This transcript was generated automatically and may contain small errors.
When you bought that first property of mine, I was told from the bank, I can't buy another property. I sat down and spoke with you and you were like, please, there's always a way. Within a few months, you'd purchased a property for us in Brisbane. You actually negotiated the price down from $315,000 down to $297,000. So your fee was like more than absorbed.
It's crazy to still think today though, $297,000. $297,000. And I'm getting real estate agents from Brisbane calling me every week saying they can sell it for $900,000. That's 300%. Nerd alert!
Property nerds. The home for data-driven property investors. Where we uncover Australia's hot and cold markets, latest headlines and trends. Welcome back to another episode of the Property Nerds podcast. I'm Arjun Paliwal, the CEO of InvestorKit.
And hey, if you've been tuning into the show and you haven't already done it, click like and subscribe. Don't forget to follow us because more episodes like this can keep coming out and more episodes like this can reach you in the feed because real investors, investor stories and news and headlines broken down with the data is what we do on the Property Nerds podcast. Now, today's episode, I'm with Brenton. Brenton's from Russo Electrical. He has his own business.
He's in the trades. He's been an electrician since early on. Age 22, he kicked off his business. What a special time to get into things. But also, he made some expensive mistakes along the way when it came to building a property portfolio.
But that didn't stop him. He knew that investing was good. He knew that building wealth was good. And that's when we connected with our team to take it further and build well over a million dollars of equity and growth from just two purchases that we made. Now, spoiler alert, those two aren't the last.
We are building on it. We are growing even further. But the difference isn't just the number of purchases. It's Brenton's story from what life was like before even kicking off investing around the dinner table, money conversations. What did that mean to him?
How did it help him? From there, kicking off business and taking that business income into building a portfolio. Also, towards the end of the podcast, we cover off more about what surprised him on his journey, what's really been a big difference maker, and how during times of uncertainty or turbulence, he's actually taken action and his ways to think about taking action. We'll uncover all of that and more on this investor story in the Property Nerds podcast. Let's get into it.
I know earlier in the intro, we spoke a little bit about the portfolio and a bit about your background, but I want to go further back. I want to talk about how before investing, your upbringing around money, because I feel like the outcome of investing is one part, but when it comes to the outcome of investing and the results, there's firstly the commitment to investing, then there's the commitment to debt, then there's money saving. There's all this stuff. I want to talk about the before. What's been the upbringing around your family, your home, and money in general?
I would say I had a pretty good upbringing with money. I have a mom that's a financial advisor and a dad that's an accountant. There you go. It doesn't get better than that. It was literally like our dinner time conversation was, how are you saving your money?
What have you saved? I remember I worked at McDonald's when I was 14. I made $70 a week, and I got asked by my mom how I'm saving my money. How much of that weekly wage of $70 am I saving? What am I allocating to what?
What are my investment plans moving forward? I was just like, what are you talking about? It's $70. I got more for my birthday and Christmas by times 10. From an early age, money was always nailed into me.
In saying that, as my journey went on and I met you, I realized the old school generation and the old school methods don't always apply in today's society. There's a lot of learnings from it with the money part, but then also business is an interesting part because you got into business quite young. We've known each other for almost seven years now. During those six to seven years of knowing you, you were in business back then too. When did business kick off for you, and when did you start getting interested in property and wealth creation beyond just the financial savings?
Like I said, my dinner time conversation was about business and starting business. I was always on my mind. I pretty much became an electrician because I knew I could... Well, I wasn't ever going to uni. I'll face that.
I knew if I became an electrician, I could actually get my license and start a business as quick as possible, which is pretty much what I did. I started my business when I was 22. It's been 12 years now. That's even before me. Yeah, yeah.
I think when I first met you, I was like five, six years into my business. Yeah. Well, during that time, where did you pick up some of your business learnings or your interest in property now? Because the wealth creation part is different to the earning and savings part. Where did that come from?
I guess having a business and working with different types of clients, I was getting exposed to different types of thinking. Some of the real wealthy clients I was working for, I was obviously picking their brain, like, how did you do it? How do you get there? It was always property. It was always like, you can get a high income, but you're never going to build wealth without property.
