Episode Details

Scott O’Neill and his wife, Mina, are experienced, sophisticated and active property investors who retired from their day jobs at the tender age of 28! That’s a story worth exploring. They did it by investing in both residential property initially and then evolved into commercial property. 

With a property portfolio that boasts in the order of 32 properties with a value of $22M releasing just under half a million in passive income every year, Scott’s and Mina’s passion, commitment and hard work has paid off in spades - so much so that they were able to take a six month sabbatical from working life and do nothing but travel Europe on the strength of their property portfolio passive income.

They then got bored of the good life without purpose and fulfilment and decided to teach others how to reach the same property success, which is where their business Rethink Investing was born.

And not just content with their own success, Scott and the Rethink Investing team have now helped over 1800 clients purchase in excess of $1 billion in real estate since 2015.

Rethink Investing has also been recognised as a BRW Fast 100 company and has become Australia’s number one buyer’s agency for commercial property investors.

So while there are certainly differences between residential and commercial property investment, the pros far outweigh the cons in the context of adding high cash flow assets into your portfolio mix, especially in the latter stages when you’ve built up significant, accessible equity in your residential portfolio like Scott and Mina did.

And Scott and I are also of the same belief that investing now is one of the greatest opportunities we will ever see. With Scott’s commercial properties, they are seeing net yields of seven per cent plus, with commercial lending interest rates under three per cent. 

That’s a massive four per cent gap! Historically, we expect to see a gap of two per cent. 

This means that right now there’s the opportunity of a lifetime to get the best cash flow returns ever in commercial property. 

This, in turn, should result in strong capital growth as the gap between these two metrics narrows. So Scott’s message is simple: Don’t think of commercial property as a risky investment just because we’re in a pandemic. 

Scott’s team target the most resilient types of businesses. And as you’ll here during our chat today, Scott’s strategy of buying medical, logistics, and other essential services–type investments with strong tenants has proven to be very resilient. 

And In recognition of their outstanding achievements in both residential and commercial property investment, in 2019 Your Investment Property awarded Scott ‘Strategic Property Investor Of The Year’.

Scott is also the host of top rating podcast, Inside Commercial Property which you can find at https://www.rethinkinvesting.com.au/podcast/, while Scott and Mina are also the authors of the great book on commercial property investing, Rethink Property Investing. Grab yourself a free introductory chapter at https://www.rethinkinvesting.com.au/book/ by inserting the code (Bushy) in brackets alongside your name along with your email address.

So in this episode we’re traversing the full ins and outs of Scott and Mina’s full journey through residential to commercial property and picking up some absolute gems, learnings, tips and tricks for you along the way, including:

The impacts of a forever deadline

The leverage benefit of property over shares

How rentvesting was critical to establishing their property portfolio

How to avoid red line stress when investing

How to transition from residential to commercial property

He