Robert & Paula Licuria

CASE IN PROFILE

Time-poor professionals with young family
Needed to minimise tax liability
3 properties purchased through Ironfish
Diversified across multiple cities and housing types

Occupation

Senior Legal Counsel & Early Childhood Educator

Objective

Tax minimisation

Portfolio

3 properties

As a lawyer, I'm pretty discerning and can be quite sceptical in my assessment of things. Having invested with Ironfish, we’re not only impressed by the level of knowledge, customer service and ethics of everyone we’ve dealt with, we also trust our strategist completely. She’s been to our home countless times, nothing is ever too much trouble.

— Rob Licuria

Avoiding buyer’s remorse

Robert and Paula had been considering property investment as a tax minimisation strategy for some time – being higher income earners and having built up some equity in their own home. After talking to a few companies, they signed a contract to purchase one off-the-plan property, but immediately started to experience some ‘buyer’s remorse’. At this point, a friend suggested they meet with one of Ironfish strategists. Their friend had invested with Ironfish in the past, and had a lot of trust and respect for both the strategist and the Ironfish investment platform.

“We hadn’t heard of Ironfish before, but because of the recommendation, we thought we’d meet their strategist and hear her out. As a result of our meeting, we actually ended up cancelling our other contract and went with Ironfish instead, because we could feel straight away that Ironfish strategist genuinely had our interest at heart.”

No more bells and whistles

Their first meeting with Ironfish strategist took place at their home, after hours – a personal touch that was greatly appreciated by Rob and Paula.

“With the other company, there was a feeling that we were being buttered up – going into a flashy office, being taken out for lunch, having coffees brought to us. By contrast, our strategist came to our home – and with the kids and an extremely difficult and demanding job – we appreciate this flexibility.

“What sold us was that she set it all out plainly – she said if we went with the other company, that we’d still be doing the right thing. She confirmed that everything the other company had told us was sound and there was no reason not to go ahead with our purchase. She wasn’t putting it down, she was just interested in what was good for us. What she did say was that if we did choose to invest with her, that she would be able to provide an extra level of service that we wouldn’t necessarily get elsewhere. And given that we are incredibly time poor, we really valued this.”

Too hard to do it alone

Even prior to their introduction to Ironfish, Robert and Paula never considered investing in property on their own; like many senior professionals with a young family, the investment in time required meant it simply wasn’t an option.

“My job as an in-house Senior Legal Counsel is very challenging, and I have no room to make any mistakes. So, after spending all day at work expending my energy on other very complicated matters, by the time I get home, I’m just a mess. Investing on our own seemed too terrifying to even consider. We didn’t know where to begin, or how to break the ice. I’m an excellent lawyer, but when it comes to my own interests, I’m hopeless – because I’m just too busy looking after everyone else! That’s why you need trusted professionals around you to help navigate things you don’t understand, or don’t have time to understand – and that’s what we value so much about Ironfish.”

A new strategy for property selection

Initially, Rob and Paula had decided to purchase 2 house and land packages in Queensland, but decided to diversify once they heard about the Ironfish Portfolio Approach strategy.

“We thought the Portfolio Approach made a lot of sense. So, our first purchase with Ironfish was a South East Queensland house and land package – similar to what we’d signed on with the other company, but a better location and property. Our strategist provided all the data and stats – which all lined up, so we were ready to go with that one. Our next purchase was a townhouse in Marsden Park in Sydney. We drove out to Marsden Park a few times, and fell in love with the idea of having a piece of an impressive new suburb. Plus it’s a Stockland development; we were impressed that Ironfish had that relationship with a developer of the calibre of Stockland as well. Our third purchase was a unit in Melbourne village.”

Going above and beyond

Rob and Paula have now come to rely on the expertise, reliability and personalised service of their strategist and the entire Ironfish team on a whole range of matters.

“The customer service we’ve experienced with everyone we’ve dealt with at Ironfish is excellent. Our strategist herself, has a lot of credibility and nothing ever seems to be too much trouble for her. Every time we feel like we’re stretching the relationship, she makes you feel like you’re the only customer she has. Everyone at Ironfish makes you feel like this; I don’t know if they receive special training to do this, but that’s truly been our experience. You never feel like you’re being a bother, nothing is too hard, too difficult or too stressful. For example, I was struggling to sort out all my bank accounts recently, it’s not a strategist’s job to restructure my bank accounts for me, but she was happy to help!”

We didn’t have to worry about anything

The smooth transition from settlement to Ironfish Property Management also stands out for Rob and Paula.

“Communication with us throughout has been great. We really enjoyed getting regular updates and photos of the construction stages. Then we received information about a tenant within just a few days, it seemed. We barely blinked and it was done. Now we have this tenant living happily in this place we bought and we don’t even have to think about it. We basically just get emails from Ironfish that we need to approve. It’s always a collaborative process between us and them, and we all want the same outcome. It’s just so easy. We literally don’t have to worry about a thing.”

Robert and Paula’s property investment tips:

Book a meeting to help you understand your position; then go away and speak to other people who've done it before.
Don’t believe the doom and gloom hype in the SMH; look at the facts, speak to Ironfish, and speak to one of their competitors to get another perspective.
We are taking advantage of negatively gearing our property until such time legislation changes, as well as the depreciation deductions for new properties.
You'll find some people will understand what you're doing, others will be against it, and will stick to the usual plan of paying off one house and waiting till retirement to enjoy life. But at the end of the day, we could be giving a lot more money to the tax office, but we'd rather have our money working for us!

01 Book a meeting to help you understand your position; then go away and speak to other people who've done it before.
02 Don’t believe the doom and gloom hype in the SMH; look at the facts, speak to Ironfish, and speak to one of their competitors to get another perspective.
03 We are taking advantage of negatively gearing our property until such time legislation changes, as well as the depreciation deductions for new properties.
04 You'll find some people will understand what you're doing, others will be against it, and will stick to the usual plan of paying off one house and waiting till retirement to enjoy life. But at the end of the day, we could be giving a lot more money to the tax office, but we'd rather have our money working for us!

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