode 92: How to build 21 units in 2 years using other people‘s money

In today’s podcast episode, we talk to Moloko Makgele, founder of Zest Property Investment Development and a fund manager at Absa for the last 8 years.

Moloko has an Accounting degree, post-grad in risk Management and an MBA from Mancosa.

He has been an entrepreneur for years and has tried multiple businesses until he decided he needed something that can create a proper stable income, which is how he decided on property.

In 2018 he partnered with his cousins to buy their first investment property cash in Polokwane. The property was an old RDP house in a 400-meter yard. The plan was to build rooms on the property. 

They didn't do anything with the property for 10 months and he noticed that he was the one taking care of the property. He felt like he was the one pulling everyone so he offered to buy out his cousins for R120, 000. 

At about the same time, his father went on pension in early 2019, so he borrowed money from his father to convert the property (in the podcast he shares how to talk about money with your family) and demolished the actual house and built 10 units.

In the podcast, he shares the challenges of building a house in a separate province and how he had to change builders 3 times and how it took him 6 - 7 months to build the units, vs the 2 to 3 months he had planned.

He finished building the units in March 2020, for R800,000 (US$56,380) and they were fully occupied within a month, renting at R2300 (US$162) per unit.

He then bought a second property in Kempton Park, using money he had borrowed from friends after renegotiating the terms of the loan with his dad. 

He bought a house, rezoned the house and partitioned it into 11 one-bedroom units, added wifi to the development. 

This is such a great episode because we go in-depth on discussing money with family and friends.

Click play to listen to this episode and please share your feedback in the comments below.

Episode 90: Formalizing & digitizing the back room market in South Africa

In today’s podcast episode, we talk to Teko Mothlabi, founder and CEO of Roomsta, a digital marketplace (web-based) that connects tenants to back room rentals.

 

Teko started this business after seeing that almost every house in the location or Black neighborhoods in South Africa had a back room and that most young people felt under pressure to move into the suburbs and pay higher rent the moment they started working.

He noticed that the market had changed - young people no longer see the suburbs as the only option and don’t mind renting back rooms as they move from different provinces for work purposes.

 

At the same time, most back rooms have changed and have become way nicer, which makes them more attractive.

 

This is where Roomsta comes in - no one caters to this market, no one connects the tenants and landlords and the landlords run their real estate business in an informal manner so they’re not able to qualify for funding and get money from the banks to buy more property.

 

In this episode, Teko shares with us how he was able to grow this business and some of the challenges of building this platform and getting people to use it.

 

Click to listen to the podcast and leave us a comment in the comments section below. 

Episode 89: How to grow a property from scratch during the pandemic

In today’s podcast episode we sit down and chat with Thandeka Sibanyoni, who is originally from Carolina, South Africa.

 

Thandeka started her property investment journey during the pandemic - she listened to the Property Magicians Podcast and then started following some of the guests and started implementing what they were teaching.

 

She started looking for properties where she lived and focused on the location of the property, cash flow and affordability. When she went to the bank, she learned that she could qualify for a property worth R700,000 (US$46,023) so she focused on properties priced below.

 

She found a property valued at R600,000 (US$39,448) and converted that property into a multi-let, with 4 bachelor units. She got 100% funding for that and later found out from the bank that the property was actually worth R800,000, so she actually made R200,000 (US$13,149) when she bought the property.

 

A few months later, she went to Johannesburg, learned about the AirBnB strategy and started implementing that strategy - she rented a flat, furnished it and put it up on Airbnb and started cash flowing from day 1.

 

In this podcast, Thandeka shares with us how she was able to start on her real estate journey during a pandemic and keep growing her portfolio.

 

We hope you enjoy the podcast as much as we did.

 

Click play to listen to the podcast and leave us a comment in the comments section below.