Property in the blood

2016 Landlord of the Year Kathryn Seque and her father Cliff

Seque is 24 and manages around 80 properties, four of which belong to her.

And she’s doing a fantastic job of it

She was named NZ Property Investors’ Federation’s Landlord of the Year in October for what the judges described as her “proactive and innovative” approach.

Perhaps it’s in the blood: Seque’s father Cliff is a former Otago Property Investors’ Association (OPIA) president and owns 70-odd of the properties in the family portfolio; her sister owns another three.

It was thanks to her dad that Seque was able to buy her first property at the age of 18.

“I grew up with rental properties. I knew tenancy law before I knew level two English,” she laughs.

“So at 18 I decided to follow in my father’s footsteps and buy a property.

“There was nothing decent on the market so dad sold me one. I didn’t get it cheap, though – he had it valued and made me pay the market valuation for it!”

On leaving school in Dunedin, Seque tried a range of “random” jobs, including as a tour guide at Cadbury.

She got a certificate in electrical technology and worked as an appliance service person, testing and bagging tools for tradies.

She describes it as “the most boring job you’ll ever have. It just wasn’t up to the pace I like.”

The pace she likes? Hectic, apparently.

At the time Dad Cliff was managing all the family properties as well as working on a series of builds –so Seque approached him with an offer.

She would manage all his rental properties for him so he could concentrate on managing his building projects.

Her Dad accepted, Seque took over the running of the 80-plus property family portfolio – and she hasn’t looked back since.

To read more about Seque, click here to get the digital issue of NZ Property Investor magazine.

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