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‘$7k to my name’: Rising from rock bottom to a $5.5m portfolio
When unexpected roadblocks hit, they can either completely derail your portfolio or become an opportunity to turn misfortune into a goldmine through perseverance, grit, and strategy.
One investor has shared how he built a $5.5 million, six-property portfolio and secured his financial future after a divorce left him with $7,000 in his bank account.
In a recent episode of The Property Nerds podcast with Arjun Paliwal, investor Trent Olsen said that a combination of long-term strategy, financial discipline, and data-driven decision-making helped him rebuild his wealth and rapidly expand his property portfolio.
Olsen, who grew up in Toowoomba, Queensland, said he developed an interest in property investment following early exposure from his parents.
“My dad has always been property mad. He’s been talking to me about property probably since I was old enough to really get money,” he said.
Following his parents’ divorce and the division of assets, Olsen said that he truly learnt about the volatility of wealth and became more determined to secure his financial future.
“The motivator and inspiration was seeing their marriage end unfortunately, and all the wealth that went with it,” he said.
Olsen’s first purchase was a two-bedroom unit in Toowoomba at age 23, but he didn’t know about the nuances of property at the time, only making $20,000 when he sold it.
“You had to be very lucky at that time, with a two-bedroom unit, to make any money,” he said.
While Olsen went on to develop his portfolio with subsequent purchases, he hit a roadblock in 2014 when he and his first wife went through a painful divorce, forcing him to start over.
“We lost a lot of money, carved up the assets. I walked away with about $7,000 to my name at the end of it, and an old Camry,” he said.
After five years of rebuilding, in 2019, Olsen acquired his next principal place of residence (PPOR) with his second wife, in Brisbane, before they bought their first investment property together in 2022, a new-build in Perth.
“It performed well. From the time we’d signed on to when it’d finished building in 2023, it had already made 20–25 per cent,” he said.
Following the success of this property, Olsen and his wife were able to expand their portfolio across a number of jurisdictions, including South Australia, Queensland, and Victoria.
The strategy
Olsen said one move that helped him was switching buyer’s agents, arguing his previous agency had no long-term strategy and failed to answer nuanced questions.
“They just would pull out game plans and run through saying, look, this is where the line’s going – that’s your strategy,” he said.
Instead of simply buying properties in the hotspots where many other investors were looking, Olsen preferred a long-term strategy based on balancing capital growth and rental yield.
He later switched to a buyer’s agent with a more measured, data-driven approach to investing that boosted his confidence and allowed his current investments to achieve significant growth.
While other investors were looking at one house at a time, he said his buyer’s agent helped him to start from his end goal and work his way backwards based on what he wanted to achieve.
“They actually put out a plan, looked at the markets – what’s the loan-to-value ratio we should be sitting at before we look to transition into commercial? That’s a chat we had on day one about something that’s going to happen 10 years in the future.”
Olsen also stressed the importance of discipline and making hard financial choices to boost cash flow, having bought the “worst house in the best street” for his PPOR to save borrowing capacity.
“I’d love to spend that money, but I want to keep investing cash flow month to month,” he said.
Olsen also advised investors to speak to a good broker, after originally depending on a bank he trusted and constantly being met with obstacles to lending.
“That was a real pivot for me; I’ve been with my broker ever since our PPOR, and he’s a weapon,” he said.
“He finds lending legitimately and compliantly because he understands all the criteria so well.”
Listen to the full episode here
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