…Stephen started at 19 years of age in his native Tallaght with a typical 3 bed semi and has since developed a multimillion Euro property portfolio consisting of almost 100 properties.
Stephen is regularly requested to speak at property functions and seminars and we are delighted he has accepted our invitation to return to the forum. By the way, he’s only 27!

The ICES group provides a forum where investors and potential investors can meet to discuss any fears or questions that they might have about investing.  It always good to seek your advice from someone who has been there and come out the other side, rather than someone who is not willing to try it themselves.  I could not get over the turn for the talk.  The room in the Grand Canal Hotel was packed to the brim and as Ian Lawlor, one of the directors of the ICES group, put it:

…It was like an All-Ireland day in Croker…

I was amazed by Stephen's drive and ambition.   He has an ability to see potential in a property that somebody else might miss.  Even after building up such a bit portfolio of property he remains an extremely down to earth guy with time and encouragement for all the investors in the room. 

I would recommend going to see Stephen talk, if only to see that it can be done.  When I left the  ICES meeting I felt a need to get out there and start building a future like the very ambitious Stephen May has.  Thank you to the guys in ICES for organising a great evening.

I decided to pay the €25 and go along to this weeks talk on investing in Gold and silver with guest speakers Mark O’Dwyer and Stephen Flood of Gold Investments.  It turned out to be a very interesting evening with some great insights into investing in precious metals.   The second half of the evening saw a member of the group discuss how he went from 0 houses two years ago to buying 11 house so far this year.   I am slightly skeptical about the positive cashflow that he claimed he was achieving considering the size of his LTV on each property and his ability to find tenants for the properties when students are away for the summer months.   It certainly sounded like a great success story anyway.

On the way home I decided to call into my dad's house to talk about the evening.  He told me a story about one business man which I thought was fantastic:

This guy worked in a factory with about 250 other worker and worked very hard each week.  Unfortunately he had one of the lowest wages in the factory at £80 per week.  Rather than accepting this low wage he decide to have a raffle each week for his £80 wages with a £1 entry fee! 

The guy was now coming out with about £200 a week rather than the £80 that he was getting paid.  I just love stories like this where individuals step outside the box and make a bad situation into a very positive one.