Creating your investment team

Teams and leveraging off of the expertise of professionals is absolutely crucial, particularly when it comes to the complexities of property investing.

Having a team with a number of professionals, such as a mortgage broker and investment adviser, ultimately helps investors head for success. While we've previously discussed how to put a team together, it seems finding the best experts is still difficult for many.

Property Observer's most recent poll has found that the majority of respondents use recommendations and referrals to determine whether or not to trust an expert with 50% selecting this option.

References and testimonials came in second, with 17.2% selecting this item - closely followed by 12.1% who use forums and 10.3% who mainly rely on a general Google search. Just 6.9% pointed to ASIC/Fair Trading/other government site with 3.4% selecting news websites.

The Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA) chair, Ben Kingsley, provided Property Observer with their top three guidelines to ensure you are speaking to the most reputable expert for your team.

Their three guidelines:

1) Are they ‘formally Qualified’ to property investment advice?

2) Ask how are they being paid?  If it’s a fee for service the consumer know upfront, if they are being paid by the developer, builder or marketing company, then they must fully disclose all their fees, including any hidden fees, commission or kick backs between businesses.  Consumer must be fully informed before making their judgement as to whether they are working in their (the consumers) best interests or their own.

3) Are they promoting one set strategy or way to build so called wealth.  If so, the consumer must ask themselves is this best suited to my personal needs, meaning is it a tailored solution to their needs or are they being ‘sold’ a so called ‘only way to wealth’ set model.

Which experts are most crucial to you in your investing team?