In this episode he divulges all about his younger years growing up in Melbourne’s east, where skate parks and shopping centre car parks took precedence over school. However, he caught himself from slipping into a downward spiral, and explains just how he did so to become the company founder and property investor he is today.

Timestamps:
00:33 | A Little Bit of Everything, All of the Time
01:59 | Times Have Changed
03:42 | Downward Spiral
09:25 | The Overhaul
11:34 | The Fuel That Lights the Fire
14:01 | Proving the Haters Wrong
17:18 | Start Your Engines
23:01 | Tackling Disaster With a Positive Outlook

Resources and Links:

[00:07:19] And I just felt like that wasn't me, that wasn't a true representation of who I was and what I could do, regardless of the disadvantages I had with having [little] education or formal education, with being brought up in commission housing and things like that. I just felt like I could still do so much more.

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 Braydon Birch, a buyer’s agent at Hirch Property and a property investor at heart. His childhood was a little less than conventional, but proves that where you come from doesn’t have to determine where you go. Armed with a strong sense of determination, Birch turned his sights from the skate park to success.

Tyrone Shum:   

Birch has worked hard to show the importance of mindset and how it can triumph over a disadvantaged upbringing, as long as you dedicate yourself to it. He’s built on his background to form the basis of both of his careers, yet doesn’t shy away from giving props where they’re due.

Braydon Birch:   

[00:00:33] So obviously [I'm] a part time advocate at the moment. So I still work a full time job. So a little bit of a side hustle at the moment. But [I] work in the construction industry at the moment, [I've] been doing so for a little while now.

  

[00:00:53] [I've got] my passion on the side, which is obviously property investing and helping others get through the journey of investing and creating the life they want for themselves as I do for myself as well.

Tyrone Shum:   

His trade background led him into the concrete placement industry, where he’s been working hard for the past five years.

Braydon Birch:   

[00:01:17] So pretty gritty game, to be honest with you, mate, it's not fun at all. It's hard yakka, but [it] pays the bills very well. So [you've] got to do what you've got to do to keep funding, getting to the next level, I suppose and get your next deposit, getting to the next stage. So that's what I currently do. But obviously [I'm] looking to continue to grow the portfolio. That's the main thing.

Tyrone Shum:   

He’s the first to describe his childhood as less than glamorous, but he also knows how much it taught him in ways that formal education never could.

Braydon Birch:   

[00:01:59] I grew up in Blackburn South. So east of Melbourne. Very nice area now, gentrified. But when I was growing up in commission homes it was a little bit rougher back then. But overall, it's a pretty nice place now [on the] east side of Melbourne.

  

[00:02:29] But overall, at the end of the day, I had food on the table and a roof over my head. So I can't complain. That's more than most people ever have. But yeah, look, it was Housing commissions back then. So Mum was a pensioner, Dad was in and out of jail sort of thing. 

  

[00:02:42] So sort of your traditional stigma role of sort of a rough upbringing, but overall, mate, that's just character building. And there was a great experience. I can't complain as well. I still had, as I said, food on the table, roof over my head, I had more than most people ever have in their lives.

  

[00:03:12] It made me the man I am today. And I think it's just definitely driven a lot of work ethic into me. And it's a good way to grow up, a little bit disadvantaged, not hav[ing] anything fed to you, I suppose. So it's worked out for the benefit.

Tyrone Shum:   

Childhood fun for Birch often centred around areas like the skate park, which were fun at the time— until he realised he was skating towards the wrong path.

Braydon Birch:   

[00:03:42] It's not the best, but I never really went to school. So I sort of started in year five, I sort of cheated my way through two years. And then just kind of ended up flunking out of school. 

  

[00:03:53] So it was a little bit of a disadvantage, I had to sort of learn to read and write at a later age, in my late teens, and it was a little bit difficult upfront having no background at school and just sort of leaving early and kicking around with other kids and that sort of stuff. 

  

[00:04:08] So at some point, I had a sort of downward spiral in life, I'd say, is the best way to put it. I was sort of hanging out with a bad crowd. And if I continued [on] that road, I was probably going in a bad direction. 

  

[00:04:21] I ended up pulling myself out of that, thankfully, and set myself in the right direction. So to an extent that was a disadvantage, not having to go to school. So obviously, I spent all my days just running around doing hoodrat stuff and things like that. 

Thankfully, he was able to pull himself out of it and make a U-turn right in the nick of time.

Braydon Birch:   

[00:05:09] I never did anything crazy or anything like that, but we're just talking rough kids hanging out in rough areas, always getting into fights and doing silly things. And it's just always things along those lines, it was never anything crazy like that. 

