Deal sourcers in their 20s make £20K in three months…..
As deal sourcers go, Ignatious Dauda and Kelvin Serudzia are right up there with the best of them. The friends have only been in business for three months but already their profits are eye-watering. Since April they have made £20,000 through selling deals at the rate of around one a week, prompting them both to leave the teaching profession. Kelvin is already a full-time property entrepreneur, while Ignatious is about to join him as soon as he finishes his training. Still only in their twenties, they are now targeting property development as their next step to achieving ultimate financial freedom.
‘What Samuel did for rapper Krept inspired me’
It was Samuel Leeds’ Winners on a Wednesday YouTube interview with the rapper Krept about the help he had given him with his property investments which inspired Ignatious.
He looked into the training offered by Samuel Leeds and then attended a Property Investors Crash Course last November. Afterwards he signed up for the Deal Selling Masterclass.
“I started that in February. It was an amazing event. It changed my whole perspective of value – how you can charge £2,000 to £5,000 per deal. That completely changed my life.”
Kelvin came on board after Ignatious called him at the end of that month and urged him to come to one of Samuel Leeds’ crash courses.
“I was like who’s Samuel Leeds? So, I started watching his videos and went to the crash course. Then Ignatious said, ‘I’m going back to school but learn as much as you can. April half-term let’s do property.”
Kelvin spent the whole of March studying the content, learning about the different property strategies and how to package and sell a deal. Then, in April, they set themselves a challenge to become financially free that month.
The stakes were high, but the Zimbabwe-born partners had done their homework – and groundwork. Between February and April, they gained their compliance to be allowed to sell property deals. They also built a brand, setting up a company, Fertile Properties, to ensure investors had ‘something to look at,’ says 26-year-old Ignatious.
The pair picked up their first ‘finder’s fee’ in April but not before trying unsuccessfully to pull off a no-money-down deal on a £1m house.
“We were just trying to sell a deal that wasn’t a great deal, but we were learning through our mistakes,” explains Ignatious.
The experience taught them so much about secure loan arrangements and bridging finance, says Kelvin who adds:
“That’s when we decided let’s just do what Samuel Leeds has taught us. Stop doing whatever we think. Let’s just find a deal, package it and find an investor.”
Over one weekend Kelvin and Ignatious viewed more than 20 properties in Birmingham, looking for apartments and other types of furnished accommodation which could be rented out for short stays.
After rejections on all of them, they changed their approach when contacting estate agents to arrange viewings.
“We weren’t prequalifying them,” says Kelvin, 27. “Now we call up and say, ‘Hi, we’d like to view … it will be a company let. Is that something you’re open to?’ We do that not to waste time.”
“Before we were just going to any viewings just to make sure we had that appointment with the estate agent. We learnt a lot of skills in terms of what works in what location and what postcode works, especially in Birmingham,” says Ignatious.
His confidence was bolstered by being on the same programme in February as two teenagers with sight problems who sold a property investment opportunity for £3,000. Samuel helped them by sending an email to his investors alerting them to the deal. Another student made £10,000 in one day on the course.
Ignatious adds: “That opened my mind to this is actually possible. It was a great programme. I didn’t know that you can provide value by selling a good deal on a property that someone is willing to buy. We are the middlemen connecting the two. We are getting paid for that value, not for the time necessarily.”
Two deals in one day earn Kelvin and Ignatious £6K
Ignatious and Kelvin are paid handsomely for finding properties for investors. Their minimum charge is £3,000 and they have a system for getting deals quickly over the line.
“We do about one a week,” says Ignatious. “It took us a while to get here but now we’ve got the processes to be able to achieve that.”
The stakes were high, but the Zimbabwe-born partners had done their homework – and groundwork. Between February and April, they gained their compliance to be allowed to sell
property deals. They also built a brand, setting up a company, Fertile Properties, to ensure investors had ‘something to look at,’ says 26-year-old Ignatious.
The pair picked up their first ‘finder’s fee’ in April but not before trying unsuccessfully to pull off a no-money-down deal on a £1m house.
“We were just trying to sell a deal that wasn’t a great deal, but we were learning through our mistakes,” explains Ignatious.
The experience taught them so much about secure loan arrangements and bridging finance, says Kelvin who adds:
“That’s when we decided let’s just do what Samuel Leeds has taught us. Stop doing whatever we think. Let’s just find a deal, package it and find an investor.”
Over one weekend Kelvin and Ignatious viewed more than 20 properties in Birmingham, looking for apartments and other types of furnished accommodation which could be rented out for short stays.
After rejections on all of them, they changed their approach when contacting estate agents to arrange viewings.
“We weren’t prequalifying them,” says Kelvin, 27. “Now we call up and say, ‘Hi, we’d like to view … it will be a company let. Is that something you’re open to?’ We do that not to waste time.”
“Before we were just going to any viewings just to make sure we had that appointment with the estate agent. We learnt a lot of skills in terms of what works in what location and what postcode works, especially in Birmingham,” says Ignatious.
His confidence was bolstered by being on the same programme in February as two teenagers with sight problems who sold a property investment opportunity for £3,000. Samuel helped them by sending an email to his investors alerting them to the deal. Another student made £10,000 in one day on the course.
Ignatious adds: “That opened my mind to this is actually possible. It was a great programme. I didn’t know that you can provide value by selling a good deal on a property that someone is willing to buy. We are the middlemen connecting the two. We are getting paid for that value, not for the time necessarily.”
