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Woman in Focus - Sally StewardMeet Sally, mother, business owner and Property Women's newly appointed Diamond Membership Coordinator, who managed to turn $3,000 into a property portfolio worth $1.75 million, and is still looking for her next investment!
Passion for Property begins...with a place to call home
Sally was still single when she decided that she wanted to own a home. It was around the time of the last recession, when interest rates were skyrocketing. Not many people would have dreamt of buying a house around that time, but Sally was determined.
It was hard for her at first, with no husband, a meagre office job, and only $3,000 to be used as a deposit, not many financial institutions were prepared to lend her the money. Luckily, at the time, the Queensland Government had a scheme for first time home buyers and with that assistance she was able to cover the deposit and legal fees needed to secure her first property. 
Sally's First Property
The accidental investor
Sally lived in her very small but lovely home for 3 years. During this time, she got married and had a couple of kids. Her husband was in the RAAF and when he got posted to Adelaide, they decided to keep the house and rent it out. Wow, they were instant Property Investors!
An Introduction to negotiation and renovation
While in Adelaide, Sally and her husband noticed a neighbouring suburb that was undergoing significant revitalization. Ex-government housing was being sold off to home buyers. The houses were being sold for $50,000-$60,000 and could be rented out for $120 per week. The deal sounded great, so after talking to the agent who seemed to have the monopoly on mortgagee sales in the area, they approached the bank for a loan. They only had $300 in the bank, one wage, 2 kids plus were paying child support, so Sally didn't like their chances but thought, “…they could only say no.” and asked anyway.
Surprise! The bank said YES, so they bought their second property, a little 3 bed maisonette. It was, according to Sally, “seriously ugly and dirty inside.”
Their initial offer was $48,000 which was immediately accepted. However, while doing a council search, they discovered that the extension out the back was illegal and badly built and needed to be demolished, so they revisited their original offer, providing the mortgagee with the quote for the demolishing of the extension managed to get the property for only $42,000. Their first negotiation was a success.
After that, they set to work painting the multi-coloured wall, getting the carpets cleaned and removing the illegal extension. They did all the work themselves all with the two kids in tow.
A lesson learnt...still determined
After a few years, Sally and her family were back in Queensland. They decided to sell their property in Adelaide because after all it had doubled in value in only 3 years and they thought it would give them the deposit they needed for a suitable family size home. What Sally didn't know is that you could refinance or use equity from the property to buy more property rather than sell. This is when she learned her first important lesson in Property Investing, and that is NEVER SELL!
On a positive note they did find the house they were looking for. It was a sturdy house with plenty of space though it seemed to have been left in a time warp. “Seriously early 70s with bright yellow benches and brown tiles and original shag pile carpet, eeeww!” It mean't another renovation but Sally was up to the challenge. They started on the works and within 3 years, the property that they purchased for $145,000, with a cost of $14,500 to renovate, was worth $390,000. “Talk about the power of capital growth and renovating for profit.” This property is now rented out at $295 per week.
The new kitchen, well really a second hand kitchen was purchased from the Gold Coast Trading Post for only $1,500 and came complete with oven, cooktop, rangehood, dishwasher, sink and insinkerator. WHAT A BARGAIN!
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| Kitchen Before |
Kitchen After
Only $1,500 |
A time for change
Sally felt that the time had come for to get serious about property investing which meant she needed to get educated. "I read countless books, attended lots of free seminars, and enrolled in a comprehensive property investing course." The time and money that Sally invested was absolutely the best thing she could have done. But Sally felt this wasn't enough...before she could actively buy another property, she also needed to start believing in herself and stop thinking of reasons why things won’t work.
“If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got”. Sally realised that if she really wanted to change her life, she needed to change the way she thought and start making active decisions and to find like minded people to surround herself with. “I soon realised that all the people with the negative comments about property investing are the ones that either had no property or had one bad incident from their one investment property. I needed to talk to people who were successful property investors themselves and listen to them.”
