Join us as he discusses his two very different careers and how he’s still involved in the NRL despite no longer playing the game itself. He reveals his Steven Bradbury moment and his attempt at a bodyboarding career (these two moments are unrelated), and teaches us to follow our guts when it comes to investing.

Timestamps:
00:52 | A Family Man
05:22 | He Couldn’t Be a Bodyboarder, So He Became a Shark Instead
08:47 | He Set His Sights on Sydney
10:31 | Mentality, Resilience, and Perseverance
14:44 | Rugby League Teaches More Than Just Physical Skills
19:36 | Winning in Wollongong
22:10 | You Can’t Win Them All
25:53 | Back Your Own Judgement
29:21 | ‘I Knew I’d End up in Numbers Somewhere’

Resources and Links:

[00:21:07] I was very active, looking into what to do with my money. They were key requisites that you needed for your property. Looking back now, I think 'God, it was a savvy investment for that location'. And I would have paid $290,000 and I nearly would have doubled it, which was really, really pleasing. 

 

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 NRL superstar, Jeremy Latimore. After 11 years playing for 5 different NRL clubs, he retired in 2019 and took inspiration from his property success and became a mortgage broker. He shares what life was like playing professional rugby, and how these skills have been invaluable in his property journey.

 

 

It must be a big change of pace, going from playing NRL full time to studying and working in mortgage broking. Now that his days are more desks and fewer dummy halves, Latimore details what a typical day looks like for him.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:00:52] Usually I wake up at about five o'clock— my wife goes to the gym then, so I try to wake up and read, meditate, journal, get ready to go to the gym. She comes back and then I go to the gym, come home, eat. And then I drop one of the kids, she drops one of the kids— because my daughter likes going with her and I drop my son. Then generally I head to work and try to get as much as I can done in the time I'm at work. Then I go and pick the kids up. 

[00:01:19] Me and my wife try and share that, she's got quite a full on job. So I've had to pick up the slack since I retired from playing rugby league! I feed the kids, get them to bed and then try and relax and decompress a little bit. And if I have to catch up on some work, I'll try and do that at night as well. Then generally I like to try and be in bed by 9:30. But last night, I was still staring at the computer about 10:30 because I've got a fair bit of work on at the moment. 

It sounds like a full-on household! He explains the growing industry his wife works in and how proud he is of her.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:03:06] She is a marketing manager for Milk Lab. So she works for Freedom Foods. So yeah, she looks after all the plant based milks. She's really, really busy with that. And that's obviously a space which is growing with everyone trying to be more health conscious and sort of moving away from dairy to [those] sort of products. So yeah, I've got to pick up the slack these days, because she sacrificed a lot for me when I was playing rugby league. She's a soldier. She obviously goes to the gym at five and she's non stop until she sits on the lounge once we get the crazies to bed.

There are morning people and night people— which one would Latimore describe himself as?

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:03:53] I'm so programmed to training early. So with playing professional sport, we always did our hard stuff in the morning. Say if I got dropped to reserve grade and had to train of an arvo, I always found that so hard to get motivated to do my day, then go and train in the arvo. But sometimes I don't have that chance and I've got to do it in the arvo. I just have to do it. You bite on the mouthguard and get through it.

Taking a step back, he delves into his childhood, where he grew up, and the beginnings of his rugby league career at a young age.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:05:22] I grew up in Port Macquarie. When I was 15, I had a year off rugby league and wanted to be a pro bodybuilder which didn't eventuate— I was a bit big for the body board! So then in my last year in Port Macquarie, completing my HSC, I was lucky enough to get an offer to come to the Cronulla Sharks. I hadn't signed the contract, but I dislocated my shoulder and had to get a shoulder reconstruction. They, luckily, still offered me the contract and once I finished my HSC in November, I moved to Sydney and started training with the Cronulla Sharks under 20s. 

