Cheyanne Brae

Meet Cheyanne Brae, a Flight Attendant from Melbourne who is currently on 12 months leave from her employment, while she follows her passion and focuses on property investing full time.

Becoming a Flight Attendant was once a dream for Cheyanne, but dreams, like goals, change once they've been achieved, and now Cheyanne is moving onward and upward and quickly!

Cheyanne in Focus

Drowning in Debt

This might seem like a rosy beginning for any girl, but in fact, this young enthusiastic go-getter started out by accumulating $52,000 in credit card and personal debt by the time she was 22. What would a 22 year old spend money on if it is not for Real Estate? Well Cheyanne admits, It was for anything from shoes, shopping, pampering, nails and fake tans; you know putting on an act for everybody else.

But life changed. In her words Cheyanne admits, I got sick to death of being sick to death. It was something that I wouldn't want anybody else to feel and I know a lot of people in current circumstances probably do feel the pinch, but it was something, oh gosh, it was something that makes you ill. You're frightened to answer the phone because you're worried that people will be contacting you for your bad debts. Getting another bill in the mail, getting another call from a debt collector I just hated the situation I was in. For me, at the time, it was very embarrassing and I was pretty much ashamed. But I knew it was either I did something about it, or I went bankrupt. So Cheyanne started acting for herself.

Over the next three years she wiped off the debt by working up to five jobs including stints in cafes and finally satisfying her dream of becoming a flight attendant. Not only did her dedication and commitment help this highflying achiever pay off her debts, but it was also the beginning of a new life; a new Cheyanne!
Choosing the Right Path

By continuing with her strict budget, Cheyanne managed to start building her savings and was soon ready to start increasing her wealth through property investing. However, finding the right strategy wasn't easy, as Cheyanne recalls, I didn't want to risk a lot of money. My thought process was to go and ask the experts. However, after finding a number of experts online, and attending a couple of investing groups, she was disappointed, as she said, All they wanted to do was sell me property.

Cheyanne finally invested her time and money in some seminars and programs that gave her a number of options to consider, rather than just one strategy. She says, They were real people and I could actually ask questions. The value of this education has been invaluable for Cheyanne, who has since become an astute and passionate property investor, renovator and developer.

One of the things this "new" Cheyanne pointed out was that her state of mind and choices in life had now changed too. Whereas at one time she might have chosen to go shopping all weekend, or spend her evenings watching hours of TV, now she was choosing to look for Real estate opportunities. She had realised through her education process that “… the choices you make will give you the outcome that you get.
$100,000 profit on her first renovation

Cheyanne's education continued outside the workshops with practical experience, including a couple of renos she did with an ex-partner. At the age of 28 Cheyanne finally overcame some analysis paralysis and jumped into renovating on her own. This project gave her an excellent profit, but she has also learnt a lot from that experience.

She purchased the property for $240,000, using $12,000 savings as the initial deposit. She wanted to renovate, but didn't have the cash to cover the cost of materials, so she borrowed $28,000 on a personal loan to cover it. “It was a rundown property, although it was only 4 or 5 years old, but it had been treated very badly in the past. I called it the lollypop house, because every room was a different fluorescent colour. I didn't like turning lights on in the house because I thought I would pass out, she laughs.

Although Cheyanne can now boast completing a renovation in just 32 days, on this first deal she had originally budgeted for 90 days and with her lack of experience, blew the entire renovation out to 180 days. The reno included losing the lollypop colours, so the whole house had to be painted, a brand new kitchen installed, and minor restoration conducted to alter the shape of the room. She also carpeted all four bedrooms, put floorboards in the back lounge room and did minor landscaping to the property. One of the hardest things as Cheyanne recalls was, This carpet was glued straight to the concrete and the week I decided to pull it up was between 35 and 40 degrees every day. She adds, I went through 3 stanley knives just cutting the carpet into squares so I could actually pull them off the floor.

Although the project took double the budgeted time, it was a great learning curve, and still made an impressive profit. Cheyanne sold the property for $392,000 making a whopping $100,000 profit after all her holding costs.

Just imagine what she could have made if she'd kept the reno within a shorter time frame, and kept the property!
Cheyanne joins Property Women.

Cheyanne has agreed to join our line up of Property Women at our next Brisbane workshop in March, and she has a lot to offer! Now with 13 renos under her toolbelt and making plenty of mistakes, Cheyanne has discovered a formula she will share with you at the upcoming Property Women event.

Using this formula, she turned a reno around in only 32 days and made an impressive $65,000 profit after all expenses. For some women, that’s a whole year’s salary!!