PHOTO: Kev Tran, 32, is a first generation migrant
An Australian man who grew up in housing commission and was kicked out of home at age 21 has managed to turn things around, having built up a $1.8 million property portfolio.
Kev Tran, 32, is a first generation migrant, with his parents arriving in the western Sydney suburb of Liverpool from Vietnam in the 1980s.
His mum and dad saved and saved but made bad investment decisions with property, causing the young man to vow not to make the same mistakes as he watched on as a teenager.
Years later, he learned that he had grown up in social housing as his parents struggled to get by. Mr Tran even failed high school, receiving a mystery mark for his ATAR and working minimum wage jobs straight out of school in factories, restaurants and casinos.
Fast forward a decade and now Mr Tran is a dad-of-one working as a buyer’s agent at Sydney firm InvestorKit, with three properties to his name spanning across Australia.
Despite his turbulent upbringing, he says his parents instilled in him a very important work ethic that he took with him later in life.
“I could see saving and being frugal was a big part of how our family operated,” he recalled to news.com.au. “They worked really hard and they saved a lot.”
Kev Tran has turned his life around. Picture: Supplied
Mr Tran said his parents made a massive mistake when they bought an investment property during his pre-teen years in the early 2000s.
“My dad thought that Sydney prices couldn’t go up anymore but mum wanted to hold onto it (the property).”
Ultimately, they decided to sell it.
“Prices continued to keep growing,” he said. “That caused more of a rift in their relationship.”
In his final years of high school, his parents divorced. He had been on track to go to university but his grades plummeted and he scored an ATAR of less than 30.
His mother met her new partner and moved to Melbourne, while Mr Tran moved in with his dad where he worked “random jobs”. For a brief period, the young man shared a room with his father while they tried to get their own place.
“I was staying with him until I was about 21,” Mr Tran said. “I got kicked out of that home because he remarried, I didn’t get along with the partner.”
However, from there, things began to improve.
His Ballarat property.
Mr Tran landed a job as a VIP host at the Star Casino which made him view investing and saving in a different way.
“It really opened my eyes up towards this whole new level of money, it was like the polar opposite of saving,” he explained.
He became interested in property and began listening to podcasts and reading books.
A the age of 26, he snapped up his first property.
He bought an off-the-plan townhouse in Melbourne in the suburb of Cranbourne for $450,000.
It took two years to settle the property, giving him an extra two years to front the 10 per cent deposit.
The property investor somewhat regrets the decision.
“When I settled it, I was hoping it would have gone up in value and it didn’t. That was a bummer,” Mr Tran said.
“When I bought it I didn’t know much about property. I’ve had it for the longest and it’s grown the least. It’s un underperformer.”
But after researching more, he resolved not to buy off the plan again, so that he could get renters in straight away and receive returns on his investment more quickly.
The Cranbourne townhouse.
Shortly after, Mr Tran bought his next house, this time in Ballarat in regional Victoria.
He took out a $385,000 loan for the three-bedroom house and with tenants jumping at the oppportunity, it was soon neutrally geared.
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