Port Macquarie has changed a lot over the years, especially in the last two decades. Latimore describes what it was like when he was growing up.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:06:09] It was a pretty cruisy town back then. These days, it's fully transformed and it's a real hub. Everyone's moving up from Sydney, my best mate just sold his property last week to a Victorian who's moving up. So it's a very popular place. It's a beautiful spot up there. But back in the day, I was rolling around on my bike when I was 12 or 13, riding around town and bodyboarding. So obviously, they're memories that have stayed with me forever. 

[00:06:37] And all my mates who were my best mates are still my best mates now. Even though I've gone on this journey, playing rugby league and played for half the NRL clubs, I've stayed close with them and love nothing more than getting back there. And now having my own children, showing them where I grew up. Mum and Dad are still on the same property. It is really cool when I do get up there and take the kids to places I did as a kid because it does bring back some good memories. Even going to take my little boy fishing. Me and my old man used to do a lot of that. So we do love that.

He goes on to detail what sparked his interest in rugby league and how it led to an offer from a club at just 15 years old.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:07:37] In my under 16s team, we had actually four guys who went on to play for NRL clubs, which for a small town was unbelievable. So I wouldn't have even been in the top five best players in the under 16s team, but I ended up playing the most games and had the longest career. But it was just my good mates, playing footy. I didn't take anything too serious[ly] as I was younger. And obviously I mentioned I had a year off to go bodyboarding and came back. I started getting picked in a few of the local rep teams. I was really just training and trying to put on some muscle. Actually, one of my best mates, he was already signed with Cronulla Sharks, and he asked if I could come down to a training camp. I impressed them and they showed interest. And that was just pre-me dislocating my shoulder and obviously, the rest is history. I still got that contract and moved to Sydney after that. 

He goes on to describe what it was like getting into the club and starting to train with his new teammates while working at the same time.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:08:47] To be honest, when I first moved to Sydney, I didn't really look after my shoulder. I wasn't the most dedicated to my rehab. So I was really behind the eight ball there. I think I missed the start to that next season in the under 20s. When you first come into a squad, you train in the afternoon and you have to work of a daytime. So I actually worked at Toyota, I was a mail boy there and then I'd go to training in the afternoon. So I just kept working on my game for the rest of that season. 

[00:09:21] We had a really good year. We made the game before the grand final and got knocked out by the Parramatta Eels, who Jarryd Hayne was actually a member of then— he would have been about 16 and was carving us up. Then I went back to Port Macquarie and got a call from the CEO, Steve Rogers, who told me I made the under 19 Australian team, which I thought was actually a gee up at the start! It was a real Steven Bradbury-like selection because a few of the other boys had pulled out and I was lucky enough to... my progression in that first year was something I never would have foreseen and something I still look back on and shake my head because I think of that team there's only one guy who didn't play NRL. And at that point, there were already six or seven guys who were established NRL players. So it was really surreal to find myself in that environment. But once you get that taste for that sort of level of football, the hunger really does come through.

Mentality, Resilience, and Perseverance 

Between moving to a new city, starting a new job, and beginning a professional football career, Latimore’s schedule was jam-packed.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:10:31] After that year I actually got put into full time training for the pre-season. They had a spot of 40 boys, so there's a few of my actually favourite teammates who also came up. So with that you're five days a week. Generally, if you carry a bit of extra weight you have to come in on Saturday as well and try and trim the fat off. And I was definitely in that after that first off season! I really treated myself. But you learn to train and play like a professional and even then I look back and I was still on the weekends having big nights— sometimes two big nights— and then coming in on a Monday and having to rip into my training. Which, as I got older, I definitely didn't do that, the body doesn't allow and obviously your whole mindset towards being a professional changes. And obviously, as you progress into having a family, you value different things. 

 

[00:11:20] It's quite full on in the pre-season, because you're doing five weight sessions, like two very big lower body and two very big upper body. At the same time, you're probably on the field five days. So two of those days are really heavy days. The other two will be sort of speed and ball skill stuff. But as a young kid going into that environment, you're pulling up a bit better, but still, when the physicality of the established NRL plays, you really find where you belong and there's a pecking order. But the journey I did go on through my NRL career really set me up and taught me a lot of things with my mentality and resilience, and even the perseverance I needed to show to get through my rugby league career.

