Australian Property Investor

Chi Lam is a family man who arrived in Australia as a refugee from Vietnam as a child in the 1980s. In his early years he overcame obstacles like you wouldn’t believe, and is now the director and founder of his own company as well as the primary caregiver for his two daughters.In this episode he shares all about his childhood and adolescence and explains how they helped to form the man he is today. From five-day-long boat trips and pirates to learning a new language and moving all around Sydney, Lam’s life has been nothing short of an adventure— and he’s only just getting started.

Cate Bakos has had her fair share of ups and downs throughout her property investment journey. But what sets her apart is her ability to quickly analyse, break down, and learn from these erroneous decisions.As a recipient of Sterling Publishing’s ‘high commendation’, a finalist for Telstra’s Business Woman of the Year, and a National Winner of the Buyer’s Agent of the Year, Bakos has proved the worth of these critical lessons.In this podcast Cate Bakos and host Tyrone Shum will discuss the lessons learnt throughout her journey, and how you can use her experiences to improve your own portfolio choices.

On this episode of Property Investory we hear from Cam McLellan, the strategic director and founding member of Property Firm OpenCorp. He outlines in detail how he created a six-figure annual income from his personal portfolio, allowing him to retire at the age of 36. He reveals the most important priority for property investment: balancing risk and highlights the step-by-step process to protect your loan capability. Plus, we learn from McLellan’s personal and business relationships of the importance of creativity and why critics will always exist regardless of your success.   

Meet Brian McNicol, the successful commercial property investor and CEO of buyer's agency Commercial property, who made the transition into commercial property after having 14 residential properties under his belt. These days he specialises in finding commercial property for buyers with most of his clients focused on retail office accommodation and some on industrial, helping them to purchase those properties with recession-proof tenancy or a high net return. Born and bred in Brisbane, Brian McNicol studied Commerce at university and held a variety of roles, from accounting to clerical positions, before he made the jump into property, when a six-week role with the Queensland government resulted in close to nineteen years at the job that eventually led him to the role of property consultant.Learn more about the residential properties he managed to accumulate through renovation and splitting, the lessons he learned along the way, what inspired him to go into property in the first place. Also, we will be delving into the moment he realised he could turn negative gearing into positive cash flow and why doctors and solicitors make good long-term tenants. So what are you waiting for? Click the play button to get started!

Brendan Ansell is the managing director of a large property development company, the Velocity Property Group. Originally from South Africa, Ansell and his family moved to Australia when he was 18 years old due to some violent close calls and their financial circumstances. Inspired by his time in South Africa, Ansell wanted to make a better life for himself. From this goal, he was able to establish a successful career in developing luxurious homes.In today’s episode, we’ll hear about Ansell’s various careers such as being a professional cricket player for the UK, to banking. As well as this, we’ll explore how he used his background in finance to build his success, the importance of not looking backwards, the valuable use of momentum and the strategy that has aided his success — Developing small luxury projects!

Brendan Shine is a buyer’s agent and investment consultant. His love for property has allowed him to help others acquire wealth through investing with his consultancy and buyers’ agency, Strategic Property Acquisitions. After realising he would never earn a sufficient income for himself working as a baker, Shine jumped into the world of property investment where he has now purchased six houses, four duplexes, two blocks of units and one boarding house.Join us in this episode of Property Investory to hear how Shine was inspired to get into property by his boss at the bakery, how he and his wife managed to purchase 15 properties and his worst investing moments and what he learnt from it that could ultimately inspire you along your journey!

If grit and determination could be personified, they would come in the form of Braydon Birch. The construction worker, buyer’s advocate, and co-director of Hirch Property Group could easily have skated through life and watched opportunities fly by, but he grabbed every one he could— and then some. Growing up disadvantaged instilled a strong sense of determination in him to overcome the obstacles he faced and achieve success, motivating him to create a better life for himself and break the cycle of poverty.In this episode he divulges all about his younger years growing up in Melbourne’s east, where skate parks and shopping centre car parks took precedence over school. However, he caught himself from slipping into a downward spiral, and explains just how he did so to become the company founder and property investor he is today.

Belinda Smith is the director of Renovate and Real Estate, a company that has the goal to help people reach financial independence through property investing and renovations. Growing up, Smith saw a disparity between herself and her peers, so financial security was a big goal for her. Combine this goal with her love for creativity, and renovating properties was a natural career for her.In this episode, Smith will share the risky details of being a police officer in the 80s’. As well as this, she will delve into her passion for renovations and the story of how she made $40,000 in only one day!

Ashish Malhotra is a buyer’s agent who arrived in Australia from India less than a decade ago. After landing here at the tail end of 2014, he bought his first Australian property sight unseen— and once his sights were set, he never looked back. With each investment performing better than the last, it’s safe to say Australia really is the lucky country.In this episode Malhotra shares stories of growing up in his clean and green city near the Pakistan border, where his childhood was never boring. He delves into how he became an entrepreneur without even realising it— and how despite some embarrassments along the way, he learnt a lot of lessons on his metaphorical and physical journeys.