Solving problems, sourcing property and creating value with Goliath Academy’s Mark Dunsmore
This week we’re joined by Mark Dunsmore whose obsession with solving problems, helping others and passion for property led him to create the Goliath Sourcing Academy with his co-founder Brad Lazerus.
Mark shares in great depth how best to approach the sourcing of properties, deal packaging, and much more in an interview that goes much deeper than property.
In this episode we discuss:
00:49 Introduction to Mark Dunsmore
06:02 How Mark got started in property
07:09 Mark talks about his obsession with solving problems
11:30 Don’t get so obsessed with the day-to-day running of your business that you forget what you are passionate about
14:22 Mark reveals why Goliath Sourcing Academy courses are more affordable than most property courses
21:51 Deal packaging
- Create a win-win by focusing on the solution to your client’s problem [21:51]
- What if someone else comes along and offers your client a better deal? [29:00]
- Deal desperation versus power of listening [31:50]
37:04 Mark’s current focus in property investment
40:12 Mark shares the worst mistake he made and answers the question “Should I quit my job and start property full time?”
- “Should I quit my job and start property full time?” [45:06]
Bonus
01:00:48 Find out your true WHY with the 7 Levels Deep exercise
01:06:03 Question to ask yourself before delving into the property sector
Quick Juice Questions
52:14 What do you look for in a property investment, and why?
“I tend to break down my investments into two drivers. One is long-term capital growth.
And now, I’m actually interested a lot more in commercial stuff. Having done residential lets for so long both of my own and for other people, I’ve just had enough of tenants.”
56:31 Where should someone start if they are new to property?
“There is a lot of free information out there on YouTube and podcasts giving you information on strategy.
Learn about the strategies, identify which you feel you’re going to be most interested in and most passionate about because that is where you’re going to invest your time in getting more educated so you can actually achieve what you want to achieve, not what someone else tells you.”
57:53 What most inspires you? When and where are you most inspired?
“I tend to be the most inspired around other people telling of their successes.”
1:00:09 Which book has inspired you and changed your thinking the most?
“Different books have inspired me at different times.
The book that I’m reading which I can’t put down is the book by Dean Graziosi, The Millionaire Success Habits.”
Quotes
On what Mark gained from moving around a lot as a kid
- “From moving around a lot as a kid, you spend a lot of time with adults; you spend a lot of time with kids; you’re always adapting, always making new friends. I think those skills came through into my later life — I was very successful in my sales career.”
On focusing on the solution to your client’s problem
- “Very often, you find in sales that people are in there for the commission, for the bonus check at the end of the month, whatever it is. But what I found was that I just always had this desire to get that warm feeling about helping someone. And in order to get to that point, it was always about understanding the problem.”
- “If you try and push the fee before you push the solution, you’re focused on what’s in it for you, not what’s in it for the property owner. And if you focus on what it is for you, that’s when you see deals going sour.”
On deal packaging — What if someone else comes along and offers your client a better deal?
- “If you’ve built that relationship up with that property owner, you’ve identified what they want to achieve, that rapport building means that there’s an alliance with you so it’s going to take a lot for them to remotely consider taking someone else’s offer. Not only that, if they are in a position where they’re thinking, “Actually, that does sound like a better offer,” 9 times out of 10, they will come back to you and have that discussion with you because of the way you approached that relationship in the first place.”
On deal desperation
- “One of the big things when you’re a new property investor, whether you’re investing for yourself or you’re looking to set up a deal packaging business, that first deal is one that you really want to get over the line. What that means is you go in with the wrong intentions.”
- “The worst thing you can do in any negotiation is focus on what you want as the outcome because it will blind you to what they’re saying.”
On Mark’s biggest lessons
- “My biggest mistake was that 6 months that I was wandering around with no clear goals, I left work without any real drive or ideas to what I was going to do.”
On “Should I quit my job and start property full time?”
- “I get a lot of students now who say, “Should I quit my job and start property full time?” I will always say, based on my experience, “
- “Property takes time to gather momentum. And that’s if you’ve got a plan. If the end result is to quit work and move forward into property fulltime, don’t quit work until you can already start to see the traction, and money in the pipeline; so stuff in the pipeline is already starting to generate an income to replace what it is you’re going to lose.”
- “The worst mistake I made was, by quitting my job and setting up Goliath in a very undriven, unplanned fashion, very quickly money becomes the dominant headspace. Rather than the business or the passion or the goals, it’s now money.”
Others
- “The easiest way to get through tough times is to be so passionate about what you do it gets you through that tough time.”
- “You can sometimes get so obsessed with your business you lose track of what it is that you are passionate about.”
- “People become obsessed with property learning. Ultimately, what’s going to get you through anything is knowing and understanding yourself. Yes, property forms part of that future for you, but why?”
- “Is it property because someone told you property is a good thing to get into for wealth planning? If that’s the only reason why, then you’ll find that when you get deeper into property, you will struggle to deal with the stress and the hassle and the pain that property can be.”
- “If you haven’t really understood your deeper desire, property might not be the best thing to do. There are other investment opportunities that offer similar returns with similar securities where it’s not as stressful as dealing with tenants or the sale process.
Connect with Mark Dunsmore
Books mentioned