Rasti Vaibhav says his second name Vaibhav means prosperity in Sanskrit. And true to his name, he is on a career path towards creation of wealth, and more wealth. It is not something born out of all whim and fancy. Growing up in a ‘humble middle class North Indian family’ with a focus on education, Vaibhav says the aspiration was to make it big in life, especially having lost his father early and shouldering the responsibility of being the only son.
While he was studying architectural engineering in Lucknow, he was offered a role as an IT programmer and joined the IT bandwagon in India. It was a lot of hard work involving studying and working at the same time, but one that would solidify the bases for him. When the opportunity to work in Singapore came up, Vaibhav took it up and ended up living there for six years. Education was always key, so he enrolled in a Master of Computer Science degree from the National University of Singapore. It was also a time when he got married to Rupali, another IT professional, after which they decided to move to Sydney in 2006 to settle long term.
Once in Australia, the passion for investing was refuelled and he looked at it as a career. “My experience investing in India made me realise I was making more than the income of me and my wife put together.” So, while IT was good and he had a decent role, investing is what he wanted to make as a career ultimately.
In 2007, Vaibhav quit his IT job to do a full time MBA to transition from the IT industry to finance. At the same time, he completed his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program in record time and joined Westpac as an equities analyst. After gaining one year experience, and by then having built a good portfolio, he forayed on his own starting his company Get Rare with Rupali in his team.
As a self-made portfolio owner, Vaibhav uses his unique blueprint combining strategic diversification and sharp negotiation skills tailored for his clients’ circumstances through his Buyers Advisory business. His mission is to educate and empower people to be successful property investors.
Vaibhav is about to launch his book The Property Wealth Blueprint soon which highlights the criticality of having a strategic plan to build a robust property portfolio. He shares with The Indian Sun some good insights into achieving financial well-being.
► For people who don’t know what a ‘Property Wealth Strategist’, how would you describe yourself?
There are many ways to make wealth in Australia, and property is one of the most acceptable ways to create wealth as there’s a lot of leverage involved. Moreover, property is one of the most accessible and tangible asset classes people understand; they can touch and feel it. They can also use it to live for living purposes. So, Australians do understand the value of the property. Historically, we have seen the property’s value has been cyclical, and when purchased strategically, it goes up in value in the long run. Having said that, a vast majority is still not able to make wealth successfully by property investing.
A Property Strategist is a person who can help people to build wealth by investing in properties. They consider the personal circumstances of an individual or a family to understand where they are and appreciate where they want to go. They consider many factors, including borrowing capacity and aspirations, not forgetting their risk appetite. They add clarity to guide them through to achieve goals with a lot of confidence. In other words, they are property investment consultants who show the right path from the beginning till the end. They recommend long-term solutions, ensuring that the family or the individual will develop a sophisticated and wealthy property portfolio that can give them passive income to live the life they desire.
My philosophy is to partner with the investor, guide them, take them step-by-step through the process of building their wealth through property.
► What led you to create Get Rare?
When I started building my portfolio, I was challenged with two things, lack of information and lots of noise in the market. The market experts I talked to were talking about different ideas. They were very much sold into one particular concept: renovation, development, or buying off-the-plan without taking into account my circumstances or my aspirations—they all were following a cookie-cutter approach. It was not only very confusing but also very frustrating.
When I started, I had to spend a lot of energy and time on my education; the more I learned, I realised that importance of education is critical. And I wished there was someone out there who could guide me through and take my situation, circumstances, desires, and goals into account before making any recommendations.
With that perseverance and education mindset, I built my robust property portfolio and reached my financial goals. I was also pleased in my job as a Money Manager working with the bank. Life couldn’t get better. But after attending Tony Robbin’s flagship event: Unleash your Power Within, I had a calling. I pivoted to offer help by bridging the substantial wide gap around systematically investing in properties.
And that made me found this company Get RARE properties, an independent buyer’s agency, assisting people in developing a strategy first and then executing it.
► 15 properties in 10 years, how did you launch your first portfolio?
When I started my investing journey, I realised that clarity is supercritical in property investing. So, I worked with the help of a few professionals on what my end goal should look like. I aspired to get $100k of passive income. The visualisation of the day when I don’t have to work for money and the freedom of choices fuelled my passion.
I reversed-engineered that goal which gave me the framework along with the mindset. I realised that I needed a portfolio of about $3 million, which should be fully paid off. Now, having a $3 million fully paid off portfolio is not an easy feat by any means. And that’s where the property strategist becomes critical. When I started working on the whole plan, I didn’t have much guidance or much coaching, but I got immense knowledge from the books, the seminars, the workshops to understand how successful people have done it. What I did do, though, was to surround myself with like-minded people. I looked for mentors who could guide me through their insights and knowledge. So, I set up with the goal that I need to have a $5 million portfolio with borrowings from the bank, that if I can manage, will grow in value, which will eventually help me reach my goal. To start, I spent 16 months studying the market and once convinced, I put an offer on my first property.
