In this episode we hear about his passion for the Central Coast and how no matter where he roams, the waves bring him right back home. He shares his idyllic childhood and the NRL dreams he entertained before landing in the corporate world, which opened his eyes to an entirely different way of life. We’ll also hear how rugby league influenced the way he runs his business now, and the family investment he spearheaded from a young age, catapulting him into the career of his dreams.

Timestamps:
01:48 | Sneaky Surfs
06:40 | A Passionate Sportsman
09:55 | But Then...
13:23 | Rugby and Real Estate Aren’t So Different
16:59 | Make It Hard For Yourself
20:01 | Quiet Saturday Nights In
23:38 | Divide and Conquer
28:12 | Locals Always Know What’s Up

Resources and Links:

[00:21:04] And that first property was bought in Wamberal, I still live in it now. We now own this property, which we're really proud of. But even looking back, buying this really set us up for our next purchase and our next purchase, and then going from there. 

 

This is Property Investory where we talk to successful property investors to find out more about their stories, mindset and strategies.

 

I’m Tyrone Shum and in this episode, we’re speaking with Matt Sharp, Buyer’s Agent and founder of Sharp Property Buyers. He shares how he dove into his property mindset early, taking heed from a well-known name and enlisting his brothers to save for their first home. But just like learning to surf, that’s not to say he didn’t have any wipeouts along the way.

 

 

Tyrone Shum:   

Sharp has a strong connection to the New South Wales Central Coast, where he was born and bred. He still lives there now, running his company Sharp Property Buyers.

Matt Sharp:   

[00:00:47] I have a very small team of three. Predominantly, we operate here on the Central Coast, but we help people purchase all over the country as well. I grew up here on the Central Coast, played rugby league as a kid, surfed a lot as a kid, and just did everything that most kids do here to be honest.

 

[00:01:13] I live at Wamberal. So I grew up at Wamberal, moved around a little bit as a kid, but predominantly just moved around the Central Coast. Then also lived in Newcastle for a little bit and overseas for a short stint as well. But yeah, I grew up at Wamberal. Now I reside here at Wamberal with my young family. Love it.

Tyrone Shum:   

He takes us for a deep dive of a typical day in his life, where he’s usually up before the birds.

Matt Sharp:   

[00:01:48] I usually get up quite early, I'm up at about 4:30 in the morning, I will train either in the gym, or at one of the outdoor parks here on the coast, there's a really good area down at Terrigal where a lot of people train. So I'll try and first thing in the morning, come back home, play with my daughter for about an hour just to get her up and running for the day and try and help my wife out, and then basically get stuck into work.

[00:02:13] I guess work for me will look like researching areas and also obviously inspecting properties as well, making sure that our team is ready to go. Prioritising clients, speaking with clients, speaking with agents, sourcing properties, and then obviously presenting properties to clients too. And then if I can sneak in a trip down the beach, or a surf, I will do so but just depending on how busy we are. 

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:02:43] Nice. How long have you been surfing for?

Matt Sharp:   

[00:02:47] Pretty well since I was as young as I can remember, probably around the age of seven or eight. I don't surf as much as I would like to these days, just because of the family and the business and whatnot. But still such a great hobby to have, just to get out into the ocean. Even if you're not a surfer, even if you want to just jump in the water or whatever. It's very therapeutic. 

  

[00:03:30] I'm lucky with lockdown, the beach is less than a kilometre from my place. So even if they made that radius one kilometre, I think I'd still sneak in. So it's good.

Tyrone Shum:   

The Central Coast and its scenery, people, and vibes holds a special place in his heart.

Matt Sharp:   

[00:03:54] I grew up on the Central Coast. It's about an hour and a half north of Sydney. Pretty quiet sort of a beach town, I guess, or beach region. I went to Terrigal High School, Terrigal Primary School. And we just had a really tight knit community here. I played rugby league growing up as a kid, did the footy through the winter and then surf through the summer. I had the same group of mates since a very young age. 

 

[00:04:23] I guess here on the Central Coast, it's just very much a community vibe. Everyone sort of knows everyone, everyone sort of helps each other out. And it's interesting, because it's really helped me with my business today. Relationships that I have professionally now, I've actually had those relationships, personally, in some instances for over 20 years. So it definitely helps now. Obviously, there's some very successful people up here that I've known for a very long time. Both personally and professionally. But yeah, great childhood, it was awesome growing up here on the Central Coast. I think it was fantastic.