I was interested in property because construction, that's what I'm working in. It sort of made sense to go down that path. Now, I can very much remember Chris introduced us back in 2020. Yeah. Right, so COVID's right there.
Yeah. Right? We're just before the lockdowns at this point talking. Was it just after or just before? I think it was just before, right?
It was definitely just before. Yeah, just at the start. So, well, before that, I'd actually bought two units, right? Yes. So, I basically saved up as much as I could.
I went off my parents' advice and, you know, your uncle at the family barbecue's advice is buy anything, buy whatever's around the corner from your family home, which is what I did. That was all sweet. I thought it was a good purchase. I didn't know any better. A year later, I'd saved up about $80,000.
So, I was ready to go again. I went to the bank and they were like, yep, no worries, you can borrow $400,000. That's what they told me. I bought a unit for $405,000 in Auburn in Sydney. I thought I did good.
Like, they were both covering themselves. I was able to keep saving and I didn't know any better. I thought I was doing well. But then a year later, I'd saved up another $80,000 and I went to the bank again to buy again and they're like, no chance. Like, you can't borrow more.
You can't even service the debt you've already got. Like, if a tenant was vacated and you had a loss of income, you're done. There's no way. And I walked away like, how is that possible? Like, there's no way.
How are people doing it? I just had no idea. So, I joined a group on Facebook, which was Property Talk Australia. I remember this now. Yeah.
So, I started to read lots of posts and just educate myself a little bit, but I didn't really go much further than that. And then coincidentally, Chris, who we met through, turned out to be like one of my clients. Like, he owns a property management business that we did work for. And I'd never met him because I knew the property manager, but then he's the moderator on the Facebook group. I'm like, hold on a second.
I've got an introduction to this guy. So, I seeked out that person, got that introduction, and Chris is absolute legend, had a coffee with me and gave me like 30 minutes of his time that I'll never forget. And he's like, he told me two important things. Concentrate on your business, what you're good at, make as much money as you can on your strength, and surround yourself with people like experts. Don't buy property yourself because you're going to be in the position you're in now.
You need an expert. And he said, there's this guy. I haven't worked with him, but I've spoken to him. We're friends, and he's the smartest guy I've ever met when it comes to property. And he goes, I think you guys would get on.
Wow, what a special story. I actually walked out of that coffee and I called you straight away because I was like, I couldn't wait for the introduction. I'm just like so excited. I've got to talk to this guy. I had a path forward, so yeah.
What a special story. And you know, if I just go before that to those two units, what's really interesting is that the belief switch for you as well over time. Back then, the belief was like, oh, they cover themselves. But then afterwards, it was like, wait, hold on a minute. I'm stuck here.
I'm not getting more. But the reason you weren't getting more was not just the whole covering self part. It was actually strategy, structure. It was location. It was capital growth because we're so used to just going, can I get this property to be as comfortable as possible, which you did.
Affordable units, cheap, covers itself at that time, but they weren't serving the purpose. Now, before we that you maybe see a lot of them not follow? Well, first things first, work hard, do what you're good at, and save. That's the hardest part, to get that first deposit. But, I mean, if we can look at what we were able to achieve together, when you bought that first property of mine, I was told from the bank, I can't buy another property.
I sat down and spoke with you, and you were like, please, there's always a way, there's always another way, which we were able to obviously work out, and within a few months, you'd purchased a property for us in Brisbane that we first negotiated at $315. What a price back then, hey? Yeah, but then COVID hit, and I remember looking at the news, property's going to fall, property's going to tank, and I was absolutely shitting myself. I probably called you every day, like, oh my God, I don't know what to do. You kept me solid, you filled me with confidence.
You actually negotiated the price down from $315 down to $297, so your fee was more than absorbed back then. It's crazy to still think today, though, $297. $297, and I'm getting real estate agents from Brisbane calling me every week saying they can sell it for $900. That's 300%, right? Yeah.
Then six months after that, we were able to purchase a fourth property, and I didn't even have to put in a deposit. We were able to pull equity out and purchase a fourth property, and I was like, hold on, I haven't been doing anything differently. The bank told me I couldn't do that, and suddenly now I'm buying my fourth property, and we've got the first one revalued. I think that went up $60K or something, so we were able to pull out a little bit, and then I had four properties. I was like, this is just insane.
