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Behind The Scenes With James McCoy – Senior Investment Consultant

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CONTINUAL EDUCATION, MOTIVATION, AND ONGOING INSIGHT ARE CRUCIAL FOR ANY INVESTOR LOOKING TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY PORTFOLIO. AS A SENIOR INVESTMENT CONSULTANT, JAMES MCCOY KNOWS THIS BETTER THAN ANYONE. SO HOW DOES HE HELP HIS CLIENTS ACHIEVE THIS? WE SAT DOWN WITH HIM TO FIND OUT…

So James, can you tell me a little bit about what you do at OpenCorp?

I’m one of three Senior Investment Consultants within the business – I don’t write books or anything we leave that for Cam. I guide investors through the process of executing our Property Investment Strategy. Educating, empowering and motivating our clients is a large part of what we do and our aim is to make them feel comfortable and informed throughout the process.

Do you have any strategies you use to help clients achieve this?

Well, the interesting thing is, is that almost all the staff here are property investors as well. So we all use the same process that we are helping and assisting our clients with. We know just how a client feels at any point throughout the process. We’re all in this together, which I think is really important. But my goal is to take the client on a journey, this is based on looking at the client’s unique situation from a financial and goals point of view and determine what they want to get out of the process. Once we understand this, we’ll then go away and spend a good 120 hours working with the different departments within the business to source the right property for them. At that point, our job is to make sure the client really understands the strategy for success moving forward.

In regards to the strategy you use, is this ever hard to communicate?

Not really, because it all comes down to educating them on several main pillars. Once we’ve found the right solution for the client, we come back and present the research to them; why are we looking at this location? How does this fit into the M.A.P process? (Market, Area, Property). Then we will look at the numbers and really concentrate on every dollar going in and every dollar going out, breaking it down to a weekly hold cost.
The last thing we will focus on is the property itself, one of the things I really stress to our clients is the need to push emotion to the side. A lot of people can be emotional about the property but whether the property has a blue roof or a pink roof doesn’t really matter to a certain extent. As long as the numbers get us to where we want to be.
So I take clients on this journey, right through to introducing them to our Relationship Management Team who assist during the build process and even past the point where our Property Management Team find them tenants for their property.

On that point, once you’ve found a tenant and things are ticking along, is the client still on the journey with you?

Absolutely, even after we have sourced a quality tenant we will keep them updated on sales in the area, information on if the market has moved, and suggesting if we should we get another bank valuation, or is it time to duplicate. It really is a long-term relationship that we have with our clients.

Can you tell me a bit about one of your success stories you’ve had at OpenCorp?

Absolutely, I remember one particular couple who were first-time investors. They were super nervous. They actually wanted to pull out at the start of the process. But we were able to sit down with them, hold their hand and nurture them throughout the nervous times. 12 months later they are now in a position to buy property number two. They are over the moon with the results. That was definitely a fantastic moment, seeing a young couple transform and have that light-bulb moment realising that this strategy was going to change their future significantly for the better.

I can imagine your job comes with significant challenges as well. Can you explain some of those?

Fear, which is one of the biggest challenges we face. I mean, its human nature and completely understandable when you’re entering something new that you experience these feelings. And no matter how much I explain something, we can’t control their neighbor or Uncle Tom putting fear and doubt in their minds based on emotion. At that point, I tell my clients to call me, text me, email me; my phone is always on. I can talk through their fears, doubts and always bring it back to the numbers. If you want something you’ve never had… You must be willing to do something you have never done! Fear is natural, but it can also inhibit you from taking action on something special.

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