By its very nature the Property Investors Academy attracts people who are completely new to the industry. However, it is also an important training ground for experienced investors who want to learn new strategies which will help their businesses to grow. Dr Kalpesh Patel is one such investor. He has practically doubled his profits after joining the academy last September. The GP is making close to £10,000 a month from renting out eight properties having restructured his £3.6m portfolio to boost his income.
Property gives Kalpesh security after ‘career scare’
Kalpesh is candid about his reason for going into property. When he was 23 and working as a junior doctor, his supervisor warned him he was under-performing. And he knew it. His work schedule was punishing, and he was no longer enjoying the job.
“Being a junior doctor is incredibly tough – what you hear in the media plus some. You do nights, evenings, weekends, 12-hour shifts, and if I’m being honest, I was totally and utterly failing.
“It’s completely different to medical school. It’s not fun anymore. You’re a glorified pencil pushing secretary. My clinical supervisor pulled me up and said you’re not performing. This isn’t good enough. I got this career scare because I’d invested so much time and effort into becoming a doctor.
“Being a doctor is great. It’s my passion. I love it, and it’s a great privilege, but I definitely needed a plan B because in that moment I felt insecure in my career.”
Kalpesh’s thoughts turned to property. His family was involved in it already.
“I come from a background of builders, plumbers and electricians. So, I thought put two and two together. I was a junior doctor in Milton Keynes. Let me just use my family set-up and build a portfolio in Milton Keynes.
“Financial freedom was the goal. I wanted that freedom to do what I wanted to do, how I wanted to do it, with whoever I wanted to do it.”
Kalpesh was a hard worker from an early age. He had a paper round at 13 and did other jobs like painting. With his earnings and doctor’s salary later, he accrued enough savings to put down a deposit on a property.
He borrowed money ‘from the bank of mum and dad’ for his second investment property and then built his portfolio through the buy, refurbish, refinance, rent strategy.
“Back then it wasn’t called BRRR. What we were doing was buying dumps, doing them up and making them as pretty as possible – hoping that the valuation officer would say in six months the property was worth significantly more – then remortgaging it and releasing the equity and just recycling that,” explains Kalpesh.
He bought all eight of his properties during a decline in the economy in 2010 and 2011 and was making a profit of £4,000 to £5,000 a month from renting them out. It made him financially free by the age of about 25. Then he ‘hovered’ in his success.
“I lived in a tiny flat so being financially free wasn’t that impressive. But I achieved my goal and then in success what do you really learn? Nothing. You learn everything in failure and adversity.
“I just fizzled out. I neglected my portfolio. I let it do its thing and allowed the management company to take it from there.”
He felt the rents failed to improve accordingly and found himself in a ‘slump’ with tax and legislation changes being introduced and property prices catching up.
“I also bought an overpriced house in London and then you can become un-financially free quite quickly. Your liabilities go up and that will do it. So, I was in a bit of a place.”
In hindsight, Kalpesh says, he made mistakes which cost him tens of thousands of pounds – if not hundreds of thousands of pounds. Faced with trying to build up his portfolio again on his own, or taking up training, he opted for the latter.
“I figured let me do this properly. Join an academy with mentors and learn things. I was out of touch.”
After watching Samuel Leeds’ YouTube videos, Kalpesh registered for the Property Investors Academy to surround himself with experts who could guide him through problems.
“I don’t care who you are, if you’re wanting to achieve anything significant in life you’re going to come across challenges and problems.
“In that scenario do you want to have a go yourself and try to make the best decision with what you’ve got, or do you want to speak to a mentor who’s experienced and specialised?
“That’s the beauty of Samuel Leeds’ academy. You’ve got that to hand.”
‘Samuel Leeds has created a platform where you can learn, grow, evolve’
Kalpesh has been greatly impressed by Samuel Leeds who has become a multi-millionaire through property.
“I’ve enjoyed it immensely. I’ve done all the training. I love going to courses and listening to him.
“He’s got this amazing gift of condensing complex things into a simple understandable format. I can listen to him all day long and I memorise some of the stuff he says because he’s done that and got the T-shirt.”
His students benefit ‘big time’ from that, says Kalpesh who is married with two young children. He admires the Property Investors founder for creating the academy.
“I do know a fair number of millionaires and a lot of them hide away. Some of them say I’d love to get involved in teaching and training. But Samuel has created this platform where people can come to learn, grow, evolve.”
The academy programme taught Kalpesh different strategies which made him realise his properties could be achieving a lot more in terms of rental income.
“I’ve understood what is possible. You don’t know what you don’t know. I had a massive number of blind spots.”