[00:05:14] Growing up as a kid, I had a brother and then two stepbrothers. So a bit of a blended family, if you like. So it's been a good opportunity to have different perspective on multiple things, too. We moved around a little bit as well, but always around the Central Coast. 

 

[00:05:33] So I think from a young age, I understood the difference in properties and what different properties offered. Because one, I lived in so many different places growing up, and two, sometimes I was heavily involved in, 'Okay, we need to find somewhere else to live.' Because we were renting a lot, we'd need to find somewhere else to live. 'Okay, why is this one good? Why is this one bad? What do we like about this? What don't we like about that?' So, I think honestly, from a very young age, I was analysing and looking at property through a different lens. And I think it put me in good stead to what I do today, and what I've done, personally, as well, away from the business with my own investing.

Tyrone Shum: 

Like most kids, Sharp applied most of his energy to the things he was passionate about. Those passions followed him up the coast after he finished school.

Matt Sharp:   

[00:06:40] School was good. I've got to say, I'm someone that will only really apply myself to things that I'm heavily interested in. So as a kid, I wasn't interested in a lot of the schoolwork all the time. But it was great. Like, honestly, playing rugby league, team sport with great friends that were childhood friends that are now adult friends was fantastic. Surfing before and after school, pretty relaxed, sort of a vibe there at Terrigal High School. Uniform was sometimes optional. So it was good, mate. It was really, really good.

[00:07:26] I finished high school and moved straight to Newcastle to pursue a rugby league career if you like, or to try and play rugby league professionally. I moved to Newcastle, played in the junior reps in the lower grades at the Newcastle Knights, but wasn't good enough to go on and play NRL. But I also probably didn't apply myself to the level that I know is now necessary to do well at that level now that I'm a little bit older. But loved Rugby League, and all I wanted to do was obviously was to play NRL, but never got there. 

[00:08:04] And once that didn't work out, I moved back to the Central Coast and picked up a job that I thought I was going to stay in for a long period of time. So I got into a corporate role. I was in that corporate role for 12 years prior to starting the business. But in that corporate space, it exposed me to a new world, a very professional world. You know, what the corporate world's like. It's a good eye opener, right. And it was in a position that I thought I would have been in for a very, very long time and probably my whole life, but things change and ambition takes over and perspective changes and experience changes. So I obviously resigned from that role a few years ago.

Tyrone Shum:  

His early job in the telecommunications industry taught him a lot about the corporate world, and how to communicate with people from all walks of life.

Matt Sharp:   

[00:09:22] I guess it gave me two perspectives. So it gave me a perspective of what to do and probably what not to do. 

[00:09:28] So early on in that corporate world, things were fantastic. The business, or the company, was very family orientated. It was always making sure that its employees were very happy and there was a really strong team camaraderie. And everyone went above and beyond to fulfill the cause of what we needed to do, or to make sure that we execute on that particular project. 

[00:09:55] But I guess as the years went on, things started to deteriorate a lot. And there were redundancies and people lost their jobs. And then different management came in and it was more focused on the dollar productive tasks. And I guess it became more focused on profits and losses and less focused on how the employees were feeling and what the culture was like. 

[00:10:23] And I think with that, it starts to really create a really negative environment. People are worried about their own jobs, and then people start to hide... not hide, but they're not as open to share some of their knowledge, and everyone fights over projects, and no one wants someone else to get better of them. So that environment started to become a little bit toxic. 

[00:10:49] And it was one of the reasons why I started to look elsewhere, for better opportunities. But the other thing that the corporate space did for me was it exposed me to a lot of high net individuals and some people that are in very high pressure roles. And one thing it did was it desensitised me a little bit, just to know that those guys are human as well. And I used to be able to hold conversations with high level managers within that corporate space. And then I could also hold really good conversations with some of our laborers or even cleaners within the company, as well. So, it gave me that really broad perspective and gave me a good opportunity to be able to learn how to communicate to different people at different levels.

Tyrone Shum:   

It was here he learnt the importance of happy employees, a principle he now applies to his own business.

