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Tom Panos has spent more than a decade studying the property markets in Australia to provide the best service as an auctioneer, and in that time, he's had his fair share of funny experiences that remind him of the importance of keeping property investment fundamentals in mind.
One of his most unforgettable moments as an auctioneer is visiting a boarding house at King’s Cross on a Saturday morning with an agent and being surprised by the “tenants” currently residing in the property.
“The boarding house was being used by escorts. I remember having the agent take me through the property. I had to look at each room, and it was like a 30-, 40-bedroom boarding house,” he said, speaking on sister publication Smart Property Investment's The Smart Property Investment Show podcast.
“There were prostitutes at work there and they thought I’d come along as a client, and they told me to wait in line.”
This experience has been one of his constant reminders, both as an auctioneer and a property investor, to always conduct a formal inspection on a property before putting one up for sale.
On a different day, a couple of years ago, Tom proudly invited every TV channel and every newspaper company he could get in touch with to cover a special property auction.
As they are nearing the conclusion of the auction, rain and hail started pouring, leaving only two persistent bidders to vie for the property.
“I kept going and . . . people started leaving,” Tom shared.
“In the end, a crowd of 350 ended up being me, the agent, and the two final bidders moving in to the front bedroom. Just ourselves, drenched, fighting it out in $1,000 bids.”
“[It] sold well. It was always going to sell well because it’s a landmark property.”
Tom believes that property investors who want to succeed in the business of creating wealth need only to understand their goals and find the strategy that would work best for them.
Dedication and passion can help anyone to go a long way in their journey—after all, it will never be possible to succeed overnight because, as in any business venture, property investment is a long-term journey to afford a more financially secure and stable future for yourselves and your loved ones.
Tom concluded: “I factor that I’m going to spend a little bit of money in the house-hunting journey. That money is not a cost—it’s an investment. I actually understand that I’m going to invest money . . . to actually buy a property, but it’s going to buy me a better property. I’ll get the value of that property in the years to come.”
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