Dakota & Rudolph Liebenberg - Access Wealth Success Story

Speaker: Dakota & Rudolph Liebenberg, Air Force Personnel, Queensland

Dakota & Rudolph Liebenberg: Hi, I'm Dakota. I'm 29 years old and I currently live in Brisbane with my partner, which is me, Rudolph. I'm 25 years old. I live in Brisbane also. Dakota and I are both members of the Air Force. We've only just actually moved in together, we've been long distance for 5 years. Uh, we don't have any children, however, we do have two sausage dogs, Lulu and Rosie.

Dakota & Rudolph Liebenberg: So the way I would describe our overall financial situation before we reached out to Access Wealth was going somewhere but quite directionless. So Dakota and I started a savings account about 9 months after we started dating, we started saving money just a little bit consistently every paycheck, uh We did that with the knowledge that we're working towards getting a property. We weren't sure what that looked like, whether that was going to be a primary place of residence or whether it was going to be an investment property. We just knew that we needed a substantial amount of capital before we could even entertain the thought of being in the real estate game. So we were working towards something, but there was not a lot of clarity around what that was going to look like. We just knew we were sort of working in that general direction. I would say with our financial situation we were comfortable because of the long distance we were separated, so we were still maintaining two separate households at the time. So we did have separate payslips, maintaining our own lifestyles as well. We didn't really have any merged financial bills at that stage, so it was quite separated and, except for the savings account, neither of us really had any debts or further mortgages or any other credit cards open, we had one car loan between the two of us. Before we reached out to Access Wealth, we didn't even consider what our retirement would look like. We weren't really tracking what our superannuation balance even was, I guess it's quite the, same thought as every other young couple, is that we're young, we don't have, have to worry about it yet, and I guess that wasn't even a thought until uh it got brought up as part of the process where we sat down and we actually looked at our goals. We knew that we wanted to get a property and an investment property, we just didn't know in what path or which way we wanted to go about it first. So it really helps set those goals which we weren't really tracking what they were at the time, they weren't that clear to us, I would say.

Dakota & Rudolph Liebenberg: So I'd say the biggest challenge that was preventing Dakota and I from, you know, starting our journey in the real estate market was this idea that you needed to have $120,000 minimum as a deposit to be able to buy a shoebox. And it was very fortunate that we reached out to Access Wealth relatively early in. our journey, because they helped us realise that you really didn't need to have, you know, six figures to even entertain the thought of getting into property. You could get in for a lot less and still get into the market with quality assets, which was awesome. The other challenge, uh or the perceived risk was we didn't know what we didn't know, so that extended to, risk mitigation strategies and what are the actual risks involved with getting a property? How much of a buffer should you have on all of these different figures? Where can it go wrong? What are potential friction points? You know, who do you talk to, to handle which different sets of problems. So there were all these things where, you have all these gurus on YouTube who sell you the dream and then it's instantly behind a paywall, paywall, right, which wasn't the case of Access Wealth, they took the time to explain everything to us. It wasn't all locked behind a paywall, and I really liked how they explained everything. It was very clear, very well put together, lots of material, PowerPoints, everything was ready, so it was pretty good. Yeah, it definitely beat the information overload that you find on Google when you Google what you need to know to buy a house, there is so much information, so having Access Wealth there to pretty much just provide all the information that we needed right on the table for us and we didn't have to second guess what was accurate on the internet versus, you know, which is huge right cause you're, it's a huge purchase, you're making a huge risk, so having an expert provide all the accurate, right information to you within a very short amount of time really just made us at ease and trust that this isn't actually a difficult process at all when someone knows what they're doing.

