We have all seen the adverts, read the vague and impersonal articles and longed to be in the shoes of self-made millionaires with no financial worries. It is only when you read a personal account, such as that of property millionairess Belinda Grashion, that you actually start to appreciate what can be done with hard work and determination. This lady is quite literally an inspiration to women in property, having developed her own property mentorship programmes for women which have launched participants to high levels of success. Her latest Freedom Mastermind Programme is set to take the next set of motivated women to property success.
How it all began: Facing life’s challenges head-on
The story of Belinda Grashion begins with a single mother struggling to make ends meet, determined to give her children the best life she could even if sometimes this meant going without meals herself.
Trying to make a weekly benefits cheque stretch a full seven days is a task that many people up and down the UK face today. The weekly shortfalls begin to mount, the debts suddenly appear and it is a battle just to get through the day let alone give your children the life you feel they deserve. This was the scenario facing Belinda Grashion as a single mother with two children, little experience of household finances and a £50 shortfall on expenditure per week.
Belinda’s income from her job as a part-time massage therapist together with her meagre state benefits would not even cover her weekly expenses. Time to sink or swim?
Setting challenges and hitting targets
When it became obvious things needed to change, Belinda Grashion set a target of earning an extra £200 a month which would at least cover her household expenses. It was around this time that she spotted an advert in her local paper claiming to teach people how to make money from property. Faced with the challenge of raising £1000 for the two-day course she will forever be grateful to friends and family who helped her raise the money needed.
Belinda readily admits that she “understood little of what was said during the two-day event” having left school at 16 with no qualifications and enjoyed her role as a housewife and mother to the children for 18 years. However, she did spot one strategy during the two-day event she thought might work, could open the door to a future career and, as they say, the rest is history.
Buy, redevelop and rent
While the process of buying a property below market value, redeveloping and renting to tenants is obviously the Holy Grail for property investors, finding finance can be a big stumbling block. So, Belinda Grashion put in place a simple long-term strategy which was to find sellers who needed a quick sale due to difficult personal circumstances, who lived in a property in need of renovation and were willing to sell their property for just 75% of the market value. Her caring and empathetic approach to distressed sellers was a key part of her success.
Immediately upon agreement being reached, bathrooms and kitchens would be replaced and the properties would all be redecorated. After the redevelopment was completed Belinda would then take out a mortgage on the new higher value, rent out to tenants to build cash flow and use some of the excess mortgage money to fund her next property. Despite the fact that Belinda had little knowledge of the financial world, had never sat down with her bank manager before and was new to the world of property she took to this like a duck to water.
Building up a property portfolio
Belinda is now in her mid-50s and looks back upon her early years in property investment with great pride and satisfaction. It “only” took her four years to become a property millionaire but as she says “four years to become a millionaire may not sound a long time but it certainly felt like it at the time”. The key to Belinda’s success is her knowledge around property and the market so no matter what the market looks like, she has a strategy that works. She also refused to admit defeat and had the pure determination to give her children the kind of life she wanted for them.
Delegation and trust
Belinda’s underlying strategy of acquiring undervalued properties, redeveloping and renting them out has stood the test of time but she has also managed to maintain her business/family balance. During the early years the working day revolved around free time when the children were at school and the odd Saturday morning. Even today much of her property development and sourcing work is delegated to her trusted team of builders and solicitors.
Although the strategy that took Belinda to Financial Freedom has stood the test of time she now knows of much quicker routes to Financial Freedom… some even without investing a single penny of your own money! She started mentoring due to a family friend losing her pension after 58 years due to mismanagement. At that moment Belinda knew that if she lost everything tomorrow, she’d be back to her lifestyle in less than one year. This is how powerful the strategies she teaches really are.
Belinda has changed her life and the lives of her family through property and is passionate about helping others achieve the same. Her mentorship programmes have given outstanding success to participants and created a solid reputation for Belinda’s strategies and approach, seeing her featured most recently in the Daily Mail. Due to high demand, her latest event on 26th November 2016 in Birmingham is expected to sell out extremely fast. You can register early at a reduced rate here.