Latimore discusses some of the biggest lessons he learnt earlier in the pre-season.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:12:26] Early in my career, in the offseason when you're younger, you might get five or six weeks off. And so in my last year before I retired, I'd probably have eight or nine weeks off. So in my early days, I was like, 'Nope, I'm gonna go train as hard as I can in the off season so when I get back in November, I'm gonna win everything and impress the coaches'. But in three weeks, I'm completely burnt out. Because I've trained so hard in the off season, and as you get older, you'll learn that you've got to keep the body ticking because if you completely stop, that's when you're gonna break down, when you come back in November. But you learn your body and what you need to do to have yourself in decent condition to get back. And then in that two to three months before that first trial, just get yourself prepared to get through the physicality as well as the mentally draining six months of the football season. 

Tyrone Shum:
It’s tiring just thinking about it, let alone living it! Latimore definitely demonstrated his mental and physical strength during those years.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:13:20] I trained full time from about 2006. So pretty well from 2006 I did preseason every year, then I went back to part time in the season, then first two years, in 2007, 2008. But then from then on, I trained full time until I retired in 2019. So I played 11 years, actually, in the top grade because I didn't debut until 2009. So a long time and even when I think now, it was an awesome journey and at times though you're really questioning yourself as a player. 

[00:13:58] I remember in my second year I ended up dislocating my other shoulder and had to get a shoulder reconstruction. I got a $5,000 offer off Cronulla Sharks to stay and just train in the reserve grade. Luckily the Parramatta Eels came in at the last minute and made me a decent offer, full time in the preseason. So things just ended up happening. It took me on a journey, I did end up playing for five clubs across that 11 years in the NRL but I met some fantastic people and opened some great doors for post-rugby league as well. 

 

Coming up after the break, Latimore delves into how he’s still involved in the rugby league world and how he’s helping rural children...

 

[00:15:08] Because a lot of these country towns is kids who are committing suicide. And NRL is really trying to get out there. Because rugby league, it's hard and strenuous. And it is very physical, but it teaches you so many skills like that, which I'm trying to ingrain into my kids now as well. 

 

We dive into the beginnings of his property portfolio and how he got started...

 

[00:19:42] I had a healthy deposit because I was a bit of a tightass and I'd been saving for a while, but obviously I wasn't on a great income, I was on an okay income. I was down the bottom of the pecking order in the NRL for a long time though, so I decided to get into the property market and it ended up being a really good investment. 

 

We discuss his biggest property blunder, and what he learnt from it...

[00:23:29] If I had bought in Port Macquarie back when I was talking about it, my wife and I, we could have made some riches because that market just went crazy over that next period of time.

 

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

 

 

Latimore describes the new, off-field role he plays with the St. George Dragons and what it teaches him, and in turn, teaches his own children.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:14:44] Just last week I went out to Griffith and all the surrounding towns out there as part of the NRL. So the Dragon sent me as an ambassador and I went with Luke Lewis from the Cronulla Sharks, he's one of my good mates and we went around to probably five or six schools. Did some clinics of an afternoon and just went out and spoke about resilience and leaning on your support networks. Because a lot of these country towns is kids who are committing suicide. And NRL is really trying to get out there. Because rugby league, it's hard and strenuous. And it is very physical, but it teaches you so many skills like that, which I'm trying to ingrain into my kids now as well. Even gratitude and being grateful for what you do have. 

[00:15:31] So I was lucky enough to go out and do that as part of my Ambassador role with the Dragons. I've actually got to go to Mudgee for a few days next week when the boys play the charity shield out there against the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Next weekend I'll go and do a similar thing, go to the schools and run some clinics. And also then on the Saturday we host a function, and fans and partners of the club come along and then we go to the game and watch the boys play the trial. 

