AWARE - A Business in a Book. Lucille Orr
and furnished a city office but my husband lost his job at the end of the same week.
I lost a lot of money because he didn’t want me to go ahead with the business and I had to sell the furniture for a loss and lose money on the office lease.
Reluctantly I went to work for MLC Life Limited. As it turned out MLC ended up becoming a major sponsor of my women’s network. I’d been successfully operating the network since 1986. No one ever knows what’s in store for the future. It’s important to keep a positive, optimistic approach to everything you do. I believe we attract the right opportunities when we are positive and happy about our decisions in life.
At the time, I had a full-time job and a part-time business and I worried about my son who was only four years old. It’s amazing how the children cope. Fortunately my husband loved to do the housework and cooking and my mother helped by doing a lot of babysitting.
I’ve followed Robert Kiyosaki’s career with interest since that weekend and he has certainly achieved a lot. When he retired in 1994 at age 47, his wife Kim was only 37. I enjoyed reading Robert’s book “Retire Young Retire Rich”. In this book he talks about the importance of investing in property. Because of his investments in real estate, he and Kim were able to retire on time. They’d given themselves 10 years and they sold their business and retired in 9 years.
Write Down Your Goals
Setting a date to achieve a goal and writing it down is so important. In Robert Kiyosaki’s case he admits he couldn’t have achieved any of what he set out to achieve without the support of his wife Kim. I agree with Robert, it’s not easy to do it on your own. However, I also agree with the many people who say it’s impossible to achieve such a major goal in your life if your life partner is not willing to support you.
I found in my marriage we were going in different directions and once that happens you may as well do it on your own. Emotional problems can stop your progress. You only have one life, so live it to the full, enjoy every day but try not to hurt anyone along the way. Do what you do with others in mind and ensure they are protected as much as possible.
The manager of the Property Division of the Mawson Institute of TAFE at Panorama, South Australia told me in 2002 the real estate courses I’d completed could soon be accessible via the Internet. It took more years than first anticipated, but TAFE do have Certificate VI in Real Estate Sales and the Diploma courses online now.
If you want to gain your real estate license a word of warning, each state of Australia has its own property laws so you will need to speak to the Real Estate Institute or TAFE in your own state before you spend money on a course, especially courses on the internet.
To work in this industry or invest wisely in property you must be prepared to put in the hours and study. You can either work as a trainee or study full or part-time, but you need the certificate in your own state before you can go any further.
A Goal we Helped Achieve
In 2002 I met Susan, a school teacher at an open inspection I was conducting in Glenelg. She liked the unit I was selling that day but told me she had seen one with water views in Largs Bay. I suggested I would have a look at it for her. After the open I went to the block of units in Largs Bay and they needed a lot of work. The staircases looked very old and dangerous and the unit she was thinking of buying was on the third level.
I couldn’t see how she had water views and when I asked her she said, “Between the trees and a hotel”. I suggested I look for something that would give her a higher rental return, better capital gain and wouldn’t cost her ‘out of pocket money’ for Strata repairs.
By the following weekend I had found a lovely two bedroom unit at Grange right on the beach front and had both buses and a train service to the city.
This two bedroom unit was on the ground floor with its own carport right next to the unit. All she needed to do was furnish it and I knew I could get a very good rental return. On settlement day we met at the unit and she had bought some second hand furniture for the unit. I remember talking to a tenant in the block of units, he asked me if the unit would be renting for $130 per week as this is what he was paying and he had a friend who wanted a unit in this block.
I told him we would be asking no less than $300 per week as we were furnishing the unit. We did get $300, later we increased the long term rental leases to $350 per week. At Christmas time we earned as much as $150 per night.
Within the first year Susan purchased another unit in the same block on the ground floor, this one had been totally renovated with a new kitchen and floating timber floors, plus it was the front unit so it enjoyed sea views from the bedroom windows. Within three years she told me a lovely three bedroom home she had sold to support her family had come back onto the market. This waterfront two storey home at Christies Beach was fabulous so I told her to put a contract on the home subject to the sale of her two units.
I was so lucky to sell the two units for a huge profit, we paid $170,000 and$197,100 and sold the units for $280,000 and $285,000, Susan was able to buy back the home she had loved and thought she had lost forever.
Why Real Estate?
It’s a wonderful medium to exercise your own creativity. Writing advertisements, editorials, brochures, information on the Internet, window displays and presenting marketing plans to vendors is a lot of fun.
Chapter Four
Your AWARE Mentor
Success in business comes sooner than you think when you have a mentor working with you.
If you choose to work with AWARE Properties we are happy to help you from day one. You can start as an AWARE Associate and we’ll teach you many facets of our business that can earn you a top income without having to gain your real estate license. Our training programs will get you started and once you are successful as an AWARE Associate you can enroll in a recognized real estate course at TAFE, the Real Estate Institute or the Real Estate College in your state and gain your Sales Certificate and full Property Manager’s license.
We will act as your mentor all the way until you are ready to start your own property business either on your own, or perhaps your own branch of AWARE Properties.
Through our web site www.awareproperties.com.au we will give you advice and encouragement and answer your questions directly via email. One of the things I found the hardest when I was attending my courses was the need for a mentor and I didn’t have one.
My employers were far too busy to help me and although the staff answered my questions they didn’t seem keen to share their knowledge and experience. There was always an overt competitive problem. They were worried all the time about losing listings and they certainly didn’t want to share commissions with other sales people in the office. I was never given an appointment for an appraisal. I had to find all my own properties to appraise and list for sale.
Contact Us
If you need help in any way please contact us, we want to ensure your life in the real estate industry is rewarding and fun. Whether you choose to be a property investor, a real estate salesperson, or a real estate agent with your own business, it doesn’t matter to us, we want to be your mentor and help you to achieve your goals as quickly as possible.
You are probably still wondering why I chose real estate as the business to encourage you to enter. I have worked in so many different industries and businesses of my own and in all of them the rewards were never as good as in real estate.
In all other businesses I’ve owned I had to buy stock - in real estate I have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock (houses) on my office window and on www.awareproperties.com.au and I haven’t had to pay one cent to purchase any of them. How many businesses do you know where you can go into business today and have millions of dollars worth of stock to sell within a couple of months? Of course you will have