  

[00:05:23] But I think if I continued down that road, it was going to lead [to] things like that. So being brought up in commission housing, I was hanging out with kids in the DHS space, in residential homes and stuff like that. It was a little bit of a rougher crowd, and they were definitely heading into a bad space. 

  

[00:05:54] And because I never went to school, and I'd just be hanging around with these kids that were sort of bringing me down a path. So it was sort of a bad space to be around. As I said, nothing crazy at the time, but you could see the direction it was going to take me if I continued to go that way. So I ended up pulling myself out of that.

  

[00:06:18] Looking back, I used to spend a lot of time at the skate park and things like that. I used to do a lot of that and hang around shopping centre bus bays. But yeah, that was the bulk of it, really.

Tyrone Shum:   

The story of Birch’s upbringing isn’t unheard of by any means, but he’s in the minority where he was able to turn it around. So how did he do it?

Braydon Birch:   

[00:07:05] It sounds a little bit weird. But I think I saw more potential in myself. I just felt like I could do more. And I could sort of see these other kids I was hanging around with— a lot of them have gone to jail now. A lot of them have gone down paths that [mean] I've never seen them again. 

  

[00:07:19] And I just felt like that wasn't me, that wasn't a true representation of who I was and what I could do, regardless of the disadvantages I had with having [little] education or formal education, with being brought up in commission housing and things like that. I just felt like I could still do so much more. 

  

[00:07:37] And I ended up just sort of [getting] out of that and just sort of slapping myself and saying, 'Braydon, you've gotta get yourself together, this isn't [the] path for you'. 

 

[00:07:45] And that was sort of happening in my early to late teens. And I just started to stop hanging out with those kids, started to get into training and started doing some mixed martial arts and some going to the gym and things like that, just started to do more positive [things in] life. Because I knew what I was doing and where I was going was going to take me in a bad path. 

  

[00:08:04] So ultimately, that just ended up being a driver for me to become successful and achieve my goals. So it worked out for the best, mate, I wouldn't have changed anything. If I go back in time, go back to school and get a formal education or have a great upbringing, anything like that? I would not do it. Because I just feel like I wouldn't have that fire inside me if it wasn't there.

Tyrone Shum:   

He found that surrounding himself with positive people was the catalyst for the renovation of his life.

Braydon Birch:   

[00:09:25] It all just comes down to you. It's your mindset, and really knowing that, 'Look, this is where I am in life. And this is not where I want to be. And I know I can do more'. And I think everyone listening to this podcast can do more with their life, wherever they are at the moment, if they're not happy with where they're at. And just knowing that I can do whatever I want to do, I can be whatever I want to be, as long as I'm willing to work extremely hard and do whatever it takes to get to where I need to be.

Tyrone Shum:   

He knew the journey ahead wasn’t going to be easy, but once he’d made up his mind, there was no turning back. Thankfully, technology was on his side— as is a special someone.  

Braydon Birch:   

[00:10:15] It was difficult. To put it into perspective, my partner, she has a double degree, and she's an engineer and she graduated high school with a 97 HR and I never even went to high school.

  

[00:10:28] It's been great. She's been there to always correct my grammar and things like that. She's a gem for that. But look, mate, it was challenging, but just bit by bit, just not looking at the whole thing, going, 'Wow, I've got so far to go'. Being a mid teenager, can barely read or write, just saying, 'Okay, this is where I'm at now, let's slowly get a little bit better every day'. 

  

[00:10:55] And I think I was very blessed being in the era I am now with technology and all that sort of stuff, you can use it all to your advantage to learn quicker. Maths and English and all that stuff. Even just being on Facebook, you'll learn to read and write pretty quickly so I picked it up relatively quickly.

Coming up after the break, he shares some more about his family… 

[00:11:34] My parents were amazing people. They always took good care of me and all that.

How property investment came to mind and why it was always his Plan A…

Braydon Birch:   

[00:15:22] I always knew that rich people invested in property. I think it was just sort of a no brainer.

He gives the facts and figures on how he got his property journey off the ground.

Braydon Birch:   

[00:20:30] Making no decision is making a decision at the end of the day.

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

Tyrone Shum:   

While Birch’s childhood may have been missing some of the things many of us take for granted, it wasn’t lacking in love.

Braydon Birch:   

[00:11:34] My parents were amazing people. They always took good care of me and all that. So although the story looks a little bit grim, I always had great parents that always put me first. So that was always fine to stay at home. And [I] always tried to milk that as long as I could while I was investing as well. If you can do it, you can do it. So yeah, no, they're the best. 

