There’s this perception that you can only invest in property if you already have a lot of money in the bank.
That’s what so many Australians think. You either need cash or a huge chunk of equity to get anywhere.
Somebody who’s living in a car stands no chance, right?
This inspiring story of property investing success will make you think otherwise.
It all seemed to start so well for Andrew. He’d married his beautiful wife, Janet, and they both had jobs.
Life was pretty good. Then, they decided to move to Baranduda in Victoria. They both left their jobs and bought a house without doing any research.
The house was a fixer-upper, to say the least. But it was the job market that really stung the couple. Andrew struggled to find work in the teaching space.
400 failed applications later, he still hadn’t found anything near home. So, he sent a few applications to places closer to his old home.
And he got a job offer in Newcastle.
So, the couple sold the property and moved closer to his new job. They made a marginal profit because they’d bought the house for below its market value.
While renting, Andrew discovered the ASX…
…and things started to go downhill from there.
He says that for three months, he was basically a gambler. He didn’t really know what he was doing, so each investment was a gamble on red or black.
His bets didn’t work out.
So, he started to take out loans to cover the costs of rent. However, he didn’t tell Janet about a thing. All of the while, the money situation kept spiralling out of control.
Andrew fell into a deep depression.
Not only did he have a financial issue, but he’d also created a toxic environment at home because of his lying.
He developed a coping mechanism – drinking.
And of course, they took an even bigger chunk out of his finances. Worse yet, he developed an addiction that he couldn’t hide from his wife any longer.
The marriage broke down.
Even so, he managed to get a mortgage through a broker to buy a home for his family to live in.
The deal was that he’d pay the mortgage for the house and the rent on the house he lived in himself.
Then, the call came.
Andrew had work lined up from August through to December. He got a call to tell him that the contracts for those work were all pulled.
He had nothing else lined up. And, he’d just made all of his payments.
Andrew had $10.60 to his name.
And that’s how he ended up living in his car. But as crazy as it sounds, reaching rock bottom turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
An I Love Real Estate student found Andrew living in his car. He told him about the seminars and Andrew started to attend.
In doing so, he learned how property could help him to get his life back on track.
After a few conversations, he realised that an opportunity existed that he’d never seen before.
He entered marriage counselling with Janet and started to get his head straight. Andrew got back into work. But he also kept looking for property deals.
Andrew found a site for $200,000 plus GST. Acting as the project manager, he enlisted four other students, each of whom got a unit and two shops.
They sold the shops down to get the deposit and Andrew ended up with a house for $300,000. That was $80,000 below market value.
As the manager of that project, he’ll net $50,000!
The money from the deal isn’t the big issue here.
Andrew has his life back. He’s not living in his car anymore and he’s getting to do what he’s best at – teach.
That’s his role as a project manager.
That $50,000 will give him what he needs to start his next project. With hard work and dedication, he’ll go from having next to nothing to succeeding in property.
The lessons from Andrew’s story are valuable in all walks of life.
Andrew had the mindset that the man should always be the breadwinner in a relationship. That’s what led him to hide his financial troubles from his wife.
It’s also what led him into trouble and depression.
He tied his self-worth into his net worth, which is never a healthy mindset. To succeed in property, you need to have confidence in yourself and your education.
Getting out of this mindset opened the door for Andrew to succeed.
As a teacher, Andrew’s used to looking after other people.
He always came second in his own mind. In fact, he thought that putting himself first made him selfish and greedy.
With I Love Real Estate, he learned that he has to look after number one. With that mindset, he’s able to structure property deals that protect him.
What’s Andrew going to do with the money he’s going to earn from his first project?
If you said “buy a new car”, you’re wrong.
He’s going to leverage that cash to enter a new deal that will hopefully generate more income.
Rinse and repeat.
He’s going to use what he’s learned to teach others while climbing up the ladder in terms of deal size.
The lesson here is that you don’t need to change a strategy that works.
But beyond that, don’t waste the money that a successful deal generates. Use it to move onto another deal that will help you to earn more.
Traditional wisdom will tell you that somebody in Andrew’s position could never succeed with property.
But he has and he’s learned skills that he can pass on to others.
He’s discovered his niche in property and he has his life back on track.
The biggest lesson of all is that it doesn’t matter where you start. With a good community around you, it’s possible to use property investment to pull yourself up from rock bottom.
DB
