Ep 260 – From the Kitchen to Property Development: Ollie’s Story

Introduction

Welcome to the Property Mastermind Podcast, episode 260. Today Hilary interviews Ollie Carruthers, who came through the Property Mastermind Mentoring Program. Ollie began as a chef and transitioned into becoming a full time property developer. He is doing exceptionally well, and he has many of the traits we talked about in last week’s episode. We hope you find it inspiring.

From a London kitchen to Sydney fine dining

Hilary: You ended up in Australia at 26. How did you go from England to Australia, and what set you on the road to becoming a chef?

Ollie: I started cooking in London in the 90s and worked for a couple of Michelin star chefs there, which I loved. But England is cold and wet, and I always wanted to live by the beach somewhere warm. So we came to Australia and ended up in Sydney. I did the fine dining thing, including at the Opera House, then became head chef at Bambini Trust and opened the Bambini wine room. This was before Sydney had loads of small bars, so we were one of the first, and we picked up awards from the Sydney Morning Herald and Gourmet Traveller. I went on to be a group chef, but it was really demanding, six and seven days a week, and my wife Caroline was teaching. We did not have that work life balance, so we decided to do something about it.

Why Noosa, and the tipping point

Hilary: What was the actual tipping point?

Ollie: Noosa is a tourist destination, so you are busy on weekends and school holidays, exactly when you would like to be with your family. After cooking for 30 years I decided it was time for a change. Like a lot of people, you want your freedom back, to take control of your time and do more of the things you really enjoy.

The proposal that did not add up

Ollie: We sold the house in Sydney and wanted an investment property up here. We signed up with a buyers agency and their angle was to find something developable. But when I looked at the proposal, it did not quite make sense. It seemed like everybody was going to make money out of the project apart from me. So I decided to work out whether, if I learned to do a development myself and managed it myself, it would be viable. As you do, you start to educate yourself. I came across your podcast, which I loved, then heard about the mentoring program. I called you, we had a great chat, and I signed up a week or two later. Initially it was just to learn how to do that first development.

When the seed became a tree

Hilary: So you joined to develop your own property while still working as a chef. At what point did you think, I really like this?

Ollie: Pretty much from the start. I loved the problem solving. At the first workshop I got chatting to people who had done the program and were now doing it full time, and I got really inspired. That is when the seed grew into a tree pretty quickly. I thought, I could do this, I could be good at this. Caroline was 100 percent behind me. She had put up with me working nights for 30 years, so she was happy to see the next chapter.

Hilary: Was it scary when you quit?

Ollie: You get this friction trying to do your normal job and start something new, and it is hard to build momentum. So I pulled back my hours, and that is when I started to move forward. With you guys behind me I had a lot of confidence.

The three projects underway

Ollie: The first was a subdivision with a high end build, and I sold one of the blocks of land, which helped fund my journey out of cooking. The second is a duplex on the Sunshine Coast. A typical high end duplex seemed hard to make work, but I saw an opportunity that no one else was using, and it is looking like a really good project. Civil works are finished and construction starts in about three weeks. The third is a land subdivision on a rural residential block, where we renovate the house at the front and cut off the block at the back. It came up by chance while we were looking for a townhouse site.

Hilary: That is the same trait we talked about with Tom last week. Because you are educated, you see opportunities other people walk past.

A business partner and investors

Ollie: My business partner on the third project is my neighbour. We always talked property, he has done a couple of developments himself, so we decided to collaborate. I trade as Sunshine Developments, and our joint company is Urban Property Co. I am glad I started on my own, because it gave me confidence, but it is great to collaborate and bounce ideas off someone.

Ollie: The land subdivision is completely investor funded, and the townhouse project we are looking at will be too. We still have capacity for our own projects, but if you find a good project, I would rather share the profits and do it than have to pass it by.

The hard parts

Hilary: What is the biggest problem you have worked through?

Ollie: On a recent project the civil engineer and the neighbour did not get on. I was getting calls at eight in the morning, threats to call the police. I spent two weeks going down every morning at 6:30 to keep them calm and keep the peace. I had put a lot of work into building a relationship with the neighbour, so even though he did not get on with the other guy, he was friendly with me, and we got through it. Council will always pull something random out of the bag, so you just have to be patient and get over the hurdles one by one.

Mindset and the Miracle Morning

Ollie: My biggest mindset shift is simple: hard work and perseverance bring opportunity. You do the work, you focus, and the opportunities come. Aaron recommended the book The Miracle Morning, and I have built a morning routine that sets me up for the day and gets me in the right mindset.

Throwing away 90 sites out of 100

Ollie: Finding a site is hard, because you do all this work with no reward. My second site took a long time, and I came close to many that I had to walk away from. You have to throw away about 90 sites out of 100. A couple we even had under due diligence and pulled out at the last minute. Aaron was great with that. One looked really good, then a few things changed, and he called me back at seven in the morning and confirmed it was right to pull out. And early on Bob went through a DA with about 50 conditions in a spreadsheet, explaining every one. The speed I picked up the knowledge with you all behind me was fantastic.

Ollie’s advice

Hilary: What advice would you give people thinking about property development?

Ollie: Just do it. If you are serious, get educated. Something like your mentoring program fast tracks you, so what would take years you can nail in one or two. And get yourself into a supportive community that motivates you. You can belong to many communities, not just one. Just go and mix with as many people as you can and find the people who are for you.

Hilary: The ducks line up after you take action, not before. Thanks Ollie, this has been a great chat, and I think you will inspire a lot of people.