From 1 - 20+ Our Property Playbook: How We Really Built It | Part 1 (Sonali Rodrigo)

In this special two-part series of the TFS Wealthcast, we go beyond the highlight reel and unpack the real journey behind building a multi-property portfolio.

In Part 1, Sonali Rodrigo shares her personal story from arriving in Australia with just $2,000 and no clear roadmap, to becoming a key force behind a 20+ property portfolio.

This episode dives into:

• The mindset shifts that sparked their wealth journey
• The challenges of starting from scratch in a new country
• How discipline, budgeting, and smart decision-making laid the foundation
• The real sacrifices behind building wealth (that no one talks about)
• Why thinking differently like buying “imperfect” properties created massive opportunity
• Practical advice for first-home buyers and investors navigating today’s market

Sonali also shares what it’s like building wealth as a couple, how they navigated risk, and why tuning out market noise is critical for long-term success.

Whether you’re just getting started or looking to scale your portfolio, this episode offers honest insights, relatable experiences, and actionable strategies you can apply today.

💡 Plus, discover how making smart financial moves today can unlock long-term rewards not just through property growth, but through ongoing benefits like the TFS Loyalty Program, where your financial journey continues to pay you back.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where Pramu shares his side of the journey and the strategy behind scaling to 20+ properties.

Any information discussed or provided in this podcast is general advice and has been provided without taking account of your objectives, financial situation or needs, you should consider the appropriateness of this advice before acting on it. If this general advice relates to acquiring a financial product, you should obtain a Product Disclosure Statement before deciding to acquire the product.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Dream big. Plan small. Build wealth. This is the TFS Podcast where money talk gets real and financial freedom is more than just a goal. Without further ado, let's dive in.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Hi guys and welcome to the special two-part series of the TFS Wealthcast, where we have our CEO Promo Rodrigo and our CWO, Sonali Rodrigo, who are going to share their journey on how they built their property portfolio from 1 to 20 plus. And the first guest to kick off the first episode is Sonali. She's going to be talking to us from her perspective of their journey. And then in the next episode, we're going to ask Pramu his side of the story. So without any further ado, I'd like to welcome Sonali. Hi Sonali.

SPEAKER_04 0:54

Hi Rashee.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

So let's just let's just jump straight into this, right? So let's talk, you know, before the success, before DFS, before you guys, you know, bought your uh 28 plus property. Let's go back in time, you know. Take us back in time to before any of that existed. Who was Sunali before the success?

SPEAKER_04 1:19

To be very that's like needs a philosophical answer. Um well, I think I'm still the same person I was back then. Simple person. I was um like I think we touched on we moved here when we were very young. So before that, in Sri Lanka, I was working at a bank. Um, I finished my studies in accounting uh quite early because my dad said I can't get married unless I finished my studies.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

So also you did all this to get married.

SPEAKER_04 1:54

Well, no. Uh well I was.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

You really wanted to marry Pramu that bad, huh? Not really.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

I just wanted to get out of the house because I wasn't allowed to go anywhere. So um marriage was a way out to do that. So which meant then I finished my studies. Yeah. Uh and then we moved here. So uh yeah, just we were doing um, you know, Pramu was doing odd jobs when he started here. I started in finance here. Um, I was working at the bank in Sri Lanka, so it was an obvious choice for me here. So yeah, um life was sticking along.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Nice. So so now okay, so now that you told us, you know, you wanted to move out of Sri Lanka. So when you arrived here, right? When you arrived in uh Melbourne, what did you bring with you mentally? That shaped everything that followed.

SPEAKER_04 2:46

Mentally.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Well, did you have a plan? Did you know?

SPEAKER_04 2:51

Yes, so when we got married, obviously I'm I'm I'm a numbers person, so we had quite a few things planned. We had a super strict budget. I think um we had about$2,000 saved up. Um, so that was going to be our startup money to start our life here in Australia. So we had money allocated for rent, um, you know, to buy the bare minimum uh for a new house. So uh yeah, it was meant to stretch a long way. Um we didn't have money allocated for a car uh because Pramu had been here a couple of months before he came here as a student. So at the time he had like an old battered car that we thought we could use for about two years. Um so yeah, came here. We started looking at houses, we got our first apartment. Um, I remember the rent was like$710.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Where whereabouts did you guys rent your first apartment?

