Cameraman-turned-investor shares 3 lessons learned from filming ‘property people’

The property investor considers himself “essentially retired” now that his focus is on developing properties, a “passionate hobby” that he looks forward to doing every morning.

According to him, “[m]y investing in property now is for the fun of it ... I just love the challenge of it and all the skills that you pick up along your journey.”

“You suddenly realise, ‘Wow, you've got something very special here ... ’ [It] got to a point now where I took care of myself and now I can take care of other people.”

From filming people to investing in properties: a journey

Jason was eight years old when his father taught him how to be a cameraman, and by the time he was 14 years old, he was already being booked to film football during the weekends. Filming became his first real passion and he went on to be a full-time cameraman for television after finishing high school.

He made TV shows and even trained television presenters, but soon enough, he realised how much money went to his equipment—expenses that almost always turned out to be losses in his part.

“When I got into it, the equipment was 50 times more than it was now,” he shared.

“My camera was worth more than a Ferrari—[that was] the HD camera. [After a year], it was worth about the price of a Hyundai.”

Jason’s talent behind the camera soon lead him to more projects apart from football. He was soon asked to film property people—an experience that ignited his desire to create wealth through real estate assets.

According to the property investor: “I just saw a whole lot of property people and I just started listening to what they were doing and going, ‘Wow! That person just made another $50,000 there and $20,000 there,’ and I'm like ‘Why don't I do that?’ ”

He went on to film property people for more than two years, getting himself familiar not only about the good sides of property investment but, more importantly, the challenges that investors usually face and how they work to overcome them.

Jason shares three of the most important lessons he learned from this stint, and how it pushed him to start his own property investment journey:

1. Don’t put limits on yourself

Like many people, Jason initially hesitated to get into property investment.

“I thought ... ‘Property people must have been born into it, or [they have] friends or had lots of money,' ” he said.

However, throughout the years that he has spent filming property investors, professionals, and experts, he found out that anyone from all walks of life can actually be successful in the business of creating wealth through property.

According to him: “That's what really made me do it … I can't say I can't do it if I've seen someone else do it.”

2. Be well-prepared

Working behind the camera has taught Jason how to filter statements, “see … [if] they are just trying to sell me a brand new property or [if] they are trying to educate me about the structures and the systems”.

According to him, as much as he was motivated by the idea of building wealth, it did him well to prepare financially before actually jumping in and starting his property investment journey.

His advice to budding property investors: Take advice only from people who actually want to see you succeed.

“If they are interested in me getting myself account-ready first or finance-ready first, then that seems a little bit better than just trying to push [me] to the end game, which is sometimes [to buy] a property,” Jason said.

3. Find inspirations

One of the most important keys to success in property investment is finding people you can trust to help you navigate your way through your journey. After all, it’s never an easy task to build wealth, but being surrounded with people who understand your goals, capabilities, and limitations as a property investor will make it a more worthwhile experience.

You can listen to every podcast and seminar or read books and magazines, but, according to Jason, in order to find the best mentors, just ask yourself: “Is that who I want to be as well”?

Smart Property Investment’s Phil Tarrant, who is an avid investor himself, believes that property investment has become more accessible to everyone these days.

“All walks of life are investing in property. I think the thing is [just] having the passion to do so,” he concluded.

Tune in to Jason Byron’s episode on The Smart Property Investment Show to know how his portfolio grew from a countryside home to $20 million development properties and how growth corridors are his chosen path to success.