Dakota & Rudolph Liebenberg: Sure, there were definitely hesitations trusting anyone with the most amount of money that Dakota and I had ever saved before in our lives, with a strategy that, you know, we only really found out about, yes, a couple of days ago, at the time, so sure. Any reasonable person would have concerns or hesitations, but I did find a lot of comfort in the way that they presented all of the information. So I'm a very facts, don't care about your feelings kind of personality. So everything that they showed us on all the Zoom calls and all the consultations, I think it was over 8 hours' worth of consultations before they even gave us an option to give them any money. So, all, all of the material that they presented us was all numbers, figures, legislation, no room for subjective opinions, it's all facts. So, you know, if they said something that I didn't, didn't understand, didn't really get, I could, I was very quick to ask them, and they would always have an extra piece of material that they could open in the background and explain it because someone had asked that question before me. And then you find that you're a lot more at ease when every time you have a question or every time something doesn't make sense, you can ask about it and they'll explain it to you with facts, legislation right there in front of you, and you can Google it yourself, you can look it up yourself, and you can verify, you can trust but verify everything that they're saying. So, sure, who wouldn't have concerns, you know, investing a significant amount of capital, but everything was grounded in truth. I found everyone that I spoke to on the team extremely knowledgeable, trustworthy, approachable, and they all had a great sense of humor which obviously helped smooth things over as well, so, I had a very positive experience. Yeah, I'd say another thing that we really appreciated was that it was an Australian led company. It wasn't an overseas company that we couldn't Google or find any reviews on. The members at Access Wealth were all honest, there was no fluffing, there was no BS, it was straight to the point. We could ask any questions and they would answer it straight to the point without trying to make it sound good. Tere was also no pressure, so they weren't always pressuring us to, you know, make a decision or, you know, make further consultations with them, we could go away with the information and reach out to them when we were ready, and whenever we requested further information or we wanted to have the information that they provided to us in the consultations, they were happy to give up, give that to us, so we can then fact-check that for ourselves to put us at ease that we weren't, you know, being told what we wanted to hear or, essentially.

Dakota & Rudolph Liebenberg: Probably one thing that helped a lot with us deciding to eventually go ahead with Access Wealth was that they handled a lot of the processes in-house, so that included finding the property, they had lawyers that they'd worked with in the past, so it was very much a, done-for-you kind of approach, we didn't really, the onus wasn't on us to go find lawyers that were across the property market in X state, and it wasn't on us to go find a mortgage broker who was adept with, you know, that type of mortgage that we were chasing. So they could look after everything for you, it kept everything pretty easy to manage and it was definitely quite competitively priced as well. So I didn't really have any major hesitations once I, I learned about the service that they were providing. I'd say that was a big important part for us as well, the done for us approach, because we were so busy with work, it did require us to travel quite a lot, so having to do all the work ourselves would have been so time consuming, and it would have been so overwhelming trying to find out all the information and trying to find the right partners to go through to find lawyers or mortgage brokers and the banks, it's essentially it was an easy decision just to choose Access Wealth once we had, you know, trusted that they knew what they were doing and would make it so easy for us.

Dakota & Rudolph Liebenberg: to go ahead. So once we decided to go and choose Access Wealth as our team to basically look after us in our property investing journey, we got put in touch with John, who's the Strategist at Access Wealth. So I can speak for both Dakota and I, our experience with John has been absolutely fantastic. So John took care of pretty much everything, he's great, great bloke, great sense of humour, and he's a very clear, very well spoken, and he's extremely knowledgeable, on all things in property investing.

Dakota & Rudolph Liebenberg: I'd say the ongoing support was really good as well. We had a plan with goals throughout the year that we would constantly, you know, have members of the team reach out to us and check in on us, make sure we're still reaching those goals. We could reach out to them whenever we wanted to, to consider what our next 2nd, 3rd or 4th year looked like, you know, in terms of property investment. We worked with a few of the team members and they've really made the process of getting our property, really easy. I would say that even if throughout the process, if there were any questions that were raised or if we had any concerns, we could just reach out to John and he'd just give us a call immediately and answer anything with no BS, just straight to the point, which we really loved. Again, just made that process, super smooth, super easy, and just really clear. Yep, and I think another point that's worth pointing out is that, Compared to what we were expecting, the process was very smooth and very transparent. So you know, when I did all my research online and tried to find someone, the right team to go ahead with, I would find that a lot of, these buyers agents would not provide an all-inclusive service, which for one is not very good for people like us, but the second thing is it's not very transparent, they'll tell you: Oh, we have this comprehensive 27 step you know, set of criteria that we vet properties against. And then they'll use these big buzz lines like, Oh, we reject 97% of properties, but then they will never tell you what they're actually looking for in a property. They'll always say, oh I wouldn't invest there, I would invest somewhere else, but they never tell you where, they never tell you why. Working with John and the strategists at Access Wealth, I found that their process was very transparent. They said these are the exact things that we are measuring the property against. This is why we think you should be measuring only these points and not these other points that you might. I've heard these gurus, you know, vomit out all over the internet, so they're very transparent, which I thought is something that should be noted. Definitely exceeded expectations, and I can say for both of us that we're very pleased with how the journey has been going so far.