SPEAKER_04 3:53

It was actually in Foot Scray.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 3:56

Um, I know it gets a bad rap, but to be honest, this was this was in 2006.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Yes. The Foot Scray that gave Footzkray its notorious reputation.

SPEAKER_04 4:07

Yes, yes, it was. But uh look, to be honest, we didn't know, right? So we were new to the country, so we didn't really know the good areas or the bad areas. We didn't have a lot of people to tell us what the areas, good or bad, were. So we were like, we found the apartment on Gumtree and um messaged them and said, Yeah, we'd like to rent it out. It was a one-bedroom small apartment. Um$710 a month.$710 a month, yes. Uh, and then we paid obviously the bond and the rent, and well, that put a huge dent in the 2,000 bucks that we had. So um yes, I remember we kind of bought the bare essentials that we needed for the house, moved in, didn't have money to buy a car, but then when we came here, we found the car that Pramo had was um broken down, so we didn't have a car for a long time.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

That's the one his friends drove and broke.

SPEAKER_04 4:58

Yes, and then pushed it back and back into the garage and then.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Hey boys, if you're listening, yeah, not cool.

SPEAKER_04 5:05

We know about it. So yeah, so yeah, and then so we we were determined to make it work with what we had. Pramo had a few odd jobs lined up, so um, we did have some money coming in, and the idea was that I would also find a job. Um, it took me about four months to actually get my first job, so um it was a little, you know, uh disheartening um when you're looking for jobs, and then you know, you think that you're fully qualified, and then you think I've got experience, and then you you're like, Well, I should be able to find something, but yeah, it took a while.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

But um So even back in the day, it was hard to find jobs.

SPEAKER_04 5:47

Oh, for sure. Because the the main thing was uh I didn't have Australian experience.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

So even back then they were looking for Australian experience.

SPEAKER_04 5:57

Yes. So um yeah, that was that was the reason for rejection. And plus obviously we won like a visa with restricted working hours and things like that. So that also added another layer of complexity with the job search. So um, yeah, so mentally I think we were prepared to just you know see um where life took us. We didn't have a huge plan, we were very young, so there was no like we didn't have kids or anything like that back then. So it was you know a lot easier to planned for kids back then? No, we were very young, it was not on the horizon at all. So uh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

So Sudal, before we move on, you know, uh to the first to the main question, you know, where do you guys start? Um did you guys did you always see yourself building wealth through property? Or did that vision come later after you guys moved to Australia?

SPEAKER_04 6:49

That came much later. So I mean, I didn't even know what building property we were building wealth through property was back then. Um that was not really a concept where I came from. So I was from a you know middle class family. We didn't have a lot of, you know, like a whole real estate portfolio in Sri Lanka either. So um, you know, quantum comfortable, but not, you know, in that sort of mindset. Um when we came here, like I said, I worked with um a financial advisor. She had a couple of properties, so she was always telling us, look, you guys should start thinking about your first property. Um, you know, try and see what you can do, try save up a deposit. But even then, I was like, Well, I don't know, I don't want to really be saving for a deposit right now. I don't want to really buy a house right now. Why would I do that? I'll just rent. We're still young, you know. That's the sort of mindset we had. Um and how old were you then? We moved when we were 22.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 7:51

So yeah, I wasn't really interested in buying a property at all. Yeah. But then I was working with a lot of customers who had property and who had investment properties. So I was, you know, slowly starting to learn how it worked here. What are the benefits of doing this? And how, you know, you can, if you are disciplined enough, you can build some real wealth through property. I could see that, but even then, I wasn't really like, you know, this is something that I could do for myself. It was more, oh, let me facilitate it for the other clients because I didn't think I could do it. So yeah, it came much later. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

But obviously, by helping clients, you you gain the experience and the knowledge for yourself, and you could do it better for yourself.