Matt Sharp:   

[00:12:08] There are just countless roadblocks, and the attitudes just aren't always there. One thing that I learnt from the corporate space, and as well from my rugby league background, is you really need to keep your employees happy. And it's something that I have a really high focus on. Now, we only have a small team, but I'm always checking in, making sure everyone's happy, making sure everyone feels valued, making sure everyone feels a part of the common goal. And in big corporations that can just be lost. And then people become miserable. And the incentives aren't always around dollar value. It's far beyond that. And sometimes in those corporate spaces, if you don't have the right leaders in place, they can really, really deteriorate.

 

Coming up after the break, we hear how rugby league has impacted his life in ways he never expected...

 

[00:13:47] Rugby league, and I think just sport in general, it teaches you so much and it's helped me a lot as well, my background there in running the business now.

How he kick-started his property career when he was barely out of school...

 

[00:17:07] My brother and two step brothers, we grew up, we were all around the same age. And at a very young age, we actually decided to start saving for our first property. 

 

We find out what’s in store for him next and why it brings him so much enthusiasm.

[00:23:24] I'm very excited about it to be honest. Anyone that works in this industry, especially if they're passionate about it, never get more excited about a search, which I don't, and especially when it's your own search. It's very, very exciting.

And that’s next. I’m Tyrone Shum and you’re listening to Property Investory.

 

Tyrone Shum:   

Sharp takes a step back to fill us in on his Rugby League days. Although he doesn’t play anymore, it’s still a big part of his life.

Matt Sharp:   

[00:13:23] So, left school, had ambitions to play NRL. Played juniors at Newcastle Knights and then lower grades as well there, but never good enough to play first grade. Once that dream was over, I came back and just played semi professional here on the Central Coast. 

[00:13:41] Also had some time overseas as well. Played in New York in 2016, as well. But rugby league, and I think just sport in general, it teaches you so much and it's helped me a lot as well, my background there in running the business now. The determination, the commitment, the grit, working for a common goal, staying neutral through the highs and the lows, appreciating the little wins, working on the negatives, being able to receive feedback, both positive and negative. All of those things play a role when you run a business, and I think it's now starting to become more prevalent with big industries and big companies and big businesses employing ex players, whether they be soccer players, rugby league, rugby, whatever ex professional athletes. And certainly coaches becoming more ingrained into that corporate space and sharing their knowledge. Because the similarities are there, they're absolutely there. 

[00:14:51] But it was great. I created some fantastic memories, got friends for life from both playing at that semi professional level. It's just good times. I don't play rugby league anymore. But I still coach, I'm still heavily involved with the Sydney Roosters with their junior development program here on the Central Coast. 

[00:15:14] So I haven't quite given it away yet, in terms of the rugby league stuff. But absolutely love coaching, and it's just a good opportunity for me to give back and to get away from the business as well and just have some hobbies outside of the real estate world. 

Tyrone Shum:   

There’s so much great discipline and so many skills that kids can learn from Rugby League, with football skills being just one of them.

Matt Sharp:   

[00:15:59] With the kids, obviously we want to make them better footballers. But a lot of the coaches within that program ultimately just want the kids to be better adults. That's what we're after. And hopefully some of the disciplines that we can implement into them right now with their rugby careers may put them in good stead going forward in life. Making sure that they commit to getting up and going to work every day, for example, that's just not common for some people. And then rolling your sleeves up, doing the tough things throughout the day, as opposed to just doing the easy things all the time. So we're always looking to improve the kids holistically away from just rugby league too.

Tyrone Shum:   

We take a step back in time to remember how difficult it used to be to access our money— and how that wasn’t such a bad thing at all.

Matt Sharp:   

[00:16:59] I love winding back the clock and thinking about this. I'm going to go right back here because I think it's important. So I mentioned my brother and two step brothers, we grew up, we were all around the same age. And at a very young age, we actually decided to start saving for our first property. Okay, now when we first decided we were going to save for a first property, we decided that all four of us were going to buy something. That was the plan when we were really young. 

[00:17:26] So what we did, once my youngest brother was old enough, and he was working full time, we all committed to saving $100 a week into a joint bank account. That was a combined $400 per week going into one bank account. And I mean, I think things are a little bit different now with phones and apps and everything like that. But back then when I was like 18, so it's like 15 years ago. I feel old! 