  

[00:11:58] And then suddenly my motivation for what I do and the people I love, I want to build wealth not just for myself, but for them as well. I want to retire the parents and also my partner and everyone else. So they're the fuel that lights the fire sometimes.

 

[00:12:16] Mum's still around. Mum's still on the pension, still doing her thing. But she's remarried now. So she's very happy. But yeah, everyone's all good mate.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:12:28] And do you have any siblings as well? Or were you the only child in the family?

Braydon Birch:   

[00:12:33] So I'm the baby of the family. So I have two older sisters and one older brother. So I'm the fourth. So I'm the youngest, but they moved out a lot earlier than me, so they left and I didn't really spend a whole heap of time with them. So I was more or less a single child in a way.

  

[00:12:55] My brother's in corporate and the other two are in retail. My brother had a similar upbringing to me, actually, but he had a similar story and he took the corporate route actually sort of had some disadvantaged upbringing but turned it around as well. So he's done really well, and my sisters are killing it as well. Similar story, they had disadvantages, but they've all made something of themselves and they're family people now so yeah, it's all been positive.

Tyrone Shum:   

After leaving school, he knew he was at a disadvantage in terms of his skill set and what he could and couldn’t do. In true Birch style, however, that wasn’t going to stop him.

Braydon Birch:   

[00:14:01] I was determined to become successful. I really wanted to prove the teachers wrong. Everyone said I was crazy for leaving and I was never going to make something of myself. Which they had every right to say so, I mean, it looked pretty dark. But I had this burning desire to prove them wrong and prove the haters wrong and make something of myself.

  

[00:14:21] I left school, and I was always just trying to make a quick buck, always trying to get rich quick, trying to start some sort of business or trying to start something to make my million dollars overnight, whether it be something online or I'd be doing something that just never had any long term value. [I] wasn't taking anything super seriously, it was just 'Let's get rich quick quick quick'. 

  

[00:14:42] Ultimately, [I] kept failing and failing and failing and failing. So it never went anywhere. I didn't have any skill sets. I didn't know what to do. So I just didn't know how to be successful. And that ultimately led me to getting into property investing because of all those countless failures I had with trying to get rich quick, I ended up learning about long term wealth and building things slowly. And that was my sort of discovery into property investing.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:15:09] Wow, that's really interesting. How did you stumble across that? Because as you said, you did try so many things. Do you remember when you go to property investing in building wealth, this is something I actually can resonate in, this is where I want to go through?

Braydon Birch:   

[00:15:22] I always knew that rich people invested in property. I think it was just sort of a no brainer. I think I may have read, I think, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, as we all have, I think I read that book which was one of the many books I used to read when I learnt how to read. And so I think I read that and [it] sort of started getting me interested in it. 

  

[00:15:46] And then there was another sort of figure, he was a bodybuilder who passed away, his name was Rich Piana, and he was this millionaire figure. And he had all these properties. And he used to just go to the gym every day because he had rental properties paying for his lifestyle, and that sort of sparked my interest as well into property investing. So he was an American guy. And yeah, that got me interested in it too and I said, 'Okay, I think I should look into this property stuff. It seems pretty legit'.

Tyrone Shum:   

Once he realised property investing could be the vehicle to get his life up and running, he started revving some other engines to make a buck.

Braydon Birch:   

[00:17:18] So I knew nothing, I had no skill sets, I didn't know what to do. So I thought I could mow lawns. That was pretty simple. I could figure that out. I knew how to turn it on, I knew how to do it. So I got a job mowing lawns and doing gardening. 

  

[00:17:32] It was pretty unglamorous work. I was a little bit embarrassed to do it. But it is what it is, I just had to do it. It was a job, and it paid about $600 a week. But I was living so frugal at the time. So, so tight. And all my friends and family always laugh at me being such a tight ass. But it is, you've got to do it. 

  

[00:17:51] So I think I was making about $600, I was saving about $500. I used to just [buy] a little bit of petrol, a little bit white rice and chicken and a gym membership. And that was me. I was sweet. 

  

[00:18:02] So I used to drive this banged out beat up car, and the rest would just get saved and saved into my deposit. So that was the name of the game. Just save and save and save. And yeah, that's all I could do. So [I] ended up getting a loan and pulled it off.

Tyrone Shum:   

Sometimes it’s all about knowing what you don’t know, and not pretending to have the skills you don’t.

Braydon Birch:   

[00:18:55] I think I saw the value of a buyer's agent at the time. I know I had to use one. I was very nervous about making mistakes. So I think the value in using a buyer's agent your first time is pretty important when you don't know what you're doing. 