SPEAKER_04 8:37

Yes, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

So so now that we've covered that tsunami, uh, let's dive straight in. You know, the first move take us back to the very first property you guys bought. What do you remember most about that moment?

SPEAKER_04 8:50

It was super exciting, but also um I was a little nervous. It was a huge decision. Um we were living in Berwood East at the time, and then by then, so this was in 2012. So um we moved in like 2006. It took us about six years to really get on track. Um, obviously, we had to, you know, get our residency and you know, we had to do those things. Um, so once all all of that was uh taken care of, we started then slowly looking at okay, now that you know we've got the residency, let's put uh put some roots down. So um we started looking at you know where should we buy, and then I was always of the opinion, well, I like Bowwood East, I want to be in Burwood East, but then realistically it was way too expensive as a first home for us to be able to afford to buy in that suburb. So then we started branching out, but even you know, within like a 10-kilometer radius, it was really expensive. So then we started branching further out, and um, most weekends and holidays were spent going to land estates and display homes and things like that, and it's a whole different world when you go to a display home, like the builders have spec'd it up and it looks beautiful, and then you're like, Oh, I'd love to have this, but you know, when you look at how much it's gonna cost, it just would not work.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

So the upgrades come into play, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:18

But you don't know that, right? When you look at it, it's like it looks great, but then you don't realize that in their bill price, all of these are upgrades.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Because none of them read the fine print, you know?

SPEAKER_04 10:30

Yeah, yeah, the tiny, tiny print at the bottom. So um, yeah, so we we started to really learn about um you know the areas, the properties, the prices, the land, the sizes, you know, what we are comfortable with. So there was a lot of you know research and actual driving around that we did. So then after doing that, we were really still going back to, you know, a like close to Bobadi sort of thing. So we did find um a plot of land and we made an offer, but then we were told there was someone else's offer that was accepted. Um, so they had offered 30,000 more than what we offered. So we paid, we said we'll pay 300,000 and they had offered 330, so their offer got accepted. So we were like, okay, fine, it's not meant to be. That's all we can afford, we can't go up anymore. Um, but then two weeks later, the agent called back and said, Look, that's fallen over, it's yours if you want it. And we're like, but we can't pay 330. They were like, no, that's fine, you do the 300. And we were like, okay, this is great. So we jumped on it straight away. So that was our first block of land. And this was in Burwood? That was in Wontana, actually. Yes. Um, so we timed it, it was nine minutes from Burwood East to the house, uh, from the house in Burwood East to Wontana, if you drove really fast.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

So if Bromo drove.

SPEAKER_04 11:55

Yes. When I drove, it was about 12 minutes. Um, but I think, yeah, that was a reasonable compromise for me. Um, it was you know reasonably close to a train station. Um, I liked the area, I liked the street. So yeah, we jumped on it. Um, and then obviously it was a build, like a house, not a house and land package. It was because it was in an established area, we had to find our own builder.

SPEAKER_03 12:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 12:22

Um, also, it was a very odd-shaped block of land. So before we bought it, we spoke to a few other people and we were told, not don't buy it because when an when you buy an odd-shaped block of land, traditional mainstream builders can't um, how do we say, put their mass-produced houses in there?

SPEAKER_01 12:43

They don't have a ready-made floor plan.

SPEAKER_04 12:44

They don't have a plan that can fit into it, and it whatever floor plan that they have, it might not maximize the space. So um we were told, yeah, no, it's not worth it. But we were like, well, this is the area we want to live. How can we then find a way to get this to work? So we spoke to a couple of other custom builders, so they designed a house to suit the land.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:07

So which meant that we could maximize the the area. So also I'm I I must say I was glad that um we did that because once you build the house, then the market value is essentially the same as if it was if it was a rectangular uh block of land. So um that enabled us to get a bit of equity, um, pay less um, but you know, for the area, yeah, then get equity built up in that very quickly from day one. So that was, I think, um I don't found a loophole. I don't know if we did it intentionally, to be honest, um, but it ended up working in our favor. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

That's awesome. So now it was really nice how you guys, you know, the emotions that went into getting that first property and the experience. But so with that first property, what did it teach you that no book or motivational property guru could have I think now looking back, thinking outside the box helped as well.

