In this episode, he takes us on a journey from the Philippines to Australia filled with stories of the ups-and-downs he faced right after university, when he moved here, and when the property bug bit him in 2016. Discover how the determination of one man from a Third World country turned his life around with property investing in the Land Down Under!

Timestamps:
01:17 | On Family and Data Analytics
03:08 | Life in the Philippines
07:39 | Manila in the '90s
09:38 | All in a Day's Work
12:34 | A Surprising Turn
16:06 | From Raves to Celebrity Fan Sites
20:43 | 'What Happens Next?'
21:55 | The Call of the Land Down Under

Resources and Links:

[00:25:15] That was [a] good four or five years. And then since… after that, I focused on web analytics. So because I [was] already doing, delivering traffic, and I'm also analysing traffic—so I said, 'Why don't I just focus on analysing the data directly so I can advise the business or the team?' 

This is Property Investory where we talk to successful property investors to find out more about their stories, mindset and strategies.

 

I’m Tyrone Shum and in this episode we’re speaking with the founder of SuburbsFinder Gilbert Melgar. With 20 years of experience in the field of data analytics, he is no stranger to the relevance and power of data. His journey from the Philippines to Australia is filled with stories of the ups-and-downs when he moved here, and when the property bug bit him.

Tyrone Shum:   

A family man himself, Melgar keeps his daily priorities in check by balancing life and work.

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:02:19] Well, I'm still working in the corporate world. My wife is an accountant. We have three girls—age three, seven and 10. So it's really a full, busy household. And typically a normal day: still working from home, still lucky enough to be able to do that while looking after the kids when they're not in school, and doing the regular job. But mostly, after that, really into looking at data in terms of property investments.

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:03:03] That's great. And what's your sort of background in the data space? Like, is this specific industries related to property? 

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:03:11] It's a completely different space. I started doing search engine optimisation way back in 2002, even before SEO was a term. So I [was] making websites rank on Google, Yahoo, Bing, during that time, and then in relation to that, I'm analysing data as well. 

  

[00:03:36] So around 2006, I focus[ed] more on web analytics. So I started on making the websites rank on search engine[s], and then delivering traffic to the website, and then analysing those traffic. What are they clicking on? How can we generate more revenue for the business? So yeah, those are the data that I'm analysing.

Tyrone Shum:   

With a longing for the past, Melgar opens a window to how his life looked like in the Philippines before moving to Australia in 2011.

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:04:21] [I was] born and raised in Manila, Philippines. So [I] have one sibling, mum and dad—[we were a] middle class family or working class family. And [I] graduated with a degree of... I don't know if you're gonna say I'm a 'numbers guy', but it just [so] happened that I was able to finish a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics.

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:04:57] Oh, awesome. Wow. Okay. I'll have to have delve into a little bit about that shortly. But Gilbert, I'm really curious, I guess, as you said, you grew up and [was] raised in Manila in [the] Philippines. And obviously, your parents are working class, as you said, are they still living in the Philippines at the moment, or…?

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:05:15] They're still living in the Philippines. It's just me and my wife.

Tyrone Shum:   

Now as a father to three young children, Melgar welcomes the opportunity to reminisce about his own childhood. He shares fond memories of what it was like growing up in the Philippines—from attending classes at 7 o'clock in the morning to living with six people at a boarding school.

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:05:34] It's just the way that you can freely play on the streets. You know everyone in the street, every kid on the street, you know them, the parents, you can just freely play at any time of the day [in] the street without getting hit by a car or being run over, or being taken by strangers and all. Because everyone knows everyone before, back in the day. 

[00:06:08] I think that's one of the most thing. And there's no... I would say there's no gadgets during that time. So you really get to spend most of your time outside the house.

[00:06:46] I do like sport[s]. And I used to play, also being [that the] Philippines [is] mostly influenced by Western countries, specifically America. So [the] number one sport there would be basketball. So everyone, everyone, during the school of the sport school activity, everyone's playing basketball, even the girls.

[00:07:33] Primary school was the new school that where we live in, but it just so happened that I was able to get accepted to a better school for secondary or during high school. That's why I moved away from my parents, because the commute thing is, during that time, [the] traffic [was] horrible back then. Even now, it got more worse. 

  

[00:08:04] So just travelling, because back then just travelling a 20-kilometre distance, it will take you a good... I'd say two hours to get there. 

  

[00:08:20] So class starts at 7 am. All the way to three o'clock. And then, yeah, so from where I lived, if I continued travelling, I need[ed] to wake up [at] five o'clock and then leave around 5:30 am to make it to the morning class at 7 am. 

