In today’s episode, Arora shares the triumphs and tragedies that have shaped him into the man he is today. A familial loss in his childhood led him to realise the fragility of life, where today he places family above all else. This ties in with his property journey, as each property is purchased with a specific family member in mind. His dedication to both family and business has paid off well, with Cinch now employing 11 brokers across Victoria, NSW, Queensland and the ACT, plus offshore staff in the Philippines. He shares how he started with no clue what he was doing, but by sticking to a well-thought out plan, he and his family have secured their financial futures.

Timestamps:
00:44 | The Jetsetting Educator
04:55 | The Young Entrepreneur
08:50 | Friends For Life
11:52 | Engineering, Education, and Examinations
16:24 | Well, The Thing Is…
20:56 | From Never Walking Again to Hitting Sixes
23:43 | Re-Evaluating What’s Most Important
27:43 | We Don’t Even Know What We’re Doing!

Resources and Links:

 
Transcript:
Suvidh Arora:

[00:27:58] After we moved to Australia, we were actually looking for a rental accommodation for us to live in. And we just passed a block of land that was for sale. And we're like, 'Okay, I don't know how property buying works in Australia. So let's just give the agent a call and find out.' 

 

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 Cinch founder and positivity personified, Suvidh Arora. He takes us on a journey through his childhood in India, admits his brave declaration that could have cost him everything, and details the wild ride that brought him to Australia, motivating us all with a suspenseful story with an unexpected ending.

 

 

Tyrone Shum:
Arora’s tale is a colourful one, beginning in the Indian city and taking detours through Hong Kong and London before settling down in Australia. He’s been in the property investment space for around 10 years, and reinvented the art of financial lending when he founded Cinch, a mortgage broking business based in Melbourne.

 

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:00:44] Previously, I've been an educator. So I used to be an analytics teacher. And then I went into investment banking. So I've worked with UBS in Hong Kong, I've worked with JP Morgan in London, I've done my MBA in finance from the UK as well. And then, to settle down with family, we moved to Australia. And that's where the property journey and my own business started, so to speak. 

 

[00:01:13] It was basically a natural progression, combining my experience in the education sector, the finance and investment banking sector, and also a bit of strategy consulting that I had done in my previous life. So all of that has been brought in together to build this space with the business where not only am I growing my own property portfolio, but I'm helping others achieve that property dream in Australia as well.

Tyrone Shum:   

A typical day for Arora involves handling a tonne of calls— up to 220 per day! This works out well for him, as he loves connecting with others and discussing their property journeys.

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:02:10] It's basically just talking to different people, trying to understand what they want to achieve in their property journey, and then how we can strategise and help them get there faster. 

  

[00:02:21] That's what my day to day looks like. Just just talking to a lot of people. And also then obviously, coordinating with my team, who are absolutely excellent at what they do. And just putting things together for each and every client of ours and making sure we give them really good customer service as well.

Tyrone Shum:   

He remembers how he felt when COVID first arrived, bringing forecasts of doom and gloom to property investors around the country. As we all came to see, everything turned upside down.

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:03:14] When the pandemic started, obviously, there were a lot of experts talking about anywhere between 25 to 30% fall in property prices. And then about eight months later, those same experts had done a complete U turn and said, 'Now we expect property prices to go up by 20 to 30%.' 

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:03:34] That one is true. Not the plummet, but the up is true.

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:03:37] And I think not many people are sure about how this pandemic is going to pan out. Everyone's been playing it as things come and just trying to manoeuvre around it and find the best possible way they can and guessing, so to speak. In most cases, they're not. I think the same has been true for the property market during this period as well. It's been anybody's guess. Especially as I pointed out, there were a lot of experts who pointed at a downward spiral, and then it actually went up and then they changed tack. 

 

[00:04:16] And over the last six months now we've seen a bit of stability coming back into the market on the back of some rate increases and different moves that are being taken by the banks. So, yeah, it's been a roller coaster, so to speak. But yeah, it's been keeping us on our toes, keeping us busy. And as you said, January, which typically is a quiet month, has been quite busy as well.

Tyrone Shum:   

Stepping back further, Arora reflects on his childhood, where he got used to travelling at a young age.

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:04:55] I grew up in the north of India, in the state of Punjab, but travelled around a lot because of the job my dad was in, so we had to travel a bit. But he passed away at a very young age for me. So I was only 11 when he passed away. And after that, we moved to Chandigarh. And that's where I did all my schooling, I went to college, basically I grew up in that city. And that's where my first job and my first business also was. 