SPEAKER_04 14:16

And I think buying it, it was a little bit of a stretch, to be honest, um, to pay that much money at that time. Um, even though it was a bargain for the area, for us it was still a lot of money to pay. Um, so it it taught us how to compromise, how to prioritize. So um there were things that we had to give up to be able to afford that, and we were comfortable doing that. So those things are things that you have to talk with your partner and then decide and come to an agreement that this is how we're going to, you know, move on from here to be able to afford something like that. So both parties have to be on the same page, right? One party can't be, you know, interested in wealth creation and the other parties still want to go crazy shopping, you know. So we had to really look at our expenses and um figure out what we can cut down and you know, talk talk it through. So that's I think not something theory or a book can explain. It's just you know, when you're going through it, you have to sort of talk it through and work through. So um I think that was one. And the second probably is to think outside the box.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

So um so this is also relationship advice, ladies and gentlemen. So let's see, you know, not just wealth building.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

So thanks, Sonari. So okay, now we got to the first property. So, how long did it take to get from the first property to the second property?

SPEAKER_04 15:49

Um let me think. So we bought it in 2012. It was a block of land. We finished building in 2013, that's the year Liam was born. Um, but funnily enough, even though I thought this was going to be, you know, the house that Liam was going to grow up in, we ended up selling it one and a half years later. So as much as I as much as I thought this was going to be a forever home, it wasn't. Yeah. It wasn't even like a five-year home. It ended up being like, you know, less than two years. Um, our neighbor got a really good price um for their house. It was built by the same builder and it was a little smaller than our house. Um, so we were like, okay, should we look at selling now and um cashing in? It was a bit of an emotional decision because we it was our first home and we had envisioned, you know, building a family there. But then also there's another part of.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Of course, apart from Liam uh Spunky was also in that house, right? The dog, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:51

Yes, uh, my my first son. Um yeah, so but then we also realized that if we are smart about this decision, we could probably set ourselves up for the future uh a hell of a lot faster if we just kind of you know uh sucked it up and sold this and cashed in and did the next one smarter so that we could sort of build on it. We could also just decide, oh, this is the house that we wanted to, you know, have a family and let's just be. But we decided to do uh the smart thing and sell. So we cashed out, we got a bit of equity. Um, like I said, because of the way we like the odd shape and the fact that we paid less and then we built, so we built equity in it quite quickly in the one and a half years. Um, so we ended up uh buying our second property um just in the street next to the first one, actually. Oh, yeah. Because I was still hell bent on being in the area. Um, and then I wanted it to be at least slightly better than the first one. So our first house was a single-story house, the second one was a double-story one. But again, we went down the tried and tested method of buying odd shape blocks. So we bought a second odd shape block. Um, it was almost like in the shape of a tie.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Is that the house you are living in?

SPEAKER_04 18:12

And that is the house that we currently live in as well. Um, so again, we went down the custom route. The same builder, they built the second one as well. Um, and again, we managed to build quite a bit of equity in it um very quickly because of the fact that um we actually managed to buy this property for the first one. We paid 300,000. This one we got for 280,000. Because luckily for us, well, not so luckily for the other person, it was a mortgagey auction. CBA was selling it. Yeah, um, and then so when it's an amount, when it's a mortgagey auction, they have to do an auction, they can't take pre-auction offers, it has to be transparent. So again, no one bid on it because everyone was scared about the odd shaped block, which was I couldn't believe it. I had a pre-approval to go up to 400,000, but no one was bidding, and then there was a vendor bid that then we bid and we got it for 280. I was like, this is awesome. We got really lucky with that because people couldn't see beyond the odd shape, right? You need to be able to see be and see the bigger picture, right? So, not a lot of people can do that, and I'm lucky that we could do it because that enabled us to really set the foundation for the rest of our property portfolio.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

And I've been to this sauce, it's a it's a really nice house, even the garden. You can't really tell it's an odd shape lot. That's right. And it's got a nice garden space as well. Yeah, and Pramos the one who did the garden and the landscaping.

