Property investor Rodney Lockyer has been a Momentum Wealth client for 16 years. A costly early lesson led him to contact Perth’s longest-standing buyer’s agency, and he has had no reason to look elsewhere since.
In martial arts, they often say you learn more from defeat than victory.
Rodney Lockyer, a three-time Australian champion and co-founder of one of Western Australia’s premier martial arts institutions, knows that better than most.
It’s a philosophy he’s taken from the gym to investment, and it was a painful lesson in property, not competition, that ultimately led him to Momentum Wealth.
Years earlier, Mr Lockyer sold a property in Scarborough to simplify his finances, only to watch its value soar since the sale.
It’s the kind of decision that leaves a lasting memory long after the paperwork is signed, but while painful, it shaped his investment philosophy.
When he was in a position to return to property, he said he was determined to do it properly, and that meant he wasn’t going to do it alone.
“I’m a big believer that nobody is an expert in everything, so when I need advice in a particular field, I’ll get someone who is,” Mr Lockyer said.
“That’s literally how I live my life.”
Mr Lockyer said once he made the decision to rebuild his property portfolio alongside his business, he got in contact with several buyer’s agencies.
And it was the quality of that first conversation with Momentum Wealth that made him realise that he had found his fit.
“It came down to that first phone call,” Mr Lockyer said. “Nothing was a problem. They asked what I was looking for, what my price range was, and it just made me feel like whatever I needed, they could make that happen.
“And they did.”
As a time-poor business owner, Mr Lockyer said the value of his relationship with Momentum Wealth came down to the confidence to hand something over and trust it would be taken care of with minimal involvement.
Having purchased two Belmont investment properties through the agency over the course of their relationship, it is a confidence that has only grown over time, and Mr Lockyer is now preparing to hand a third property, his former family home in Ballajura, to Momentum Wealth as a rental.
For Mr Lockyer, Momentum Wealth’s full-service offering, from organising trades and coordinating tenancies to consolidating tax records, means his property portfolio never competes for his attention.
“My pressure is time,” he said. “If I was trying to do this all by myself, it would take two or three times longer.
“My energy is in other areas.”
Looking ahead, with low debt across a portfolio that has grown significantly in value, retirement is no longer a distant prospect for Mr Lockyer, it is now a choice he can make on his own terms.
He has already recommended Momentum Wealth to his business partner, and as he looks towards his next chapter, the portfolio quietly built over a decade and a half is looking like one of his better decisions.
“I’ve never had a desire to shift elsewhere,” he said. “That’s kind of rare in any industry.”