I’m so excited about writing this post today, because it’s all about something I don’t do very often… I’m holding a live event.

It’s called “Dinner With Hans” and it will take place in Sydney this May. I’m inviting along around 200 property investors and experts and we’re all going to enjoy a luxurious cruise around Sydney harbour.

I’m also going to put myself in the hot-seat and take questions from the audience LIVE on the night.

PLUS leading finance expert John Chapman from Investor Finance will be sharing his extensive property financing knowledge.

I’ll also be giving away free prizes on the night, as well as a stack of other gifts. I can promise you it will truly be a night to remember.

If you’d like to find out more about the event or book a ticket to come along, simply visit the Dinner With Hans website by clicking here.

It will be an incredible property investing event that’s completely unmissable. See you there!

Technorati Tags: Hans Jakobi, Live Property Investment Event, Property Investing Seminar, Real Estate Course, real estate investing

Hans :: Apr.11.2007 :: Real Estate Investing, Other Resources, General, Seminars :: No Comments »

Last night Channel 10 broadcast an important programme both for us as individuals and as property investors. Cool Aid highlighted how our day-to-day activities generate greenhouse gases and contribute to global warming.

I hope you saw it and decided to make some changes to your lifestyle to help save the planet.

I must admit, I’ve been a “greenie” for more than 25 years and one of our objectives in moving to the farm was to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Even though we’ve tried to minimise our impact on the environment and grow our own vegetables, there is still more that we can do and we found the suggested action steps suggested at the end of the program very helpful.

One of the guests on the program was Al Gore who has become a champion for the environment with his book, movie and DVD called “An Inconvenient Truth.” If you haven’t already seen the movie, I suggest you get hold of the DVD and watch it. It could save your life!

Another guest on the program was scientist, Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki.

He made two important points that property investors need to keep in mind.

The first one was the issue of some scientists who argue that climate change is just a normal phenomenon and is nothing to worry about. Dr Karl pointed out that there are many different types of scientists and that scientists generally focus on specific areas until they become specialists in that area.

He argued that the only scientists you should listen to on the issue of climate change are those who specialise in climatology.

While the others may still be scientists, it doesn’t mean they have any particular knowledge of the subject area and may be just voicing their opinion without having researched the matter fully.

This is a very good point and one that is just as relevant to property investors as it is to the issue of climate change.

You see, many would be property investors seek guidance from people who are not successful property investors in their own right (but who nevertheless have an opinion about the benefits or otherwise of property investment). These are people such as work colleagues, professional advisers who are not property investors themselves or friends and family.

That is a very dumb strategy!

It’s the same as asking your motor mechanic for a second opinion after your doctor has told you that you need brain surgery to remove a malignant tumour. You wouldn’t do it, would you?

So therefore, whenever you seek guidance from someone, make sure they have the credibility and experience to advise you intelligently and that they are not simply giving you their opinion. Make sure they walk their talk!

Smart investors base their investment decisions on facts, not on peoples’ opinions.

Dr Karl made another important point which will have an impact on property investors around the world. While I can’t remember the exact statistics, he pointed out that a significant percentage of the world’s population lives close to the coastline and no higher than 20 metres above sea level.

He actually stated, with the high probability that sea levels will rise in the future, there will be a significant drop in real estate values of properties which we now consider to be highly desirable and very valuable.

Can you conceive the possibility of the multi-million dollar harbourside mansions around Sydney harbour becoming next to worthless?

Ouch!

Just think of all the infrastructure that could be underwater!

How will some people catch the train to work?

Al Gore pointed out that even the World Towers memorial site could be underwater in Manhattan.

I have been saying this for about 10 years now and some people have said I’m crazy.

Now I know I’m ahead of my time a bit on this one, but I actually had a waterfront property in Sydney and sold it, so I’ve put my money where my mouth is.

As far as I can see, it is very unlikely that global warming is not a reality and that the human race has not contributed to the rising temperatures.

Just the massive population explosion over the last 100 years and the industrial revolution, should be enough to make most thinking people realise that all of this can’t simply take place without having an impact on our environment.

Fortunately we can still do something about the current situation. The changes will not occur overnight, so there is no need for despair. However, inaction will not save us either.

Here are some action steps you can take as a result of reading this post:

1. Examine your current lifestyle and make some decisions to reduce your contribution to carbon emissions in your home or business. Visit: www.coolaid.com.au for ideas.

