Property Investment Mistakes to Avoid to Ensure You're Successful!

Property Investment Mistakes to Avoid to Ensure You're Successful! 

Successful property investors aren’t born, they’re made through powerful mindset shifts that turn everyday savers into strategic wealth builders. In this episode of The Taylored Property Wealth Podcast, we unpack four of the most common mental roadblocks that hold people back from building serious wealth through property and how to overcome them.

🧠 The Saving Trap: Holding money in a savings account might feel safe, but with inflation constantly eroding value, it’s actually a silent killer of your financial growth. We explore why the saver's mindset must evolve into an investor’s mindset, one focused on using money to generate returns, not just protect it.

💸 Interest Rate Obsession: Too many investors become paralysed waiting for “perfect” interest rates. But here's the truth: the long-term capital growth of well-selected properties almost always outweighs small differences in borrowing costs. We break down why action often beats hesitation and how refinancing can unlock more opportunities than you think.

💪 Resilience Over Perfection: From unexpected maintenance bills to occasional tenant headaches, property investing isn’t always smooth sailing. But those who build real wealth learn to focus on net gains over time, not short-term annoyances. If your property grows by $100K annually and costs $10K to maintain, you’re still well ahead.

🏠 Don’t Sell Too Soon: It’s tempting to cash in early, especially when profits appear quickly or issues arise. But long-term investing is where the real freedom is created. We dive into why premature selling often sabotages compounding growth and how holding on builds true financial independence.

If you're serious about creating long-term wealth through property, this episode is a must-listen. Whether you're new to investing or scaling an existing portfolio, these mindset shifts can save you from costly mistakes and accelerate your journey to financial freedom.

🎧 Subscribe to The Taylored Property Wealth Podcast for weekly episodes that give you proven strategies, insider tips, and smart ways to grow your portfolio without the guesswork.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Investor Mistakes
• 0:37 Mistake 1: Getting Attached to Savings
• 2:00 Mistake 2: Fixating on Lowest Interest Rates
• 4:23 Mistake 3: Not Focusing on Net Wealth
• 6:35 Mistake 4: Selling Properties Too Soon
• 8:34 Final Thoughts on Financial Freedom

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back to another episode of the Tailored Property Wealth Podcast. My name is Casey Taylor, I'm the host of the podcast and in today's episode we're going to be talking about some of the common property investor mistakes to avoid, and these ones, if you do not make them, are extremely powerful. As an inexperienced investor, these are some really common things. That stops people in their tracks, but if there's that shift in mindset, it can be very powerful to be able to build wealth. Some people that make these mistakes are very conservative, but if you change your way of thinking, it's really not as risky as some people deem it to be.

Speaker 1: 0:37

Now. The first one is going to be getting attached to your saving. I speak to so many people who are extremely good at saving, but when it comes time to invest, they don't want to let go of that cash. They want to have that cash sitting in the bank so they can look at it. But the reality of that is that money in the bank is losing value daily to inflation. Now, a couple of years ago it was devaluing a lot quicker than it is today. However, when you start to look at it from what can I do with this cash and put this cash to work. The return on investment on that is far more powerful. So don't get attached to your savings in the bank. Savings will not make you financially free. It is that simple. You can save and you can save and you can save, but it's never going to be as powerful as using that cash, putting it into a high performing asset and letting that compound effect take its toll. It is extremely powerful and over time, with some investors that we have and some clients, they start to shift from that savings mindset. They've been so good and then they start to invest. But then they see that power been so good and then they start to invest. But then they see that power in the capital growth and they're able to leverage into more and more assets. And then, once they see those results, the shift in mindset is really there and they understand putting that money to work. So don't get attached to your savings.

Speaker 1: 2:00

The next one is a lot of borrowers, a lot of investors, want to get the lowest interest rate in the marketplace. The reality of that is you have to be super low risk to the lenders to be able to obtain those rates and the reality of it is that we aren't all super low risk to the lenders from their perspective and how they assess that, the lenders from their perspective and how they assess that. So if you go out there and you can't get the best rate in the marketplace, don't say no, don't not invest or don't not refinance, because that is going to cost you money. Yes, you might not be on the most competitive rate I've went out and purchased with some of the highest rates in the marketplace but the capital growth that I've been able to achieve from that far outweighs those additional holding costs, and that's then allowed me to use that capital growth to go into another asset and then in another one to two years, use that capital growth to go in another. It's that compounding effect. The decisions you make today can set you up for far more success in a couple of years time. So don't get attached to that.

