From homeless and penniless to real estate bling | WATCH

Q: How did you end up homeless?

I fell in love with a boy when I was 13 and my father didn’t approve, so he kicked me out of home. I came from a poor background – my parents were Vietnamese refugees and I was born in a refugee camp in the Philippines, then came to New Zealand when I was six weeks old. I’m one of nine children and there were 11 of us in a three-bedroom house. Education was very important to my father and he thought I should be focusing on school, not boys. Being hard-headed, I didn’t ask if I could go back to our home in Onehunga, instead I lived on the streets of South Auckland. I slept in bus stops, in friends’ cars and garages, anywhere I could. I dropped out school at 14 and got jobs like working in a dairy and cafes. I was living paycheck to paycheck. I did forgive my father and went back home when I was 18.

Somebody gave me a copy of Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad when I was about 18. Reading it changed my life. I remember playing snooker with my friend at a place in Royal Oak and being down to my last $2, and saying, “I am never going to be this broke again.” I knew that if things were going to get better, it was up to me.

Q: How did the book change your thinking?

It opened my eyes to a greater world beyond being poor. With my family being as focused on education as they were, I felt like because I’d left school so young I was a loser, and that was a real hindrance to my confidence. But what resonated for me from that book was that it is not how much you earn, but how much you save. So from then on, I saved 60% of my income, and put 20% into expenses and 20% into living costs. And whatever I did, I worked really, really hard. I worked in retail, then at 21 I went into business with my sister, and by 24 I had enough money in the bank to be pre-approved to buy my own home.

Q: What business did you have with your sister?

We had a bakery/café in Te Aroha, in the Waikato. We couldn’t find any rental accommodation there at the time, so I had to drive down every day from Auckland. I would wake up at 3am to drive to Te Aroha, work in the bakery until it closed at 5pm, drive another hour and a half home, have dinner and be in bed by 7.30pm. I did that seven days a week for 10 months until I found accommodation down there. Eventually my brother bought me out, and that’s how I got enough money to buy my first home. It took me about a year and a half to find the right place, in Hillsborough.

Q: What job did you do next?

I went back into retail. I’ve always loved fashion – I’d had my own line, designing and making clothes – and I worked for an Australian company that had a chain of women’s clothing and lingerie stores across New Zealand. I went from a store manager to national sales manager to country manager and doubled the number of stores we had in New Zealand. I always told my staff, “It’s all about the customers. Without the customers, there’s no us. We’re here to provide solutions for everyone who comes into our shops, whether they want a bra fitted or an outfit that makes them feel beautiful.” It’s the same in real estate – we’re providing solutions for vendors and it’s all about them.