July Ono is a third generation Vancouverite and the eldest of four sisters. She is an entrepreneur, a real estate investor and the co-Founder of On The Beach Education Corporation. She is the author of her own monthly newsletter “July News” which subscribers use as a source for upcoming networking events and investment opportunities. July is a real estate investor, educator and mentor. She strongly believes financial freedom is available and achievable to anyone who desires it.
After graduating high school with academic honors, she went on to study marine biology at the University of British Columbia and business management through the Vancouver Community College, Douglas College and the Open Learning Agency.
July’s extensive workplace experience spans both the public sector (Federal and Municipal governments) and private sector as an executive assistant, advertising coordinator, administrative assistant, office manager and independent contractor. As the Operations Manager for an international computer company spanning three continents and four countries, July coordinated the administrative, operational and financial logistics for a multi-currency import and export business.
July spent 20 years climbing the corporate ladder only to discover repeatedly that job security does not exist. During the 1990’s, her emotional and financial life was in shambles. Her 9 year marriage ended in divorce. Her employer let her go. She downsized from her townhouse and moved back home with her parents to live in their basement suite. The combination of legal bills and financial obligations left her $40,000 in debt. These events served as a sobering wake up call. It was the gift of adversity that created the shift from victim to commander. July spent the next 10 years recreating herself. Then in 2001, she discovered the missing link and transformed her life. Her goal was to become financially free within 10 years and accomplished it in less than 2 years.
After researching a lot of opportunities, she chose real estate as the key to establishing passive income and financial freedom. Real estate investing is a long term strategy utilizing the profit centers of appreciation and leverage. In the process of becoming a real estate investor, she developed skills that would last for a lifetime. And the one crucial element to her success: using other people’s money and other people’s credit she now manages a multi-million dollar real estate portfolio. Her real estate portfolio contains 440 units comprised of 10 apartment buildings spread over British Columbia, Alberta and the United States.
There are people who say “I can’t afford it” or “I don’t have any money” or “I don’t know anybody with money”. Those were her excuses until fear became the greater motivator. July’s fear was not being able to provide for her parents in their golden years. This precipitated her passionate desire to do something about her financial situation.
She invested all of her spare time in education going to seminars, workshops, courses, reading books, listening to CD’s and meeting the same people at different seminars. As her networking connected her to more events, more people and more opportunities, July had become a serious student of wealth. She transformed her scarce mentality into abundance mentality. July’s popularity amongst real estate investors precipitated the creation of the Fast Track To Real Estate course in 2005. This is the best of her experience and expertise to help entrepreneurs grasp the foundation of creating a real estate business of their own.
July has active and eclectic interests. She is a PADI certified scuba diver; black belt instructor in Taekwondo; small calibre marksman; speed typist clocked at 115 words per minute. She is an endurance athlete having completed the 1999 Vancouver International Marathon in 4:20:12 hours and the 2004 Squamish Triathlon in 3:21:06 hours. She is a classically trained pianist through the Toronto Royal Conservatory of Music. She is an equestrienne, golf enthusiast and wine connoisseur.
July is also an actor, screenwriter and independent filmmaker. Her onscreen credits include a host of commercials, independent films and most notably the Harvest Productions/National Film Board production of “Obachan’s Garden”. She wrote and produced two short films: “Placebo” was screened at the 2000 Cannes International Film Festival and accepted into the Quebec Film Festival; “Ladies’ Night” which she also directed was accepted by Short TV for a 2 year exhibition release on a national cable network.
“Obachan’s Garden”, 94:00 minute docu-drama, completed October 1999
An intensely personal reflection of Japanese-Canadian history as told through Asayo Murakami, now 103 years old, and a testament to one woman’s incredible endurance and spirit.
-Principal actor
“Ashioto: Sound of Footsteps”, (feature film)
A Japanese detective travels to Alaska to investigate the murder of his daughter and finds adventure, romance and a surprise ending to the case.
-Screenwriter
“Ladies’ Night”, (13 minute digital short film), completed April 30, 2000
An amusing peak into the lives of two down-on-their-luck safe crackers. Stan is the brains of the operation. Ned isn’t very bright and likes to talk a lot. They are reduced to breaking in at a male stripper joint when their fortunes take a turn and a turn.
