The £10million Man

CASE STUDY #4 - MICHAEL DONG

Michael, a Chinese native, was the first Masterminder to break an 8-figure annual turnover in his property business. And he didn't start with millions already in the bank, a modest £190,000 was what he started with. This is the definitive case study in rapidly scaling your property business.
  • Total turnover: £10,088,490
  • Total net cashflow: £100,016
  • Total flip profit: £926,325
  • ​Total equity: £854,583
  • ​Total properties: 84
  • ​Number of joint venture partners: 5
  • ​Next deal in pipeline: 18 units @ £2,100,000
It is customary that at the final workshop of each Mastermind Programme, some of the departing Masterminders get up on stage and talk about their experiences and results. Here is Michael's contribution...

WATCH MICHAEL'S CASE STUDY

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TRANSCRIPT AND SLIDES

Hi everyone. I'm really honoured to stand here I know a lot of us deserve to be on this stage. I'm really honored to share my story with you. Let me think about the techniques of doing a presentation first.

Before I left my wife say to me, "Michael, just be yourself. Don't do any jokes. I think I'm going to stick to that.

A little bit about me first. I was born in China. My mom brought me up single handedly on a small salary. It wasn't easy for her at all. I always looked for ways to help her, help the situation. Maybe because of that or because something else, I had always been entrepreneurial ever since I was a kid. I remember my first venture was in primary school selling souvenirs on the streets to the tourists. That turned myself into the richest kid in school.

In 2002, I came to the UK to study master degree in accounting finance. I took with me my mom's lifetime saving. After paying off the accommodation, tuition fee I remember I left with £918 in my pocket. Luckily I survived. Luckily I got a job right after graduation working in the fashion company. Later on I started my own business selling digital products online. These two commitments overlapped each other for a period of time. At that time, during the day I go to work in office. At night work on my own business until three or four o'clock in the morning. I wake up at nine and go back to work again. That last about half a year. It couldn't go on anymore because I was hospitalized. I'm thinking this can't be the solution.

Property investing seems interesting. I was brave enough to buy my first buy-to-let property in 2008 at the peak of the market. Fast forward to a year and a half ago, I met Simon Zutshi in London who introduced the Mastermind to me. Looking back that's probably one of my luckiest days in my life because here I am standing in front of you.
I love this guy because I can find a lot of similarities. This is one of my favorite quotes. It doesn't matter where you're from, how you start because it doesn't make who you are. It's the rest of your story, who you choose to be. Who do I want to be? Who do I choose to be? Your Mastermind.
Goals and strategies. Why did I do Mastermind? Although I had some experience before Mastermind I never had a formal training or property education. I was looking for new challenge, new vision and network and self development. I remember the first seminar, the first workshop. I was proper pumped and so excited. I'm thinking, "Michael, you gonna do this? You gonna do this right." Looking at that banner we're gonna add zero at the end. That's my goal. £10 million in property and £500,000 profit. When I calm down a little bit and went home, checked my bank statement luckily I had £190,000 in the bank. Unfortunately, I told everyone I'm gonna make £10 million. With that goal in mind, I can only do big deals. My strategy is what I call wholesale to retail. That involves efficient use of my own money and introduction of joint venture money and a lot of clever structures.
What happened during the Mastermind year? Mastermind is about commitment and hard work, absolutely. A lot of sacrifices as well. I'm the kind of person that I would kill myself just to make things happen. I was trying to do so much. I hit the button again and again, reached the full capacity in terms of finance, time, manpower and emotion power. At the beginning I thought it was easy, just do more deals to reach the target. It's not like that. I think we spent half the time on learning things, on building system, on correcting things, on getting things right before moving on. At the beginning of Mastermind I did pretty well. I was very upbeat. Reaching my target I give to myself at the beginning. Towards the middle the frustration kicks in because I was chasing some big deals. Especially after those big deal fell through. I was start question myself, question why I'm doing this and the goal. If my goal is right. I start losing focus and pick up shiny pennies. I wasn't happy. I was very tired.
Luckily while in this Mastermind group, with help my coach and mentor, I refocused and rebuild. It was then the Mastermind pick up again. Some of the achievement I'm really proud of, the team. I'm no longer a one member band. The brand, including the brand for the company, for myself and our products. The system, now a build a system that can help us to stay organized. More importantly, right mentality and the platform for us to take on the next stage. Last one, not least, during Mastermind year we set up two Korean dessert cafes in South Korea. A business soon to be franchised in China. Although this is not nothing to do with property. This is just to show that what we're learning in Mastermind is transferable to other things in life. This is typical Mastermind-style joint venture.
Let's have a look at some property case studies. We got this deal from our solicitor. This is typical HMO cash flow deal. The idea is to retire with one property. This is a first of its kind for me as well. We got a really good price. Spent loads of money on this £75,000 to do it up, turn it into a nine bedroom HMO. The commercial value based on the new rent is higher than what we paid for. We got all the money back and a free property and £29,000 cash flow for the year and the rest of life, of course.
Case study two is freehold to leasehold renovation product. We got this from a motivated seller who couldn't finish out the project. We came in, we finish out the work and did the paperwork [inaudible 00:08:10] divide into leasehold properties. I have the all rented unit before the renovation's finished because the work done was quite good. You can see the finished product inside. Figure-wise, we now have this portfolio on the market and offer received for 716,000. That gives us a net profit of 201. This is a joint venture case study so 50/50. The joint venture partner put in some of the cash and then we financed the property. We managed to make him just over 100,00 in about seven month time. He's a very happy guy looking for more deals now.
This is the biggest deal so far we've done this year. It's typical wholesale to retail strategy. Purchase a portfolio of 46 apartments. A lot of clever structures strategy going into this deal. It took a while for the vendor and his solicitor to get onboard with us. Eventually they realized it's a win-win situation. After endless negotiations and some sleepless nights, I finally got this deal exchanged just before Christmas. Ever since then I've been working around the clock to get this to the market in five years. What you can see here is not a screenshot of a brochure we've done for these development. I'm really thrilled to say that this development was launched yesterday. Although I have to come back here this weekend. I couldn't be there. Things went along quite nicely and I'm more thrilled to say that I received text last night from my colleague. He said seven properties have been sold. We did a small seminar. A couple of hours, seven properties. A beautiful feeling. What we're going to do now is gonna market this full-scale next week. Pretty confident that majority of these units will be gone in a month time.
Why do this type of deal? We like to have some massive income on top of passive income and there are three ways to make money from here. When you purchase, you're avoiding the rat race. You purchase with less competition. You purchase with greater discount. When it come to adding value and shorten the time scale, you can rely on the economy of scale and we can sell it fast at a good price.
Here's some of the results. These are a spreadsheet of cash flow properties that we bought and kept. There are 11 properties, total £1.6 million and we net income of £8,000 per month.
This page is assisted the sale and deal packaging we've done this year, averaging between £3,000 to £7500. That gives a total of £40,000.
This is flipping. The properties have been sold at £1.4 million. Properties sold, with profit £635,000 before tax. This is the result.
This is portfolio for sale on the market. They are either offer received, one of the case study over there, or on the market for sale now. Gives a total of £6.1 million.
A few humble tips. Set a big goal and break it down. Set a goal that's almost unrealistic, but break it down into smaller steps that's realistic to achieve. You might think that, "How can I get this? How can I do that? I can't have this, or I can't have that." If your idea is bigger than your resources. If you want something really bad enough the universe will conspire and help you. You get what you focus on, absolutely. Stay focused. Do you want to focus on shiny pennies or do you want to focus on mountains of gold? Do you want to focus the color of a mattress or do you want to focus on the next big deal? Choose the level you want to play on. Get used stepping out of the comfort zone. At moment I'm so out of comfort zone.