  

[00:19:07] So I had to reach out to one, and obviously paying the fee and stuff like that would be hard on such a tight wage. But I managed to find someone and sort of [explained] where I [was] at [and] what I was doing. And they said, 'Yeah, you could probably make something happen, let's see'. I ended up getting help on that front. 

  

[00:19:23] And yeah, it wasn't a glamorous property, that's for sure. But it was something, and I was super proud of myself being able to pull off the first deal, and from that it just sort of snowballed then.

   

[00:19:47] I think I paid just under $200,000 for it at the time. So I managed to save up about $25,000 or something like that over a year. And [I] managed to purchase it in Brissie, which is sort of my favourite [city] to invest [in] at the moment, and bought down there. And it's done okay, man, it's been a couple of years now, it probably hasn't been the best performer, but it's done okay for what I paid for it.

Tyrone Shum:   

After putting off his formal education earlier in life, Birch wasn’t about to procrastinate on what he knew would help further his goals.

Braydon Birch:   

[00:20:30] Making no decision is making a decision at the end of the day. If you're just on the fence about it, even if it wasn't the best thing ever, [the] best property ever, it was still great to get my foot in the door and learn how the process works and all that. So that was just invaluable.

   

[00:20:55] I think I was on the fence when I bought the first one, whether I wanted to continually buy cheaper properties and cheaper assets, or did I want to take a back step and buy high quality assets, which I was sort of on the fence about a little bit, which route to attack. 

  

[00:21:11] So I think the first step I knew that what I was making wasn't enough, so [I] obviously needed to increase my income massively, because it just wasn't gonna cut it property investing. So [I] pretty much just started hustling, man, just started doing UberEATS, working seven days a week and had a side hustle to build fences on the weekend. 

  

[00:21:28] And then I [was] still doing that gardening job. But I negotiated a pay rise. So I was just hustling, man, saving, saving, saving. And then managed to buy another property in Brissie, sort of north, which is [a] really good asset. I learnt a lot more, I was a lot more educated coming into it. I just studied property so much, I became an absolute nerd about it. 

  

[00:21:51] And [I] bought a more high quality asset, I'd say. So leaning into sort of your blue chip property. So I bought one there. So I'm sitting on two at the moment, and just about to buy a third one, hopefully, assuming [the] pest and building [report] comes back all good. So yeah, buying my third one at the moment, and then hopefully [I'll] have another one towards the end of the year. I plan on it anyway.

Tyrone Shum:   

While all aspects of life have been on the up and up since he turned his mindset around, that’s not to say his investment journey has been constant smooth sailing. 

Braydon Birch:   

[00:23:01] I think it's part of property investing. And it's part of anything that sometimes things go wrong. And  sometimes it just turns into a disaster.

  

[00:23:11] So one day I checked my email on my phone, I looked up and I got an email from the property manager. Absolute disaster. A tree root into the toilet or something, or cracked a pipe. The toilet exploded. All sorts of nasties came out, flooded the lounge room, the whole carpet got destroyed. 

 

[00:23:33] And then they had to keep the air conditioner running 24/7 to get the smell out. And then the air conditioner blew up. 

  

[00:23:38] So I had to get a new toilet, which wasn't covered by the body corporate, all the carpets redone, and a brand new air conditioner. 

 

[00:23:44] So it was a pretty expensive bill. And I was sitting there going, 'Oh my god, what just happened? I can't believe that'. It was out of nowhere. But you've just gotta take the good with the bad, man. These things happen. They're gonna happen. Whatever you do, whether it's property investing, whether it's a business, whether it's your job, you're gonna have days where you go, 'Oh, my God, I can't believe that just happened'. It's just part of life. Things happen, good things happen, bad things happen. And you've just gotta roll with the punches. 

  

[00:24:12] So I was going to crack it, I was going to freak out and then lose it. But at the end of the day, you've just got to take a deep breath, understand this is part of the process, it's going to be okay, it's going to be in the long run, it's going to be all all good. A lot of these things are going to be tax deductions anyway. 

  

[00:24:26] So you've just got to be relaxed [and] calm. [At the] end of the day, if you can't handle stress, you can't handle success, because it's just a given with it.

Braydon Birch’s story continues in the next episode of Property Investory. He shares the impact of decision fatigue…

 

[00:26:01] And that was a real problem for me, because it's such a big investment of your time, your energy, your money.

 

Why today it’s less about fast cars and large mansions…

 

[00:28:12] I think the goal and the ambition have changed, growing up and maturing.

He explains why he always planned to steer clear of his home state.

[00:03:45] I'm Melbourne based and I was never going to buy in Melbourne.

 

And that’s next time on Property Investory.