From Expelled to Property Investor: A 29 Year Old’s Journey to Building A $11m Property Portfolio

Sasha Hopkins is a 29 year old who has amassed an impressive property portfolio worth over $11 million. Sasha built his empire after he was expelled from school and moved out of his parents’ house in Noosa, Queensland, at the age of 17.

Through The A Team Property Group, Sasha helps Australian’s follow a similar journey that he has traveled. We sat down with Sasha to learn more about his inspiring journey as a property investor and how he achieved his success.

Tell us about yourself and how you got started in property investment.

I moved out of home at 17 after getting expelled from school and started working a job that I didn’t enjoy. The position was working in a nursery where I potted plants all day long. I realised this isn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I soon decided that I needed a fresh start and a new environment, so I left the family and moved to Melbourne to finish year 12 in 2006.

Finished year 12, didn’t know what I wanted to do, didn’t go to uni, so I started working. After moving out of home and leaving my family, I realised pretty quickly that I needed money and had to understand exactly how money worked.

That’s when I started exploring different ways to make money, and reading a variety of books led me to property; this was before I lost money in the share market. Then I bought my first property at 21 — after a good six months of researching.

When I purchased my first property, I had no idea what I was doing and had no strategy behind it. It was literally the first property I looked at. And at that moment, it dawned on me that I knew absolutely nothing about property investing. In fact, I’d never purchase that property in a million years today, but like every venture, you live and you learn.

I paid for education, joined courses and paid for professional assistance through companies that provide practical and simple property investment strategies. Then I really became addicted. This was when I started learning and realising that this is going to be my path to obtain the financial safe haven that I desperately wanted to reach for myself as well as my future family.

Before turning 20, I met my now wife, Lana, and she was a driving force for me wanting to get ahead in life. I didn’t want to have nothing for her, and that motivated me to succeed in this industry. I bought four properties in the first couple of years. Then I started working professionally as a property investment advisor and mentor. This was another point where the knowledge base dramatically increased because I was surrounded by the right people — people who had a lot more experience than me. As a result, it was a fantastic vibing environment to really grow my knowledge base.

I helped 450 Australians start or continue their property portfolio, but what I was offering was just so much better and so much more advanced than their one-size-fits-all strategy. I presented far more technical methods of investing and fast-tracked, diverse options, which resulted in me being able to replace my income entirely by the age of 26. By using The Hopkins Formula, which is my unique three-step property investment process, I retired from that job to become a full-time property investor.

It took me a month to realise that I didn’t want to sit around waiting for my next development to complete, so I thought, “Why don’t I just combine my own experience and success with my passion for educating and mentoring other people to start a company?”

That’s how The A Team Property Group started, and from there, that’s where the knowledge and the learning expanded exponentially. And nearly three years on, we have some of the most advanced and successful property investment methods in Australia.

So far, we’ve helped 200 clients change their life and use property as an avenue to improve their financial situation, inspiring them to reach and secure their own financial safe haven.

What would you say are the top three skills are that you need to be a successful property investor?

First up, it starts with having a vision and the mindset to stick to that vision. What I mean by that is that no one would invest in property if they didn’t have to. Property is simply a vehicle that will get someone out of where they are now to where they want to get to. Further, they need to know exactly where they want to get to by starting with the end goal in mind, breaking it down and reverse engineering back to what they need to do every single year, every single month, every single week, every single day to begin chipping away at that long-term goal.

The second is they have to partner with the right people. They have to get help because there’s no way that someone can go out with no knowledge or experience — without making mistakes. They need to build their own A Team of people whose goals are in alignment with theirs.

The third one is that they need to follow a clearly-defined and tailored investment strategy suited to their own situation.

How would you define success?

For me, success is having the ability to push through any excuses and to reach a point of greatness. In my opinion, greatness or success is met by continuously pushing yourself to reach newfound levels that you never thought were possible, actually understanding what else is possible and to then to be able to help others achieve the same.

Success is getting to a place where you can choose what you do because you want to do it — not because you have to do it.

What would you attribute your success to?

I would attribute my success to my wife, who has been the best support I could ever possibly imagine and a true team player, and she wasn’t always like that. She had a turning point where she understood that what I was doing was working towards what we call our cause, our future, and ever since then, she’s been 10,000% a team player.

I also attribute my own challenges along the way to my success. I haven’t had the easiest upbringing. I’ve had some big things happen to me in my life, family stuff as well. And of course, they were challenging. However, I wouldn’t be here without them. So I attribute to that as well, and now my family is also a huge support.

I’ve also paid around $150,000 for personal education and other mentoring services to date. And that is to be able to grow — continually grow — and to be able to be on a level surrounded by other people that are on the highest level of standards possible. So having a mentor is crucial to be able to reach a level of greatness.

What is your favorite part about being a property investor?

My favorite part is knowing exactly that I’m in complete control of my financial future, and it becomes nearly effortless to create substantial amounts of wealth within a very short period of time — once you know how to. That’s where I’m at now. Honestly, it’s silly how easy it is.

What piece of advice would you give to those that are just starting out?

Find a mentor that’s done it themselves and partner with them.

Follow a tailored strategy that suits you, your financial situation and your comfort level, and don’t go out and try and do it on your own because I guarantee that it will slow you down by years. You’ll just end up losing money that way.