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Lynnette Butler - Bold Leap Pays Offwritten by Karen Clark
Eight years ago, my husband Eddie and I had our backs up against the wall. We were so stretched financially, we were struggling to pay the mortgage on our home. With two children to care for, it was a very stressful time. But out of that desperate situation came a radical change of thinking that has turned our lives around. Today, Eddie and I own 10 properties and two small businesses, including Lynnette Butler, The Property Shoppe, of which I'm managing director. It's a business I've fostered using the lessons I've learned these past few years, and which I'm very passionate about. The property industry is a world away from my early career as an avionics technician and desktop publisher. I grew up on the outskirts of Christchurch, and met Eddie, an Aucklander, on a recruit course for the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 1988. We married in 1992. Eddie later left the air force, and completed his aircraft engineer qualifications while based in Nelson. Eventually we tired of commuting, so I left the air force in 1997 and moved to Nelson. However, as soon as I arrived, I fell pregnant. We were building our home at the time, and I was unable to work due to severe morning sickness. This meant we now had to fund our home from one income, which had never been our plan! When it came to the point where we were refinancing our mortgage for the third time, stretching the loan out to the maximum term, we knew something had to give - or change. It was about this time I read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, which gave me an insight into how we could get out of our dire financial situation. I must have been pretty excited, because Eddie read the book too. We decided to take the plunge and put our lovely home on the market and bought a cheaper one. This halved our mortgage and freed up equity, which we could then invest in rental properties. It took about a year to find our first rental. The only ones that would give us enough income to cover our costs were on crosslease sections, which didn't appeal to Eddie. However, he overcame his reluctance when I found a rental on a crosslease section that offered two incomes - one for the house and one for the flat below - which more than covered costs. Before we had even settled on the property, Eddie found another dual income rental and we bought this too! 2003 was a huge year. We settled on both these purchases, bought a section which we sold again, and also bought a new family home. All five dwellings were renovated and rented, along with our old family home, which we had sold into our property investing company. The property market was on fire and it was a very exciting time for us. We were adding value to the houses, getting top rents, and were able to keep on buying by "recycling'' our mortgage deposit again and again. In 2004 we added five more rentals in Greymouth and Nelson to our portfolio, and the following year secured what was probably our best buy, despite tougher market conditions. We bought two small houses in Nelson, which we immediately upgraded for a total cost of $5000. The houses were tenanted, and right from the start produced a positive gross rental income. What's more, their combined value jumped from $245,000 to $360,000. It was around this time that I was introduced to Wizard Home Loans, and I opened Wizard Nelson Bays in November that year. I used my experience as a property investor, and my knack of thinking outside the square, to build up the business. I enjoy helping others buy homes and investment properties, and add value with my networks and my focus on achieving a loan structure that will suit the client. With the sudden closure of Wizard Home Loans New Zealand, I then started working on my new business, The Property Shoppe (propertyshoppe.co.nz) which started trading October 08. With Property Shoppe, I am still writing home loans, as well as expanding into property management services and wealth coaching. We offer a unique package in our 'User Pays' contacts, where the owner of the property pays us to do the tasks he/she would like to do themselves if they had the time/knowhow/inclination to manage the property themselves. Being a rental property owner myself, I can truly say that I act with an owners perspective on all the decisions made with the properties we manage. We treat all the houses as if they were my own. In August 2008, I held my first Women's Wealth Workshop, which lead to the launch of cancangirls.co.nz. My vision for Can Can Girls is to motivate others to make changes in their lives that will lead to success. If I can do it then anyone can -can!
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