  

[00:05:26] I started my first business as a 17 year old, straight out of school. So I did that for a few years, while attending uni, as well as doing some work as an educator, side by side. And then my journey took me to Hong Kong from there to join UBS Investment Bank. So, yeah, life's been interesting.

Tyrone Shum:   

His entrepreneurial flame was ignited by his maternal uncle, another young businessman, who took Arora under his wing.

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:06:08] Mum and Dad were always, as we call them, PAYG employees. So, they were not very much into entrepreneurship, I have actually taken all my motivation and inspiration from my maternal uncle, actually, who, just like me, he basically got into business at the age of 16. And he's just done really well for himself. And he's been my role model throughout my life. Everything I do, I always think of how he would do it. And I just tried to keep that in my mind and follow in his footsteps. So he's been a big inspiration. 

  

[00:06:47] And I think I saw that spark in him. And they were always— even when I was a young child— there were always comparisons made between him and me, because age wise, we're only like, 14 years apart. And everyone always said I'm just a replica of him from a very young age. 

 

[00:07:09] So I guess that kind of nature is what helped me mould myself into someone I am today. And I just hope that I've been able to do justice to his legacy, so to speak, and continue to build on that.

  

[00:07:34] He's a very, very successful industrialist in India. And he has over 1000 people employed under him. And he manages a very big manufacturing business in India. And he's doing some international expansions as well. So I'm just trying to, as I said, follow in his footsteps, and learn from him. I still learn from him, I still talk to him occasionally, about what I'm doing and what my plans are. And even though he tries not to, but anything he says, I pick on it, and I'm able to learn something out of it as well. And just take that guidance from him, even though he might not even know about it, but I'm always listening and taking cues from him and following that.

Tyrone Shum:   

Another role model in Arora’s life is his school principal from his time at St. Stephen’s School in India. Arora and his classmates still keep in touch with him and each other, proving social media can certainly have its benefits.

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:08:50] School time was really fun. I have quite a few memories of when I was at boarding school, initially and then I moved to Chandigarh and went to St. Stephen's School in Chandigarh. One of the guiding lights that pretty much every child in that school had was our school principal, who even to date, each and every one of us look up to. 

  

[00:09:18] His name is Mr. Harold Kawa. And even now, any time we go back to India, we make sure we go and visit him. If it's his birthday, everyone still wishes him. So he holds the utmost respect in each and everyone's hearts. He's touched so many lives. And he's brought so many of us together and we've just continued to just do what we can to do him proud as well. 

  

[00:09:47] And then all my friends from school and seniors and juniors, they're all throughout the world, in various positions, capacities, and we are still connected. We are still connected via social media, we talk on a regular basis. And we have those friendships for life where we can still call on each other. And there have been instances when I've walked into a display home here in Australia. And there's a guy sitting there who I went to school with, and we've come across each other after 25 years, and he's a banker with ANZ So we've caught up on all the old times. School was an amazing place. Childhood was good. Plenty of fond memories. 

Tyrone Shum:   

The schools he went to followed a similar path to the Australian schooling system. 

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:10:49] You do your grade one to 10, and then grade 11 and 12, where you then start preparing for uni. And you decide what path you're going to take, whether it's going to be to become a doctor, or an engineer or a lawyer. So it's very similar. 

  

[00:11:02] The path that we chose was for me to become an engineer. And I went to Punjab Engineering College, which is also in Chandigarh, it's one of the top 10 universities in India. I did my mechanical engineering there. And from there, as I said, I started my own business, I worked on the side part time then became a full time educator. And from there went overseas.

Tyrone Shum:   

On his journey to discovering what he wanted to study at university, a couple of the well-desired options were automatically ruled out.

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:11:52] Funnily enough, I was never one who could read a lot. I'm one who's got really good memory. And I just learn from listening, rather than reading and writing and all of that stuff. So law was out of the question for me for that reason, because you have to do a lot of little reading and writing! 

  

[00:12:18] It was always a choice between becoming a doctor and becoming an engineer, in my case. And the only reason I did not go to do my medical degree is I was never very good with blood. Every time we did a dissection in any science class, I would just walk away from that session and not do it, try to avoid something like that. So I always knew that's something that's not my cup of tea. Even though I had the mental capacity to become a doctor, I just didn't have it in me to just do that on a day to day basis. 

 

[00:12:59] So the only choice pretty much was doing engineering. Which I think ended up being a very good choice in the end, because that allowed me to meet a lot of like minded people, and then explore getting into the business side of things. Because I think, as I said, from a very young age, I had that in me that I could not work for someone for too long. I've always been a very natural leader. So it just fits my personality that I build something of my own. And I bring people together and make sure that we work as a team. So that was always going to happen. And doing engineering actually was a stepping stone to that. I've never actually worked in an engineering job throughout my life.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:13:46] Because you started the business! Actually, tell us about the business that you started. What was it?

