CityLivingYou could be a millionaire - but it might hurt. Edel Morgan goes to a property workshop
"If you're going to sit there and be invisible - or worse, invisible and superior - then GET OUT!" shouted the not-so-aptly-named millionaire property investor Steve Sweet at his audience in frustration at the resounding lack of response to his questions .
"These questions are not hard, if you're not interested then geddout!" yelled the American at the 50 or so people attending a free workshop organised by Inside Track in the Berkeley Court Hotel on how to become a millionaire in three years or less by investing in property .
Sweet's delivery style is all about spitting bile at his audience and making them feel they're on a one-way train to loserville if they've only one property and aren't releasing equity to buy more. And when I say more, I don't mean an amateurish one or two, I mean a bulging multimillion-euro portfolio.
The woman sitting behind me (let's call her Josephine) made the mistake of admitting she didn't want to borrow on the strength of the house she bought 25 years ago. "You don't want to borrow?" exclaimed Sweet with mock-incredulity, "so you've just come for the tea and biscuits?" Apparently fear is what's stopping the likes of Josephine from releasing equity from their houses to invest, keeping them stuck and unempowered. Sweet compares this fear to "a child's fear of a monster in the closet".
Most of us have learned from our parents to lead the safe life of wage-slaves who dutifully pay off the mortgage. After a show of hands, it emerged that around 85 per cent of us owned homes, "Some are unencumbered by mortgages and feel they can relax, like Josephine . . ."
"Excuse me!" pipes up Josephine, "I never said I paid off my mortgage."
Apparently the average UK couple has only £10,000 (€14,700) to play with in retirement. Some have paid off their mortgage and find themselves trapped "in a very expensive cage" with little provision for their old age.
Sweet says most of us need to get over ourselves and the "naive" idea that the equity in our house is of no real use. "It's amazing how self-delusional we can be about our own preciousness," he says.
He uses the tasteful analogy of a dying child who needs a €150,000 life-saving operation, to jolt us out of our preciousness. "If you don't have the money then 'luvvie is gone, poof!' If you take equity out of the house 'then luvvie lives'."
Even those who trade up to their dream house get a hard time from Sweet. They get the big house but end up downsizing when the kids move out and get "a wodge of cash". "Well congratulations, Mr and Mrs Ireland - you've won the game of life," he says, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Then it was time for the testimonials. Joanne, a single mother with a modest house, earned €15,000 a year as a childminder but has somehow managed to build a €2 million property portfolio. How may you ask? The banks saw her as a risk but she attended an Inside Track seminar weekend and was introduced to "master" brokers .
And herein lies the catch. We only get to meet these master brokers if we sign up for a two-day seminar at a special one-day-only price of €3,645. If this all sounds like a high-pressure sale, it is, he says. "If you don't like being marketed to, then get out, shoo!"
Inside Track apparently has a whole "phalanx" of master-brokers who can offer mortgages you'd never get in high-street banks. The banks are "scum", "lying, thieving, jerks" who want to keep us in bad debt, he says. Sweet doesn't rate thinkers either. When they leave his free workshops saying they'll think about the seminar, they usually end up thinking about it to the grave. This applies to 80 per cent of people, which is "a shame - they're not starving but not they're not doing really well".
He concedes that it's hard to find investment property in Ireland that will wipe its face with rent, but says the UK is positively brimming with opportunities - it has a housing need of between two and 10 million units, depending on which published figures you believe. He asked us to guess how long it would take to build several million new homes. "Two to three months," replied Josephine. "You're living in la la land, Josephine. More like 30 years."
Inside Track claims to teach its members how to buy for less than fair market value and how to hunt for "unsophisticated sellers". It'd be nearly worth going on the seminar just to find out how anyone could get a property for less than market price in the overheated Dublin market. Every property is for sale, "the owner just doesn't know it yet". And as for interest rates, market fluctuations and rental voids, they don't worry Sweet - he's learned how to deflect them with expert conveyancing advice. Puzzled? You're not the only one.
So why should we all sign up for the seminar today? he asks. "The pressure is not from me," he insists, "or from Inside Track. The pressure is being applied by the builder." He points to a picture of a Leeds development where Inside Track says it made its members big profits after bulk-buying units off the plans .
When it was over, I asked the man beside me if he was going to go on the seminar. "I don't have that kind of money on me," he said. "I'd really have to think about it."
- emorgan@irish-times.ie