  

[00:15:57] Also with my role with the Dragons, I do partnership, I'm in the partnership team, so liaising with the partners of the football club, hospitality, and then on game day going around and talking to them and having a beer. But, saying that, keeping my mind on the job! It's something I'm really grateful for. A small town kid from Port Macquarie, lucky enough to play 11 years in the NRL, train full time for 15. And now I'm retired and I'm lucky enough to have this role with the football club. 

[00:16:25] But also I've got this job doing mortgage broking, which I love and I'm so passionate about. I've owned a lot of property in my time as well, so it's something I'm really passionate about. I love helping some old teammates buy properties and stuff now, which is really good. 

Young people are growing up with social media at the forefront of their lives, and although this has its positives, it has its downsides too. Latimore shares his views on this topic.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:17:03] When we were talking about this last week out in Griffith, I just said back in the day, if you were getting bullied, you could go home and escape it. But now you can't, because social media. There's so many avenues that bullies can bully kids, and it's just with them the whole time, I hate it. And that's one thing of social media I really don't like. And there's always going to be people who are bullies in their journey, people who've had a difficult upbringing, or they've got issues in their own life. And that's why they do that. 

[00:17:44] But as a parent— you can definitely relate to this— that's my thing that I really want to protect my kid, but I want him to... it's gonna happen, but he's got to have that mental resilience. And same as my daughter, to be able to cop it and realise that they're doing it for reasons that they're not happy with their own life. But just that social media, and how people can get to the kids, it is a concern.

[00:19:07] I think that they measure how popular they are by the likes they get on Instagram, which is a load of shit.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:19:16] Exactly, yeah. That's crazy.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:19:18] Anyway, we can only do what we can.

Turning back to his investment journey, Latimore discusses the first property he bought, in the area of the NRL team he had just signed with, and the highs and lows that came with it.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:19:36] It was a property down in Wollongong, I had just signed with the St. George Dragons in 2012. I had a healthy deposit because I was a bit of a tightass and I'd been saving for a while, but obviously I wasn't on a great income, I was on an okay income. I was down the bottom of the pecking order in the NRL for a long time though, so I decided to get into the property market and it ended up being a really good investment. 

[00:20:00] We sold it a few years ago, but it was sort of at the top of the market. It had its moments though, [like] when the hot water tank was in the roof and it exploded. Oh. And there [were] a couple of other issues. I think I had a few tenants that were partying a bit in the house, and I was getting complaints all the time. But it ended up being a really good investment to be honest. And Wollongong was a market from when I bought in 2012, to selling in 2017, really grew. And the only reason we did sell it is so we could buy our family home. 

So he was living in the right place at the right time, but what drew his eye to that particular property?

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:20:41] It was good, I had good tenants. Well, at the start. It was pretty well positively geared from the start, like, I was getting good rent. It was a unit, so there was a bit of strata and stuff, but it was in a really good location, near the big hospital down there, five minutes from town, five minutes from the uni. So stuff that you need as a property investor. And because I was very active, looking into what to do with my money. They were key requisites that you needed for your property. Looking back now, I think 'God, it was a savvy investment for that location'. And I would have paid $290,000 and I nearly would have doubled it, which was really, really pleasing. 

[00:21:39] It was only when I moved back. So I went and played two years for the New Zealand Warriors in 2010 [and] 2011. I didn't want to buy any property over there. And I just decided when we come back, because I was playing for the St. George Dragons, we'll buy property down in Wollongong. And that was just the main reason, I could actually go and look at the property. I liked the property. And I only looked at probably three or four properties before I did buy that one. 

 

[00:22:10] I actually do have a couple of bad stories about property investing. My wife had a really good property down in Cronulla, which she bought with her mother back in the day. And we're at a point in about 2015 and we're like, 'We want to go and do something else'. And we were talking about purchasing in Port Macquarie because I was from there, and I knew the market was starting to get a bit stronger. But we got put onto this guy who touted himself as a property investor guru and [would] do everything for you. That first property wasn't too bad, I didn't really like the guy, he was a bit shady. And then straight away they're pushing us into a second property and we bought that off the plan. We only were meant to put a 10% deposit in, ended up putting a 20% deposit in by the time it's settled. When it was completed the val came in under what it was meant to be. We ended up selling it about three or four years later. Factoring in all the money we put into it, we end up losing about $70,000. 