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:13:50] I started an event management company and ran it for three years. So we were into organising road shows and exhibitions, and all of those kinds of things for corporates throughout North India. [It] was pretty successful. But then, after three years of running it, one of the bigger event management companies basically bought us out, because we were competition, but at the same time, we didn't have the resources to compete with them. So I was happy for them to buy us out. 

  

[00:14:21] And in the meantime, as I said, I was already working part time, educating and helping people prepare for their MBA examinations. So I went into that full time instead, and made that a career path in the meantime.

[00:14:53] I always wanted to be on the finance side of things, because numbers just talk to me all the time. And back in the days investment banking was the buzzword. Still is. But at the time, we're talking about pre GFC and everyone wanted to be an investment banker, and so did I. So, I actually applied for a few positions with UBS in Zurich. But for work permit reasons, I wasn't able to get that position. 

  

[00:15:28] But they said, it's much easier to get your work permit for Hong Kong. And we've got a similar position in Hong Kong, if you would be interested. That's how the opportunity came about. And I basically just took it with both hands, got on the first flight possible. And the day I flew out from India to Hong Kong is the day Lehman Brothers crashed. 

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:15:50] I remember that very clearly. What was your feeling when you heard about that?

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:15:54] The feeling was, 'Well, it is what it is.' But in my case, I'd always planned that investment banking again, was part of a bigger plan, because my keen interest was to do an MBA in finance and do it from one of the better universities from the UK. So for me, it was more about getting that international exposure in a big organisation in the industry that I wanted to, and UBS was a stepping stone for me. And that's how I saw it. 

 

Coming up after the break, Arora reveals the bold declaration he made, risking it all…

 

[00:16:24] I still remember my first day at UBS, we had a team lunch to welcome me into the team. And we went out and my boss asked me, 'So what's your plan for the future? Where do you see yourself in 1 to 3 years from now?'

He shows how didn’t get to where he is today without a lot of grit and determination…

 

[00:21:42] I still remember the day. It was New Year's Eve, and I was in the hospital, and the doctor comes up to me and says, 'I'm sorry, but you will never be able to walk again.' 

 

He continues his shocking stories with the tale of how he purchased his first block of land in Australia.

[00:27:58] After we moved to Australia, we were actually looking for a rental accommodation for us to live in. And we just passed a block of land that was for sale. And we're like, 'Okay, I don't know how property buying works in Australia. So let's just give the agent a call and find out.' 

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

 

Tyrone Shum:
Boldly going where no man had gone before, Arora went with the ‘honesty is always best’ policy— but did it pay off?

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:16:24] I still remember my first day at UBS, we had a team lunch to welcome me into the team. And we went out and my boss asked me, 'So what's your plan for the future? Where do you see yourself in 1 to 3 years from now?' And I sat there, and I smiled and I said, 'Look, honestly, this time next year, I want to be doing an MBA in the UK. So it would be really great if you watch me for three months, and then write a recommendation.' 

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:16:53] That was quite bold, I have to admit! What did she think? 

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:16:56] Honestly, she liked the honesty. So she said, 'Yeah, absolutely. I'm glad you said that. Because a lot of people actually come here for that reason alone, but they don't talk about it. And the fact that you're talking about it makes me already trust you. Because you are absolutely open about what your intentions are. And you do what you're supposed to do and do it well, and you will have a glowing reference from me. And any time after your MBA, if you want to come back, if you've performed well, I'd be more than happy to take you back as well and put in a good word for you.' 

  

[00:17:31] So that honesty always helped. And I've always tried to do that in whatever endeavour I take up. Three months down the line, she was true to her word, I'd done well, she wrote me a glowing recommendation letter, which another three months later got me an acceptance from a few universities in the UK. And exactly a year from that I was in the UK doing my MBA.

 

[00:18:29] It was a one year MBA. And made some really good connections, some really good friends for life, made a relationship for life out of MBA. I met my future wife there. She also was on the MBA programme. So we met there and straight after the MBA, we got married. And then, life's been good since then.

Tyrone Shum:   

While studying for his MBA, he was hired as a strategy consultant by the university to work for a year and a half, revamping their education programmes. 

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:19:27] Once I completed my MBA, I had obviously applied for a few different opportunities. And actually Deutsche Bank came calling. I joined them and I was supposed to join in an investment banking associate position. But day one, when I rocked up, they had a restructuring and they decided to put me in operations. So I walked out of the door the next day. 