Speaker 1: 3:07

Some people don't want to refinance as well. So they've purchased an investment property. They're on a really good rate, but they don't want to go out and then get that higher rate to extract some equity, and that might be to go into another asset or it might be to obtain a buffer. You might just do 100k refinance so you've got a buffer sitting there, especially if you've got a couple of properties for maintenance and for whatever comes up or the opportunity if something does come up, you've got virtually a deposit there ready to rumble. So don't get attached to that savings. If you can free up more liquid cash that you can use, what's it matter if your interest rate's a little bit higher, especially if you have it sitting in that offset account, sitting in the redraw. You're not actually paying interest on that $100,000, for example. So don't get attached to the lowest interest rate in the marketplace. Being able to continue to move forward and continue to take action and get that capital growth and that compounding effect is going to be far more powerful than trying to save little bits of interest here and there. And it's really just changing from what is it going to cost me to what am I going to get and what's the opportunity that I'm going to get from that. Think long term, not shortterm. And that leads into the next one, which is focus on the net wealth base increase.

Speaker 1: 4:28

Once you're a property investor, shit is going to go wrong when you hold an investment property 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, however many properties it is, if it's 5, 10, 15, 20 years, something is going to go wrong. You are going to have maintenance. The hot water system might shit itself, the air con might shit itself, you might need to repaint the property because of fair wear and tear, you might need to replace the carpets. All these things are going to happen and some people they don't have that mindset. They start to freak out and it's similar to being attached to those savings. They start to see expenses every now and then. But that is the reality of being a property investor. These things are going to happen. But if you then start to focus on, well, what is the net wealth base that that property has helped me grow on an annual basis Because of the capital growth, if you've had that property grow $100,000 and you might have had $5,000 to $10,000 of expenses, you're still up $90,000. That's powerful. Year on year. That's going to continue to grow.

Speaker 1: 5:39

The reality is holding property. That is one of the negatives. There is going to be maintenance, there's going to be repairs. There's tenants as well that go through financial situations, go through family matters, there's breakups. There's so many different things that can happen and as a property investor, if you want to be successful and be financially free. These are things you have to get used to. If you can't cope with that, do not invest in property, work until the age of 65, retire and happy days. But you have to choose your heart. Sometimes it's going to mean focusing on the net wealth base, not get bogged down if some maintenance comes up, and that's really where it comes back into that second point of don't get focused on just that interest rate.

Speaker 1: 6:27

Sometimes you need to refinance and extract some equity, extract some cash as your buffer. This is being a smart, sophisticated property investor. The next one sell in the short term, and this is mistakes that some people make because of that thing I just mentioned. Repairs happen, maintenance happens and they think, shit, we need to sell this property. It's cost me a couple of thousand dollars extra on an annual basis than I thought or something's come up and now we have to pay for it.

Speaker 1: 6:56

You need to be able to focus long term and some of those things that you need to do if you want to extract some equity, get some capital growth. You can just refinance and it's going to be a lot quicker to refinance than to go through selling a property, settling, getting your money. There's a whole process to be able to do that, and some people they want to sell in the short term because the property's made them 200k in two years fantastic, that's great. However, if you can hold that for 10 years, what's the capital growth going to look like? Don't get zealous and just want to sell to extract and liquidate some of that cash. There's solutions in place to be able to do that without selling the asset. You will not get rich from property overnight. It is that simple. It's going to 10, 15 years to be able to do that and especially not just focusing on those hotspot locations. There can be market manipulation in some of these small locations where a lot of purchases go into there because there's big professionals out there now that can really sway markets. We want to focus on those long-term consistent performers.

Speaker 1: 8:07

Don't sell in the short term. Sometimes things happen and you might need to. However, if it's just simply because of some repairs and maintenance and all the rest of it, there are solutions out there. Property investing is finding solutions, being able to deal with them and have that impenetrable mindset. That's just a couple of the property investment mistakes that are super powerful. If you do not make these mistakes, it's going to set you up and really create a large property portfolio. Allow you to create financial freedom in the future for yourself, for your family. Spend more time with family and friends. I hope this one's been valuable, nice short one today and thank you for listening and we'll see you on the next episode.