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Cape Town - Neale Petersen, founder of Real Estate Investor Magazine, says his purpose is to educate, empower, inspire, add value and transform people to become successful in building personal wealth through real estate.
Neale is passionate about both the psychology of investing and using creativity when investing in real estate.
He tells Fin24 about his journey as entrepreneur.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
My first successful business was a mobile discotheque that I ran in my teens. I had a passion for writing and design and started my career in the magazine publishing industry and in advertising and marketing.
I ran a business consultancy for two years before I bought shares in an ad agency which I managed for around three years, specifically in the real estate, finance and insurance sector. After a failed business partnership I started investing in property full-time, which became my only source of income at the time.
I have also authored an inspirational book called "Dance until it Rains" before I founded Real Estate Investor Magazine (REIM) in 2007. REIM has already won numerous awards for top property features magazine in 2012 and recently won the Sapoa Journalist of the Year awards for Property publication of 2015 and 2013.
I have had the unique privilege of meeting and interviewing many local and international investors, entrepreneurs, businessman, sport stars and entertainers to learn and share their unique secrets to their extraordinary success.
These include celebrity investors Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki, George Ross, Sol Kerzner, Dolf de Roos, Donald Trump Jnr. and Louis van der Watt while seeding the content into print, digital, online and socially and on the web.
My purpose is to educate, empower, inspire, add value and transform people to become successful in building personal wealth through real estate.
What has made you an entrepreneur?
The freedom to wake up and make a difference in the world and do what I am passionate about at the same time. You have to be forward thinking, have the willingness to fail a few times and a desire to be an expert in your field.
Entrepreneurs must take the good with the bad and despite the challenges I have realised never to give up despite the challenges.
Why the interest in property and a property magazine?
My interest in property piqued when I started making more money through property than through my earned monthly income and I later realised that this is also a wonderful career opportunity.
Property is one of the easiest ways to achieve a passive income that can pay you for a lifetime that you will never outlive. It is also responsible for making more millionaires in the world than any other asset class.
I launched a magazine when I realised that property investors had an appetite for a constant flow of ideas, information and content, which inspires them to take action.The rewards come when you see the investors produce results from content they sourced from the magazine and took action on.
This resulted in launching the magazine and also a spate of educational property educational events in residential, commercial and offshore investing.
What were the challenges?
There are many challenges in entrepreneurship and investing and a lot is related to acquiring finances and the psychological side. You have to acquire new skills outside your skill set through building a competent team around you that can help you manage your money, give you legal protection and teach you to be tax efficient.
Most of the time it is about finding creative solutions to overcome the challenges. You also have to deal with a lot of negative people and manage your own self doubt. You have to be disciplined about your time as there is also no time for procrastination as that could be your biggest downfall.
What is your recipe for success?
Having a purpose, educating and inspiring myself continuously including other people to help improve their lives and achieve their goals and by doing that I improve my own. Managing my mindset and psychology plays a huge part in business and investment success and I spend a my first part of my day on that aspect daily.
Also, you have take action on your ideas otherwise it just remains that a wonderful idea and idle conversation.
Future plans?
Real Estate Investor has already expanded within Africa to Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. I want it to become a truly global business that is run and managed predominantly online.
We want to expand outside Africa and abroad to new markets. We want to be a central hub for investor content, information, education, tools and inspiration.
Trends in property investments in SA?
The devaluing of the rand and the poor economic conditions have made many SA investors look for offshore investments where they can get the benefit of rand hedging their investments.
Golden Visa's are popular for those looking for a Plan B as result of the uncertain political situation. Also as a result of our poor currency a number of offshore investors are investing into South Africa as our properties are very well priced compared to other comparable places in the world.
There are still opportunities locally but the biggest challenge has been sourcing finance from the banks. New creative ways of financing properties such as crowd funding, rent to buy and private equity are the some of the biggest trends.
For listed property Reit's is a new tax efficient vehicle, while listed residential has there first listed entity in SA. Investors are also looking for a combination of more shorter term returns for cash-flow so fix and flipping residential properties for profit which has become more popular for short-term income streams for investors.
Anything else?
Investing and entrepreneurship are actually fun. Each day you can take charge of your own destiny and each new day brings a new opportunity, take it with both hands.
