In this episode we get to know the active property investor who walks to the beat of his own drum, whether it be here in Australia or barefoot in the Balinese rainforests. While providing tax depreciation and construction cost advice is what has helped him to build his life, it’s only a part of what makes Hyde who he is today. He delves into his family history, from the recent to the not-so-recent, and his travels around the globe.

Timestamps:
00:30 | All About Hyde
04:43 | The Green School
09:38 | Hyde’s Early Life
20:40 | Disruption
13:21 | Coming Home
16:37 | ‘Safe as Houses’? Not So Much
19:49 | Playing His Part
27:12 | May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favour

Resources and Links:

[00:19:49] That's how I kind of wanted to get into property, because I saw how it had affected my father's life and how I wanted to in some ways educate people to try and show them, A, how to make money, but hopefully, B, not to lose it. So the whole depreciation thing that I do is helping people make their life more affordable.

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 Tyron Hyde, the CEO of quantity surveying company Washington Brown. He shares his incredible backstory that will make you feel every emotion under the sun, but don’t worry: He has a silver lining for everything. Whether you find him in Bali or in Sydney, Hyde radiates hope and happiness each and every day.

Tyrone Shum:   

Hyde has lived a life full of ups and downs, though with his sunny disposition, he manages to see the good in every situation. After a disjointed childhood and some tragic losses, he put his natural talent to work and is now reaping the benefits. As Washington Brown CEO and a loving family man, Hyde has created the life he always dreamed of.

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:00:30] I've got a beautiful family, my wife, Sandy, and my beautiful daughter, Taylor. 

[00:00:37] I've travelled the world, we've just come back from living in Bali for two years, running the business remotely over there. Washington Brown's got about 40 staff now doing depreciation work. So we're got a really happy life to be honest, Tyrone. It's pretty eventful, and fruitful and rewarding. And I'm just really in a happy space at the moment.

Tyrone Shum:   

His wife has recently released a book detailing their unique travels.

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:01:16] It's called Our Green Change. It's about our journey from Sydney to Bali, to take our daughter to the world's greenest school, which is this big bamboo school in the jungle in Ubud. It's got no walls, no aircon, drop toilets. And it was a fascinating experience. And the school focuses on environmentalism and entrepreneurialism. And so, like, 400 people from around the world go there. And I found myself running Washington Brown from this barley jungle school.

   

[00:02:04] Most of our staff are remote. So before we went to Bali, I put in a management structure to enable [us] to pack up and run a medium sized business remotely, especially one that's involved in hands on inspecting properties. It's not as though I'm a digital nomad.

 

[00:02:23] We talked about doing a big change for a long time. My wife's Italian, [she has an] Italian background, but the timezone there is not really realistic to do that. And then she was reading this article in the paper about the green school and she said, 'Would you go and live in Bali for a couple of years?' I'm like, 'Maybe that could work'. 

He put in a management structure to organise that, with a head of sales, head of marketing, and so on. In the end, it worked out so well that he believes the company runs better without him!

Tyron Hyde:  

[00:03:02] They stepped up, which was fantastic. And now it's running like that. It's still, it's continued. I didn't change the structure when I got back, I just focus on more of the running, doing these type of things, which I find more interesting. Well, not more interesting, but they run the business better. I work on the business, not in it as much, which is the goal of, I think, any entrepreneur.

  

[00:03:42] Dale Boehm, I saw on stage once, I saw when I was young, and said something like, 'You've got to work in your business, [if] you've got to go into your office every day, from seven till nine, you don't have a business, you got a job'. And he said, 'I don't want a job, I want a business'. And so the true test of the business, if you ask me, is if you can work remotely, travel around the world, and still continue to do that business, and have other people do it. That's a business. 

 

[00:04:06] That's also a saleable business. Because if someone wants to buy your business, they don't want to come in and have to work 12 hours a day, do they? They want to have a business that's running, regardless of whether the owner is there [or not]. It's not always that easy to do, of course, it's not that easy, but that is the goal.

Tyrone Shum:   

The Hyde family hadn’t heard of the Green School before coming across it and enrolling their daughter, but it spoke to them straight away. 

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:04:43] She read an article in The Good Weekend, there was an article in The Good Weekend in the Sydney Morning Herald about this Green School. I think it said something like this... not hippie school, but men go there with man buns and stuff like that. 