[00:23:18] I've got some really positive property stories— the first one we bought was good, we ended up making some money on that, but it was less than what we lost on the other one. If I had bought in Port Macquarie back when I was talking about it, my wife and I, we could have made some riches because that market just went crazy over that next period of time.

We wouldn’t grow if we didn’t make mistakes— Latimore notes the number one rule he learnt and now always follows.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:23:49] You only learn from your mistakes. I learned to trust my gut instinct, and same as my wife. But it was an expensive lesson.

Tyrone Shum:
Latimore has owned a handful of properties throughout the years. So how many does he have in his portfolio now?

Jeremy Latimore:  

[00:24:10] Across our journey we had four, and then we ended up selling all them before we bought our family home. So two of them [were] really, really good investments that made us some money, and then the third one was a decent investment but that was sort of cancelled out by that fourth investment.

To dive further into his investment journey, he explains the investment properties he referred to earlier that didn’t perform too well.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:24:45] They were both on the Gold Coast, actually. One was just in one of the estates out there. But looking back, we were just naive and we should have [done] more research considering we both did with the first two, but we just trusted this guy. And they were getting a clip on the broker, they were lending out the money. And I don't want to say name or the business on here, because I'm not like that, that comes back to us. And that was our own fault. But for people who are listening and are watching this, you've got to put time into [those] sort of decisions and not trust other people. You have to trust yourself, because at the end of the day, you're the one who's gotta live with whatever happens. 

Back Your Own Judgement 

He shares how the relationships he’s formed within the property world are so meaningful to him.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:25:53] The reason you're doing is to make money and to build your property portfolio. And, I will go back into the property market again soon. And now that it is my life and my industry, I'll be definitely doing it myself and putting a lot of time into that decision. In saying that I've worked with some fantastic buyer's agents and became mates with some people who are involved with companies that go and do it for you as well. So there are people around me that I can go to to help me with that decision. And I think now everything's a lot more regulated than back then. And you can sort of have the confidence when you do go to someone, but at the same time, you've got to back your own judgement.

He tells of a time he saw his hard work in property pay off and how it all got started.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:26:49] When I sold both the Wollongong one and the Cronulla one, I remember we went to the auction. One was sold just by an agent, private treaty, but the other one was auction. And that was the first time I've ever experienced an auction. And that was pretty cool. And it went over reserve. That was after I played a game on the Friday— we'd won, too, so it was a good weekend— then went there on the Saturday morning. 

[00:27:12] Me and my wife had done a few renos to the property down in Cronulla, and it was a beautiful little unit in a great spot. We had two kids by that point. We actually moved back into it when I moved back to play for Cronulla, so we could do the work on it and get it ready to sell. That was definitely an 'aha' moment— when we heard it go over the head we went like, 'Did that really... Is that the right price?!' And then obviously the agent came up and let us know. That was pretty cool. Because we literally would have sold [those] two properties within the space of about a month of each other. So to get two really good results was very satisfying. It is pretty cool for that feeling because you are making money and you do put a lot of time into paying back the mortgage and hoping that you're going to get capital growth, and when you see it come out at the end and you are rewarded, it's pretty cool. 

After those successes, Latimore and his family took some time away from the market to find their perfect property.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:28:12] Well, we actually went and rented for a year and a half because we were going to wait until the end of my football career to work out what we wanted to do. In my last year we decided to enter the property market then, so we started looking and I reckon it was only the fourth or fifth property we looked at, in Gymea Bay, and fell in love with it. A bit of negotiating and they accepted our offer. It is a good feeling because I've played professional sport for a long time and you have the wins and losses, and when you get a property like that it is a good win. We love where we're living now and obviously going to hold some fond memories bringing up the kids there.