-Writer, Executive Producer, Director, Cameo
August 15, 2000 – “Ladies’ Night” has accepted a 2 year exhibition release on a national cable network. “Your film was exceptionally done, and we are proud to represent filmmakers like you on Short TV. Short TV is a truly independent film channel and Internet company dedicated to supporting independent filmmakers by providing them with the opportunity to show their work before a wide audience. Short TV will show your work on national cable to around 2,000,000 viewers in New York City and Los Angeles.”
“Placebo”, (17 minute digital short film), completed October 25, 1999
A research scientist working at a biopharmaceutical company unwittingly stumbles upon a secret agenda called ‘Project Placebo’ whose connections to the Russian Syndicate points to one terrifying reality; that Placebo is conceivably the world’s most perfect terrorist weapon in a pill.
-Writer, Executive Producer, Lead Actor
-Screened in Cannes May 2000
-Accepted into Quebec Film Festival, Fall 2000
Courage is the passion to follow your heart!
July’s Other Accomplishments Include:
- 1998 Vancouver International Half Marathon finisher Time: 01:54:27
- 1999 Vancouver International Full Marathon finisher Time: 04:20:12
- 2004 CRG Consulting Resource Group International, Inc’s Personal and Professional Development Program
- 2004 Peak Potentials Training Inc.’s Train The Trainer I Certification
- 2005 Peak Potentials Training Inc.’s Train The Trainer II Certification
- 2005 Learning Strategies Corporation Accelements certification for accelerative learning and teaching
- 2008 NLP Neuro-Linguistic Programming Master Practitioner (certification pending from the NLP Institute)
How Real Estate Saved My Parents From Financial Hardship
My father is 75 years old. He receives $629 for CPP (Canada Pension Plan) and $441 for OAS (Old Age Security) every month. This comes to $12,856 per year. That’s not much to live on, so he does not have an extravagant lifestyle. He stays home for 99% of the year. He is very fortunate to be receiving a company pension of $1,160 per month bringing his total annual income to $26,776. After his mortgage, property tax, utilities, gas and hydro, telephone and groceries, there is barely enough left over for household repairs and maintenance. For him, having a social life is not an option.
He is like thousands of other Canadians – living on the edge of financial ruin – when the unthinkable happened. On April 28, 2006 he lost all feeling in his lower legs and fell. Over the next 48 hours, the paralysis worked its way up until he had no feeling or movement from the chest down. He was rendered a quadriplegic in a matter of hours. The MRI revealed tumors throughout his spine as the cause. We later discovered that he had advanced prostate cancer that had metastasized throughout his spine. His condition rapidly deteriorated. The doctors gave him a maximum of six weeks to live. My dad actually wanted to die because he was more worried about how he was going to live with the disease after he got out of the hospital. The last thing he needed at this point was to be concerned about his finances.
Unanimously, everyone in the family had hope and gave him terrific support. It is now ten months later and my father miraculously survived. His cancer is under control and his condition has been upgraded to paraplegia. He has hope that he will be able to walk one day. My dad went from hopeless to hopeful in a matter of weeks. How did this transformation take place?
My dad’s renewed hope came in the form of real estate. While he was paralyzed in the hospital, I took this opportunity to educate him on the 7 Profit Centers of real estate. The conditions were ideal. He couldn’t run away or dismiss me and his hearing still worked. Every day I patiently explained how we would leverage his unused equity to buy an asset that would pay him every month. He caught onto the idea and by the time he was discharged from the hospital on August 2, 2006, he was ready to implement what we had discussed.
We set up a Real Estate Retirement Savings Plan. Today he is a real estate investor who enjoys leveraging his hidden money because it is making money. We:
- tapped into the equity of his principal residence (which he purchased in 1987)
- refinanced his existing high-interest mortgage
- paid off his credit card balances
- replaced the 28.8% interest he was paying with a 6% secured line of credit
- invested one-third of his line of credit as an equity stakeholder in a 76-suite apartment building
He now enjoys positive cash flow with funds still available for more investments. My father is now an empowered investor with a lifestyle under his control despite his disability. He has the safety net of real estate as an ever-increasing income source.
Whether you’re young or young-at-heart, it is never too late to create financial freedom through real estate.
P.S. My mom’s story is written in the free e-Report “How To Turn Your House Into A Money Making Machine”.