  

[00:08:49] So what I did is, I just went to boarding school. So boarding school there is totally different here. Boarding school here is more expensive.

  

[00:09:00] Boarding school there is sort of like... there's six of you in one big room. It's like three double-decker beds or three bunk beds.

[00:09:34] It just so happened that the dorm that I was staying [in], [was] being managed by one of my grandmothers.

Tyrone Shum:   

As a young man in the throes of life, navigating growing pains and the hard work a student's day-to-day entailed, Melgar gives us a glimpse into his life as a student in Manila in the '90s.

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:10:11] Most of the schools are in the metropolitan area. So we lived in a suburb area.

[00:10:30] So if you spend one hour and a half going to school, and then you spend another hour and now you have going home, so basically, three hours of your day just used to commute.

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:10:46]  That's right. It's almost like as though you're going to work? Because you think about it, you know? Exactly. Yeah, you probably have the same hours of work, except just started much earlier. You know, it sounds like a nine-to-five except you don't quite understand why. Why is the school system so long there or…?

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:11:06] You have eight subjects, and each subject is an hour.

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:11:11] Wow, they really do push a lot of education, then I guess in that side, because it's very interesting, different. I guess countries and different colleges have a lot more emphasis on that. 

[00:11:25] I mean, in Australia, kids probably start at 9 a.m. and finish it 3 p.m., that's already more than enough for them. They get tired. So yeah, I mean, do you remember much of that? Or was it? Because many of you pretty much spent majority of your time at school, then. Did you go back on the weekends to see you friends…?

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:11:42] Sometimes I go back on the weekends, but sometimes if I'm swamped with homeworks and all, sometimes I just don't, they're the ones who just visit me.

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:11:54] Yeah. And what were your parents doing?

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:11:57] My dad used to be a sea farer. So he works on the cruise ships, and my dad used to be an admin clerk in one of the offices.

[00:12:14] Mum used to be an office clerk in admin.

Tyrone Shum:   

In deciding what undergraduate degree to take, Melgar was a forward thinker who ultimately considered which path would land him a good job after graduation.

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:12:41] I really didn't like programming during that time. But it just so happened that during that time, I was thinking about 1997 [or] 2001. Everyone's talking about the Y2K bug during that time. It was talking about, 'Oh, what can I do? What type of job?' So I was like, 'Okay, I'll give programming a crack. So that at least when I graduate [in] 2001 at least I can get a job somewhere in IT'.

 

[00:13:17] But after graduating, it was hard getting a job. I was unemployed for a year during that time.

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:13:32]  Yeah. So you graduated back in 2000, did you say? 

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:13:36]  Yeah, yep. 

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:13:38]  So how long was your course? 

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:13:39] Four years, yeah. 

Tyrone Shum:   

He continues to share the name of his school and gives more insight on where his focus on his studies eventually led him.

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:13:51] The University of St. Thomas or 'Santo Tomas' — that's the way we call it.

Tyrone Shum: 

[00:14:01] So by that time, were you still boarding around that area? Or did you go back home…?

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:14:05] I just travel[led] during that time because the class there is more flexible enough.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:14:15] What were you doing during that time? Did you do any part-time work as well? 

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:14:20] [I] just focus[ed] on my studies during that time.

[00:14:28] Yeah, that's great. And when you finished your university degree, then you went out to look for a job—and as you said, you had graduated with mathematics—, did you start… Were you looking at going into computers initially?

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:14:38] I went into [the] IT industry.

Coming up after the break, we'll learn more about a business venture he never imagined he'd be in…

[00:16:38] So I'm 21 [or] 22 during that time, part-owner of a rave club. So yeah, living the dream.

How he found himself using the powerful potential of SEO…

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:20:53] I remember I made one of the most revenue-generating sites online during that time was [a] Paris Hilton website.

How he eventually ended up in Australia after building his corporate career in the Philippines.

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:27:08] I visited Australia prior to that for a client meeting, and I was like, 'Oh, okay, this looks like a really nice place to live in, especially when you're raising a family'. 

And that’s next. I’m Tyrone Shum and you’re listening to Property Investory.

Tyrone Shum:  

With a degree in mathematics, Melgar faced his post-university years with determination to succeed. But that doesn't mean to say he didn't have his share of run-ins with challenges when he started looking for a job.

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:14:54] My major [was] computer science. So that's why I [did] program right away. But I had an option or I had an opportunity to teach. [But I thought,] 'I don't think I'll last that long'.

