May 20, 2014 - 7:30pm
St Mary's Peace Hall
36 Vivian Street
NEW PLYMOUTH
Who is Cliff Seque? He’s a 62 year old Dunedin full-time residential investor and landlord, with 80 self-contained units in his portfolio. He will be guest speaker at the Taranaki Property Investors Association monthly event on Tuesday May 20 in the St Mary’s Peace Hall on Vivian St, starting 7.30 pm.
“I’m a long term landlord, for 30 years,†he says. “I started in 1973 by buying a block of three flats that needed upgrading to bring it up to the apartment bylaw standard and still have them. I went on to buy more blocks of flats that required upgrading and stand alone houses at the south end of Dunedin that required modernising and upgrading. In 1992, I started buying in the student campus area and have done so since.
â€I look for properties that I can add value to by increasing the rental return. I have a buy and hold philosophy with the belief that only thing you can’t change about a property is its location.â€
Many landlord experiences are unpleasant; what’s kept him going for so long?
“I’ve always had the attitude that if things go wrong, well I put the tenants in there so it’s my own fault. The biggest problem is money. Tenants are not always what they seem, their circumstances change and the landlord suffers.â€
Cliff is keen for Taranaki people to come to his talk. “I’m prepared to impart a lot of knowledge about buying and managing residential property. I have my own application forms, and my own tenancy agreements. They are very comprehensive. I don’t use the DBH forms, too many holes in them.
“I keep a detailed spreadsheet for every property. I have been doing all my own property management up to 12 months ago when I employed my daughter to help.
“I can talk about many things, such as how to structure a deal to your best advantage, dealing with banks, dealing with tenants and dealing with insurance. I have gone to a higher insurance excess of $2000 which reduces the premium by about one third and the saving allows me to make about two claims per year. Otherwise, you can virtually never make a claim.â€
It’s $20 at the door for non-members, but you can get in free if you bring along the guest form in this newsletter signed by a member.
