Jodie Baker is a property coach and property finance specialist.  She works with her clients to help them achieve their lifestyle goals using property, whether it be buy/hold/renovations/flips/strata titling/options etc.  She works with her clients to overcome their fears and blockages and supports and assists them, whilst working within their own personal comfort and financial levels.  Jodie prides herself on always being conservative when it come to ‘the numbers’ but aggressive on strategy.

Jodie has personally bought and sold over 40 properties in the past 15years (some she continues to hold).

Some of Jodie’s success stories include:

·         Converting a house into dual occupancy.  Jodie purchased a 4 bedroom house with another large room (as described by the selling agent “This area is a bit of a waste, not sure what you would do with this?”, but Jodie saw a big opportunity!  After purchasing the property she proceeded in renovating the house and converting the additional “wasted” room into a 3 bedroom house with its own bathroom, laundry, new kitchen, backyard, car accommodation, power meter, water service etc.  Jodie purchased this property for $470,000 and within 12 months she was able to achieve an increase in equity of $120,000.  She has recently had it valued again and have been able to achieve a further $80,000 in equity which is being used to finance more property purchases.  This property has achieved Jodie $200,000 in equity in 2 years and continues to achieve $820 per week in rent making it an extremely positively geared property.

·         Free Block of land!  Jodie really enjoys finding the deals which allow her to renovate the property but also allows her to subdivide the block of land its on – therefore she gets a free block of land!   Another property she purchased was 1400sq metre block of land with house only 18km from the city centre. She did a 9 day renovation on the property with a cost of $12,000 and increased the rental return from $300 a week to $450.  During the renovation she had a line of people knocking on the door asking to put in application to rent it!  Not only did she increase the rental return on the property but she has been able to subdivide the back of the block and are in the process of designing units for it and then proceed in selling the units off the plan.

Jodie is also the first to admit that during her property journey she has made some mistakes, which she refers to has her “non cost effective education program!”

·       After having success and “accidentally” becoming a property investor (her first property made her $70,000 without her planning on it) Jodie “knew it all” and was “too good” to do any of the property work herself, even though she was told by friends and family that they didn’t think the property would work given the location, type of property and the additional costs of someone to come in and do all the work on the property.  Jodie however ‘knew better’, after all she had already made money on the first property so of course, she was young and could not be told.  She proceeded after settlement of having contractors do all the renovation work on the property.  The end result was that Jodie spent $50,000 on contractors work to the property – all because she didn’t want to do any of the work (she didn’t need to, she was already successful – ONCE) and she didn’t do and look at “the numbers” when she was originally assessing the validity of the property.  The property was already receiving a rental return of $250 per week at the time of purchase.  After the renovation at a cost of $50,000, the rent only increased to $270 per week (a $20 a week increase - that’s only $1040 a year!)  Jodie learnt a valuable lesson from this property – always take advice, listen to others and you must ALWAYS do the numbers 

·       Jodie is the first to admit that she treasures each mistake she has made (even if she is isn’t happy about them at the time) as it has given her valuable knowledge and information that she not only continues to live by but she also shares with her clients.  Another lesson that Jodie learnt early on was that the numbers never lie!  Jodie brought a unit in a popular up and coming suburb of Sydney.  She renovated the property and decided (without doing the numbers in detail based on thorough research) that she should sell it.  She was delighted when she sold the property and made a $63,000 profit, however if she had done her numbers and kept the property for an additional 6 months, she would have increased that profit by approximately $80,000.  There was a large government initiative planned for the area and was undertaken 6 months after the sale of the property – this saw the property value in the area soar!  Jodie says that even though she had a positive result, she could have achieved so much more – all by holding and renting a property out for 6 months – just by doing the numbers and researching the area.

Jodie currently holds 15 properties in various locations all throughout Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.  She believes that this diversifies her portfolio, as each state provides different opportunities, for example she holds properties in Queensland as the prices tend to grow more slowly but they are more consistent.  She holds some properties in Sydney as they can from time to time be more erratic but by closely researching and watching the market she can respond and achieve positive results.  Some of the properties she holds in Victoria are in Ballarat and are purely for rental return.  Jodie is able to achieve almost a 9% return in that area which helps to pay for her negatively geared property held in other areas.

Jodie currently holds approx $7.5million to $8 million in property as this is what Jodie has calculated will sustain her lifestyle goals in the future. Jodie has a belief of, why would you have 100 properties – as each of those properties require work/care/money for example at some stage you need to replace 100 hot water systems, or pay 100 rates each year (Time and money you just don’t need to spend!)  Jodie has calculated how much her family needs to achieve in passive income each year to provide them the lifestyle they desire and she has two years left (even with interest rates going up) until her property portfolio reaches a level that will passively produce both her husband’s and her own income each year.

Jodie has a development on the go most of the time (either on her own or within her syndicates), which when she completes one, allows her to reduce the debt on the 15 properties she currently holds and also brings forward her retirement plan.

Jodie is really clear that her retirement plan is to stop working to pay the bills and to live the lifestyle she desires.  It is not about stopping doing what she loves, which is property coaching and development of her clients to see them achieve amazing results of their own.  She says it is so satisfying to see a client achieve the lifestyle and family goals they have.  Jodie absolutely loves what she does as a property coach and mortgage broker and states that if this is considered working then she is happy to be contracted to it for life!  

Jodie's contact details