If you REALLY want to know about me, there’s an unedited, uncut, unofficial, long version more in line with who I REALLY am … just below the Official Bio …!
“Official” BIO …
Experienced Property Investor, Writer, Mentor and Speaker, Jennie Brown has been hooked on property since early childhood. Her father bought old derelict homes, moved the family in, and renovated. He’d then sell, and repeat the process.
As Jennie grew up, her Dad’s strategies included subdivision, building, units, positive cashflow, buy and holds, and capital gain properties. During this time, he taught Jennie and her brother all types of property and building skills.
Jennie bought her first house at the age of 20 for $28,000, renovated it, and sold it several years later for $94,500.
From these beginnings, she has spent over 25 years developing her knowledge ofinvesting in property.
Jennie freely shares her strategies with people through seminars and Mentoring Programs. She loves to help people achieve their goals, and attain financial freedom.
Using cash generating strategies such as strata titling, partnering, development and subdivision, Jennie’s strategies can help you to make stacks of money investing in property, even if you are time poor, and have never done it before.
Well, that’s the official “PR” version …
But … ask anyone who’s been to one of my seminars, and they’ll tell you that I like to have fun, I tell it like it is, and I really care about YOU … so, if you REALLY want to know about me, you should check out the unedited, uncut, unofficial, long version – more in line with who I REALLY am …!
More than a little bit about me …
So who is Jennie Brown REALLY?
Well, really, that is the BIG question! As an “expert”, all a lot of people see is the persona on stage, but, like everybody else, including the Queen, the Pope, Richard Branson and Oprah, I’m still a normal human being! Truly!
My story starts out …
I was born in the mid sixties (so now you can work out my age) in a little country town called Parkes in the middle of New South Wales (well, I think it’s the middle – geography was never one of my strong points). And in case you don’t remember, Parkes is famous for two things – the radio telescope which filmed man’s first steps on the moon, and the Elvis Festival.
I’m the eldest, and we, literally, lived on what was then the wrong side of the railway tracks – still could be, I don’t know – in a small rented garage. Dad was a travelling salesman and went to work every Monday morning in the only car the family had access to. He didn’t come home until Friday, so Mum and I were left to our own devices. That mostly meant she took care of me..
I have a baby brother, Rod, (who’s six feet tall, dark, good looking and popular – totally the opposite to short, fair, red-haired, un-photogenic and tactless me) who popped out just eleven months after me. That made the rented garage a wee bit crowded, so we ended up in housing commission, living next to Warren and Karen. I remember that, because Rod had a little boy crush on Karen, and I thought Warren was the man I was destined to marry. Turns out I did marry Warren, but not that one … but I digress …
My introduction to property …
We were very poor, and by the time I was about five Dad had had enough. So he went out and bought what was to be the first of many houses that all had a similar theme …
Most of them had what I call the obligatory backyard toilet, which was a toilet up the back of the block. It was outside, it was often freezing cold, it stank, and there were often loads of green frogs you had to move out of the way to use it. In addition, red back spiders were occasionally found. The dunny (night cart) man used to come once a week to empty it.
One of the houses had dirt floors. I remember as a child sleeping with buckets and Tupperware containers all around, even on our beds, because most of them had leaking roofs. One was even condemned.
So what he would do is he’d buy them and we’d move in. He was a travelling salesman so he’d go to work on Monday morning and come home Friday, have a bit of a rest, do a bit of work. We’d stay in them maybe a year or two while he did them up. And the day he finished doing them up, he would – much to my mother’s disgust, put them on the market and sell them. And then we’d start all over again.
But what was my childhood really like?
We were poor. My Dad was away a lot. I wore hand-me-down clothes that didn’t fit properly and were ghastly colours for a curly red-head. That sucked.
What did I get out of this?
By the time I was hitting high school I’d actually experienced a huge amount of reno. My dad was a cluey guy, he was also an educator, as well as my first and the best earthly mentor I’ve ever had.
He decided that both my brother and I needed to learn as much as we could about property and how to do everything. So very subtly he taught us along the way to do lots of things. Like learning how to paint, how to tile, how to assess a house, how to work out if walls were load-bearing, how to extend, how to draw plans, colour schemes – back in those days they were bright orange, lime green, mission brown – or any weird combination you could dream off.