In summary, it was about a) setting a goal, b) visualising, c) mentorship and then d) careful executing.
► Can anyone really become a property investor?
Well, the easy answer is yes, anyone can become a property investor. All they have to do is go to a bank or go to a mortgage broker. Pick a property, get a loan against it, and become a property investor.
However, to become a successful property investor, one needs to have the right mindset, clarity on what they want to achieve, the right team behind them, and the will to do the hard work of researching and negotiating. The easier solution would be to work with a trusted and independent team of professionals who have done it successfully.
► What is your greatest achievement in your current role?
The focus of my business is more about education, helping people develop the right strategy and find the right property at the right price. I am MBA in finance, and in my strategy classes, I learned that there are many ways to skin the cat. But there’s potentially only a limited number of optimal ways. With our focus on education, I’m so proud to say that we have been running regular online workshops almost every month where about 30 people on average come over. My achievement is that I’m able to inspire them to take action today to secure their future. Even in that workshop, I also share that there has to be a purpose; there must be a passion behind what they want to achieve. More details can be found here.
We are also an official corporate sponsor of the charity ‘So They Can’, and we are proud to announce that we sponsor few kids to provide them with better education.
► What is your property prediction for 2022?
Property investing is for the long term. And whatever we do, we should be thinking about the long term. With the low-interest rates regime, limited supply and huge demand, the upward price pressure will continue to build. However, market watchdogs would ensure sustainable growth and would likely introduce some measures that might affect the market sentiment. In the long run, such steps are welcome for sustainability and are very much welcomed.
My prediction is that the property market will go north from here. But the word of caution is that there are multiple markets within the market and not all deals are the same. And we need to make sure that we are buying the right property at the right place for the right price.
Not only there are multiple markets within the markets, but they also are not synchronous either. That is, they do not move together. One market might have gone very high already, and another is becoming favourable at the same time. And that is why the proper research is essential to finalise where to invest next. For example, if you look at Sydney’s apartments, they have not performed very well for the last few quarters. But eventually, when the international borders open, there will be an influx of foreigners coming in, and the demand for those types of properties will go up pretty soon.
On the other hand, the regionals will keep going on the trend or the trajectory of growing because of the switch and the mindset of the company’s policies to allow people to work from home. But as the economy opens up and we get used to Covid vaccinations, probably few companies might ask those people to come back. So, the rate of growth that we have seen in the regional market might subdue. But having said that, long run, it is looking very positive.
► What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the property market now?
As there is not much clarity in the market, they tend to follow the herd behaviour. Some jump into the market because they hear their colleagues or friends have made decent money, while others are confused and can’t be decisive to take any action as they fear the risks involved in property investing.
Property investing should be done for the long term and should be assessed accordingly. People tend to forget this and instead of working on the fundamentals, they base their decisions on the short-term market whims.
► What do you think are the most common mistakes or oversights people make in property investing?
In my opinion, the first biggest mistake is that people do not have clarity on the long-term goals. It’s like building floor by floor without having the blueprint for the whole tower they want to develop over time.
Once they have clarity on how tall the tower is and the design, we only have to lay down the foundation. In property investing, that foundation is more of the education and strategy. So, one of the common mistakes is that people have no clarity of the long-term goals. They are typically taking one step at a time without thinking about the bigger picture. Secondly, they don’t take property investing as a business. They try to save money but not engage with the right professionals and invest time and energy to build a successful team. Because if you think about it, investing in properties is a business, and any business without a plan, or the right team is doomed and might not be successful.
So, my advice is to take property investing as a serious business, not as a hobby, don’t follow herd behaviour. One must do independent research or work with the professionals who have done it successfully.
► Tell us about your new book The Property Wealth Blueprint.
I wrote the book “The Property Wealth Blueprint” as a culmination of my understanding of the research that I’ve been doing, including why one should think of building wealth, why having a strategy is important and how to create that strategy as a blueprint. The book will also show how to execute it and talk about the typical mistakes people make and the risks involved in property investing. In a nutshell, it is a small read that has been done for a purpose, so it is easy to digest, meaningful, and full of case studies and tips. It also leads to the links for my workshop that I can talk through with case studies and examples in the current market. I spoke of clarity of the goal, vision, having a blueprint. Building your successful team, making sure that we don’t make typical mistakes, busting the myths, talking about how do we go about embracing the risk involved in investing in properties. It also talks about the illustrations of how somebody can use the blueprint executed and build wealth successfully and confidently without taking undue risks.
In this book, you’ll be able to go out and find your financial freedom soon if you apply the Get RARE model. Feel free to look at the book website for a free sample chapter at https://www.thepropertywealthblueprint.com and feel free to use the code for 50% discount: PRELAUNCH.
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Rasti Vaibhav says his second name Vaibhav means prosperity in Sanskrit. And true to his name, he is on a career path towards creation of #wealth, and more wealth. It is not something born out of all whim and fancy. #TheIndianSunhttps://t.co/utUoHS1L85
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