You were scribbling papers, and that was just creating wealth. Yeah, and I didn't put anything in, and to think that one year, like 2020 and those two investment decisions with yourself changed my life completely, and it gave me that peace of mind knowing that I can go into my next thing knowing that I've set myself up. I've made the right decisions there. I can see they're moving in the right direction, and I still went out and did something crazy. As you know, I bought an Airbnb up on the Central Coast or at Foster.
Just before that Central Coast property, I want to talk about this first Brisbane property because if you actually unpack it a little bit, so many people, if I just hid the purchase price, would say no to the property because it's got some weatherboard aspects to it. It's what, three bed, one bath? Yeah. Yeah, three bed, one bath. It's in a lower socio-western suburbs of Brisbane, and that back then was even rougher back then than it is today.
It had some touch-ups that needed to be done. Nothing major, just some touch-ups at the time, all maintenance stuff. And I'm going from Sydney with a Sydney sider to the other side of the country in Brizzy. Whilst lockdowns are happening and COVID's, you know, the world's going crazy. And on top of that, you've had two units that haven't gone gangbusters or anything.
So whilst you believe in property because someone said, go do it, you get to see it. That's right, yeah. And so it's pretty astonishing if you look at it that way because now identify, say, hey, go for that. It just doesn't sound like a deal you should go for or a time you should go for. And it just shows the importance of taking action, though.
Where do you think that taking action part came from? Do you think it was the family dynamics? Do you think it was the YOLO, let's just do it? YOLO, man, YOLO. I wouldn't have been saying that these days.
I still say it, it doesn't matter. But throw onto all that you just mentioned, you presented Ipswich to me and I spoke to real estate agents that I knew from Sydney, like clients. I spoke to parents. Everyone I knew said, do not buy that place as shit. Another person told me, oh, his mother-in-law bought a house in Ipswich and it hasn't gone up in 12 years.
Then even the property you showed me, they purchased it 10 years prior for $280. And they're only selling it for $17,000. And they extended it. They enclosed the sunroom, right? So they went backwards.
But what actually sold me was, you probably won't remember this, but you sent me a photo from a book, like an actual book. You sent me a photo of a table and it was like average house price in Brisbane over the last 50 years, right? Yes, yeah. There was 10 years where it tripled, 10 years it did nothing. The next 10 years it tripled or like doubled a bit.
And then, so the previous 10 years, it hadn't moved. It didn't do anything. And you're like, look at this, look at this, look at the data, think about it. And you just left it with me. And I was like, we're doing it.
We're going for it. I don't care. Screw everyone else. I believe in this. I believed in you.
And look, it's tripled. It's literally tripled. It's special, man. And you know what's really insane about that story? So like that story and feeling you described is happening to so many Aussies today, every day.
Family opinions, barbecue opinions, other agents, other online information, government policies, every bit of confidence. Turn on the TV, yes, no, wars, new viruses every day. Every single thing is happening on people's feeds, family and circles to just basically make them go like, don't do this. And whilst sharing that example has some relevance to it in terms of the data, the data piece is so misunderstood by people too. It's not a perfect like, that's bad, that's good, that's bad, that's good in terms of the years, but that's an element of it.
Like that's one element of it. And what I'm noticing if I move forward to the next property is from that property in Brisbane, we go to the next property, it's in Adelaide. So talk to us about that property and when you first purchased it, when you're looking at it as well, how does it change when you have one purchase go so well, but also challenge you in so many ways? Did it make that second purchase with us just that much more easier? Oh, absolutely.
I think for the first property, after my second property, I'd saved up another deposit. I think I saved up another 100 grand. But six months later, I hadn't actually really saved anything. And for you to present a property knowing that, hold on, the first property you've bought has gone up like 15% in six months, a bank valuation that was going to give us equity on that. And I had a bit of equity as well from the units.
I didn't even have to put anything in. You showed me all the data that you showed me the first time. I had like your team's like guidance and all the figures there. Like, of course, I was like, yeah, whatever, let's do it. It's fine.
It was 475,000. And yeah, that went up like just as quickly. Today, that property, to give you some insights, is worth around 940. Yeah. It's pretty.