Now I got out of a few things because I was a girl. My brother, on the other hand, had to physically help a lot more than me.
When I got into high school Dad decided to move out of renos, and we moved into subdivisions, builds, buy and holds, units and exposed us to just about every type ofproperty investing strategy you could come up with at the time.
Which led me to something very serious …
Because I was born into poverty, so to speak, I made a very serious decision – I was going to be a millionaire by the time I was 30. Which didn’t happen. But that’s another story … for another day …
I did end up a property millionaire …
It just took a bit longer than expected.
I bought my first house at the age of 20 …
And I’ve been playing with property ever since. Which basically gives me over 25 years experience and over 40 years exposure …
Moving on …
I’m known for telling it like it is. Which has actually turned out to be beneficial, rather than the drawback I was told it was when I was a kid.
I love to have fun. I’ve been given a wooden spoon on more than one occasion for being the chief stirrer.
I eloped – seriously! Got married on a beach at sunset on the island of Atitaki in the Cook Islands.
Then, after the wedding and a bit of a party on the beach, we got on a moped to ride back to our resort – yes, in all our wedding gear! And the heavens opened and it poured rain …
When I was in high school I entered a speech competition. I lost. The teachers told me that I sounded like I came from the bush (well, I did), and that I would never be a speaker. I proved them wrong – something else I like to do.
I love animals and I hate animal cruelty. I used to breed dalmatians. At one stage I had 23 pups running around – and two mothers (yep, big litters!)
I love seeing people succeed and I hate seeing them conned. Which is why I started teaching – I couldn’t stand seeing all that money being wasted on property strategies that were complete rip-offs (did I just say that?) And I hated seeing my friends lose money on stuff that I knew blatantly wouldn’t work.
I hate negative gearing with a passion – who wants to pay for the privilege of owning a property – that is just so wrong on so many levels – and please don’t tell me about capital gains. I’ve been exposed to property investing for over 40 years, and for every person you show me who’s made money in capital gain, I can show you at least two who have lost money.
I almost hate buy and hold as much as negative gearing – unless it’s completely debt free. I hate debt. There’s no such thing as good or bad debt. Not as far as I’m concerned – it’s all debt, it all has to be paid back, and any debt curtails your financial freedom. Get rid of it.
I hate seeing people repeat the same old tired boring life they live over and over and over without pursuing their dreams. On the other hand, I LOVE watching people break out and do something with their lives – I don’t care what it is, as long as it’s honest, courageous, has integrity and lights up their lives and the people around them.
I am passionate about helping the poor but am against throwing money at them. And I don’t think anyone is “poor” in Australia – we have it SOOOO good.
I’ll spend hours or even days on my own. And it won’t bother me. I think I’m damn good company!
I love to travel.
And I love property!
How I learnt about making money investing in property
That’s easy. One word. Dad.
But if I had to write more than one word, I’d add sheer determination, being pig-headed and focussed, going with my gut, and learning everything I could along the way. And having a go.
I’ve had a lot of failures along the way …
I didn’t get to where I am today without some trials. Huge hurdles. Loads of soul searching. Some very dark days and nights.
I’ve had more than my share of knocks. Broken marriage, totally broke and penniless, unemployed, lived in a refuge, had a cancer scare, was so sick for a couple of years I could barely get up, lost a lot of so-called friends, offended a few people …
If you want to know more of that sort of stuff, you’ll have to come to a seminar – it’s one of the few places I talk about it … because …
I believe life is all about how you respond to it, not about how it treats you.
And I like to help others respond in ways that turn their lives around. Which is why I teach property.
That pretty much sums up who I am.
Here’s what I want you to do now …
Well, now you know a bit about me. It’s your turn. I’d like to know a bit about YOU.
Please, go to the comments, introduce yourself and share with me something of your story, something of you, something about your dreams and aspirations,
Doesn’t have to lengthy, just want to get to know you.
Looking forward to walking some of your journey towards your dreams with you!
Bless ya
Jen
