Bob Jones Dead at 85

New Zealand's larger than life property investor, writer and raconteur, Bob Jones has died after a short illness, aged 85. A lot will be written about him, and a few may mention he backed the Wellington trans-gender madam, Carmen to run for mayor of Wellington back in 1977. She lost, but people noticed a long delay in announcing the result, they smelt a rat. On the Monday back at work, everyone in Wellington would say they'd voted for Carmen. Jones believed the result was rigged, and no-one doubted it.

I forget the year, but back at about the same time as Carmen ran for mayor, Jones had the side of a building in Wellington painted with the sign; Mat Rata Reads Comics. Mat Rata was a Labour politician at the time, and Jones had seen him reading a comic at the airport. 

Then, leading up to the 1984 general election, Jones formed the New Zealand Party. Broadly speaking, we'd call this party libertarian today. It was established to remove NZ prime minister Robert Muldoon from office. They split the right-wing vote and Labour were elected. With its main goal achieved, and with Labour stealing all of its policies, the party soon folded thereafter.

Since then, Jones established himself as a critic and commentator, sometimes wrong, often right, but always humorous and a good read. He wrote several books, both non-fiction and fiction, but his best book was his first, Jones on Property. (1977).

Jones on Property is about investing in real estate, and it is the best book written on the subject. Key takeaway: there is glamour in industrial. He goes into why investors should avoid residential, and looks at the pros and cons of retail, office and industrial investment. Of all options, he preferred industrial. For any investor, this book is so valuable because he tells the reader why different people in the industry do what they do, and what they're thinking about. He looks at the banker, the investor, the tenant, and the property vendor. His insight is valuable, revealing, for instance, that prospective tenants of an industrial building will check out the office space first, before even checking whether the actual reason for the building existing meets their particular needs. He concludes that new carpet for the office will reward the investor better than anything else done to the building, dollar for dollar. He also wonders why investors insist on checking out the whole building, as he often bought industrial real estate after simply driving past. He commented that he'd yet to find an industrial building selling minus a back wall. 

Another important reason for investing in industrial (and I've found this out myself); the tenants are often very handy types, with hammers and screwdrivers and all the tools. Thus, they clear blocked toilets, fix that leaking roof, and basically never complain. Plus, their factory equipment is often bolted to the floor and so they won't be leaving in a hurry when you put up the rent. 

But of course, he does remind the reader of the three rules of investing in real estate: location, location, location. Thus, multi-level office towers in Upper Hutt are no good. He talks a lot about investing in the type of building surrounded by other similar types of building. Don't invest in an orphan.

Radio New Zealand's website has this short piece on him, I haven't read it carefully, it's probably all lies:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/559715/businessman-and-politician-sir-bob-jones-dead-at-85