And remember when I called you saying I'm going to sell it? Yeah, yeah. And so it's just crazy to see like the growth that's happening here from these properties. Like that's almost like 75% on that second one. Firstly, thank you for trusting the process.
Because when you, like you said, there's so many things that are involved in this journey. But I want to just get into your mind now because this is going property after property. It's getting successful, third and fourth. And obviously, don't want to make it just, you know, every success story, everything's moving around well. I want to talk about some of the in-betweens too.
Because you talked about a period where wife losing income, interest rates rising, selling the two properties. And obviously, you've had other two properties go well. But during this time as well, you'd also picked up another place, the Airbnb in Foster, right? Now, the Airbnb in Foster, I have some interesting questions on that. Have you been visiting it as much as you'd like to and using it as much as the way you thought you would?
Or time to time? Where is it at now? So, yes, we purchased it during COVID. There was a lot of hype around Airbnb. People could only travel locally.
I found this property for $500,000. I think we ended up getting it for $550,000. And it just had so much potential. It was like three beds, but like two giant living areas. So, we turned it into a four bed, three bath, purpose built it for Airbnb so we could fit two families in, games room, like fire pit, cubby house, the works.
Such a cool renovation. I remember seeing the photos of you and Joe sending it to as well. It was very cool. It was a very fun time, fun period. We wanted to make money, like don't get us wrong, but we wanted to use it for our families.
To be honest, we go there to fix it up. It's good bonding time for Joe and I. I mean, our kids are like, my kids are five and three. Joe's daughter is four. So, hopefully over the next couple of years, we're going to use it more.
But yeah, we haven't Plus, I've got all the connections to do it here in Sydney. So it was always on my mind and selling that gave me the opportunity to do that. And not only that, it gave me the opportunity to do with my dad. So my dad had an accident. He lost his hand when I was like in year 12.
I was about to sit the HSC and he had a pet shop. So he sent me to King's and my sister to Loretto. So he was always under financial pressure, struggles of having a business. He had business partners that sort of fell through. And obviously, like right when it was getting to the end of it, right before I sat my HSC, he got his hand stuck in a mincer and lost his hand.
So I guess, like, I know it's not my fault or anything, but maybe I always had like a little bit of guilt around that. And being able to sell that property, my dad had to start again, right? He had to buy a new place. He lost everything. He sold his house, put it all into the business and he lost everything, right?
Well, he was in hospital for three months. And I had the opportunity to sell his place, buy a place together in Sydney that we can live together, fix it up, extend it, add value and like spend time together. Most importantly, like let him wind down, let him finish work and yeah, like spend time together. So that's what that, that's what like that second property selling it. And after all that, we sold it back to you and I called you.
So that's the moment where I called you and said, I'm thinking of selling Hallett Cove, Adelaide. And you're like, don't do it, man. Like straight away, you go, don't do it, man. Like we're buying there. It's going to go up 10%.
Yeah. And it actually did that because you sold. Yeah. You still made money, which is happy. But the next person who bought already has six figures in equity too.
Yes. I still look it up. Not that I regret it all because it gave me this awesome opportunity, gave me that next chapter in my life. But yeah, you bought it off me and it's gone up like over a hundred grand since you bought it within two years. I think it's like, yeah, 960 last time I looked at it.
It's insane. It's been strong. And look, for full transparency for everyone as well, the buying and selling was independent. We looked after the buyer. We didn't represent you in the selling.
You sold it through your own independently. Full disclosure to the buyer and full support there as well. But the main thing here to really see is that property and your investments into yourself and your future created options. And that's something that I'm feeling like is an underlooked part of property investing. People just focus on the passive income or the wealth creation, but it's also options.
Your first one allowed options to invest further, further wealth creation. But then what the first one also did, it gave you confidence to do things and have lifestyle, Airbnb and having that thing with Joe. And then beyond that, further of the second purchases with us allowed for options like with family now. Now talk to me on this family property. How's the renovations going?
Where are you up to on that? How's it traveled? What's been new with it since? We're just sitting, we're about to start. So we pretty much don't have a mortgage.
So we're like in a really good position. And because we've got the two kids, we didn't want to stress ourselves out too much. We wanted to enjoy this period. At the same time, we're in a solid cash position. So we've been speaking to Peter to try to go again.