It’s not very often you see NRL players turn into mortgage brokers— he explains the journey that led him here.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:29:21] What actually happened... when I was at the Warriors, I started doing a business degree, transferred back to Wollongong Uni when I was playing at the Dragons in 2012. Signed for the Panthers, so I was living in Cronulla, driving to Penrith for training, driving to Wollongong for uni. I did that until 2016, completed my uni degree. And at that point, Pepper Money actually sponsored the Penrith Panthers, they were Pepper Stadium back then. I met the CEO and he was a great guy. Actually, he wasn't CEO but he is now, Mario. And he said, 'Do you want to come in and start doing some work in the office?' So from that point, I started popping into the Pepper office probably once every two or three weeks and learning about mortgages and what that entails. 

[00:30:11] Because I knew I'd end up in numbers somewhere, but I didn't know whether it'd be mortgage broking or... I liked financial planning, and I invest in the stock market as well. So that's where I thought I would fall. Obviously, travelling from Concord to North Sydney where Pepper was based was okay. But then when I moved back to Cronulla, it was a bit of a nightmare trip. One of my best mates I played football with was actually a mortgage broker at the time and he said, 'Why don't you start coming in and learning the ropes with us? You can just pop in on days off, and see how it's done'. And he was letting me look at files and get on with the aggregator he was with, doing some dummy runs. And I was like, 'Man, I think this is what I want to do', and I did that for the last two years of my career. 

[00:30:59] And that's how I went. The guy I actually was doing that with, he ended up getting out of broking about a month and a half after I retired. So I had to move business. It was a roller coaster, first year in the mortgage broking game, obviously with COVID as well. And I hadn't built up that network, so to say, other than my close mates and my football mates who let me help them out. But now I'm at a point where it's going really, really well. And I'm based down in Cronulla with a broker called Donna Beasley, and she's on the MFAA board and she's been established for a long time. You throw a question at her, she's just, boom, into it straight away. She's awesome.

Latimore was very lucky to come across what he sees as an internship after studying mortgage broking, and he loves learning everything he can on the topic.

Jeremy Latimore:   

[00:31:54] That's the thing. Obviously I touched on finishing my uni degree, I got probably two or three Education Awards throughout my NRL career. I was very proactive in doing that life after rugby league because I was on the fringe for a long time. And I had a few injuries early in my career, my wife was very career motivated. So she didn't want me sitting at home being a lazy bugger. So she sort of gave me a kick up the bum to do the study. 

[00:32:17] Then as I got older, the kids were in that full time daycare or school, I was like 'Well I'm not hanging at home and doing nothing'. So I thought I'd made the use of my days off by trying to build. Whether that was doing another course because I did start doing a financial planning course. And then obviously did my diploma and my Cert 4 in mortgage broking. So there was a real passion there as well. But it sort of was like an internship. And obviously, also, I was going in with my mates, which I really enjoyed and obviously learning how to do mortgage broking because there is so much to learn. And, every day I'm learning something new— even today, we had probably three or four BDMs come through and just learn about the different policies and what the niches are for every bank. It's so interesting. 

 

Jeremy Latimore’s story continues in the next episode of Property Investory. Join us for part two where we’ll delve into what the COVID pandemic has changed for him...

 

[00:03:16] I've got a bit of money tied up in the stock market. So obviously, that's been a roller coaster the last 12 months, literally about this point last year, things were looking rosy and then it fell off a cliff. 

 

How his business relies on word-of-mouth...

 

[00:05:47] I've helped a couple of people settle loans this week, and they've already gone, 'I passed your number onto so and so'. That is pleasing, because that's how you build the business and you love people telling you that you're doing a good job, because sometimes you don't know if you are!

How his personal goals have translated well to his professional goals, but he isn’t perfect...

[00:14:38] I've always had goals through my rugby league career and writing things down and making things become a habit. 

 

And that’s next time on Property Investory.