Vincent Wong is one of the most well-respected and well-recognized property investors in the UK. He built his reputation by devising innovative strategies that ensure everyone involved benefits from a property deal.
However, it took a long time for Vincent to achieve the success he craved. He started as a pharmacist but soon got fed up with counting pills and serving customers from a counter every day.
Then he earned an MBA from one of the top business schools in the UK, only to be told he was overqualified for the kind of high-earning financial job he was seeking.
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Finding A Way Through Trial And Error
Vincent went back to pharmacy life with an idea in his head to start his own business. He made money from an online community for overseas Chinese people, which he expanded to include a dating service. But the good times did not last.
“When the dot-com boom became dot-com bust in 2000, I lost all my money and all my investors’ money, which was hugely frustrating,” Vincent recalls.
Despite this huge setback, Vincent did not give up on his dream of becoming a successful entrepreneur.
“I came across this quote by American author Jim Rohn, ‘Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune” he explains. “This motivated me to educate myself. While I was looking around at what was happening in the world, I realized everyone was investing in property, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon.”
Destined For The Property World
Vincent took to the property business like a duck to water. He made profits on his first two investments and quickly realized an important truth: you only need to invest a small amount of money to buy an enormous asset that goes up in value while you sleep.
He also learned how to save money on property deals and maximize his profits using methods such as:
- The UK’s buy-to-let system
- Refinancing: “If your property is worth (value) more than what you’ve paid for it (price), the bank will give you a new loan based on the higher value.”
- Renovation: “When you do cosmetic work to a property correctly, you can increase its value by more than the cost of the work.”
Learning The Ways Of The Industry
Experienced property investor Parmdeep Vadesha told Vincent, “If you wish to take your business to the next level, you need to find the problems in the market and serve it. There are many people whose properties are liabilities to them. Unless they can sell fast, they can’t move on with their lives.”
“That was the first time I ever heard that properties could be liabilities rather than assets,” Vincent explains. “We typically assume properties are assets, but if people have properties they need to sell but can’t, they become liabilities. And one person’s liability can become an asset to a smart property investor. These types of sellers are known as motivated sellers. And they will give you a big discount if you can help them sell swiftly and with certainty.”
Mastering The Art Of Property Investing
Vincent made it his mission to find as many motivated sellers as possible. Then, he either bought properties from them himself or sold their contact details, leading to interested parties looking to buy
Vincent even applied his knowledge of online dating to the website he set up to attract motivated sellers. “Even though I had failed with one thing, I didn’t give up,” he recalls. “I just applied the methodology to something else, and it became an instant success.”
He continues, “I also helped lots of investors obtain bargain properties through my platform. Things went well, and I became a bit of an instant celebrity because I had the very thing that every investor needed – motivated sellers.”
Lease Options and Win-Win Deals
During the recession of 2008, Vincent created the first documented contracts and did the first deals in the UK that did not use any mortgage financing. Consequently, he became known as the pioneer of lease options.
He was then persuaded to write a book about the subject by his business partner John Lee. Although ‘A Step by Step Guide to Lease Options’ received some poor reviews, it sold well and enhanced Vincent’s growing reputation as a property guru. It also led to the more significant publication of ‘Property Entrepreneur: The Wealth Dragon Way to Build a Successful Property Business’ in 2016, which Vincent describes as “the only book on the market that talks about the property being an entrepreneurship.”
A Property Guru In Demand
Vincent and John’s business Wealth Dragons PLC is now a global enterprise. Vincent has shared his property expertise with people worldwide in Singapore, Malaysia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Australia, and Dubai. In addition, he now hosts online seminars, which have enabled him to reach an even larger audience.
“Everything started to happen very quickly. I became a public speaker. I was invited to speak in Malaysia and went on stage in front of thousands of people. I was in the newspapers. I was interviewed on TV. I was on the cover of a magazine. Then I was included by Yahoo Finance in their list of ‘Top Ten Property Investment Coaches To Follow’.”