  

[00:05:01] Education was part of the key as well, like we've got a daughter that's very focused on study. We thought, well, maybe it's not a bad idea to have her exposed to a different kind of education system before she get[s] into high school. So we were always going to come back before high school. 

  

[00:05:19] But the education system there, the focus is not on tests. The focus is on the love of learning, get[ting] the child to love learning and also to love the environment. So that hopefully by the time they become 18 or 17 year olds, they become warriors for the environment as well. 

  

[00:05:32] I went there thinking, 'Oh, this is gonna be a bunch of tree hugging hippies'. It was the complete opposite. It was the complete opposite. I think maybe when it started 10 years ago, that was what it was. But now there's a lot more. There's a focus on the environment. But there's a lot of very clever switched on people that have done incredibly well that now wanted a change. Like I guess what we were like, and also had wanted to be involved in the child's study. 

  

[00:06:02] Because half the parents stay at the school during the day. There's no drop off, 'Here you go, you're not allowed into the school'. They've actually created a Green School for Adults there, which we love. So we were learning every day. 

  

[00:06:17] You can go to this thing called the Bridge. So there's a little kind of... like a workplace, but for adults, and every day, they'd have these fantastic talks. Whether it be an environmentalist, whether it be how to buy property in Bali, whether it be someone who's an activist. Like, Jacques Cousteau's granddaughter came and gave a talk, it was fascinating. And Michael Franti is the patron of the school. I don't know if you know Michael Franti, but he's a hugely famous singer. 

  

[00:06:53] So it's very, very different, very different to here where we drop off our daughter and we can't go in and see her and do anything like that, they encourage you to be there and be involved in school. Some would say that maybe too much, like sometimes the politics I guess, with having so much involvement, which is hard for the school to manage. But at least you're involved.

Tyrone Shum:   

The school environment looks and feels very different to how it does in Australia, and by the sounds of it, it may just have a different aroma as well.

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:07:26] They have cows, and horses, cows, and they have sheep, rabbits, and they encourage the fact that music and gardening is as important to a child's development as maths and English. 

  

[00:07:40] And we thought that maybe when we got back to the traditional learning here, she would be kind of [behind, like she] didn't keep up, [but] it's [the] complete opposite. She just became dux of her year in year eight. So it didn't actually hinder her, which was great.

  

[00:08:30] One of the projects, one of the differences, they have, like, green studies there. So they encourage kids to pitch a project and she made a raincoat made of recycled plastic. She was learning about how to do it, how to manufacture it, but then of all the recycled plastic. So they do some really interesting programmes over there. 

  

[00:08:53] For instance, at the end of the class day at 3pm, the local community, the kids, they bring in a kilo of plastic, they get free. So about 300 kids every day come in and learn English for free, provided they bring in plastic from the local community bank jar. So the western end here at three and then come to local kids and learn and they teach them English.

Tyrone Shum:   

We dive into Hyde’s upbringing to discover how he became the businessman, husband, and father he is today.

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:09:38] I grew up in Concord, which [is] near the Burwood [and] Strathfield area in Sydney. Back then it was a pretty working class suburb. Now it's million dollar homes and plus $2 million [homes]. The thought of a house in Concord selling back when I was growing up in [the] 1970s is quite bizarre. But it's a beautiful suburb. 

  

[00:10:07] When we went to high school there, it was kind of a brand new school, which was kind of really nice. I ended up marrying my high school sweetheart. So we met at school.

  

[00:10:20] I had a big family. I've got three sisters and one brother. So there's five of us. Both working class parents. They both had to work really hard to keep food on the table. My father was in the Air Force. For 12 years I was stationed in Singapore. I've actually got a a sixth brother, but he passed away when they were stationed in Singapore. 

  

[00:10:47] There's actually a chapter in this book, Our Green Change, where I went and tracked him down. It was like the burial. So he's in a war memorial, war cemetery over there. And I was actually at a Dale Beaumont conference, a business blueprint conference. I met Tyrone through that, by the way. 

  

[00:11:05] And I [thought], 'I will try and find my brother'. And I went there and I searched for the weekend, two days, I walked up and down this cemetery in Singapore, and couldn't find him. 

  

[00:11:15] And so I then came back to Bali where we were living. And I remember I said, 'Mum, where is he? Where's my brother George?' And she said, 'Oh, he's out the back, love'. That doesn't help. 