2. Learn more about climate change and the environment and support leaders who take active measures to reduce carbon emissions and support sustainable energy and lifestyle policies. The time for talk is over. We need to take action now.

3. Consider where you live now and how rising sea levels and rising fuel prices will affect your wealth, your lifestyle and your ability to earn an income. Think about what changes you can make ahead of time.

4. Consider where your investment properties are located and how their values may change in the future. Consider not only the issue of rising sea levels, but also that some areas are receiving far less rainfall, that some areas may turn to desert while other areas may become wetter. Consider also that some businesses may collapse because they are based around certain landmarks, or natural features which may be inaccessible or destroyed in the future.

5. Ask yourself what you can do to help reverse the trend towards increased global warming, to educate others and to re-allocate your money to areas that are likely to prosper with the changing conditions. Let me warn you: it will take courage to venture into unchartered waters and some people will criticise you for it, however those investors that ignore the crowd and do what they consider to be right, often end up making the most money.

To comment on this post, please click on the comments link below.

Technorati Tags: climate change, cool aid, Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki, property investors, real estate investing

Hans :: Mar.05.2007 :: Personal, Real Estate Investing, General :: 1 Comment »

It’s true that the world is made up of many different types of people with an incredible array of attitudes and beliefs. It’s also true that people from all walks of life and all types of backgrounds have been incredibly successful when they have chosen to follow proven strategies for success.

What I’ve noticed about people who succeed at what they choose to do (whether it be in sport, business, family, investing or any other pursuit) is that they take responsibility for their success.

They live by the motto: “If it’s to be, it’s up to me!”

People who are far less successful on the other hand, winge and whine and blame everyone else for their lack of success without ever looking in the mirror at the person who can do something about changing their circumstances. It’s always everyone else’s fault. It’s the economy. It’s too hard. - Whatever it is, it’s never them.

From where I sit, I see both types of people.

As you can see from the many testimonials I have received for my real estate investing education programs, I have many successful (and now wealthy) students.

I also have a handful of other people whose purpose in life is to prove that what I teach cannot be done and that it no longer works in today’s market or that it won’t work for them.

These are the people that want to speak to my testimonial providers and find out how they did it and to be assured that they can do it too. These people want to make absolutely sure that they have explored every possibility of getting their money back if they should fail. These people want someone to hold their hand for the next 20 years, every time they buy a property.

These people look for strength and inspiration outside of themselves, while winners realise that their strength and motivation comes from within themselves.

Winners look at other successful people and learn from them and model their behaviour. They work on the principle that if someone else has done it, then it must be possible and they just need to learn how to do it.

Less successful people make excuses while winners will persist until they succeed.

This message is not about judging you or anyone else for their attitudes and beliefs. We are all different and thats what makes this world so interesting.

My intention is that you will see this as a message of hope, inspiration and encouragement. I want to absolutely assure you that whatever your circumstances are right now, you have the power to change them.

Even though you may have to learn to do some things differently, even though you may need to think differently and even though you may need to ask someone else for help along the way, you definitely have the power to change things if you choose to do so. All you have to do is make a choice, and that choice is yours alone.

If people want to blame me for their lack of real estate investing success, then I’ll gladly accept the blame… And once they have finished blaming me, the economy, the interest rates, the government or anyone else, I invite them to ask themselves whether their blame game is serving them, or whether it is merely perpetuating their current situation.

Some people really need to stop and think about this.

Listen to the words you are using and when you think about them, you can ask yourself whether they are empowering you or dragging you down. Then consider what you could do to change, if you choose to do so.

Once you take responsibility for your situation, it is a very powerful place to be, because it also means that you can change what you are doing. That’s my message of hope to you.

I also want to inspire you to look at other successful people and know that you can be successful at whatever you choose to do. It’s not about comparing yourself to others and finding all the areas where you have fallen short. It’s about looking at your OWN past performance and seeing how you can keep improving.

Finally, I want to encourage you to take responsibility for your success.

You see, all of us have to face challenges and hardship on a daily basis. All of us have setbacks and all of us have our ‘ups’ and ‘downs’. It’s how we deal with these situations that sorts out the winners from the whiners.

Remember: Its not what happens to you in life that matters, but how you deal with what happens that matters!