The Power of Research
From then on, it was all about research, finding a great location, and finding a property with a twist. Sally is now passionate about property investing and is always on the look for the next property purchase.
While researching property in Western Australia, Sally came across a property that met her criteria. The property was in a town that had potential growth, had two properties on two titles and was being sold by a motivated vendor, who was simply sick of the property. Sally bought these properties sight unseen, but the figures really do speak for themselves...Two properties purchased in 2006 for $72,500 each, at the time the rent was $100 for each property, no work has been done on either of the properties which are now valued at $160,000 each and rent out for $170 a week making these properties cash flow positive. 
Two properties on 2 titles in WA
Sally likes to maintain a balanced portfolio of capital growth properties and cash flow positive properties. Several of her properties were bought sight unseen but they were great investments because she did her research and based her decision on facts and figures rather than how the placed looked.
Renovating has become a passion and looking for ugly seemed the right way to go. Sally has just finished another renovation and is happy to be putting away the paintbrushes for a while.
Here is an example of how Sally has made ugly work for her...the property pictured below was purchased for $320,000, renovated for $35,000 and is now worth $430,000, an equity increase of $75,000. Rent before renovation was $280 a week and after renovation is now $430 a week.
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External After |
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| Kitchen before |
Kitchen After |
Sally now owns a total of 7 properties with a property portfolio worth $1.75 million and holds properties in WA, NSW and QLD, Sally is now focussing her attention on finding cash flow positive properties, ugly or not.
Sally’s Top Tips for Property SuccessOn empowering yourself
- Create the right mindset.... This is the biggest barrier for many people.
- Write your goals down. It doesn’t matter if it a grocery list or jobs listed on the fridge...have you noticed that if you write things down they tend to go to plan a lot easier. Learn about goal setting, it really makes a difference.
- Don’t let the fact that you are scared stop you from doing what you want to do.
- Educate yourself, and keep educating yourself.
- Read books, magazines, attend seminars, listen to teleconferences. A lot of information is free and can sometimes be biased...so understand that there are a lot of property investing angles and you need to find the one that suits you.
- Join a property investing group like Property Women, mix with others who actually want to talk property all day.
- It is extremely important to mix with other likeminded property investors.
- Listen and Learn.
- Instead of saying to yourself, that won’t work, ask yourself “how can we get this to work”?
- Be grateful and appreciate all you have. Someone in the world would be happy to fill your shoes on one of your bad days.
On property investing
- Find a broker who will do the hunting for your finances for you... ask around and find one that is also an investor.
- Find an accountant that is also is an investor, guaranteed they will know all the taxation deductions you are entitled to. Make sure they are happy to explain things to you so that you can understand.
- Reward your good Property Managers, a box of chocolates goes a long way.
- Treat your tradies well.
- Buy property with a twist (maybe you can create an extra room or add a dwelling... the ideas are endless).
- Buy properties that other people don’t want to look at, often the vendors are a lot more negotiable.
- Buy average homes that people want to live in. Basic 2, 3 or 4 bedrooms are fine.
- Buying sight unseen can be an advantage, you have no preconceived ideas of the area and your decision is based on figures, not the colour of the carpet or the curtains. Just do your research.
- Fall in love with the deal (it doesn’t matter what it looks like as long as the numbers stack up).
- It’s a great time to buy. Don’t procrastinate and wait to see what other investors are doing. By the time they come back on board, the deals will be gone. ACT NOW.
- Don’t worry if a deal falls over... I read somewhere once that “the deal of a lifetime comes around once a week” There are plenty of opportunities, just look for a twist.
- Don’t let other people who don’t know about investing talk you out of it. Believe in your own decisions.
- Add value through cosmetic renovation (it’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint and a good yard clean can do, give the property street appeal).
What Sally says about Property Women
“My first experience with PW was the New Zealand property tour, what a blast! Fun and property education for nearly a whole week! Needless to say I fell in love with Property Women and lucky for me I now work with them. What a bunch of dedicated inspiring women! If you want trusted information from women who have been there and done that, empower yourself with the education they provide and Go for It.”
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