  

[00:11:26] So I contacted the London War Office and I thought I'm not gonna get [any answers]. So they sent me a map with a little star on it and said, 'Here he is'. And so then next time we were going to Singapore— because we have to leave Bali every two months for visa reasons, so you just go to Singapore sometimes and come back— and we went there on a search to find my brother and we found him and it was kind of emotional, to be honest.

Tyrone Shum:   

The tragic story always has him putting himself in his mother’s shoes as he imagines the devastation she must have felt.

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:12:01] He was six weeks old. It wasn't cot death, but he had some virus that kind of killed him. So it was devastating for my mother, because she was in a foreign country. Imagine Singapore in 1958 or something like that. I can't quite remember the exact year, but it would have been pretty harrowing to have a child that's six weeks old, your first child as well. 

  

[00:12:25] She told me a story once where she was running down the streets with him in his arm. 'My baby's dead. My baby's dead'. Pretty teary there.

  

[00:12:44] My eldest sister now— so I'm 52— my older sister is about 65 and George would have been older so he would have been about 67 [or] 68 now, but it'd be quite a bit weird to have a 68 year old brother. 

  

[00:12:58] I'm 52 and I've got a nephew who's 43. So I was an uncle at the age of nine. Which is a bit weird, isn't it?

Tyrone Shum:   

The Hyde family is certainly a unique one, filled with interesting characters and their story packed with endless twists and turns.

Tyron Hyde:    

[00:20:40] But we did move around a little bit. Because what happened was my house burnt down when I was 14. Burnt to the smithereens. All the trophies were gone. And we came back and I remember driving down Build Road, and there was all these fire engines and I could see them from like a mile away. We were driving up the road. And as you got closer you go, 'Oh no'! And so we had to move around because they had to rebuild the house. And they put us in different houses around. 

  

[00:21:13] So then we moved to Homebush and Strathfield, around that area, but I still [went] to Concord High. And then my parents got divorced. And so then I was going through two different houses there and stuff. So a little bit of moving around, a bit of disruption in my childhood.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:21:34] Makes you stronger, adversity. Just out of curiosity, do you know what happened with the house? How did it get burnt down? Or did they give you a cause? 

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:21:41] [We] never found out, actually. 

  

[00:21:47] Well, back then, it was a timber house. I don't think it would have taken much. It wasn't like the fire regulations that we [have] here now. I reckon it could have been just like, a little spark, it was such [an] easy place to go up in smoke, I think.

  

[00:22:10] It's a funny thing. They built this new house. And I preferred the old one.

Coming up after the break, he shares the gut-wrenching truth of what brought him home…

[00:13:21] The reason that we came back from Bali is because when COVID hit, we were like, 'Well, my mum's really old'.

The reason why tight regulations aren’t the worst thing in the world…

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:19:27] I guess it's pretty safe [with] the Commonwealth [Bank] and ANZ. We've got different regulations here, which are very comforting.

He takes us on a journey from his early travels as a bright eyed and bushy tailed twentysomething.

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:22:59] And so I took off and I worked for six months, saved up and then I backpacked for about two years.

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

Tyrone Shum:   

Hyde continues to tell the story of his childhood family and explains how it all brought him to where he and his own family are now.

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:13:21] The reason that we came back from Bali is because when COVID hit, we were like, 'Well, my mum's really old'. And we came back and she was in a nursing home at the time. So she actually passed away during COVID. She didn't get COVID, but I'm sure that many siblings and granddaughters and grandkids... she died of loneliness if you ask me, because we couldn't visit her during COVID. 

  

[00:13:48] So we came back for it. But then with the nursing home, we couldn't see her anyway. One of the only times I saw her was about 10 metres away, 'Hi Mum. Hi, Mum'. So that was sad. But I guess the only thing good about that was that we did make the right decision to come back. Because if I was stuck over there and couldn't get into the country for a funeral for my mum, I would have been mortified.

  

[00:14:13] So we kind of got a little lucky. But when she passed away, she was in a little spot where we could actually have like 40 people at the funeral, spaced out. It wasn't one of those funerals where it was only like, heartbreaking when only four people would go. We could have immediate family. So that was one thing, but...

Tyrone Shum:   

His father passed away around 20 years ago, after his own share of struggles.

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:14:53] I was about 30. He was an incredibly smart man, my father. He was in the Air Force for 12 years. And then he had, like, four degrees, he was a TAFE lecturer.

