A Sydney man who dropped out of high school and was working for minimum wage has shared the way in which he came to amass a $10million property portfolio in just over a decade.
Daniel Walsh, 31, left school when he was just 15 and took a job as an apprentice electrician earning below the adult minimum wage, yet he managed to save half of his salary.
That enabled Mr Walsh to buy his first property in 2011, when he was just 19, in Thirlmere in southwest Sydney, near where he grew up.
He paid a 5 percent deposit of $34,000 – which was the sum total of his life savings at the time – to secure the partially built property.
Daniel Walsh (pictured right), 31, has turned his life around from high school dropout at 15 to becoming a property investor and buyer with a portfolio valued at $10million
Mr Walsh and his wife Sophie, 28, (pictured) married in 2018 and ‘joined forces’ in property investment
His timing was perfect as a surging Sydney property market saw the house’s value rise by $100,000 in just one year.
Mr Walsh and his wife Sophie, 28, have since accumulated a total of 13 properties between them worth a whopping $10million.
The investor couple owe $3million to the bank, but $7million of borrowings has already been paid off or been written down by the banks as the result of the appreciation in the properties’ values.
They have been able pay off mortgage and maintenance costs with the money paid by tenants while still pocketing an extra $100,000 in passive income every year.
Mr Walsh told news.com.au he had ‘sacrificed’ a lot in his days working firstly as an apprentice and later as a train driver, forgoing nights out with friends and eating out at restaurants.
‘I understood if I worked hard for 10 years then I wouldn’t have to for the rest of my life,’ he said.
‘I understood very young that this wasn’t a sprint, it was a marathon, you want to build your portfolio over 15 and 20 years [at least].’
Instead of partying like other young people, Mr Walsh spent hours conversing with mentors, reading books and watching TV programs dedicated to property investing.
Since securing his first property in 2011, he has bought homes in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, and ‘joined forces’ with his wife after their marriage in 2018 to work together as a power investment couple.
Mr Walsh went from working as an apprentice earning less than minimum wage, to owning 13 properties totalling $10million in just over a decade
In 2017, Mr Walsh started his own property buyers agency, Your Property Your Wealth, offering advice to budding investors
The pair live in one of their Sydney properties worth $2million.
Posting to facebook for his wife’s 28th birthday in November, Mr Walsh said the pair had been through ‘good times and some tough [times], but we never quit and always worked as a team’.
‘Doing life with you has been epic,’ he said.
The couple are expecting their first child this month.
In 2017, Mr Walsh started his own property buyers agency, Your Property Your Wealth, which he ran as a side gig while still working gruelling hours driving trains.
Mr Walsh quit the job after almost crashing a train when he fell asleep at the wheel and now works as a buyers’ agent full-time.
He has also worked previously as a garbage driver, travelling between Sydney and Goulburn and working exhausting 12-hour night shifts and sleeping during the day.
Mr Walsh said he enjoys working hard but he and his wife also like to travel, having recently spent time in the Maldives with a Bali trip planned for the near future.