How I made my first million: 'This is not a romantic story'

Wednesday, 9 October 2019

It's not always easy to sell a Grand Designs house, as owners discover.

Stuff's new series How I Made My First Million talks to millionaires about how they got there.

Sunniva Holt is a motivational speaker, an author and a social media influencer followed by more than 122,000 people. But that's not how she made her first million.

A daughter of farmers, Holt, one of 10 children, left home at 16, travelled overseas for the first time at 17, and bought her first home at the age of 19.

Holt didn't buy her two-bedroom unit in Queenstown with help from mum and dad. Instead she worked three jobs, skipped the usual pathway of university after high school and played the property market 'like a game of Monopoly'.

That is how the 37-year-old entrepreneur made her first million in property.

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'This is not a romantic story,' Holt said.

Entrepreneur and motivational speaker Sunniva Holt says buying property is like a game, 'you just got to win more than you lose'.

'I was working three s….y jobs in Queenstown, literally, cleaning toilets, waitressing in restaurants, working at a liquor store and working my butt off 80 hours a week and putting every single cent I had into a fund to travel around the world.'

But her focus changed from saving for a trip overseas to owning property on a walk past a two-bedroom unit in Queenstown that she 'fell in love with'.

'I didn't get into property to make a whole ton of money. I got into it because I loved it and it was a game for me.'

Sunniva Holt bought her first home at 19.

'My partner at the time and I went in with a loan under joint security and poured everything into that home. We continued to work as hard as possible.'

Prices were different back then, Holt and her then-partner paid $160,000 for the unit.

'Once you get your foot on the property ladder it gets easier and easier. People give up before they look at all options because they don't want to live in a crappy area or a smaller house than their living in.

Holt says skipping the avocado on toast may indeed help you build a deposit for a house.

'People go on about million dollar Auckland but there's always somewhere you can start, so start at the bottom and work your way up.

'The first place my husband and I bought together was $200,000 a tiny one-bedroom apartment and then we've just continued to do the same thing with leveraging and paying it down and investing in something else.'

Despite a full-time job, she spent weekends and nights working on increasing the value of the property by painting or re-carpeting it.

Holt said she was brought up by hard-working farmers who taught her not to have debts.

Instead of being burdened by thousands of dollars in student loan debt, Holt studied journalism for a year at a polytechnic and paid off her fees within the year to avoid interest.

'I saw university students just ending up with massive student loans and then, often not ending up with great jobs. I was very clear I wouldn't do that unless it was a huge passion for me.'

Holt says she has bought and sold at least 20 houses and was attracted to properties that could make good rent and she could add value to.

Holt said she had been a frugal spender.

'People find it funny when you say if you can afford a house if you don't spend on avocado on toast, but there is an element of truth in that. When I was in my 'hustle mode', I wouldn't have bought a coffee because every cent went into saving for the property and paying it off,' Holt said.

'Anybody can do it but it takes such a massive commitment to get into the game and discipline.'

Holt said she had bought and sold at least 20 houses and was attracted to properties she could make good rent on and she could can add value to by painting, re-carpeting and adding furniture.

'I didn't realise I was worth well over $1 million until way after I started buying and selling properties.'

Holt now lives in a $1.7 million apartment in Ponsonby with her husband and daughter.

Can money buy happiness?

'Money buys choice and freedom and that's a big f…… deal. No, money doesn't buy happiness but it gives you options.

'I've definitely had things that have gone wrong financially. I've had a couple of times where I had a couple of disastrous properties, but at the same time it's a game.

'It's like playing Monopoly. You win and you lose - you just got to win more than you lose, get up and keep going.'