  

[00:15:06] But one of my main recollections of my father is that he had a stroke. So when I was about 14, I think, he had a stroke. So [for] the last, like, 16 years of his life, he was paralysed on the left hand side. 

  

[00:15:19] But strokes are very different now. If you ring an ambulance within four hours of having a stroke, they can give you a tablet, and most people don't have strokes anymore. But back then— I'm not a doctor, don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure I've heard that on the ABC— you don't see as many people having strokes anymore. Back then you saw a lot more people having left hand side or right hand side strokes. 

  

[00:15:43] The equipment [for] dealing with strokes back then wasn't what it's like today. There'll be a lot more clothing that makes it easier to live, the shoes, and just even having a knife. When we bought my father a rocker knife— because you try and tie your shoelaces up with one hand, try and put on a belt with one hand after this podcast, try and do your buttons up with one hand, the things you take for granted. Try and cut a steak with one hand. 

  

[00:16:10] I remember one time we bought him a rocker knife, which is this knife which has a little bit at the end like a fork. So it has a knife and then a little, like, shape like that. And then at the end is a fork type element. So he could cut his steak, and then turn around and eat it. And it was like [all his] Christmases had come at once. It was a little thing like that that was amazing for him.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:16:32] We take it for granted.

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:16:37] He was incredibly smart in terms of academically. But he wasn't that financially literate. And so he worked on his life, Tyrone. And he retired after [his] whole life working with five kids that you see. He got $250,000, I remember, around '88 when he retired, and he put it all into this company called Estate Mortgage, which was this non bank lender. And I remember the ads back then, it was 'Safe as houses', 'We're a bank', 'We're investing your money into property, we're safe as houses'. 

  

[00:17:20] But what they didn't tell you was they were actually putting it into development sites. They were lending to developers. And so when interest rates went up to 17%, which was the RBA rate, that means developers are borrowing money at 21%. They went broke. And all the money that my father had put into this fund got nullified. So he lost pretty much all his life's work, all his life's earnings, pretty much overnight. I think the administrators ended up giving him after three years, like, 13 cents in the dollar. 

  

[00:17:55] I remember when Burnsville was the company were the administrator, and I'm sure when he used to see a letter come in from them, he was just heartbroken as you would be after all your life and then losing everything. 

  

[00:18:08] So that's kind of where I started in property, because I wanted to educate people about things. 

  

[00:18:16] Like COVID didn't kill my mother, loneliness did, I'm sure the heartache of him losing all his money had a part to do with his demise. There's no doubt the stress of that. It's making me really bloody teary now.

Tyrone Shum:   

It’s an interesting and valuable lesson for everybody to learn.

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:18:51] And one thing I'd reflect there would be: A bit of diversification wouldn't have been a bad thing for him.

  

[00:19:00] The funny thing about that is now if you put it into a bank, that $250,000 would have been government guaranteed. 

  

[00:19:08] I think that's what maybe some of the US funds are thinking at the moment, they put all their money in the SVP bank, maybe they should have split it up into different banks. But I guess yes, that's the one key lesson I've learnt from that is a bit of diversification. Don't have all your eggs into the one basket, even in the one bank. 

  

[00:19:27] I guess it's pretty safe [with] the Commonwealth [Bank] and ANZ. We've got different regulations here, which are very comforting. I was reading an article the other day where they were saying Australian banks are over regulated. I'm like, 'Nah, I'm pretty happy with their regulation. I'm good'.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:19:43] We need this in order to keep everything safe. Imagine what happens if a bank goes under. Gosh. It'd be devastating. 

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:19:49] That's how I kind of wanted to get into property, because I saw how it had affected my father's life and how I wanted to in some ways educate people to try and show them, A, how to make money, but hopefully, B, not to lose it. So the whole depreciation thing that I do is helping people make their life more affordable. That's what we do. Or their investment properties more affordable.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:20:16] And it helps people save money as well, too.

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:20:20] Absolutely, absolutely. So yeah, so that's kind of how I kind of got started into [property].

Tyrone Shum:   

His foray into property seemed to be written in the stars, as his university degree played a role as well. Like many young Australians, though, he took time out for a break from the grind.

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:22:39] I did a degree in construction economics [at] UTS. There's not many people [who] do it. I've got a degree in construction, which is a bachelor of science, but majoring in construction economics. I did that for two years. And then I decided to backpack around the world, like all young Aussie[s] should.

