Aussie bloke who bragged about owning over 100 properties on a luxury boat defends ‘crass’ video: ‘Hard fought’

A property investor with more than 100 properties to his name has defended a boastful video during a lavish yacht party celebrating his achievements.

Australian Property Scout founder and director Sam Gordon, 34, invited his staff to a Christmas party on Sydney Harbor last week.

In a clip shared online, each employee shared the number of properties he or she owns before the boss admitted he had 108 in his portfolio.

The short video immediately sparked an online debate that divided viewers, prompting Mr Gordon to respond to some of the comments.

While some viewers found the wealth boasting inspiring, others saw it as “gross and selfish” and tasteless.

Nevertheless, Mr Gordon is unbothered by the backlash and claims he is ‘proud and humbled’ to be celebrating his ‘hard-fought’ victories.

He also emphasized the importance of assuring his clients that all his employees are experienced real estate investors.

‘Customers always ask ‘how many properties do you have?’ The way I look at it is if someone works for you, you want them to have experience,” Mr. Gordon shared News.com.au.

“When you go to a surgeon, you want an experienced surgeon, not the guy who just graduated.”

Mr. Gordon was just 19 when he started building his real estate portfolio after saving $30,000 from his $38,000-a-year farmhand job.

Fifteen years later, he owns a mix of commercial and residential properties with 100 tenants.

Mr Gordon specializes in buying and renovating dilapidated houses to improve their value.

‘I’m a country boy and have always invested in workers. I renovated houses and slept in a tent in the back,” he said.

While some of Mr. Gordon’s properties are negatively oriented, he described his overall portfolio as “positive.”

‘I’ve been doing it for so long. “I put a strong emphasis on creating cash flow,” he said.

Mr Gordon added that his “income would not be in the millions” but that he has not had to work for a number of years, allowing him to focus solely on the Australian Property Scout.

He estimated his annual passive income at about $2 million, with 60 percent of his portfolio value in stocks.

Mr Gordon (pictured) bought his first property, a two-bedroom apartment in Wollongong, in 2009

After renovating his first property, a two-bedroom apartment in Wollongong itself, in 2009, Mr Gordon used the equity to buy a second apartment in the Southern Highlands.

He continued to use this strategy of renovating and improving properties himself before using the equity to purchase another to build the enormous portfolio he has today.

However, Mr. Gordon doesn’t just take on any house, as he prefers his investments to be free of structural problems.

He highlighted a difficult project in Perth that involved replacing the ceiling above the kitchen.

Fortunately, the step out of his comfort zone paid off: the property doubled in value, significantly improving his cash flow for future renovations.

Last year was one of Gordon’s busiest years as skyrocketing interest rates meant there were fewer buyers to compete with.

Mr Gordon (pictured) remains unbothered by the backlash and claims he is ‘proud and humbled’ to celebrate his ‘hard-fought’ victories

The online reaction to last week’s video prompted a fiery response from Australia’s Property Scout Instagram account

“There are hardly any properties listed in Sydney,” the organization replied in the comments.

Another viewer wrote: ‘You make it so easy to hate you’, to which owner Gordon replied: ‘The feeling is mutual’.

A third wrote: “The whole reason Australia is in a rental crisis right now, all on one boat,” said another poster, prompting Mr Gordon to brand his comment “foolish and uneducated”.

One asked: ‘What’s wrong with this damn country?’, while another spoke for many by describing flaunting wealth in this way as ‘So rude and selfish.’

The backlash prompted other viewers to defend the investors.

“Great example for your customers,” one person wrote.

But the complaints kept coming.

You only need one building and people are wondering why we have a housing crisis,” groused another viewer.

Mr. Gordon responded with a lesson on how real estate investors like him think.

“Australia needs private rental housing, less than 1 per cent is provided by the government,” he wrote.

The original commenter wrote back saying, “Most people can’t afford even one property and small groups of people own multiple expensive properties that are rented at very high prices.”

But Mr Gordon continued his defence, writing: ‘Okay, what’s the solution? If every landlord in Australia sold out, there would be no rental properties and where would you or I live?

‘In the 1980s, the government took the decision to move away from social housing and turned to private investors.

‘To say that all properties are very expensive and rented at very high rates is a huge generalisation: most landlords lose money every year holding on to their properties compared to the rent they receive.’