[00:15:36] It was really a challenge during that time. But here's the thing, I guess you would be shocked when I tell you this. During that time, I didn't have a job. I was having a hard time getting, landing a gig. So instead of that, just… As for my savings for my parents too, I'll just put up a business or invest it somewhere while looking for a job. 

  

[00:16:08] And it just so happened that my friends invited me— because they were going to renovate their bar, and they want[ed] a silent investor. And yeah, that's where I put my money. And you'd be surprised the bar is not the typical pub, but it was a rave club.

  

[00:16:38] So I'm 21 [or] 22 during that time, part-owner of a rave club. So yeah, living the dream.

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:16:50] And what did you have to do being a part-owner? Did you need to do any sort of hands-on help? Or you just put your money in then and just let them, you know, run the blog? 

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:16:59] We just put our money in there. Because as a silent buyer… there were actually nine major partners who's running the business, and each partner got their own silent partners. So [it's just] 18 of us, with just our group of friends. Pack is always cool.

Tyrone Shum:  

Melgar continues on and lifts the curtain on what opportunities opened up and the takeaways he learned from that business venture.

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:17:33] It was actually good. It did go well, except for the... the place [was] always on the news because of the fights happening. And other not-so-good publicities during that time. But yeah, we learnt a lot of good things as well.

 

[00:18:10] The takeaway is if you're doing profit share, don't spend it right away; just save it. So instead of saving it [at the time], my profit shares just [went] to my tab.

Tyrone Shum: 

[00:18:27] [Laughs] Enjoying life; living it up. 

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:18:30] Yep, yep.

Tyrone Shum: 

[00:18:31] But you're still young, which is… I think that was a thing that I think we all need to go through in order to be able to experience what it's like in life, because you only live that life once.

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:18:40] And the good thing with that is I was able to meet a lot of interesting people, people who are running their own business, people who have a job in IT, people who have a good position in companies. And that's where I met a guy who [was] doing SEO during that time.

Tyrone Shum:  

While he was already a part-owner of a successful rave club, Melgar made sure not to pass up the chance to smartly use SEO to his advantage and generate more income on the side.

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:19:30] It lasted for almost three years. So we really did a good run. And in the middle of that I met that guy doing SEO. But he didn't know that what he [was] doing [was] SEO because what he did during that time, he [was] making money out of making celebrity fan sites. [I was like,] 'How are you making money out of celebrity fan sites?'

  

[00:19:37] He showed me, 'I'm making money through being an affiliate'. All these pop-up ads during that time, right? So he was getting paid for that.

[00:20:20] It was easy, so easy to rank on certain keywords during that time. So that's how it all started. 'Okay, I think I can do that'. And me [having] a background on computer science, I did my own and created all the fan sites, did HTML in load pad and ran it. So all the celebrities that I can think of, I created fan sites [for]. Put in pop-ads. 

  

[00:20:53] I remember I made one of the most revenue-generating sites online during that time was [a] Paris Hilton website.

Tyrone Shum:  

Building up his experience and his connections with the rave club and his SEO-related work on celebrity fan sites, he soon ventured to start his corporate career.

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:21:20] While the rave club [was] still on, so that's what I'm doing. 

  

[00:27:24] And after that, I decided, 'Okay, the fan sites are here. Since all [the people] I've met have connections in the corporate world, I reached out to them and [they] connected me, pointed me to the right people. [I] still went to the job interview and was lucky enough to finally start my corporate journey.

[00:22:20] I became an affiliate program specialist. So it was really in line to what I'm doing with the fan sites. So when I'm doing a fan sites, I'm sort of like the affiliate. So now the job that I got is the one in the middle—being the affiliate specialist or the program specialist, dealing with affiliates and dealing with the publishers.

[00:22:55] I did that for a year. And I said, 'Oh, okay'. And then one of my boss[ES] told me, 'We were opening up a role for an SEO. You want to give it a crack?' I said, 'Yeah, sure. Why not?' 

  

[00:23:13] And I [was] working for a back office. Our U.S. office was [the] back office in Manila. So that's where I got really trained well because the SEO competition during that time already in the U.S. [was] already, I would say, competitive. Because in 2000, e-commerce [was] already booming on there.

[00:23:53] They were already running their own AdSense, pay-per-click marketing, and all of this. They're running Google Analytics. Google Analytics was still new during that time.

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:24:07] Yeah, that's really interesting. And what kind of company was this?

