I'm sure they probably know who you are, but you definitely play in the commercial space, right? So we'd love to get your opinion on how's the market looking post-budget with a lot of the changes that have come through.

Yeah, look, it's crazy what's happening.

So full disclosure, I have a residential buyers agency, a commercial buyers agency, and eight other businesses in the property and finance game.

What's happened with Resi is not good for us.

We've seen about 80% drops in volume, revenue, whatever you want to call it.

It's definitely tougher out there because I guess the old equations don't work anymore because you've got to account for more tax.

It's not even just about that.

Sounds pretty good, right?

Let's start with foundation number one.

[upbeat music] G'day, everyone.

Welcome to another podcast for Inside Residential Property.

This is the last time we'll be calling it that because we are going through a major rebrand.

We've got a new host.

Uh, the popularity of the first 10 episodes was, um, way above what we thought, so now we're going deep with this podcast.

Um, initially we, we were deciding how long do we do this for because there's a lot of residential podcasts out there.

Mm

In a short period of time, he accumulated many properties, which was achieved by communicating with many homeowners in the Port Macquarie region.

In Port Macquarie, I, like I, I bought that first one that was just an auction open market, and because the result of that was so spectacular compared to anything else on the market, I remember I was just driving around.

Like I, I used to work there, so I, I would just write in my phone in the notes section, just addresses of other unit blocks to the point where there was like 100 of them.

And then I just printed off a, a letter and say, "I'll offer above market rate for your property if you sell it." And I dropped this, this envelope to, you know, maybe 80 different unit blocks, and one came back.

One came back and basically it was someone that had no idea what the value of their property was worth.

It was five units in Port Macquarie.

Ended up paying $710,000 for it.

A person of routine, O'Neill also takes the time to set goals regarding both finances and lifestyle, which contributes to his property investing success.

In a short period of time, he accumulated many properties, which was achieved by communicating with many homeowners in the Port Macquarie region.

In Port Macquarie, I bought that first one.

That was just an auction, open market.

And because the result of that was so spectacular compared to anything else on the market, I remember I was just driving around.

I used to work there.

So I would just write in my phone in the notes section just addresses of other unit blocks to the point where there was like 100 of them.

And then I just printed off a letter and said, I'll offer above market rate for your property if you sell it.

So

How are you doing?

You know, I'm pretty happy.

You know, I, as I say to, to those who, who will listen, I feel like I won life's lottery.

You know, I really do.

I mean, I, I've had, I've had the chance to work for these amazing brands, Madison Square Garden, NBA under David Stern and Adam Silver and the Philadelphia Eagles.

When Jeff Laurie bought the team for $188 million and people said he was crazy and that's worth 8 billion, you know, and, um, And then to work for Josh Harris and David Blitzer and have a chance to work with them on building HBSC to what it is now.

And then now to take on Live Golf.

plan.

Why the heck were you up in a helicopter anyway?

So we're looking at big commercial sites, uh, the growth corridors as well around Melbourne.

Like, we're very heavy in Melbourne at the moment.

We've invested in multiple staff down there.

We're seeing basically the prices have fallen a fair bit, so there's value back in the market, and I'm loving the yields down there.

Like, when we were talking 4.5% a couple years ago, you can buy those same deals at 5.75, maybe even 6%.

So comparably, it's a really good market.

... property, right?

How did the, how did the commercial play come into?

Yes.

So quick backstory.

So I was investing in residential real estate, like mostly unit blocks, houses with granny flats, and then eventually, uh, commercial property.

And, um, I bet like started with nothing.

I saved for, you know, six, seven years while I was working, um, got a 60 grand deposit and that was enough for the first house in Sydney back in the day.

And, uh, this is 15 years ago.

Are you at a point where you need to do much outreach anymore? You need to pay for leads? How does that work for the company?

Now, because of the team format or just his body?

No, no, I think, I think his body's changed.

He can't do what these young kids...

We talked about Tom McKibben or Caleb Sera or David Puig, they're coming in hitting the ball 330 yards off the tee.

And he's like, "Okay, I know I can't do that, but I can beat these guys.

I'm better.

I'm that good." So that's, that's one part of Phil.

The chatter out there, what is the reality of what's going on?