Property Investment
5 min read
Author: Andrew Nicol
Managing Director, 20+ Years' Experience Investing In Property, Author & Host
Reviewed by: Ed McKnight
Resident Economist, with a GradDipEcon and over five years at Opes Partners, is a trusted contributor to NZ Property Investor, Informed Investor, Stuff, Business Desk, and OneRoof.
Opes is a one stop shop for property investors.
You can get your:
All in one place.
But is it a good idea to have all these services with one company? Or is it better to use different specialists for each part of the journey?
Obviously, we’re a bit biased here. Afterall, you’re reading an article about Opes … on the Opes Partners website. So you might expect us to say: “Just use Opes for everything. That’s the best choice”.
But we’re not going to say that. Because the truth is, some people shouldn’t use Opes for everything. That might not be the right choice for them.
In this article, you'll learn the pros and cons of having all your services with Opes. You'll also learn some of the common misconceptions people have about “one-stop shops.”
That way, by the end of the article, you’ll be able to decide what’s the right decision for you.
Opes works best for investors who want one property-focused team under one roof. But it's not the right fit for everyone.
It’s easiest to start with the reasons you wouldn’t use Opes for all your property investment services.
Property investors own investments all around New Zealand. No single company can (or should) be everywhere.
For instance, let’s say you own a rental in a location like Queenstown. Opes doesn't have a property management team there. You'll need to use someone local like Housemart or another on-the-ground provider.
In these cases, investors naturally end up with a mix of professionals.
Sure, Opes might help you with the mortgage or finding the property, but using an on-the-ground property manager could be the right choice.
Some investors come to Opes with pre-existing relationships they value:
These relationships can carry history, trust, and personalised knowledge built over time. If those relationships are working well, there might be no need to disrupt them.
In that case, keeping those relationships can make sense. You can use some, all or none of our different services if that’s the right decision for you.
Let’s say you get your financial plan, property, accounting, mortgage and property management in one place.
If all those people work for the same company, you’ll likely get a team that works together. But everyone within the company will have a similar investment philosophy.
So you might not get as many independent, different opinions about ways to invest.
Whereas if you used a few different companies, they won’t all think a similar way about investing. So you get a wider range of opinions, even though that does mean the service won’t be as joined-up.
Another thing to watch out for are conflicts of interest. For instance, you might make you decision to invest in a property through Opes based on a rental appraisal from Opes Property Management.
So there might be an incentive for the property managers to inflate the rental appraisals. That might make a property look like a better investment than it is.
That is a fair and reasonable concern.
And that is the reason why, here at Opes, we publish the data each week about how accurate our rental appraisals are.
That way, investors can see how our estimates compare with the actual rents achieved.
Now, that you know the potential cons of having everything in one place, let’s look at the upsides. Here are the reasons some investors choose to keep everything with one provider.
The biggest advantage is simplicity.
When everything sits under one roof, you’re not juggling multiple companies that don’t talk to each other. And they’re more likely to all be on the same page.
Property investing has a lot of moving parts. Working with different people from different businesses makes you the go-between for all your advisers.
Whereas if you have a one-stop shop, those advisers work together daily. You'll get more joined-up thinking and advice.
Because even if your mortgage adviser and financial adviser are on different pages, they can talk it out. You don’t have to be in the middle of two advisers saying different things.
That’s harder when you’re working with independent businesses that don’t share the same office.
Opes+ is a free app that helps you run cashflows on your investment properties. It also puts everything in one place, including your:
... all sit in one system. That means you’ve got a portal to see all your info in one place.
But you only get access to all the Opes+ features if you have all your services in one place. So if you want a simpler way to manage your portfolio, you might decide to have all your services in one place.
Let’s say you’re unhappy with your property manager at a different company. What do you do? Talk to the owner.
At Opes, that’s easy. Because if something isn’t quite right you can always contact Andrew or Ed, the hosts of the Property Academy Podcast.
Because they are the directors of Opes, it’s easy to escalate to them, or make a formal complaint.
The same owners sit across the entire group. So, escalation is straightforward and issues tend to get resolved quickly.
Unlike franchises or generalist firms, every Opes brand exists specifically for property investors:
So while you’re using multiple services, they all operate under the same strategic umbrella.
One that's designed to support property investors rather than the broader market.
Whether you use Opes for all your services, a few of them, or none at all is entirely up to you.
The right setup depends on your strategy, your preferences, and the people you already trust. We know we won’t be the best fit for everyone – and if that’s the case, we’ll tell you.
But if you want a joined-up team that works to a single plan and specialises exclusively in property investors ... then Opes is built for that.
Managing Director, 20+ Years' Experience Investing In Property, Author & Host
Andrew Nicol, Managing Director at Opes Partners, is a seasoned financial adviser and property investment expert with 20+ years of experience. With 40 investment properties, he hosts the Property Academy Podcast, co-authored 'Wealth Plan' with Ed Mcknight, and has helped 1,894 Kiwis achieve financial security through property investment.
This article is for your general information. It’s not financial advice. See here for details about our Financial Advice Provider Disclosure. So Opes isn’t telling you what to do with your own money.
We’ve made every effort to make sure the information is accurate. But we occasionally get the odd fact wrong. Make sure you do your own research or talk to a financial adviser before making any investment decisions.
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