SPEAKER_04 19:39

Yes, he had he does like land. I mean, he had a landscaping business um for about a year. Um, so he's very pedantic and you know, very particular about his grass lawn.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

You can really see Pramu's OCD in the garden. Yeah, very much so.

SPEAKER_04 19:57

The gap between the trees, it's like yeah, he doesn't have a lot of time to do that now, but yeah, back then he had to cut the grass to a certain length, then you know, all that.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

So, okay, now first property to second property. So then from there to the third property and the fourth and the fifth, did it get easier?

SPEAKER_04 20:14

I think it got easier because I think it's the first one that's really hard. If you're smart about it, the second one it gets a little easier, and then from there on it gets much easier to build uh in terms of equity building. However, you have to be really smart about structuring your finances because when you get to the second and the third, you hit your borrowing capacity limits. So you have to work with someone who's done this before so that you structure it in such a way that you don't get limited by your borrowing capacity. There are ways to structure it so that you you don't really have to be.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

And you're the one, I assume, structured all the I'm the number cruncher in the family, yes.

SPEAKER_04 20:56

Yes. So it it got easier as we went along. Um, time framewise, to be really honest, I can't quite remember how long it took from one to the other, but I remember during COVID, we bought about four properties, and one of them I must say, we bought during the there was a time period where there were no open for inspection.

SPEAKER_03 21:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 21:18

So no one could go to inspect houses. So that was we were like, yes, that's when we need to buy because there's no competition. The vendors are so ready to sell with no buyers. So we bought a house sight on scene. So yeah, during COVID, that was one of our really good buys as well. Um, in base order. So we still have that property, and um, yeah, so there are there are things that you need to kind of do to, I don't know, get ahead and differentiate yourself from the pack. So I think we did quite a few of that.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

So so that's interesting. I would actually like to elaborate a bit more on that. So you said in in during COVID. You guys bought property, so that's in a time of crisis.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

And currently the world is in sort of a crisis right now as well, right? With interest rates going up and some people speculating that uh oh property prices uh the property market's gonna crash, whatnot. Can't comment on that.

SPEAKER_04 22:16

I've been here for like 20 years, and it has always been uh the case. People are speculating forever and ever that it's gonna crash.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

So COVID actually proved proved that theory wrong because property prices actually went up.

SPEAKER_04 22:30

It to be honest, Vishy, I don't pay a lot of heed to um the noise out there. If something feels right, if it's the right time and the budget allows you to buy, I will always buy. I'm not gonna listen to all the doom says or whatever. I'm just gonna do what I feel is right based on the research. If it stacks up, if uh if the strategy looks okay for us, if the numbers look okay, we go for it. So, because you can't really time the market, no one really knows how these things are gonna pan out, right? So rates go up, rates go down, you know, people say, yeah, it's gonna come crashing down, the the war will impact it, the COVID will impact it. But over the long term, property has outperformed a lot of asset classes and it's gone up in value. So I'm just gonna go with that, right? I'm not gonna try and time everything if if it feels right, if I have enough equity, if I'm able to get the approval, I we just go for it. So um I think building a portfolio, you have to sort of tune out the noise, otherwise you'll forever be stuck um listening to you know other people saying things, which may or may not be true.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

And also when it comes to seizing opportunities, there's always a risk involved.

SPEAKER_04 23:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

So how are some ways that you um have minimized risks?

