Nine years ago, Vincent Nee was inspired by Robert Kiyosaki’s book ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ which advocates building wealth through real estate investment. At the age of twenty-nine, the entrepreneurial Nee is now a millionaire and a highly sought-after property coach of Vince Academy that teaches people how to earn passive income from property investment and management. Recently, in an interview with Top 10 of Malaysia, Nee speaks about his background, hardships, how he went on to become the successful entrepreneur that he is today and his desire to inspire others to achieve success too.
“When I was much younger, I wanted to be rich. I didn’t come from a rich family, and had often received hand-me-downs from my older brother. As such, I was envious of rich people,” says Vincent Nee, the property entrepreneur and investor.
“When I was studying in Sunway College, I wanted to learn how to make money. Unfortunately, colleges don’t teach us how to make money but how to graduate to be an accountant instead.”
Nee became bored with college, and started to look for books on how to make money, and he came across one book that changed his life and mindset – ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ by Robert Kiyosaki who wrote about building wealth through real estate investment. Inspired by what he read, the then twenty-year old student set out to look for business opportunities.
“One day, I was at my friend’s rented room and I asked how much rent he was paying. He said it was RM600 per month. There were seven rooms in the house which meant that the total rent was RM4,200 per month. I found out from iProperty.com.my that the market rental for that house was actually RM1,500,” says Nee.
“Then I’d thought, if I rent out one house, my income would be RM2,000-RM3,000 per month. If I rent ten houses, I would earn about RM20,000 per month.”
With no job and no income except for pocket money from his parents, Nee started a hostel business concept whereby he rented a house from the owner and sub-rented out the rooms to tenants to increase his returns. Along with his college friends-cum-business partners, they started to make good rental returns within a short period of time. A year later, the young college student quit his studies to focus solely on the hostel business. By the age of twenty-one, Nee had rented ten houses and earned RM20,000 on a monthly basis.
However, Nee ran into financial problems when he lost RM150,000 in multi-level marketing and forex trading. “I was too young then and didn’t know anything about money management. I was afraid to tell my parents about my debt, for I knew they would kick me out of the house!” laments Nee.
“To settle the debt quickly, I worked three jobs and expanded my hostel business from ten to twenty houses. With RM40,000 income every month, I had managed to recover my losses but suffered a downturn soon after when my former business partners and staff swindled RM500,000 from the business,” shares Vincent. “Running a hostel takes up a lot of responsibility as the committee must ensure that its operation is acceptable to the people living in the neighbourhood. We provide professional guidance to the management team who are operating the hostel.”
But Nee is no quitter. “Despite the financial problems then, I still strongly believed that real estate was an avenue to earn passive income. So, I attended many courses on property investment and management – how to buy, rent and renovate properties – and applied the knowledge learnt from those courses. By the age of twenty-six, I recovered all my losses and earned my first RM1,000,000. Since then, I’ve been very grateful that, in spite of the difficult circumstances, I’m still alive.”
During his trying times, Nee sought help from people but no one gave him advice. Now that he has earned his millions, he is inspired to set up an academy to teach people how to build wealth through real estate.
Established two years ago, Vince Academy is a one-stop solution centre for members to learn creative strategies and skills in property investment and management. Academy members would learn that they do not need a huge capital to invest in properties but rather having the right strategies and skills to earn passive income through rental returns.
“It’s all about negotiation. We coach our academy members on how to increase their rental returns from the average market returns of RM2,500 per month to RM3,000 then to RM5,000 per month,” says the visionary property coach.
Apart from learning the tricks of the trade in property investment, Vince Academy guides members on property management such as selecting the right properties and tenants, renovation solutions, and providing hassle-free services for investors in rental collections, utility bill payments and house repairs.
Since its inception, Vince Academy has signed up more than 700 members. The property entrepreneur and investor hopes to grow the academy to have more than 10,000 members and to help at least 1,000 members to become millionaires. In addition, Nee envisions his academy to be a public-listed company someday.
Four years ago, Vincent Nee invested in one house and was heavily in debt. Today, he is a multi-millionaire, owning twelve businesses with sixty full-time employees, and has invested in over fifty properties.
“For those who want to build wealth in property investment, I would say that if you have the will to learn, we have the knowledge and experience to coach you on how to make your millions through real estate. For everyone deserves to be rich,” says Nee with a smile.
