By Laura Hall
Are you sick and tired of being stuck in the rat race, living pay check to pay check?
Many Kiwis make it their goal to buy their own home and then focus on paying off the mortgage for 25 to 30 years. Finally they downsize the family home with a modest amount of savings for retirement.
Instead of working hard to make money, wouldn’t you rather make your money and assets work for you?
By playing your cards right and seeking help from the right professionals many home owners can actually pay off their mortgage in a fraction of the time they had originally planned. Plus create a passive income that will ensure they and their family live a comfortable life free of financial worries.
Propellor Property Investments principal Nikki Connors is one of the country’s leading property investors. Nikki and her team of experts are helping Kiwis find wealth through smart property investment decisions, thanks to their astute knowledge, ability to analyse, strategise and make educated decisions. Propellor can pull you out of the rat race and help you live the good life.
Self-made success
Today Nikki is a self-made success leading the field in property investment, but she hasn’t always been in this position.
She originally made a name for herself as one of New Zealand’s top creative advertising directors and brand strategists, but afterher marriage ended she lost what she had built up.
Determined to make a life for herself and her son she made the bold decision to shift to England; a move that proved very successful propelling her life forward.
In England she worked as a promotions producer at the BBC and was nominated for the Veuve Clicquot UK Businesswoman of the year in 1999.
It was during this time she developed a love affair with real estate.
Her interest was sparked when she invested in a block of dirty, outdated flats at the back of Acton. “I would come home from work play with my son, have dinner with him and put him to bed, then leave him with the au pair to go and clean those places and paint them.”
The flats made her about £10,000 profit each, but she made more than just a financial profit from the exercise, she learnt a valuable lesson about the worth of investing in property.
Once she saw how property had changed her own life, Nikki was keen to enable others to use her knowledge to increase their own worth. It was because of this, she developed a business plan that culminated in Propellor Property Investments.
Founding the company
About eight years ago Nikki was a partner at a property investment company in Auckland. However she felt her business partners didn’t hold their clients’ best interests in mind. She decided to go out on her own and opened the first Propellor Property office in Christchurch.
Originally the company was focussed on serving local clients, but when the February 2011 earthquake struck it shook up the property market prompting Nikki to adjust her focus.
“My clients were predominantly from Christchurch so I had to look further afield for investment properties. The business rapidly grew from being regionally focussed to nationwide. Today we have two offices one in Christchurch and the other in Auckland.”
Propellor is now, arguably, the most successful property investment company in New Zealand. Surprisingly enough a lot of the growth that it can attribute its success to happened through the global economic crisis.
This is because Propellor looks after its clients and makes careful, calculated decisions about which investment properties to recommend that will bring long term gains.
Habitat for Humanity mission to Thai Binh Province, Vietnam
What can Propellor do for you?
Propellor Property is not about buying property it is about creating a strategy that uses property to get you mortgage free and earning a passive income.
Nikki stresses she is not a real estate agent. “I’m not going to show you around 50 different properties.” She is a property strategist and wealth mentor; property is simply her chosen vehicle to achieve an end result.
Clients come to her with different scenarios; some have cash in the bank, some have equity in their house but are struggling with the weekly incomings and outgoings, some have a house and managing, but want to get further forward.
Each person is interviewed and assessed, and a personalised strategy is then created with short, medium and long term long goals.
The short term goal is to analyse the client’s mortgage and structure it to ensure it is being paid efficiently as possible.
In the medium term, which is five to seven years, the goal is to have the mortgage paid off.
And in the long term, which is no more than 12 years, the client can look forward to a significant passive income from their investment property.
To achieve these goals Nikki will draw from a portfolio of properties they “have completed a full due diligence programme on and are located in the most aggressive rental areas in the country.”
They will then recommend which investment property will help you achieve your goals with a ten year cash flow plan.
No client is charged by Propellor Property Investments for the services, instead the company receives a fixed sum from the property developers on settlement. Up until the time of purchase all it costs investors is their time, she says.
Property is not a get rich card, but if you treat the investment like a business with a well structured strategy and an end goal then the property can be viewed as a lesser risk that can potentially double your money over 12 years.
Auckland market
Since opening their office in Parnell three years ago Propellor Property has helped many Aucklanders become closer to being mortgage free and financially independent.