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:24:13] They were a direct reseller of Mac products. Apple.

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:24:19] Apple, Mac, or apple. Oh, wow. That would have been even better technology. So it's technology, and, you know, combine that with SEO sort of, you know, was ranking. Especially, I think at that point, other people have done a lot of reviews on YouTube as well, too.

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:24:33] YouTube was still new during that day.

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:24:33]

Oh, yeah. So pretty much a lot of it was based on the website. So people were coming through the website to purchase Mac products…?

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:24:46] When they type-in Mac, specifically Mac products or Mac laptops, we make the company website appear on the first, second, and third rank[s] [on] the organic search results in Google. And that's where the traffic comes in. That's where the revenue comes in.

Tyrone Shum:  

With all-hands-on-deck in his corporate career, Melgar's journey for the next few years in this space led him to work on different companies, learning more about data and web analytics.

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:25:15] That was [a] good four or five years. And then since… after that, I focused on web analytics. So because I [was] already doing, delivering traffic, and I'm also analysing traffic—so I said, 'Why don't I just focus on analysing the data directly so I can advise the business or the team?' 

[00:25:42] This is where the revenue's coming in. This is where the traffic's coming in. This is how the users are behaving inside the website. This is how we should operate to increase more revenue.

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:25:54] Excellent. Wow, that is a cool role to be in because then you're not only taking the data you're able to recommend. And then I assume that they'll probably just hire more people to do the implementation. 

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:26:03] Exactly, exactly. 

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:26:06] Yeah, that's so cool. And I guess were you in that same company for that period of time as well while you're analysing data or…?

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:26:12] I just went there for, like, a year, and then I moved to different companies.

Tyrone Shum:  

As Melgar built his career in the corporate space in the Philippines, he found himself hearing the siren call of Australia.

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:26:38] Because it just so happened that the client, when they moved here—the client that I was working for used to be based here in Sydney. So I just continued working for them as an offshore resource for a month. And then I started looking for a job here.

[00:27:08] I visited Australia prior to that for a client meeting, and I was like, 'Oh, okay, this looks like a really nice place to live in, especially when you're raising a family'. So my wife and I, [we were] just boyfriend-and-girlfriend during that time, said, 'We can try Australia'. And then we said, 'Okay, let's just give it a crack'. 

 

[00:27:37] We applied as independent, skilled migrant[s], and we submitted our papers and requirements. And after six months, we got the visa. And we didn't know that the visa that was given to us is already a permanent resident [visa].

  

[00:28:01] Because of our skill set.

  

[00:28:07] Because what we did [was] instead of me applying as the direct applicant, we decided [to make] her [to be] the main applicant. She's an accountant. And during that time, [being an] accountant [was] one of the in-demand [on the] lists [of] occupation.

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:28:29] Wow, congrats on that. That's exciting. So did you have a job lined up before you came to Australia?

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:28:37] I just continued to work as an offshore resource for that. And then while I [was] working for them, so after work, I started looking for a job here. 

  

[00:28:50] So the petition was, I guess, we can say we're lucky that we didn't experience having a hard time getting a job here. Because when we got here, my wife actually, when we got here, after two days, she already had a job. Because she was working for a global company. So the one that they have [an] office here, once they found that she's moving here, they just offered her the job.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:29:42] What was that transition like? Because it's a new country, new culture. Was it a shock to your system or you just went like it, 'Okay…'?

Gilbert Melgar:   

[00:29:51] It was a big shock to our system at first because first[ly], the weather is different. Second, we're used to talking American English, and in here, it's like [a] British accent or an Australian accent, [it's] still really hard to understand at first. Like, what are you saying? It's like eating their words, yeah. But now [I've] gotten used to it. And then everything closes early.

 

[00:30:29] And then I eventually got used to it and I realised 'Ah, this is a really nice place'.

Gilbert Melgar’s story continues in the next episode of Property Investory. He reveals the a-ha moment that hooked him to finally dive into property investing.

 

[00:04:02] I was like, 'How are they able to do that? And they're under their 30s?' That's the time that I became curious about it.

 

What and where his and his wife's first property was…

 

[00:07:29] We bought [it] for $595,000. So we just saved, we were able to save 10% of that. 

He shares some of the key lessons he’s learnt as a migrant from a third world country investing in property in Australia.

[00:28:57] But there's one question, if you ask them, they're just gonna say, 'Do your own research'. If you ask them, 'So where's the perfect place to buy?' 'Do your own research'.

 

And that’s next time on Property Investory.