WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE COAST’S QUEEN OF SALES?

The Sunshine Coast’s million-dollar real estate agent has a new plan. Spoiler: it doesn’t involve selling property.

It’s no secret that everything Melissa Schembri touches turns to gold. This bubbly local is a former property lawyer, has over eight years’ experience as a successful life coach, is a property investor, motivational speaker and one of the Sunshine Coast’s highest selling real estate agents. She has helped many locals fulfil their dreams of successfully downsizing, upsizing and investing in property, which is why the news she is stepping into a whole new role is so surprising. “I live and breathe real estate: I love it! But I’m ready for the next step, and I know it’s going to change lives.”

Enter Melissa’s partner Daniel Rees. With an impressive résumé spanning 22 years in brokering, SMSF lending, finance and property, Daniel possesses an enormous wealth of experience and expertise in financial strategy specialising in property investment. Combine this with Melissa’s 20 years’ experience and knowledge in property law, coaching and real estate, and you have encyclopaedic information, skill and fluency in the industry at your fingertips. Sprinkle a double dose of growth mindset over it all, and financial freedom for anyone in Melissa and Daniel’s orbit is inevitable. Yet for so many, even for those with an asset and/or above average earnings, this is seemingly unachievable.

“I see it time and again,” Daniel says. “High income earners who have probably bought their own home, but then don’t invest again because they’ve had a bad experience with an investment unit and the body corporate. Or perhaps they tried to invest in a fixer-upper and overcapitalised, so ended up spending the profit on unnecessary renovations. Then there are those who get caught in analysis-paralysis: they’re just too scared of making a mistake or investing poorly.”

Melissa chimes in, “I’ve sold amazing properties for retired clients who had hugely successful, professional careers - people who had been forced to downsize, sell their only asset and now live on the pension. If they’d had the knowledge back when they were earning those great salaries and invested in property that worked for their situation then, they wouldn’t be trying to live on a couple of hundred dollars a week now.”

Their combined knowledge and experience are formidable, but it is the altruism behind their solution to investment roadblocks such as these, that is most impressive. “We have loved using our knowledge and energy throughout our careers to guide people to better, smarter investment decisions with property, but only ever one-onone,” Daniel says.

Melissa continues, “We want to reach more than just one person at a time. We know the market, the laws around investment, SMSFs and property inside out and we want to share that knowledge so others can have greater financial freedom and security as they approach retirement. That’s why we created Hello Freedom.”

Hello Freedom, is Melissa and Daniel’s brainchild, a platform designed to educate, empower and strengthen the knowledge of Australians ready to achieve financial freedom using property investment. Through face-to-face monthly information seminars held here on the Sunshine Coast (or zoom for non-locals), one-on-one coaching sessions, accountability meetings and access to Melissa and

Daniel’s suite of trusted professionals, participants will gain the knowledge, confidence and support to make property investment work for them. “Best of all,” Daniel enthuses, “getting together with other Hello Freedom participants creates a powerful community. It becomes a network of like-minded people who provide further support, confidence and inspiration to invest.”

The program creates a space for those with a reasonably high household income to safeguard their future retirement, leveraging their existing assets and income to invest in property. “People don’t realise that there are many different ways to make property work,” Melissa says. “You may be able to subdivide or strata title a block; If you have a large home and are prepared to do some minor reconfiguring then rooming accommodation could be an option to increase return on investment; You may be able to use the equity in one property to finance another; You could renovate and flip a property; Perhaps commercial property might be the best fit for your portfolio… All of these situations have specific outcomes, and if you follow through and invest with intelligence and knowledge, the returns can be phenomenal.” Melissa says she helped a client to do a quick cosmetic renovation of their property and then style and stage for sale, achieving a huge $400,000 increase. Melissa helped another client to purchase a block of land, build a duplex and sell them individually with over a $600,000 profit. The client went on to buy a property that they converted into an Airbnb which they use to generate a huge ongoing passive income.

For some, having the knowledge is one thing, but putting it into practice is quite another. Half the battle in investing in property, is being able to lean on trusted professionals with your best interests at heart, rather than their back pocket. There are many properties with great opportunity, but you need to know what you are looking for, how to work out the feasibility of the project, and which professionals to consult. There’s also been no shortage of cheap house and land package spruikers who pretend to have your best interest at heart but will say just about anything to make commission. Town planners, mortgage brokers, property lawyers, financial strategists, accountants, zoning, and tax specialists... With decades in the industry on the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane, Melissa and Daniel have a broad suite of professionals they confidently recommend to ease Hello Freedom participants into the investment journey.

It’s clear that unlike some online programs, Hello Freedom is not about disseminating cookie-cutter information for people to muddle out on their own. Apart from access to the program, Daniel is adamant, “We’re not selling a product. We’re facilitating a future, a retirement of abundance.”

Melissa emphasises the point, “My core values have always centred around helping people achieve their best life. Whether that was supporting them in property law or life coaching, or getting the best price for their property, I’ve always strived to make that person happier, better, wealthier from their interaction with me. But both Daniel and I have realised that in our careers, we’ve only been reaching one person at a time. With Hello Freedom, we can give the formula to a retirement filled with abundance to many.”

That’s a pretty exciting next step, not just for Melissa and Daniel, but for the entire Sunshine Coast.

Join the next intake of Hello Freedom and safeguard your future with property investment. Melissa and Daniel would love to hear from high income earners who are ready to take control of their personal equity and make their assets work. ca