SPEAKER_04 23:49

Um we so um like I said, the number crunch. So I look at okay, what's the what's the repayment, what's the rent, what are the deductions we'll get? What what if the rate goes up by this much? Can we still afford it? What if we can't find a tenant for a certain period of time? Can we still afford it? So if all of those things stack up, do I have enough of a buffer? If something happens, if there needs to be any maintenance done or whatever it is, do am I still able to afford it? If all of those things are ticked off, we just go ahead with it. Um, but we don't really stretch in like in terms of how much of a purchase price we decide to pay for a certain property. Again, we try to keep it within a certain parameter because we don't want to overextend ourselves as well. So, yeah, we just look at what suits us. So, what suits us might not be suitable for somebody else. So that's why I I caution a lot of our customers because um over a barbecue, someone can give you advice, but they might say based on their experience, right? And their circumstances that might not necessarily work for you. So you have to look at your situation when you're um evaluating options to even buy a property or invest in property or whatever it is, right? So you can't just um go, oh, this person did that, so therefore I'm gonna do the same thing, it might not work.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

So um, yeah, that's where a tailored strategy comes into play.

SPEAKER_04 25:19

Yes, yes. So you have to look at your situation, your numbers, your plans for the future. Um, you know, like even if like say it's a young couple and if you're planning on starting a family and then one part party is not gonna have income for a while, then there are things that you need to hold back on, you know. Like there's so many things like that that you need to consider. It has to be tailored advice for your particular circumstances. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Awesome, Sonan. So now that we've touched on, you know, the how you guys built the property portfolio, I want to talk about what people don't see, right? The the the sacrifices, the pressure, right? And then now from your side, you're a wife, mother, and also an entrepreneur, right? So you've got a lot of things to juggle. So, what what are some sacrifices that people do not see when they look at where you and Pramu are today from your perspective, some sacrifices that you had to make.

SPEAKER_04 26:17

I think um how long it takes to do these things, the time it takes, um, because like even evaluating a property or researching an area or doing the loan application, and even once it settles afterwards, there are so many things you have to do, even if you have a managing agent managing the property, there's still bills to pay, there's you know, all sorts of things, rates, land tax, body co op, all those things to kind of manage and payments to manage, and all of those sorts of things. Um, not a lot of people understand, especially with the property portfolio, all of those things can fall at different times. So making sure all of that's taken care of without, you know, and loan repayments are done on time. And you know, sometimes if the tenant doesn't pay rent, then you assume that the rent's gone in and then the mortgage will go out. But if it doesn't happen, then it can impact your credit score. So there are a lot of things that you kind of need to make sure that it's done properly and um g it's ticking along okay. So I don't think people understand how long these things take. If you have one property, it doesn't matter, but when you have a portfolio, it takes a while. So it's almost like another part-time job that I have to do to do that. Um, there's also initially, because we were committed to building a portfolio, like I said, we're still living in the second property that we built. Um with you know, with our income going up, with you know, business um doing reasonably well, then we could have allowed lifestyle creep to come in where we improved our lifestyle to match the income. But we decided early on that we were not going to do that. We were going to put our head down and really build uh for a while before we allowed you know any changes to our lifestyle. So now we do, you know, holidays or cars or whatever it is that we kind of like and feel like and we just want to do, we do. But um, there was a period of time where we were very disciplined in our approach because we were committed to building wealth, so that meant we couldn't um spend frivolously. So that's something people um I think ignore a lot. They think that when income goes up, we should be able to just sort of spend on whatever we want. But um, I think that's a sacrifice we did early on to make sure that over the long term uh we were able to, you know, build a good portfolio. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

So now let's talk about, you know, like we touched on earlier, uh building as a couple, right? Because it's it's you it's it you and promote all these successes because you guys are a team, right? Uh I I don't know if one person could have done it without the other.

SPEAKER_04 29:23

No, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Yeah, that's something the two of you always say. So so when when two people are building together, right? Uh how do you stop ambition from becoming tension?