But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing from the get go. Nikki says Aucklanders understand all too well that their city is the most aggressive property market in the country. She says this can make some potential clients hesitant to invest.
It is an educational process; but armed with statistics to prove growth and rental demand, plus scores of success stories, Nikki’s lesson is being quickly learnt.
However she does warn people not to jump at any investment property in Auckland. “We can’t blanket all of Auckland as a good investment opportunity; there are definitely parts of the city that I would not recommend to my clients.”
“The biggest challenge that I have is helping people to understand that there are markets out there where they are going to get some fantastic returns and fantastic capital growth; Auckland is worth investing in – but there are also some equally fantastic opportunities in other parts of the country!”
There are areas in Auckland where the returns, tenant profiles and potential capital growth is not very attractive. Just because it is in Auckland does not mean that you are going to get the results that you want.”
For a lot of people buying property is the only way they can get ahead in life because wages are low and living costs are high. But people are all too often put off by Auckland’s high prices.
Nikki says the high prices are nothing new and they shouldn’t stop people from venturing into property investment.
“It is always a good time to buy property – the current market shouldn’t deter people. It doesn’t matter when you buy the property it’s when you sell the property that’s most important.”
Propellor works with their clients to ensure they are able to hold onto the property until its valuation has doubled and it’s the right time to sell.
Paying it forward
Now that business at Propellor Property Investments is on an even keel and both of the offices are running smoothly, Nikki is actively helping others.
“I have always felt that it is important, once you have yourself your family and your business working for you, that we should be looking outward at whatever contribution we can make at whatever level to our greater community.”
During her time living in London she was shocked by the huge number of homeless people living on the streets. She knew she wanted to help people and make a tangible difference to their lives by providing secure, comfortable housing for those in need.
Three years ago she aligned herself with Habitat for Humanity – an international not-for-profit organisation whose aim is to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness by building adequate and basic housing.
“I’m so passionate about property and people having their own homes and securing their foothold in the world.” Habitat for Humanity was the perfect fit for Nikki given its connection to housing and property.
As part of her commitment to the charity she takes a group of her clients and staff on a mission overseas every year to build a home for a family in need, plus she makes a large donation to Habitat for Humanity. It is a substantial investment the company makes but one that is worth every penny.
“Every trip is a life changing experience for the families we build a home for and the clients I take on the trip.”
In 2012 a Propellor team travelled to Nepal on a Habitat for Humanity mission and last year Nikki took seven clients to Vietnam.
The Vietnamese family they built a home for were living in a small tent, cooking and bathing in the same water when they arrived. “The family were part of the build all of the way through, we spent every day working side by side with them and socialising with them in the evening. It is a huge emotional investment, so at the end of the build there were a lot of tears and hugs all round.”
The Propellor team had plans to travel to Mongolia this year, but unfortunately the project was delayed, so in 2015 they will hold two trips.
Propellor Property also supports a number of charity organisations in Christchurch including Ronald McDonald House, Fight for Life, Rebuild Canterbury and the Canterbury Symphony Orchestra.
“Christchurch has been very good to me over the past five years; I’ve called it home, so supporting the local organisations is just one way to give back.”
Now Nikki is strongly urging other businesses that are in a stable position to get involved with charity and give back to their community. “It doesn’t matter how big your charity input is or where the charity is, it’s about making a contribution and paying it forward.”
She says giving back makes her feel like a much more rounded person and if everyone gave a little the world would be a lot better off.
Propellor Property was created with a nurturing approach to help protect and grow people’s assets. This business
philosophy was developed because Nikki lost everything in the past and went through some difficult times.
But from her sheer determination not only to help herself, but also to help others this ambition has evolved into something much larger.
Propellor Property is not only helping its clients free themselves from the vicious cycle of debt but has also given freedom to families living in poverty.
And it’s clear the momentum will only continue to grow with Propellor Properties strong ongoing commitment to its clients and Habitat for Humanity plus Nikki’s push to encourage other businesses to lend a helping hand.
To find out more about Propellor Property Investment and how it can help you, call Free phone 0800WEALTH from anywhere around New Zealand or go to their website and view the many testimonials from Propellor clients:www.propellorproperties.co.nz