Two deals in one day earn Kelvin and Ignatious £6K
Ignatious and Kelvin are paid handsomely for finding properties for investors. Their minimum charge is £3,000 and they have a system for getting deals quickly over the line.
“We do about one a week,” says Ignatious. “It took us a while to get here but now we’ve got the processes to be able to achieve that.”
All potential customers are asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement before being sent full details of a property and how much money they can make from it. This prevents them legally from stealing the information.
Ignatious: “We don’t proceed with any investor who doesn’t sign an NDA. We’ve had a lot of people say let me just get the address of the property then we’ll go have a look. No. If you don’t sign an NDA, you won’t see any more details about the property.”
They then follow up with a call to the investor 24 hours later to find out what they liked and disliked, and what they thought about the figures involved. It is then pointed out to them that if they don’t want the deal someone else will.
Kelvin: “There have been times where they’ve said let me think about it and then they call you back and it’s gone.”
Ignatious says it is a way of training their investors to know that once they advertise a deal it will be sold because they have done their due diligence. “We know it’s a good deal. If they come back three days later, it’s gone already.”
He adds: “The skill of selling is especially important in deal sourcing. It’s selling through asking questions. If they say they want time, you’re asking questions to probe and see really what the objection is.”
Their overheads are relatively low. Kelvin’s girlfriend works full time in their enterprise, preparing spreadsheets and packaging the proposal to investors. They pay her out of their earnings. Ignatious’ partner also works on the business and is paid to go with her on viewings of properties which Kelvin and Ignatious have identified as being investible.
“Our partners have been on the training as well. We’re trying to systemise the business,” explains Ignatious.
Petrol is another cost. Ignatious lives in Hertfordshire and Kelvin in Birmingham, and they travel far and wide in search of properties which can yield a healthy return on investment.
So far, they have sourced deals in Manchester, Milton Keynes, Birmingham and Hertfordshire, earning commissions worth £6,000 in just one day from two deals.
Kelvin also goes to events run by Property Investors and other networking activities to find investors.
“I never worry I won’t have anyone to sell to. I also join Facebook and Whatsapp groups. There are always investors everywhere.”
Ignatious agrees: “If an investor doesn’t have that trust with you, they’re not going to invest with you. That’s what Samuel taught us on the programme. That’s why it’s important to
build relationships, especially by going to networking events. We found most of our investors are on Whatsapp.”
The Deal Selling Masterclass was another cost. Ignatious spent £2,000 on the course but made it back with his first deal and still had some cash left over. It was also an expense he could claim back. So, the only tax they pay is on their profit.
Through running a business, they have learnt some key lessons, including how to manage people, and ensure they have the right procedures in place to be efficient.
Ignatious: “We take an investor on a journey from signing the NDA to the proposal and the spreadsheet, to the terms and conditions, the invoice and then paying.”
Kelvin says he has also come to understand that business is not that hard but requires consistency and persistence. Even if they receive 20 ‘no’s’ in a day, they just need one ‘yes.’
“Some people give up. They call two landlords who say, ‘Oh sorry no company lets’ and they conclude it doesn’t work. You have to keep trying.”
‘I was the kid in school selling Lucozade for profit’
Business was something both Ignatious and Kelvin have long wanted to pursue.
“I was always that kid in school selling Lucozade for profit. I’ve always had that business mindset from a young age,” says Ignatious who came to the UK when he was 10.
After watching the interview with Krept, of Krept and Konan fame, and consuming the other ‘Winners’ videos he has ‘never looked back.’
For Kelvin, who moved here when he was eight, it was the same. He was in teaching before Ignatious decided to train as a teacher and tried to dissuade his friend from making it his career.
“I told him don’t do it. They’re not paying you for the work you’re doing. I was working 12-hour shifts for days. I would wake up in the morning, do marking and planning lessons, and you’re not getting that much money. I said, ‘Do you still want to be a teacher? Come to property.
“My friends and family are proud of what I’m doing because I never wanted to do a nine to five.”
They were also motivated to succeed by Samuel’s Financial Freedom Challenge and another Property Investors student and fellow Zimbabwean Doug Juru who was also featured on Winners on a Wednesday.
Ignatious eventually wants to teach people about property himself. “God just put that into my heart to help and teach. I feel that’s my purpose, whether it’s in a school or a different environment.”
His strongest reason for going into property is to create time for his own projects and to make sure his family is looked after, including his parents who are both teachers.
Kelvin’s parents are also teachers. He says: “I couldn’t go back to anything else. I make £3,000 a week now. I couldn’t do that with a regular job.”
Kelvin’s tips
- Go to the Property Investors Crash Course and watch the videos to start off with.
- Give yourself a timeframe – a month or two months – and go hard at it every day.
Ignatious’ tips
- You need to be out there in the field doing viewings and getting rejections to learn.
- Belief is so important because if you don’t believe you are going to do it then you’ll fail.
Samuel Leeds’ verdict
“The only way to learn is to do it. That’s why my advanced training is basically a week of booking viewings and trying to sell deals. Ignatious and Kelvin make great business partners. I’m really pleased to see what they’ve achieved. I look forward to continuing to see them win.
“One of the reasons I like to interview people is because Kelvin and Ignatious were inspired by Krept. Now they’ve been on Winners on a Wednesday and it inspires more people. There is positive rippling effect which goes on and on with every new intake of students.”
