Hi! It’s Harry here, and welcome to our October newsletter!Hi everybody welcome to your Plan Assist newsletter for October 2012. Since our last newsletter in June, as always we have been taking a lot of action toward helping our clients achieve their goals and dreams. Whilst it’s been business as usual within the office, in what invariably is a busy time of the year for all with the end of the financial year upon us, we have also had a lot going on behind the scenes to help improve your experience at Plan Assist.
Annual Team Conference
In July 2012 we undertook our annual conference, which was a great time for myself as well as the team to reflect on the last 12 months, checking in on our goals, reviewing last year’s targets and resetting new ones for the coming year.
We were all very grateful to have been in the magnificent surroundings of Chateau Elan in the Hunter Valley and as you can imagine three days away with the Plan Assist team was a lot of fun and very inspiring. The team has returned with a renewed passion to assist as many clients as possible with their plans whilst maintaining a balance in their lives too.
From my point of view I would like to say thanks to all of the Plan Assist team that took time out of their own calendars to come together at the conference. And we look forward to implementing strategies to improve our client’s experience, with a renewed sense of Who our team is, What we represent and How we can best support you and each other.
We started the conference by arriving at Chateau Elan and being very pleasantly surprised by the surroundings, the accommodation and the fact that we had been upgraded and were now holding our conference in the beautiful Chapel set within the natural surroundings.
Our team compared last year’s performance and targets, reviewed the highs and lows, the differences that were made to people’s lives, the areas that we had given more attention to and the areas that were no longer a focus. We then had a look at the year ahead and what changes were needed for Plan Assist to provide a better quality and quantity of service for our clients in order for us to deliver our mission:
Turning Dreams Into Reality
Using Real Estate As The Vehicle
Living Balanced And Abundant Lives.
As you can imagine during the course of our conference we had a heap of fun with team building exercises, great food and a lot of laughs. Here are some snapshots so you can all see what I mean.
Improved Name and Logo
One of the things we discussed at the conference, something that had been evident to our team for quite some time, was the fact that our business has evolved since its inception and it was time to evolve our presence and brand as well.
The team chipped in with a full review of our business from the inside out, starting with roles and time spent by all within the business and how that needs to look moving forward. As part of this review we focused firstly on our name, for a number of reasons, as well as other areas. Whilst the name Plan Assist has served us well, we felt it was time to improve our image and employ the services of a feng shui/numerology and branding expert to see how we could align the team and future company goals.
Take a look at this video: a snapshot on the creation of our improved Business name and Logo and the deeper meaning behind them:
After many hours of review and renew, we are extremely excited to announce our improved business name, which we feel will make a difference to all of those we come in contact with as well as improving the experience for our existing clients. This is it:
We feel this name really encapsulates Who we are and What we do. It identifies our team which is property focused, and that’s the key to improving and renewing your experience with our team.
Along with a name upgrade, we focused on the existing Plan Assist logo and discovered how to accurately represent the company through a symbol, incorporating our values and mission. As you can imagine we had several reviews and many ideas and inspirations until we came to the final one that resonated for us and we know it will for you too. Here it is:
Website Update
The current website was created years ago and is now outdated and unfortunately does not provide the level of interaction that we would like. It is well overdue for something fresh and new for Plan Assist clients, and will be incorporating a membership within the one site. This will certainly be a much more interactive website and one that we know you will enjoy for information, inspiration and resources. Stay tuned over the coming months for the unveiling!
Profits to Share
To improve the service for our Profits to Share Club Members, we listened to you more than ever before. Since our last newsletter, a survey of our Profits to Share members was conducted asking what our members enjoy about their membership and what areas we can improve on. We have received some great feedback and have started to implement these improvements. Again, stay tuned.
Recent News from the Finance Desk…
Our finance team just helped a person save $2,000 each year in interest, simply by helping them find a better lender.
Their income has increased over the years, and that means more lenders are prepared to talk to them. With the current price war between the lenders, we were able to reduce the rate from 6.86%pa down to 5.93%pa which is a huge interest saving.
Construction Woes
Also, many people dont realise how difficult the lenders are playing with construction. It’s a tough process to get a deal through these days, and since the GFC, lenders have significantly changed the rules. I have recently been advising a few clients on what their requirements are, including whether they need to pre-sell the finished product, and what they need to show as profit in the transaction. It’s important to check whether your bank will help you before you spend on items such as Architects, Plans, Council Application Fees, and make sure your biggest investor (bank) will support you.
75% is the new 80%
If you want to obtain the biggest discounts on your home mortgage, then consider reducing your borrowings to 75% of the value of your home. The banks are currently reading into their own statistics whereby people who are only borrowing 75% LVR are less of a chance defaulting, and that means they can reduce their rates a little too. If you have the ability to reduce your mortgage, ask our finance team, and we will let you know which banks are dropping rates for 75% LVR borrowers. You may be pleasantly surprised!
Testimonial and Case Study – Could this be you?
One of our Profit to Share members, Trevor Easton, who has taken on the learning from both the Profit to Share membership as well as from personal one on one mentoring with Harry. He wanted to get started with his property investing as well as growing his business, which then provides him with the leverage to go on and continue to grow his property portfolio.
Since joining Profits to Share, Trevor has taken advantage of both the live events and webinars which helped him take his property investing to another level. He also improved results through personal one on one mentoring directly with our property team.
The Result: Since then Trevor has purchased his first investment property in one of our identified hotspots in NSW and is now in the process of building a second dwelling on the property with the boys at Plan Assist Constructions. Once completed this property will generate a positive cashflow for Trevor as well achieving medium to long-term capital growth.
The bonus for Trevor is that upon completion of the above transaction his borrowing capacity will be better than prior to the purchase of the property! So not only has he purchased a property, constructed a second dwelling and now receiving positive cash flow in a great location, he is now very well-positioned to go onto his second and subsequent investments.
Sound appealing? Please contact our team to find out how you too can get started or can continue to grow your investment portfolio.
Here is what Trevor had to say of his experience in working with our team:
Your Next Step:
For more information on our services go towww.planassist.com.au or phone 1300 039 801.
Speak to you soon.
Cheers,
Harry C
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