[00:17:56] Anyway, you'd have a joint bank account, but what we did was in order to access that bank account, all four of us had to go into the bank, sign to be able to withdraw money from. So it was difficult. I guess the key message is: make that savings account difficult for you to access. It was hard for all four of us to go into the bank. 

[00:18:26] So we committed to saving, at least, to buy our first house. Now, we did that, something I'm very proud of, and something that really put me in obviously good stead going forward. So we ended up saving for around six or seven years. But as things happen, we all ended up going in our different directions and I was the only one that actually took that money out. And then bought a house. Bought my first property, which I’m obviously very proud of.

Tyrone Shum:  

It sounds like a great idea in theory, but how did it play out in reality?

Matt Sharp:    

[00:19:08] So my step dad's an accountant, and from the get go, he was the one that sort of said to us, 'Look, this is what you should do.' And I guess early on, everyone was committed to buying a house together, all four of us. And, look, along the way, you know, each brother... it wasn't all rosy. Don't get me wrong. There were times when someone was going overseas and they wanted to access the money. But there was three of us saying no, you're not touching it and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 

[00:19:39] But we did get to the point where it'd passed its use by date, and everyone sort of agreed to take the money out and go their separate ways. I think one brother was overseas, another was about to travel, another one was starting a family and I obviously wanted to buy property. So we all agree to extract the money and do whatever we wanted with it. 

[00:20:01] So we were saving for some time, I think it was around six or seven years. And during that time, I just did everything I could to get educated around the property space. And I mentioned that I played rugby league. We used to play on a Sunday. And while all my mates were out drinking and going out and partying or whatever, I wasn't able to do that, because I was preparing for a game on a Sunday. So I used to sit at home. 

 

[00:20:26] And I'd watch Margaret Lomas' show on Fox, I just stumbled across it one night. Mate, I've been a big fan, and she's a mentor of mine. And I used to watch her show on a Saturday night, they were, like, reruns. And that really gave me good knowledge of how to identify what a good asset was, what a bad asset was, and the different variables with different properties. Does it have development potential? Is it fundamentally in a good area? What's the economy like? How appealing is it? So that gave me so much good fundamental knowledge that really put me in good stead to buy that first property. 

[00:21:04] And that first property was bought in Wamberal, I still live in it now. We now own this property, which we're really proud of. But even looking back, buying this really set us up for our next purchase and our next purchase, and then going from there. There's obviously always an element of luck in it. But we did really well by just buying that first asset well, and buying that right asset as well, to start with.

Tyrone Shum:  

With his portfolio humming along nicely, Sharp’s next steps are to add a unit block for some diversification.

Matt Sharp:   

[00:22:33] I haven't tried to reinvent the wheel or anything like that. I'm a low risk investor. So I do a lot of research on making sure that the areas are fundamentally strong. We have a diverse portfolio across multiple states in multiple areas with different dwelling types as well. 

[00:22:50] But I guess ultimately for us right now, we have a pretty well neutrally geared investment portfolio with different properties doing what they need to do for our investment needs. So, one property might be high yielding and other one might be targeted for capital growth, and obviously have a lower yield. So still building the portfolio and very close to buying something now which I haven't done before, which is a unit block. So we're going to see what that looks like. And I'm very excited about it to be honest. Anyone that works in this industry, especially if they're passionate about it, never get more excited about a search, which I don't, and especially when it's your own search. It's very, very exciting.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:23:38] That's awesome. So when you say unit block, how many units are you guys looking at at the moment?

Matt Sharp:   

[00:23:43] We're looking at somewhere between three and five. So nothing major, I'm not in the position to do any major developments. But somewhere between three, so maybe a triplex, or four or five properties. So just about getting that balance, right. Getting it in a good area at an affordable price that we can afford that isn't going to obviously overextend us, and isn't also going to handcuff us going forward. 

 

[00:24:06] So the purpose for the unit block is literally just for diversification. Our portfolio at the moment is made up of freestanding homes. So we just want to mix things up a little bit. And just make sure that we have that diversification and some options going forward. There's certainly no plans in place at the moment to do any flips or anything. We just really want to... it's a long term strategy for us. It's a set and forget and a long term hold.

He doesn’t have any regrets due to his belief that everything is a learning opportunity, and got started on his journey with one main idea driving him.

