Cal’s appearance on WA’s leading real estate podcast

This week, our managing director Cal Doggett shared the Properties & Pathways story and the organisation’s investment strategies on WA’s leading property podcast, The Perth Property Show. Listen to the episode here, where Cal discusses everything managed funds and commercial property acquisitions with Trent Fleskens. 

Trent Fleskens is the managing director of Strategic Property Group and Strategic Settlements, and host of The Perth Property Show. He’d also worked with Cal over a decade ago at global accounting firm PWC, not just emphasising the country-town scale of Perth’s real estate market but adding a great, personal feel to the whole conversation. 

As Trent says in the closing minute of the show, no other guest has given as much of a candid, genuine and personal contribution to the podcast as much as Cal. 

Here’s what Cal and Trent cover in their 45-minute chat: 

1. Our first purchase 

As a WA-based syndicator, it did turn heads when we purchased an industrial asset in the relatively unknown precinct of Slacks Creek, Queensland back in September 2011. 

Admittedly, this transaction was before we procured our AFSL (Australian Financial Service License) and was at a time our investor base consisted predominantly of family members – meaning we didn’t need to convince a database of investors of whether this distant locale was a wise investment target.

Purchasing the asset on a 10-plus-per cent annual yield not only put any doubts to bed of our interstate investment strategy, but launched our campaign for future exciting acquisitions. After a couple more investments, we acquired our AFSL and began our path from family business to multi-state fund manager. 

And the end result of that first purchase? A 180-per cent total return in seven years. 

2. Why we stick to our lane 

As Cal mentions, we aim to turn down 99 per cent of the potential property purchases that come across our desks. There’s a specific, dedicated set of criteria we look at before even considering setting foot on a site. 

We operate in a niche within a niche. And we aim to keep it that way. 

3. Who our target buyer is

As Cal explains, there aren’t that many investors in Australia willing to fork out tens of millions of dollars on, say, an industrial warehouse. Those buyers are almost exclusively institutional investors – your Charter Halls and your Centurias. 

These are Australia’s biggest property players, who want a passive investment that they can offer their long list of conservative investors. It’s why we get our hands dirty before and during the holding period – performing a thorough due diligence, creating a tailored investment strategy, identifying the property’s weaknesses (which we can capitalise on) – so these funds don’t have to. 

We start these investments with a finish line – and a buyer – in mind. 

4. The secrets of the commercial real estate game

We’d guess there’ll be a few listeners replaying the final half of the show, where Cal drops his decade-plus of commercial property investment wisdom, free of charge.

Want to know what we’re talking about? Take a listen yourself:

Listen to Cal Doggett on The Perth Property Show

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