SPEAKER_04 29:37

Um in our case, I think it's a little easier because Prabhupada is the ambitious one, and I'm just um usually happy to go along with what he says because I trust his gut when it comes to these things related to property. He's I mean, it's not even just gut because he's good at his research, he's good at uh understanding and seeing through the trends. So all of the acquisitions that we've done, he's done the research on all that. And then I've had my role in doing the numbers on all of that. So we have very clearly defined roles when it comes to these things. Um, so I think that has alleviated a lot of the friction that could have crept in. Um, and as much as we are like very different people on paper, on the larger goals in life, we're fairly aligned. So that's helped as well from a very early on because we started, I mean, we started going out when we were in school. So we've sort of grown together. So even the move to Australia we did together, get in the visa, all of those things were done together. So we're very attuned and very um good at working with each other, and we make a good team. So that's alleviated a lot of the friction that could have crept in. I mean, most we mostly find about household stuff, housework. That's really like the bigger goals, it's it's fairly simple.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

Simple things. So so now uh now we know that you guys are a really good team, but of course, every team has uh times of tension, yeah, right, disagreements. So in your property journey, were there some houses that uh you wanted to buy that Pramu didn't want to buy or Pramu wanted to buy, most likely Pramu wanted to buy and you the numbers didn't stack up and you didn't want to how did you guys handle these mitigated?

SPEAKER_04 31:34

No, so he's very good at identifying good bargains. It's mostly um, I mean, even some of the properties we have in the portfolio right now, um, we've offered it to clients before, we've offered it to friends before. And Prahmo's always gone, well, if they don't buy it, I'm buying it. I mean, you would have heard him say that several times. Um, so he's I mean, he currently wants to buy something every every other month. Um, so I'm the one who kind of says no, because obviously, for one, it would be a nightmare to do um the law in applications, because when you have a portfolio of properties, it's it's very hard to do applications.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:14

Um, because you need a hell of a lot of paperwork. So that's why a lot of our uh portfolio clients they they're like, well, you know the thing, you just go do it because it's very hard to put in an application. So I kind of discourage him from um buying because of that. Um, and plus, we have a few things going on at the moment in terms of developments that I want to finish. But there's yeah, a lot of the time Brahma wants to buy, and then I just stop it because of um practical things.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:46

Um, he usually wants to buy because he's done the numbers, he he does overall big picture numbers, and he's very confident about the area. So um there have been a couple of suburbs that we missed out on because I said no, which I kind of regret. Um we could have bought about two or three that were really good, and then I was like, no.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

But then again, you didn't have a crystal ball to say well, he seems to have a crystal ball.

SPEAKER_04 33:14

I was like, Oh, I told you. It's like, yeah, you did.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

All right, sorry, thank you so much. So now before we finish this episode, um, would like to ask some questions that will hopefully help clients with their property journey. So, how has living this journey shaped the way you now advise clients at TFS?

SPEAKER_04 33:41

I think it has made a huge difference because we've we've gone through the same decisions, we've evaluated the same risks that they are also evaluating when they look at something to buy, right? So um it gives us an understanding about the timing, the pressures, the cash flow management uh that you need to do, um, and all of that. So we're we're advising them from lived experience, not just theory or listening to someone else say it, right? So we know, like um, say for a simple one, for a for a first-home buyer, if you're doing a house and land package while you're renting, you will have mortgage repayments because the house is being built and it's it's staggered and it's progressive payments. So um, how do you budget for that? So then we work through our all of that with our customers so that when they are signing on the dotted line for a property, they have the full picture. They had they know this is what is required from a cash flow point of view as well, so that they don't get into things without knowing. So that's a simple situation. But if you if you're looking at like a portfolio um client, it would be like like sequencing and you know, when do you buy? What do you buy? What's the mix of properties? And what are some of the things that you could potentially do with some of them? Like, do you subdivide, knock down, rebuild? You know, do you develop it into you know, four, five, eight units, whatever? So, and how do you go about doing those things? So, because we've done it before, then it's easier for them to lean into our experience as well. Um, because all of these things, like loan-wise, you can either go to a broker, bank, or you know, you can just get the bare basics from them. That's not what clients look for. Yeah, they need the confidence of having someone in their corner who's done it before, who's gone through the motions before, who knows what's coming next. Because a lot of the time clients get into these things, they don't know what's coming next, actually. There might be curveballs that are coming there that they have no idea about, right? So it's it's very um, I I feel like our clients get a lot of benefit out of us having done it before and you know what to avoid as well, who to avoid as well, you know, um, and how how long things should take. So, yeah, it it's it's made a huge difference in the in the advice that we give to the customers.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

Yeah. Uh speaking of advice, so you know, we we get a lot of customers who like even property investors, right? First home buyers, I understand, but when it comes to people buying their first investment or second investment, they get emotionally attached to the decision making of buying this property. What advice do you have to these customers? Because you're you're very straightforward, it's black or white, you don't go to sugarcourt anything.