  

[00:22:59] And so I took off and I worked for six months, saved up and then I backpacked for about two years. And I lived in London and travelled around Europe and Asia. But then I came back and the number one thing I learnt when I was travelling, Tyrone, was I don't want to work for minimum wage for the rest of my life. 

  

[00:23:19] Most people, I think, when they take a big gap year, or gap three years, they come back and they don't finish their degree. But having that experience of working for minimum wage, [I was like], 'I've got to finish this degree, I need to have a qualification here'. 

  

[00:23:35] I remember at the last bit— I was smoking cigarettes back then, stupid— but I remember I caught the train. I bought a can of Coke [and a] packet of cigarettes and I caught the train to work and that cost me more than I earnt that day. And I went, 'This is it. This is not right’. 

  

[00:23:56] So I maxed out my credit card and went off to— it was actually cheaper to go to Egypt and Turkey for the last two weeks of our journey than it was to live in London. So [I was] living on $2 a day in Egypt, catching local trains back in 1989 or something, back in Egypt, it was an experience. I was with my future wife at the time, we were doing it together. It was an experience.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:24:26] [Did] Sandy travel with you for a couple years then, doing the backpacking?

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:24:30] We kind of had a bit of a gap year from each other there as well. She was living in Hong Kong as a journalist at the time. But basically whenever we've been in the same country, we've been together. But I think everyone needs a bit of a break to make sure it's the right thing, you know. So whenever we've been in the same country, we've been together.

   

[00:25:16] I think travelling as a young adult is probably the best investment you can make, one of the best investments you can make. I think as a young adult, if you can, if you have $10,000 in your bank account that you've saved up— $10,000 back then, maybe you need, like, $15,000 these days— you can go away for a year, and not have to hit up your parents once and live on that. And I reckon that would be the best learning curve you could make, whether you have to forge your own path to work, be independent. I think that's a pretty good life learning skill right there.

  

[00:26:06] Because I've always had a bit of a entrepreneurial kind of thing, whenever I've travelled, you'd see something that's different over [there] that you haven't seen here yet. I guess it's harder now with the internet. It's pretty instantaneous, right? But back then, I remember thinking, 'This will go great in Australia'. I came back with all these ideas. I got back into quantity surveying.

Tyrone Shum:   

By the time he finished university he was 25, an age where most of his peers were well into their careers. Armed with his degree, he hit the streets to look for a job.

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:27:12] And they said in the last year, I had to work within a firm. And there was an ad on the university column saying cadet wanted at this company called Washington Brown. Because I felt so old, I have to be honest, I went and stole all the ads. So I was the only one that turned up at the interview. 

  

[00:27:30] But I volunteered to work for a year, because I was so old. I felt I was so old. But now I look at a 25 year old and go, 'You weren't that old'. But I volunteered to work for that year. And then he offered me a job when I finished [my] degree. So I've kind of only ever worked for one quantity surveying company. And now I own it. I feel a bit like that shaving ad dude, Victor, [or] whatever his name was. 'I liked the company that much I bought it'.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:28:08] You're the classic example. So how long has it been, do you remember? 

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:28:14] I was 24. And now I'm 52. So it's been, like, 28 years I've been at Washington Brown. And that's part of the reason why I felt like Bali was calling, because [I] had been in the same job for so long. But the difficulty of Washington Brown is there's a lot of family. 

  

[00:28:42] I actually worked out the other day, the average length of employee time [who've] worked at Washington Brown is 15.2 years. Now that's pretty unusual in this day and age that people stay that long. But it's because we all get on, which is great.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:29:00] Especially [if] you're the owner, who wouldn't get along well with you?

Tyron Hyde:   

[00:29:05] I can't get rid of them, Tyrone!

Tyron Hyde’s story continues in the next episode of Property Investory. He dishes on a very famous friend…

 

[00:02:20] It starts from Harry Triguboff down. He's been a client for 25 years.

 

His first investment property and why it made such an impact on him…

 

[00:07:40] The first purchase I made was with a friend.

He explains why it’s always handy to have a copy of a classic Australian movie on you.

[00:13:03] So me and him got into a bit of a bidding war. And I know he was quite wealthy, and I know I'm gonna lose this war.

 

And that’s next time on Property Investory.