  

[00:19:50] And in the meantime, I had another offer from JP Morgan. So I took that up, stayed with them for about a year and a half. Then also tried dabbling at options trading. So there was an Australian firm that had a London office that was hiring at the time, their name was Deborah. So I joined them and became an options trader for about eight months. 

  

[00:20:14] And in that time, we found out that my wife, who was working for Barclays at the time, was pregnant. And we'd always spoken about as soon as we have to start a family, we'll move to Australia. Because she was born and brought up in Australia, she's an Australian citizen. So that's where we took the call, we're resigning and starting our move to Australia. And in 2013, we moved here.

Tyrone Shum:   

The lack of work-life balance was one thing when he was younger, but a shocking event shook up his mindset.

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:20:56] That's the thing about investment banking— there's work and there's no life. And that's why it's a lifestyle you can afford when you are single, or when you're a young married couple. But I personally think once you have kids, if you do want to spend quality time with them, then something has to give. 

  

[00:21:23] It wasn't actually a planned decision. So when we moved to Australia, the plan was still to continue with investment banking. But then life throws different things at you, and those cause you [to] change your plans. So after we moved to Australia, I actually ended up having a life threatening injury. 

  

[00:21:42] I still remember the day. It was New Year's Eve, and I was in the hospital, and the doctor comes up to me and says, 'I'm sorry, but you will never be able to walk again.' And at that time, their focus was on saving my kidneys and my liver. Because I had been previously misdiagnosed by another hospital, and they'd been treating me with wrong medicines. 

  

[00:22:06] So those 15 days were really critical. And they focused on saving my organs instead of focusing on my leg. And they had just given up. And I was told to go for rehab and do certain things to just try and be able to walk a little bit. And I still remember, coming out of the hospital when we were going home, thinking to myself, 'My daughter's only six months old. And if I'm not able to walk again, I'll never be able to play with my kids.' 

  

[00:22:40] That sort of acted as a motivation for me to work hard and prove everyone wrong. So for the next 18 months, I basically re-taught myself to walk and run. Against the doctor's advice. And I not only started walking again, but I started playing cricket again, which has always been a passion. 

  

[00:23:03] And my wife was a pillar of strength during that time, having a six month old and managing the house because I wasn't able to work. So she was working full time, managing a young kid. And we'd also already committed to building our first home in Australia. So all of that was happening at the same time, which was quite stressful. 

  

[00:23:23] So I took up the opportunity to do the rehab, but also make sure that I'm involved in the day to day construction of the house. So that I could take some load off my missus. And that kind of sparked my interest in property as well, because I saw the house being built on a day to day basis. 

  

[00:23:43] Then 18 months down the line once I was able to walk again and get back to life as normal, the time came to decide what I wanted to do next, from a work perspective. And that's when I thought I just came through such a challenging experience where I could have lost everything in life and not been able to spend any time with the kids. And being a father of girls, you barely get to spend time with them anyway, once they start going to school and they grow up. 

  

[00:24:14] So that's when my wife was getting an opportunity to start working for McKinsey, which would involve a lot of travelling. We had a chat and I said, 'Look, you do the travelling, and you do all of that. Don't worry about the kids. What I'll do is I always wanted to be an entrepreneur anyways, so I'll start my own business. And I'll also become a stay at home dad and spend time with the girls.' 

  

[00:24:36] Because they will have a natural bond with their mother anyway, but I will build that bond and have that work life balance. 'So I'll do the school pickups, the drop offs, I'll read stories to them.'

  

[00:24:47] While my wife was travelling from Monday to Thursday on her day job, she would fly out on Monday, go overseas, come back on Thursday nights, and I would take care of the girls while managing a growing business. So that's how it all came about. I went from being an investment banker with no work life balance to starting my own and having a balance that has given me that opportunity to have a very close bond with my family, and at the same time have the fulfilment of growing something from scratch.

Tyrone Shum:   

His inspiring tale doesn’t end there. Determined to get the recognition he deserved, he didn’t let the doctors take the credit that didn’t belong to them.

Suvidh Arora:  

[00:25:44] I went to a lot of therapy. So it was acupuncture, acupressure, chiros, osteos, physios, I did a lot of that. But then at the same time, I did a lot of natural stuff, which just involved doing things that felt right. Because I would monitor myself on a day to day basis and see if I was doing a certain thing and that was making me feel better, and making my limbs feel a bit more relaxed, I would try and continue doing that even if the doctor said no to. Because the advice from the doctors always was, 'Don't move your limbs too much because you'll do more damage.' 

