When Chase Edwards calls.
You might get a Cold Call from a Telemarketer for Chase Edwards.
They may offer to have someone visit you, review your financial position; and if you proceed to the second meeting, they may encourage you to invest in properties / property development in Summerland Point NSW, and other areas in the Hunter.
In our instance, they suggested a likely interest rate of 6.25% if refinancing our existing home loan; and estimated we could build a property worth around $450,000 to $500,000 for $300 starting cost plus about $80 to $100 per week thereafter, after expenses and rental income.
This involved some tax reduction strategies, plus using equity in our existing property.
There were a few reasons I haven’t pursued this offer further.
1 – I don’t believe cold call telemarketing is an ethical method of communication. (My parter is less averse to it, hence the progression.) Given they spend a fair bit of money shipping at least three representatives around parts of Australia, they should be able to afford to use mass mailings instead.
2 – They demonstrated a future forecast using a custom piece of software that allowed them to plug in various variables and see the results in real time. This software was not available to me, and you can bet that if I’m going to be spending $400k I want to have all available data to fiddle with. If they made it available in the form of an MS Access Database, I’d take it more seriously. (Individual figures when clicked bought up many checkboxes, so it probably isn’t easily done in Excel.)
3 – It is a bigger financial commitment than we want to make, given the risks associated if interest rates changed, etc.
4 – I failed to understand why they are looking for people to build the houses rather than just use their own finances to do so.
Those issues aside, if their forecasts are true then the system as a whole appeared to be workable.
I was very suspicious of this cold call so I emailed my Tax Agent and asked.
They responded:
“This is a hoax, please ignore. Unless coming from me or ATO direct, please ignore.
Once they say a Tax Agent can’t help you or isn’t aware of a tax related matter, it’s a dud!”
Don’t get caught in yet another scam…and don’t give them any of your information.
I hope this saves others from financial hardship and having your time wasted.
Kind regards
Id suggest you get a new “Tax Agent” because if he actually told you that, then he has NO IDEA what he is talking about. Using equity in your current property or properties and buying additional property is EXACTLY how anyone that can afford it should be building wealth and yes, I am and have been doing it for several years now. Not with these guys, but a similar group and now because they taught me how to do it, I dont need them anymore. Most people that make ridiculous comments on here – like your “Tax man” (Haha) are more than likely going to be short of retirement income and have to rely on the aged care pension – Now thats funny.
Exactly!
It’s very unusual for the telemarketer to ask the client letting their “professional” consultant to come to their place for advice. Investing another property in rural area is really risky for most of local residents.