Matt Sharp:   

[00:25:10] If you scare yourself too much and do nothing, you're gonna get nothing. But probably the two decisions that we've made that have probably put roadblocks in our journey, one would be how we structured our loans early on. And I won't go into too much detail because I'm not a licensed mortgage broker. But loan structuring is very, very important. 

[00:25:34] I'm sure a lot of people that listen to your podcast understand that now. I didn't understand that as a 25 year old. I didn't know that. And it put us in a little bit of a holding phase when we were absolutely ready to buy again. So the loan structuring was one, I just didn't ask enough questions, and probably just didn't have the right mortgage broker at the time.

[00:26:09] One of our investment property's security was tied in with our principal place of residence, and for a long period of time. I think it was five years. So because they were cross securitised for a long period of time, it didn't allow us to be flexible, it didn't really allow us to investigate other lenders without huge costs. So that was just a lesson that we've learnt along the way. And again, if I hadn't made that mistake, I'm aware of it now. But I probably wouldn't have learnt from it. So it's definitely not a regret. 

 

[00:26:49] And the other thing, the other mistake that I've probably made was one of the properties that we bought... We haven't had any issues there yet. But it's heavily impacted by some government housing. And in my younger years, I didn't know how to properly do all of the due diligence that I now do today, and obviously do for my clients. But there is a higher presence of government housing in and around the area. 

[00:27:23] Now, I haven't had any issues there at all, the house has been tenanted, it actually has gone up substantially in value as well. But looking back now and the standards that I have now for myself, and obviously for the clients, especially, that property wouldn't meet our checks. I can't say it's lost us any money. But yeah, it's something that I am mindful of going forward, thinking, 'Oh maybe that wasn't as good as I first thought.' There are no bargains.

Tyrone Shum:  

The government housing factor wasn’t so much a factor as it was the lack of owner occupiers in the area.

Matt Sharp:   

[00:28:12] Obviously, owner occupiers are the ones that increase value for properties, right? They're the ones. So whenever you invest, I think that you should really be targeting areas that have high owner occupied presence within those areas, because they're the ones that are house proud. They're the ones that want to live in that suburb, in that street, in that area. And they're going to pay a premium to live there. So I guess, for me just thinking about it, how I do, it's like, 'Okay, if I'm a local living in that area, how desirable is that street or is that little pocket of that neighborhood?' The locals know the areas to go to or not to go to.

 

[00:28:51] Fortunately, I've been lucky that the property's never been vacant, because obviously I knew enough to look at low vacancy rates, and all that sort of stuff, and double check yields and whatnot. So the property's never been vacant. It's never really cost us a major amount of money. But the concern is there when I go to sell it in the next 30 years or whatever, how many locals are going to be interested to live in that little pocket? We will see.

 

[00:29:49] I know what's happening all over Australia now. The government's obviously selling off a lot of their government houses. My dad grew up in government housing. So I know the majority of the people that occupy those homes are fine. They're working class, some of them have just come upon hard times. So I'm definitely not painting everyone with the same brush. But there is a level of risk there that I try to avoid today, that's probably one of the lessons. 

[00:30:17] But do I regret buying that place? Not really. It was really cheap at the time. It's got a great yield, and it's never been vacant for two and a half, three and a half years. So yeah, it's just one of those things, one of those learning things. But fortunately for me, we haven't had any huge mistakes yet, but hopefully, hopefully, there's nothing major coming my way. But I'd like to thank Margaret for that. Margaret Lomas. I think she really did put me in good stead to understand what those due diligence checks are and how to minimise your risk as best you can. 

Matt Sharp’s story continues in the next episode of Property Investory. He shares one factor in his strategy and outlines why it’s so important...

 

[00:02:48] But the basics of our strategy is we always buy in really low risk suburbs. Like, high performing, but low risk. 

 

We tackle the impact the pandemic has had on his local market and why it resembles an egg...

 

[00:10:12] Mate, COVID has just accelerated the Central Coast market by 20%, nearly even 30% in some areas. The impact has been real. 

He looks back on his childhood to reveal what made him so invested in property at such a young age.

[00:15:10] It's something that I'm probably just starting to understand more as I get a little bit older. 

 

And that’s next time on Property Investory.