Dakota & Rudolph Liebenberg: There's absolutely been progress on our portfolio since we've started getting help from the team at Access Wealth. So when we first approached Access Wealth, we didn't have a portfolio, we had about 70,000, dedicated towards investing in property, and then since then, that was about, just about a year ago. Since then we've continued saving, we've gotten into the first property, we're currently in the process of getting our 2nd property through our super funds, and we're also on track to get our 3rd property in about 2 months from now, with the 4th property on track for next year. So there's definitely been progress, tangible that's in the works and then also clear strategy with goals that are very realistic to be achieved, in the short to medium-term future as well, which is absolutely sensational. I've also found now that we've got so much more clarity on what's realistic goals, that we can and will be achieving in the near future, everything else becomes a lot easier in your life, so all the, smaller financial decisions, it becomes a lot easier to justify short-term pain when you've got so much clarity on the long-term gain that's awaiting as a couple, which is absolutely fantastic. It was also, You know, very, very, very nice to see that this is possible because we're coming from a generation where we're being told you're never gonna be able to buy a house, don't even think about it, you're going to own nothing and you're going to be happy, you're gonna rent for the rest of your life, and now we're looking at being under 30 and potentially having 3 properties in our portfolio already, which is absolutely awesome to say the least, so we were very happy, very happy with our progress so far, and the projected future that we have ahead of us.

Dakota & Rudolph Liebenberg: After working with Access Wealth, I would say we're both super confident in what our future looks like. Before we worked with them, we didn't really have that direction and now we're excited that what our future will look like in terms of not only setting us up for success and wealth, but reassuring us and, putting us at ease when we're at that stage of wanting to start a family, knowing that we will be set up and we will be in a really good position to be able to provide them a comfortable life as well as setting us up, for our retirement as well. That just helps us day to day in the sense that we have, our goals, we know what we're working towards and that that short-term pain is really worth what it will look like for us in the future. Yeah, I agree, I think another, probably the biggest thing for me personally was. When we had the initial deposits, you know, sort of sitting in the bank account, but we didn't have the strategy, we weren't in touch with Access Wealth yet. I wasn't very excited day to day about property investing, because I didn't know where it could potentially take us. Today, stark difference, I'm very, very, very excited for our financial future. I think there's a lot to look forward to, and that's the biggest difference for me is I'm just very excited now.

Dakota & Rudolph Liebenberg: I think there are a lot of things in life where you can afford to not make a decision, but I don't think when it comes to investing and in particular property investing, that that's one of them. The opportunity cost of not making a decision is disproportionately high when it comes to investing in general. So if you're on the fence, trying to decide whether you should go ahead. Just be cognisant of the fact that the opportunity cost is disproportionately greater, when it comes to this stuff, and typically, you'll only recognise that when it's too late. So it's, you know, there's a saying that John always says, and it's very true, the best time to have planted a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is today. And that's very true when it comes to this kind of stuff. I think it's important to note that under no point did Dakota and I feel pressured to go ahead with anything. Like I mentioned, there was over 8 hours of free consultation, one on one before they even gave us an option to give the money. So it's a very good environment to learn in, we didn't feel pressured. I think it's a great service that they're providing, and I can't recommend it enough. I don't have any regrets sitting on the other side. They say buying a house is one of the most stressful times in your life, and I can say for sure that this has been the, one of the least stressful times in my life. I speak about this experience in such a positive light to my friends and family who have. You know, have bought property in the past or are recently going through the process, and it really makes me appreciate the services they've provided so far, and how positive our experience has been hearing how complicated and, it has been for other people around us and that it hasn't been the case. So if you want it to be simple, you want it to be quick, I would recommend Access Wealth. They do it for you, they do it right and they do it now, whenever you want.