Entrepreneur doubted Samuel Leeds’ training – until it worked for him!

Entrepreneur doubted Samuel Leeds’ training – until it worked for him!

It seemed too good to be true to Jozef Toth when he came to the Property Investors Crash Course and heard that you could make money from finding and selling deals. Fortunately, Jozef changed his mind after putting his faith in Samuel Leeds and his training. That was 18 months ago. Now he runs an automised sourcing business generating £8,000 to £10,000 a month.

‘When I sold my first deal I was laughing and crying’

In the summer of 2019, Jozef was looking for a way out of his cleaning business. It was running well, with 20 staff and around 120 clients on the books. The drawback was that it was taking up too much of his time. He wanted to travel and get fit.

And so, while looking for an alternative long-term income stream, he attended the Property Investors Crash Course in July of that year.

A friend, who had accompanied him to the free two-day event, was so impressed that he wanted to sign up immediately for the advanced training – having heard Samuel explaining the principles of deal sourcing. Jozef, however, was not so sure.

“I wasn’t ready to pay for something I didn’t believe was real,” he says. “I didn’t believe at the time it’s possible to do that. I even discussed with someone in the audience whether this was too good to be true. So, I went home and didn’t think about it much.”

Thankfully, the father-of-one had a change of heart and returned to another crash course. This time he decided to invest in further training to see if, in fact, he could make a living from sourcing properties for investors.

Jozef enrolled with his friend on the three-day Deal Finding Extravaganza which teaches students about all the strategies available to property entrepreneurs.

“I remember deal sourcing was the last part. We had a plane to catch but I said to my friend, just give me five more minutes, I have to write everything down.”

After seeing Property Investors’ lead trainer Alasdair Cunningham selling a deal in a few minutes, Jozef was finally convinced and went home with a plan.

For nearly four months, however, Jozef earned nothing from deal sourcing. It left him in a difficult position because he had replaced himself in the cleaning business and had less income.

The temptation to give in was ever-present, but then slowly the deals started coming into his new property company and ‘going out.’

It was an emotional moment when the Slovakian-born entrepreneur sold his first deal, as he well remembers.

“When I sent my deal email out and the investor paid the invoice, I didn’t know what to do. I was lying on the floor laughing and crying. I called my friends and kept checking my account to see if it was true. I finally felt validated that there was value in what I was doing, and I could earn my living that way. It was so amazing.”

Everyone is a winner

Jozef’s property firm, Focus Sourcing, as the name suggests, offers purely a sourcing service, using co-sourcers and agents to track down lucrative property investment opportunities in Scotland, where Jozef is based.

Jozef says success came with the realisation that he needed to involve more people in the company.

“We also work with people who care for the investors after we sell the deals. For example, some sourcing companies also do project management. We don’t. We have a power team with a project manager who takes over the investor and cares for him.”

He has systemised the business by setting up a website which enables the co-sourcers to upload their deals through a standard form. This means that if they miss out any key information, they cannot upload the deal.

It is a mutually beneficial arrangement, Jozef emphasises.

“We help each other because there are active sourcers who are really good at finding properties, but then maybe don’t have the right investor to take on the deal.”

That’s where he and his business partner become involved. They find out the customer’s criteria for investing and then offer deals to match their requirements.

“The ideal investment for a client of this bespoke service may be building a buy-to-let portfolio, or recycling their money to do refurbishments, or playing with rent-to-serviced accommodation. Then we go out into the field and find the specific deal for that investor.

“We take a £500 deposit. In the past I used to say to the investors you give me £500 and I will give you unlimited deals and then you choose one you like. We don’t do that any more. We take £500 as a deposit which is deductible from the sourcing fee.

“We only take on an investor with the criteria we are sure we can deliver. Then we offer them three deals. If they don’t take any of those deals, we keep the deposit.”

He learnt this after having to refund two investors because their goals were unrealistic, making it almost impossible to find a suitable deal.

Jozef describes his relationship with his investors as akin to a family.

“Many times we find an investor who buys a deal from us and then brings another deal from his network to us. We constantly co-operate.

“There are issues sometimes. We had one with an SA. I spoke with the agent and we came to a very friendly agreement which was the best way for everyone involved. That’s when we realised, we are a team. It’s not like you are the investor and I am the sourcer; we have the contract and you just sign after checking the clauses. No, we are like friends, so we understand what the investor needs. They understand what I am doing. The agent and solicitor play their part and we work as a team.

“With sourcers, we refer to each other as colleagues. We have the same aims and in the end everyone wins.”

‘Property Investors’ courses are amazing’

Building relationships is fundamental to the way Jozef goes about doing business. His first few investors came from Samuel’s Facebook group which has more than 30,000 members. Rather than selling to them directly, Jozef would add value by offering to answer questions about property investing and giving encouragement to people who posted their deals on the group.

This resulted in would-be investors messaging him independently, asking for his advice and then he began to sell deals.

One of the tips Jozef learned from the Deal Finding Extravaganza was to post his deals exclusively on his mailing list, so that even when he initially didn’t sell any, investors could see that his company was productive.

Now he has easily recouped the cost of the course through his deal sourcing fees. He and his friend signed up together which entitled them to a discount, bringing the total charge to £1,700.

He disagrees with people who say that the training is expensive.

“I didn’t think that was much to pay for advanced training. The course was amazing. It went through every single strategy. I remember it still today.”

He says he only decided to pay for advanced training at his second crash course, because by then he had come to trust Samuel and thought he would give it a go. Samuel’s advice at the DFE to concentrate on one strategy influenced him to focus solely on deal sourcing.

Financially, 2020 has been one of Jozef’s best years, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, although he separated from his wife last August. His target for the future now is to be able to spend more time with his son who lives with his mother in Denmark.

“My long-term plan is to have my business working in a way I don’t have to be here all the time. I want to be more with my son – maybe two weeks in a month, not just a weekend.”

He adds: “Another reason I wanted to become a deal sourcer was because I wanted to be a little more ‘lazy’ – to enjoy life but also to get the reward for the work I do.

“I’ve travelled. I look much better than a year ago. I’m financially OK. I’m not stressed. I have a business that’s giving me enough to live on and be able to help my family. I can see there is a future in it.”

Jozef’s tips

Don’t spend money on training if you are not willing to put in the work.

Don’t give up too easily. If I can have a sourcing company which is making a good living for me and I don’t even speak English very well, I think anyone can do this.

Be consistent. If something doesn’t work or is very hard, don’t change it because it’s hard. Give it some time and it will work.

Samuel Leeds’ verdict

“Jozef is winning in deal sourcing because he’s delivering to his investors and he’s built up a real trust with them. He’s also been really smart in building a team and then systemising his business.

“He has worked hard and is a different person now. He’s lost a lot of weight and goes to the gym every day. It shows the power of the strategies we teach to transform people’s lives.”

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