Most found in search
Strata or Torrens title: what you ownHow much can you borrow?From Google Search Console, October 2026.
Most found in search
The Home Equity Access SchemeThe Age Pension and your investment propertyTax on rental income in retirementGranny flats, family and the Age PensionFrom Google Search Console, October 2026.
Lessons by email
New lessons are added here one at a time, as each is finished and checked.
Where you stand today, and what each path ahead would mean.
Building PathwaysWhile you build: each step ahead, on your own numbers.
A second look at one property before you commit.
A mentor beside you, from the first conversation to the keys.
A lesson with Nicholas on the topic you choose.
Who you would be learning from, and how MRD works.
The office line and a note form.
What is kept, and why.
Retirement is here, or in sight? Go to the Retirement side →
Worried about getting the first one, or the next one, wrong?
Buying real estate can look simple online. Behind every listing sit finance, tax, structure, the land, the build, tenants and timing, and each one shapes the next. We teach you how it all fits together, model it with your own numbers, and stay beside you, so every step is a considered one.
An example. The people are invented. Narrated by an AI version of Nicholas Lockhart’s voice. 1:23
Read the words
This is Claire and Josh. They’re thirty-two, with good jobs, two young children and a home loan. They’ve talked about investing for years.
One night a friend sends them a link to the MRD Library: how real estate works, to read or to listen to. Josh looks at it and says, next year.
Through this door, next year becomes the year after. Life fills up, and the years go faster than they planned. At fifty-two they sit down and say, we really need to invest now. They still can. They just wish they’d learned how it works twenty years earlier.
Now the other door.
Through this one, they start by learning. They read how it works, then sit down with Nicholas. Before their first investment they run the numbers on it: what it costs them each week, and what happens if rates rise or it sits empty for a month. Their first investment is a considered one.
At fifty-two, they know where they stand, and what each choice would change.
It’s usually what you haven’t been shown that costs the most.
The first conversation with Nicholas costs nothing.
How we help while you build
Set n Forget, for busy people.
Watch a 1:23 example first: Sliding Doors
Learn
Finance, tax, structure, strategy: real estate has many moving parts. We model them with you and make the complex simple, so every decision is an informed one.
Decide
Together we craft a workable strategy you are comfortable with, for now and for your long-term goals. The decision is yours.
Contract
Our concierge turns your contract into plain words before you sign, so you know what you are agreeing to. Legal advice comes from your solicitor.
Build
Where there is a build, the choice of builder is yours. Nicholas helps you plan the progress payments with your broker, builder and solicitor.
Settle
Broker, solicitor, builder, seller, quantity surveyor and building inspector are all kept in step, so you don’t chase anyone.
Hold
Depreciation schedule, rental manager, building inspector: we introduce people we know are good. If one retires or lets you down, we help you find a better one, at no charge.
Ways to hold real estate
Real estate is the land. How you hold it decides how it pays you.
Long-term rentals
Steady tenants, and the demand and rents your rental manager sees.
Short-stay rentals
Short-stay income, with its own costs and rules.
Two incomes, one property
Dual-income homes and duplexes.
Being a mini developer
One title, a pair of duplexes, then strata or Torrens titles.
Property in super
Buying property with super: what changed on 10 August 2026.
SDA homes
Every moving part of ordinary real estate, multiplied.
Some real estate is sold harder than it deserves.
When the NDIS made SDA homes a sector of their own, they looked like a win with no downside. They can be a good result, but not always. That is the use of a mentor: someone who knows the right questions, so you can weigh up who you deal with.
Nicholas looked at SDA when it began, and walked away. In May 2024 he looked at it again, and he knows the good, the bad and the ugly of this sector. If SDA has been put to you, it helps to talk it through before signing anything.
Ways to work with Nicholas
One hour on Zoom with Nicholas, built around the questions you send ahead, with a short written summary after.
What you get
- One hour on Zoom with Nicholas.
- Your questions sent ahead, so the hour goes where you need it.
- Five business days’ notice, so Nicholas can prepare.
- A short written summary after the lesson.
A second opinion on a property you have found. A good buy can still be the wrong buy for you. Before a very large decision, you see how it sits against your own numbers.
What you get
- A short intake form: the property, your loans, your income, and the assumptions you want tested.
- A cash flow analysis of the property, built from your own inputs.
- Where you want it, the property’s effect on your wider position, not only its own cash flow.
- A video call with Nicholas to walk through it and test the what-ifs you set: a higher or lower growth rate, a rate rise, a vacancy.
Still building, or about to start? This sets the pathways open to you side by side, from keeping things as they are to adding the next property, on your own numbers.
What you get
- Your whole position as it is today: income, savings, loans, any property, super and tax.
- That position carried forward, unchanged, through your working life and the years beyond.
- The pathways open to you, modelled beside it: keep renting and saving, buy a first investment, add the next one.
- Every assumption shown, so you and your accountant can check the figures.
- A written report, with one round of changes included.
Built around your needs and agreed after your free first call. It includes the full concierge service from contract to keys: your solicitor, broker, builder and inspections kept in step, so you never chase anyone.
What you get
- A first conversation with Nicholas, at no cost.
- If he can add value, a written proposal and quote.
- Education and modelling with your own numbers, at your pace.
- Your contract in plain words before you sign; legal advice stays with your solicitor.
- The full concierge service from contract to keys: your solicitor, broker, builder and inspections kept in step, so you never chase anyone.
Funding your first investment, or the next one?
Lending is done by MRD Finance, a related, separate business run by Nicholas’s son, James, trading as Home Buyers Club (Australian Credit Licence 410231). Nicholas does not arrange loans.
Lessons for building
One short lesson at a time, for people starting out or still building. No cost. Leave whenever you like.
From the Library
Worked with Nicholas? Share your experience in a Google review. It helps the next person find clarity.
Leave a reviewThe first conversation
Tell me what you want, what your goals are and what you hope to achieve. If I can help you get there, I’ll tell you what it costs to work with me. If I can’t, I’ll be honest and tell you that too. That first conversation costs nothing.
Clarity first. Confidence follows. The MRD way.