Oct
14
Vicki Wusche – October 2011 Interview
Hello Property Investors.
GREAT NEWS! The lovely Vicki Wusche agreed to spend some time with us on a sunny autumn day and share knowledge about property investing. Please find below a full transcription of the interview. Enjoy!
If you would like to find out more about Vicki Wusche you can visit Vicki’s website: http://thepropertymermaid.com/blog/
- How did you start in property?
- How long did it take you to become financially independent?
- Did you have a team?
- Did you have mentors or coaches?
- 2 major mistakes you made and how to avoid them?
- 3 tips for the beginners
- How did you keep motivated?
- Vicki Wusche’s one piece of Wisdom.
Vicki Wusche Interview - audio
Vicki Wusche Interview – video
PART 1
Alla: Vicki, how did you start in property?
Vicki: Hi Alla, thank you very much for inviting me. How did I start? I think if I look back, and hindsights is always a wonderful thing, I can say from when I was a teenager I was always looking at property. I remember when my parents moved and thinking why were we selling the house? Why did we not keep it? I remember when my grandparents got too old for their house and thinking why were we selling the house and why didn’t we build on the land? You know, I still did not do anything about it. I did not really have an education, and I probably did not have the right mindset either.
Specifically, how did I start? One day I got a letter in the post inviting me to come along to a workshop which was going to talk about why investing in property was a good idea? So I went along. But I think things clicked for me the day I understood what I was I wanted in life. What I wanted in life was to have more than just having a day job. I recognised that investing in property was a strategy that would get me there.
Alla: Cool! How long did it take you to become financially independent?
Vicki: I first become financially independent when I completed my first property. So in about 18 months. I do believe that unless you have some form of education or are able to work very closely with someone who is trained it is much more risky and difficult, so if you count from when I completed my first training course to when I become financially independent, I would say that it took about 2 years. It took from August 2008 to summer of 2010.
Alla: Did you have a team? Did you have any mentors or coaches? Or did you do it on your own?
Vicki: Yes, yes and yes! There was a team; there were coaches, but actually like most people, I started on my own. And I think some of you do need to start on your own. Because you need to test things out, you need to experiment; you need to work with the numbers. You need to look at the areas before you know that you don’t know something and before you know what questions you want to ask your mentors. How you can go and get yourself a mentor if you don’t know what you want your mentor to help you do? So, once I had a go at it and played with somebody’s area, then I had a property coach. Other than that I already had a life coach working with me.
And of course a team started to grow. It’s very difficult to go and get a solicitor or a builder or anyone else to say “I want you to work with me”. Actually, having a picture of your area can help. To some extent my team came a little bit after – once when I had decided on a strategy.
Alla: What are two major mistakes you made in your business and your property career?
Vicki: I know you said two, but can I have three?
Alla: Oh, definitely.
Vicki: So, the first one and the easiest one to avoid is – don’t buy abroad! Unless of course, like you Alla, you’ve come from another country, you speak the language and have family connections there. It’s completely different. That is in the sense of buying abroad. Don’t buy abroad if you are just an ordinary English person, even in the America, because the laws and the customs are different. And it’s lot harder to get on the plane each time.
The second thing I would say to you is be very clear about the strategies that you want to get involved with. And know what do you want those strategies to do for you? Earlier on, if you can imagine back to 2008-2009, there were lots of these NMD – no money down schemes going around. The first property that I was about to complete was going to be bought under that scheme. I did not understand what it was. There were some clever people trying to work out how they can persuade a bank to lend you more money than what really the bank wanted to lend you. As soon as I got involved I realised how uncomfortable I was and it actually felt like a mortgage fraud to me. So it’s about being very aware about that sort of stuff. More recently we had BMV – below market value. Again it’s what you comfortable with. I want equity in my properties and cash-flow. You’ve got to pick a right strategy.
And because I wanted to name three mistakes – the third thing is knowing how fast you are growing and to make sure you put systems in place to support you. And I suppose we can bring in that word – team. Make sure you’ve got a bookkeeper – if you don’t have bookkeeping skills then you have to get a bookkeeper. Have someone to track your numbers; have an accountant and a tax advisor. Alla, I know you can help people with this. Make sure you build a team and the systems to support you as you go, because otherwise you are playing a gangly game – placing one brick on the top of another. The more property you get the more wobbly it becomes. Make sure you build the foundations right.
To read PART 2 – click here