So we'll be talking to you again soon. So we want to purchase another investment. And then once that's all locked down, then we'll start sinking the money into the renovation. See where it gets us. But yeah, you're right.
The first property gave me that confidence to go again. Then I had that peace of mind knowing that they were successful and I could take a risk again. I can go do that Airbnb. And then selling that second one has given me the opportunity and that peace of mind knowing that the Brisbane property has gone up so much. I don't care.
I feel like I'm playing life on free spins. I can just keep going and doing. That's how I am. I just want to have a crack at anything and see what works. But at the end of the day, the two things in life that work for me are those two properties.
But there'll be another thing. Thank you so much, man. It's really special to see the journey that's been on and what that's meant. What about tips for people facing uncertainty in life? Because like you said, life is having a crack and having it go.
But if you think about it, you've gone through a lot of uncertainty too. And yet you still pushed on with investments. You pushed on with purchases. You pushed on with even today. You're talking about our next purchase together.
There's uncertainties throughout, whether it be partner down in income, kids, whether it be business shifts, family's health, COVID, pandemic, budgets, interest rates. Yet you kept taking action. What tips do you have for people out there listening, watching this to go, hey, how do you get better at acting in uncertainty? And what advice do you have for them? That's a good question.
Thanks, bro. I've been doing this for seven, eight years. I wish I had an answer because I don't put a lot of thought into things and I take action, which is probably not a good thing. But I feel like when I started and I bought those properties myself, I didn't know where to go to for advice or to listen to the right people. You weren't in business.
I kicked off in 2018. So most of the, I don't even know where I would have found a buyer's agent. I never even heard of a buyer's agent back then. There was not really like social media wasn't like your algorithm isn't showing you what you're interested in. It's not like showing you like hustling ideas.
Maybe I would have had to go to like the library to find out what do I do? And I was never going to do that. So I'm not really making an excuse for why it took me so long to come to the right decisions. But I feel like today there is actually so much opportunity and people think that it's harder and harder, but I think it's easier now than ever because at your fingertips, you can educate yourself so quickly on what you're interested in. If you're interested in property, you can go and research property so quickly.
It's all there. And there's people like yourselves putting yourself out there on social media and showing and giving out so much free information. The hard part comes down to like who to trust. But like there's companies like InvestorKit that's been around for so long and it has so many success stories that it's kind of easy to know who to trust. So I think, I don't know, is this answering the question?
No, it is. I think what I'm hearing there is this, right? It's like we're in a time where there's more information, makes it harder and easier, learning part easier, action taking harder. But when you have the right team that you can trust and the expertise around you, you take action. But also when you look back at your life, it's like if I even go deeper than your answer, I go like what you said earlier, the first answer you gave, that was like around your family growing up, money, conversations, like taking action, saving money.
You talked about how the first one was your hardest one and just saving there. I feel like you're conquering all those battles that come along the way, like information, expert team around you, self-researching, saving money, financial habits, taking action. And so it sounds like it kind of got you to a position where it's just like, well, why wouldn't I do this? And that's what life is. It's like getting you to have these different things.
So you get to a moment of like, all right, I'll do it. Because it's not so many things for you to jump over. It's just that last thing, taking action. And when you've done all those other things, that's what you exactly talked about. It's like done all those other things, the saving, the business, the income, the growth, the family, the mentorship from Chris along the way to say, hey, go hard in your business and put money aside to invest.
When it comes to looking back at all of this though, what surprised you the most? And it could be anything. What surprised you the most out of all of this? I think the peace of mind, knowing that like, but before there was like so much anxiety, like I was always, I didn't know what to do. And like I hit that wall and I was, how am I going to make money or how am I going to build wealth for my family?
It was so many unknowns and I felt all this pressure. But when a couple of things went right, I had that peace of mind. And along that journey, like you bought those two properties in 2020 or 2021. 2020 and then the second one is around 2021. Right.
So since then, obviously I haven't bought another one with InvestorKit. It's 2026. But during that time, you've bought how, like, I don't even know how many properties for my family and friends, just for me being like, go, go, go to Arjun, go to InvestorKit. And me seeing the change in them after purchasing, like, well, you bought Joe, what, like eight properties or something? He's been busy.
It's just insane.