SPEAKER_04 36:32

No, it it should be black or white. If it's your first home, yes, I understand. Because I've gone through the motions of buying our first home and building our first home. So I remember when we were looking at you know the inclusions and what we needed to put in there and all of that. Um, I wanted to put everything that I could possibly get my hands on in there, but that didn't make sense. My budget didn't allow that. Um, and over the long term, that would not have made sense. So this is something we say to first-term buyers all the time: your first property might not be your dream home or your forever home. Look at it as a smart investment, look at it as the next stepping stone, right? So that you can get in, build some equity and get into your next property, right? So that means you have to be very smart on what you put into the property, don't overcapitalize for the area, understand what the house prices in the area are doing, and please make sure that you don't go above your budget because what happens is after a year or two, you revalue the property, and when you're looking to take equity out, you have overspent and your property is still catching up to the area, right? So the the market prices are still catching up to you. So then you want your plans would be halted for the next year or two until you know you can build up equity. Whereas if you were smart, um, then when the area goes up, then you would build up equity quicker, then you can access that and move to your next property. So, first home buyers, please remember to make sure that you don't overcapitalize for the area and you're smart about what inclusions you put in. Um, for investors, I would say, like I was saying, you know, during COVID, we bought um a number of properties without having seen it. There are properties in my portfolio I've never visited. I don't care what color the carpet is, I don't care, you know, what color the front door is. I I couldn't care less. I'm not gonna spend more money on those things because that's not gonna give me the rent. I just look at purely the numbers. How much is it gonna cost me? How much is the rent? What are the deductions, and how much is this property going to cost me to hold? And if I hold it based on the growth rates, what will it end up achieving in terms of equity? What can I do with that equity? That's all I really look at when I look at an investment, right? I I so like I said, some of the properties, I don't know what color they are. Um, I just usually go for a neutral color palette where you know it would appeal to a majority of um tenants, and that's about it, right? So if you're an investor, just make sure that you don't get hung up on you know all these silly um colour of the carpet and upgrading and shower tile, whatever things and niches and you know, upgrading those things because you need a product that can be suitable for renting out. It doesn't need to be a premium product because you're not gonna live in it, right? So you shouldn't spend that much money on it. So just be smart about how you go about your investments because the whole point is to create equity with as little holding cost as possible so that over the long run you can build on using that and then yeah, basically create a property portfolio. So I think for first-term buyers and investors, just be smart about how you spend your money essentially. Um, and understand if you're serious about creating real wealth through property. Of course, if you just want to buy one property and just be happy, there are people who do that, and there's nothing wrong with that. Um, no problem, go for it and spend all you want. But if you're serious about creating wealth through property, I think you have to be really smart on how you spend the money.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much, Sunali, for joining us today and taking the time to go back in time and you know, uh emotional journey from your first property to where you guys are now and for sharing this experience and knowledge with everyone. And yeah, so listeners, if you guys want to do the same for yourselves, talk to us and uh you know, Sunali will answer all your questions.

SPEAKER_04 40:26

I won't. Pramu will answer all your questions. I'm a little hard to get.

SPEAKER_01 40:31

All right, thank you. See you guys on the next episode. Thank you, Sonali. All right, thank you for tuning in to this special episode of the TFS Wealthcast Podcast, where we dive deep into how Pramu and Sonali built their property portfolio from the ground up. This episode, Sonali shared her experience from her perspective, and in the next episode, we're gonna get Pramu to share his perspective of how he and Sonali built their property portfolio. So make sure to tune in to episode 13 next week.