I remember at the beginning when I first stood up, my voice was so shaky. I probably still doing that now. James said to me, "Michael, I can feel the floor shaking." He was right. This is how we expand, how we break the bottleneck. Also, help others and let others help you. Before Mastermind, I was very narrow minded. I didn't have the concept of working with others, but now I have more friends. I have more JV partners. I'm happier. I have a team. I create more win-win situations.
The secret ingredient is nothing. It's just you. If you want something special enough. You got to believe it's special.
What's the future? I just came back from the Far East. I've been to a couple of countries. I been to meetings with some of the major players in the property industry. I can see huge opportunities over there. Huge opportunities. I will become the go-to person between UK and the overseas buyers. We are in the middle of setting up CPIN, which is Chinese Property Investment Network. Maybe because the language barrier or the culture barrier, a lot of the Chinese people are not taking advantage of the knowledge or the strategies that could be available to them. I would like to help more people.

Property investing can be lonely. It can be hard, but it doesn't have to be. With the knowledge we learned this year, with the experience we gained this year, we can do things a little bit differently. Work with more people in a smarter way. Finally, more balance in life. I like to get more sleep.
Here's the summary. Total turnover just over £10 million of property. Total net cash flow from the properties we kept is £100,000. Flip property excluding JV partners' share and the big Fontenoy development that we have just marketed is £926,000. However, that figure should change everyday because yesterday we just sold seven. This hasn't been updated. The total equity is £800,000. Total property deals 84, joint venture partner 5 and next deal in the pipeline this week is £2.1 million.

A little bit extra. I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by BBC, YPN and some of the Chinese newspapers. I was invited to speak in some of the banks in China, which is very nice.
In comparison 2013 we've done 2 deals, £190,000. In 2014, just over £10 million. Now this figure in 2014 is actually five times what I've achieved in the last decade. I'm not showing this to impress you, but to show you that this is possible. This is possible in a year. What a difference a year can make. Of course, I didn't do this all by myself.

I'd like to thank:
  • Simon Zutshi who created this fabulous environment for us and inviting me for the Mastermind.
  • My coach Mark Dearing, smashing guy who had a good laugh during the year, he gave me a lot of detailed tips.
  • Gavin Barry, my mentor helped to me to refocus and get on to the right road.
  • ​Dan Hill helped us with the system, with the branding and packaging.
  • ​My team back in Manchester.
  • ​My wife - wise woman - who's been up and down with me and also put up with me for the last 11-12 months.
  • ​Past Masterminders, Dave Morris and so many others.
  • ​And of course, you guys, MM15. I'm so grateful honoured to be in this journey and to be part of your journey and you part of our journey. This is just the beginning for us. This is my Mastermind.
Thank you very much.

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