Working alongside assisted living companies, he has now turned some of his homes into accommodation for older people and the disabled who need help with everyday tasks, such as washing and dressing.
“I’ve learnt, grown, evolved and I’ve overcome some problems that I’ve been experiencing.”
Kalpesh has also joined forces with his close friend and cousin Raj.
“He’s another part of my armoury in a way because he’s brilliant. He’s experienced in property. He’s a quantity surveyor by trade, so we bounce off each other really well. Our skill sets are slightly different.
“I feel with his help and the academy the world’s my oyster again. We’re now looking at BRRR projects and blocks of SAs (serviced accommodation) to boost cash flow.”
The two-day Accelerated Coaching Performance Programme proved to be invaluable in showing him how he could improve his business.
“That’s where the magic happens. It’s not just when Samuel picks apart everyone’s business plans and gives people bespoke advice based on his experience. It’s when you listen to other people.
“It’s fascinating to me how everyone is doing different things, and you can learn so much from listening to other people’s stories.”
The father-of-two was also able to get detailed advice from his guru on Section 24 which restricts buy-to-let mortgage tax relief. One option is to transfer a personal portfolio to a company, but this can be expensive.
“For me that expense comes close to £300,000 with capital gains tax, stamp duty and legal fees. So, I have to think, am I going to get my return on investment from that? It will take me about eight years to recoup that money.
“Samuel said, based on everything, sell up bit by bit and maybe move into something else. He also said the way you make your first million will be different to the way you make your next £10m which will be different to the way you make your next £100m.
“I’m at that stage where I’ve done well, but now I need to rethink how I do things going forward.”
Kalpesh is now also looking at commercial property and other types of investment after completing a commercial course with his mentor.
“I’ve got to do much more learning and growing to go to that level but I’m in the right place.”
His motivation to succeed is his two daughters Sia and Nisha, aged three and four. He wants to leave them a legacy.
“It stops becoming about you and your journey and financial freedom. It becomes about what’s best for my girls. How can I maximise things for them and give them the best future possible? That’s why I’m here.”
Persistence and determination pay off after repeated rejections
Juggling being a doctor with having a family and a multi-million pound property portfolio is not easy. Kalpesh’s solution is to ‘decompress’ at the gym. He goes three times a week. His wife Marla also keeps him grounded so that he maintains the right work/life balance.
Coming from a working-class family, he regards himself as ‘blessed.’
“I’m privileged now. I wasn’t growing up. My mum was a carer. Her dad’s a builder. I didn’t have that silver spoon. It doesn’t take long for me to reflect on how tough things were to find comfort and solace in that.”
His GP practice always comes above property, he says. The hours are still long. Often he will work till at least 8pm and later but he makes sure he takes regular breaks. The gym helps him to unwind.
“I can cry when I’ve had a tough week. I can even cry when I’m hungry. We’re human beings first of all. We’ve got to look after ourselves. Only then can we look after our family and our jobs.”
Persistence and determination have been key factors in his success, both as a doctor and an entrepreneur. Kalpesh was rejected by four universities when applying to study medicine, not having any doctors in his family who could prepare him for interviews.
In desperation, and ambitious to make something of his life, he started ringing other universities to find out if they had any spare places in their medical schools.
“A lot of them laughed me off the phone. You’re calling if we’ve got any spare places for medical school? I said yes, that’s why I’m calling. Do you? No, of course not.”
Finally, after contacting 15 establishments, Keele University informed him it had two places left and invited him to an interview.
After a faltering start, Kalpesh ‘began passionately describing how much it would mean to him to get on the course. The next day he got a call from the university to say he had won one of the coveted places out of 50 applicants.
Being in property requires the same resilience, he believes. “You’re going to get a ton of no’s. The idea is you break through those no’s and eventually you’ll get lucky.”
Kalpesh is grateful to Samuel Leeds for providing the academy when he could so easily make lots of money in other ways.
“I’ve seen him deal selling in front of hundreds of people. He can make £10,000 in ten minutes but instead he decides to make a well thought out academy where people can learn, grow and evolve. That’s a wonderful thing. Credit to him. I’m a huge fan.”
Kalpesh’s tips
- If you want to achieve anything in property, give it the respect it deserves. Do some proper training and talk to people who are experienced.
- You’ve got to put regular time, energy and consistent work into anything you want to achieve.
Samuel’s verdict
“One of the reasons Kalpesh is so successful is he’s very coachable. He’s got so much energy and passion too.It’s easy for someone who’s been in the game a long time to think they know it all. But Kalpesh said no, regulations have changed. I want to grow and upscale. The moment you think you know it all and you’re not growing and evolving you’re shrinking.”