  

[00:26:20] And about 10 months later, they went from that to saying, 'You don't need another surgery anymore because the leg's healed itself.' And I still remember turning to them and saying, 'It's not healed itself. It's taken a lot of hard work.' But yeah, it has happened. 

Tyrone Shum:   

With Arora being a stay at home dad in the age of COVID, what does his jetsetting wife do during international border closures?

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:26:56] She's still at McKinsey, she is now at a senior position. She still travels, and I still do the same, I still am the stay at home dad. I work from my office a couple of days a week. And then I work from home the remaining days when they have their activities, etc. The last couple of years, obviously, a lot of the burden has been shared around the house because my wife has been working from home. So she's taken on a lot of those duties, so that I can grow the business more. So we always work very well as a team. And I'm forever grateful for having met her. She has been the biggest support pillar in my life.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:27:43] Amazing, amazing. Well, it's perfect timing, because then we can sort of lead into your property journey, because I know you said that the first property that you built was your home. Tell us a little bit about how that came about.

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:27:58] After we moved to Australia, we were actually looking for a rental accommodation for us to live in. And we just passed a block of land that was for sale. And we're like, 'Okay, I don't know how property buying works in Australia. So let's just give the agent a call and find out.' 

  

[00:28:14] And the agent quoted a price range of $320,000 to $350,000 for the block of land. And we're like, 'Yeah, we don't have that kind of money. We don't know whether we'll be able to get a loan.' So we just put in a cheeky offer of $280,000. And we asked him what needs to be done to put an offer in and he goes, 'You give us a deposit of $500. And you put in an offer and we'll see if it gets accepted. We'll take it to the vendor.' 

  

[00:28:41] And I still remember walking up to an ATM, drawing $500 cash, going to the agent's office, giving the $500 cash and saying, 'Okay, we want to put an offer for $280,000.' And walking away. And a few hours later, we were driving around looking for houses and getting a call from the property agent saying, 'Well, they're saying they already have an offer of $281,000. So they are not going to accept your offer.' 

  

[00:29:07] And so they called my wife's phone and my wife told me while I was driving and I said, 'Well, why don't you say $281,100 then?' And straight away, the agent laughed. And he said 'Nah, nah, nah, that's not going to happen, you'll have to increase your offer substantially.' So I said, 'Well, we don't even know what we're doing. So the maximum we can think of going up to is $285,000.' He said, 'Okay, I'll go back to the vendors.' And a few minutes later called back saying your offer has been accepted. 

  

[00:29:37] And this is a property we thought we had no chance of buying, we were just mucking around because the listed price was $320,000 to $350,000, as I said. And we rocked up in the evening to our cousin's house and she runs around and comes to us, 'So how was the property search today? Did you find anything to live in?' And we like, 'No, we didn't find any rental accommodation. But we bought a block of land.'

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:30:03] I wonder what her reaction must have been.

Suvidh Arora:   

[00:30:05] And the next day we walked into a NAB branch and spoke to the banker there and organised a loan for ourselves. And yeah, it started from there. And then we started looking for builders to build the house. And the rest, as they say, is history.

   

[00:30:32] And that's kind of become my motto for the business as well, and for all our clients. So I always encourage them to ask the question, right? I always tell them, 'If you don't ask, you don't get. So don't think the agent is saying x y z so it's not possible. Don't think the banks are saying this is what's what's possible and this isn't. If you put your mind to it, it is possible. If there is a problem, there will be a solution.'

  

[00:30:59] That's why my official title in my business is Chief Solutions Officer. You come to me with a problem and leave it with me and I'll find the solution for you. Because that's what you have to do. You have to work around and find a feasible solution to whatever life throws at you. And if you don't ask the question to the agent, for example, you're not going to get an honest answer. 

  

[00:31:27] So be frank about what your circumstances are, and put your best foot forward. And if it happens, it happens. Otherwise, there's something better in store for you.

Suvidh Arora’s story continues in the next episode of Property Investory. He shares how one long line-up in an early morning queue changed everything…

 

[00:02:34] And my wife asked me, 'What's the plan? We're putting deposits on all these blocks of land— what are we going to do?'

 

The time that one last-minute sentence threw him for a loop…

 

[00:06:52] And suddenly turning around and saying, 'Well, you've got this $40,000 loan which we need you to pay off before we approve the loan.' So that was a scary moment. 

He dives into exactly what he does as a Chief Solutions Officer.

[00:13:58] There's no agenda, there's no talk of selling anything. It's purely educational. So every day we spread some information, spread some knowledge. 

 

And that’s next time on Property Investory.