If you are not happy with your situation in life right now, or if things aren’t going the way you’d like them to be, please stop and evaluate your current attitudes and beliefs and ask yourself if you are blaming others or if you are taking responsibility for how things are. If you want to change, do so now.

The first book I wrote is called: How To Be Rich & Happy On Your Income and has impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world. It has been published in several languages and is in its 10th print run in Australia. It has been said that this book is much more than a book about money - its a book about your life!

If you’d like to learn some strategies to improve your life, you may want to read this book some time.

Hans :: Feb.01.2007 :: Personal, Real Estate Investing, General, Business :: No Comments »

Even though I’ve been busily posting messages on this Blog for many months now, it’s only today that I’ve been able to make the proper design for this website LIVE! I haven’t publicised this site yet and there’s still a bit of work to be done before I will let the public at large know about this site. If you’ve already found this site now, it’s probably because you are one of the small group of people who have been given a link to this website.

Kiralee from Sure Fire Marketing designed it for me and Andrew, one of our programers worked for hours to do the programming. I’ve got no idea what they had to do to make it work, but I really like it. What about you?

What do you think? Feel free to leave me your feedback by clicking on the “comments” link at the end of this post.

Hans :: Jan.25.2007 :: Personal, General :: No Comments »

This morning I got up and walked around our garden before enjoying a nice breakfast with my wife on the terrace.

As my nostrils took in the crisp cool mountain air, I thought about how different it was to last night when the air was filled with smoke from the bushfires around Sydney. The birds were chirping and the frogs were croaking.

I took a moment to really be grateful for being alive and to appreciate the life I enjoy.

I purposely do this on a regularly basis because we often get so caught up in our day-to-day activities that we sometimes forget to ”stop and smell the roses”.

What about you? Do you take time out to stop and smell the roses?

Do you make time to talk to your partner, your children, relatives and friends?

It’s important you know. It’s more important than all the money in the world and the biggest and best job or business.  

Hans :: Jan.23.2007 :: Personal, General :: No Comments »

In March 2004 we bought the derelict Westpac Bank building in Portland after it had been vacant for 10 years (be careful when you buy commercial real estate because even though the returns may be good, there is also a risk of prolonged vacancy if you can’t find a tenant).

If you want to know more about the deal and how I negotiated it, click here to find out the details.

The rear of the building was overgrown with blackberries, the roof leaked and the building was an eyesore in the centre of town.

One of our objectives in buying the building and renovating it, was not just to provide a modern office for our business, but also to give the town of Portland back a sense of its own history.

The area was first settled in 1828 and the town of Portland was officially gazetted as a village on 3rd March 1894, so it has a reasonably long history from an Australian perspective.

The town of Portland originally flourished around the Commonwealth Portland Cement Company Limited which produced highly quality white cement that was used in Sydney and to build the new Parliament House in Canberra.

After the closure of the cement works in 1991, the town’s economic fortunes declined and the Westpac Bank was closed in 1994.

One of our first initiatives after painting the building, was to engage local artist Hans Liebhart to sketch eight historic scenes from the town’s early history from photos and photocopies kindly lent to us by local residents. These sketches were transferred onto aluminium plaques and mounted on the outside of the building as a permanent record of Portland’s history.

We arranged to have 100 prints of each of these historic scenes printed and donated them to the Portland Development Association so they could raise funds to promote the town through their website. The complete details of the prints are there on the Association’s website (look under “Prints” in the navigation bar) and I encourage you to go there and have a look. If you would also like to buy a set, the town would be very grateful for your support.

Following approval from the Westpac Museum in 2006, three large murals were painted onto the side of the building together with the words: “Bank Of New South Wales - First Bank In Australia.”

The murals depict the original Bank Of New South Wales building in Williwa Street, Portland, a bank teller scene from the turn of the 20th Century and a gold assayer.

While the building itself has no particular heritage or historical sugnificance itself, what we have done to the building has and therefore we worked frantically tonight to prepare a submission for the 2007 Energy Australia National Trust Heritage Awards.

Our motivation for doing that was basically to support the town of Portland and to help attract more tourism to the area. Therefore, if you are scratching around for something to do on the weekend and you’re not too far away, why not pay Portland a visit one day?

It’s about half way between Lithgow and Bathurst, about 16kms off the Great Western Highway. 

Hans :: Jan.17.2007 :: Real Estate Investing, General :: No Comments »

Brent Williams and Dale Beaumont run a wonderful organisation for teenagers called Tomorrow’s Youth where they hold seminars and a 5 day Live In Camp. The 5 day camp is held in January every year and I’ve been a guest speaker there for the last 3 years.

Here are some pictures from the camp and this year there were quite a few attendees from Singapore as well. During an intensive week at the camp, around 30 brave teenagers go firewalking, compete on a high ropes course, build rafts and engage in sports such as netball.

During this camp, Brent and Dale encourage the teens to set goals for the years ahead, overcome some of their negative beliefs and discover important leadership skills in themselves.

I find it a rewarding experience to share my knowledge and experience with such highly motivated and enthusiastic teens, especially when they say things like:

“Hans, your talk was amazing! It taught me so much! I hope I can utilise what I’ve learnt. You’re the best wealth coach ever!” Darren

This was a particularly interesting group of teens who displayed a strong camaraderie amongst each other and played ethically for the whole week despite prompting to “go for the jugular” at various times when they could have set out to ‘pull the rug out’ from their opponents. Good on you guys! I’m proud of you and I wish you well in life.

Hans :: Jan.12.2007 :: General, Seminars :: No Comments »

We’ve worked hard all year to bring you valuable, impartial real estate and wealth creation information and this evening was our day to celebrate, for me to say thank you to my wonderful team , have a few drinks enjoy a nice meal together and to start to get into the festive season.

From all of us at Wealth Dynamics International, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy, Happy and Prosperous New Year.  Our office is closed between 23rd December 2006 and 7th January 2007. We look forward to being of service to you again from 8th January onwards.

Hans :: Dec.13.2006 :: Personal, General :: No Comments »

Yes today is an important day of raising awareness about a growing epidemic throughout the world - diabetes.

If you don’t have diabetes, be grateful and I encourage you to learn more about the symptoms and learn what you can do to prevent diabetes.

If you’ve been diagnosed as a person with diabetes, realise that your world is NOT about to come to an end because of it. Many people with this condition lead very active and healthy lives and some say it is because they needed to become more active and eat more consciously.

My daughter Stephanie manages a website which acts as a platform for people with diabetes to learn from each other and to share their experiences. They also interview diabetes experts and provide information from diabetes associations and resources to help educate and treat people with diabetes.

To mark World Diabetes Day, she’s involved with a 24 hour Blogathon at the Official Diabetes Blog and I encourage you to visit and find out more.

Hans :: Nov.14.2006 :: Personal, General :: No Comments »

Have you seen Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth? (or read his book?)

If not, you should do so and think about it carefully (in my opinion).

The whole issue of climate change, permaculture and sustainable living has been of interest to me for many years now. When we lived in Sydney we were crazy enough to grow corn and tomatoes on our front lawn. We applied to the council to install grey water recycling and rainwater tanks only to be given a definite no.

Nowadays it is manadatory to instal rainwater tanks with each new development.

I guess we were just years ahead of our time.

Anyway, what has climate change got to do with real estate investors?

EVERYTHING!

One aspect of climate change is that sea levels are expected to rise as the polar ice caps and glaciers continue to melt at a rapid rate.

At the moment waterfront property is considered to be more desirable and valuable than land which is futher back.

Do you think this will still be the case when sea levels rise?

Some communities are running out of drinking water and there is no water to keep the gardens looking good.

How do you think this will affect property values and the desirability of these areas for tenants?

There are predictions in Australia that we do not have sufficient electricity generation capacity for the future and that we cannot build new plants quickly enough because we can’t agree on the type of power to produce.

How do you think this will affect real estate in certain areas?

Would properties which use less electricity or even produce their own, be more valuable than thise which do not?

They are many more questions to ask yourself as a property investor when it comes to the impact of climate change.

Many people argue that climate change is a natural occurence and that we don’t need to do anything about it. I strongly disagree and think these people are in denial.

Because I live on a farm I carefully observe the effect of the weather on a daily basis and can assure you that we are in for some tough time unless we make some changes NOW.

Watch Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth as soon as you can (it’s now out on DVD too) and learn more about climate change. Look at your lifestyle and think about how you can live and work more sustainably. Think carefully about what we might need to do differently as property investors in order to prosper during these changing times.

Hans :: Oct.17.2006 :: Personal, Real Estate Investing, Other Resources, General :: No Comments »