Lockdown investor set to be a property millionaire after having just £500 in the bank…..
In just 18 months, Aydin has gone from having a home with a mortgage and a steady job to becoming a serial investor in real estate, using the refinance strategy. His fifth house, which he is about to complete on, will make him a property millionaire and that’s just the beginning, says Aydin. He hopes to pull off bigger deals with the help of Property Investors as he spreads his wings to try out other wealth creation methods.
Aydin strikes gold with first deal
It all started for Aydin when he was working from home on his own during the pandemic. As he describes it:
“I had about £500 in my bank account. It’s raining outside and miserable and I’m not seeing anybody. So, I just started looking on YouTube and came across Samuel Leeds. I thought, ‘Who is this guy talking about property?’
“I’d never heard of him before. I didn’t know too much about property either. I just thought it was something rich folk did, and you need loads of capital to get started. But I just had something in me that wanted more.”
It was that desire which propelled Aydin on a journey of discovery. He began studying Samuel’s YouTube videos about refinancing a property to obtain investment funds.
Almost everyone Aydin mentioned this idea to warned him against doing it, including his own father.
“They said, ‘Why do you want to get yourself in more debt? I love my dad. He’s been really supportive, but he was one of the ones who was saying find a good bank, get a mortgage and stick with them.”
His father advised him strongly not to put himself at risk by remortgaging his home, but Aydin decided he had nothing to lose. Although he had a job he liked, it wasn’t making him wealthy.
The 36-year-old read motivational business books which made him appreciate the difference between good and bad debt, and how the rich have assets while the middle class have debt.
“It was almost like I’m an alien and all these new things are coming to me. I thought I need to start implementing these principles.”
Aydin found a mortgage broker on the Wirral who suggested to him he could raise a certain amount of money from the property he was living in. He discovered he could release up to 75 per cent of the worth of his house and so took out £25,000.
“I’d never had that much money in my bank before. I felt so rich. It doesn’t seem like much but to me at the time this was good money.”
He began looking for an investment house on the Wirral, but the market was so competitive that by the time he put in an offer on a property it had already been snapped up.
Aydin got lucky, despite this, when he managed to buy a house in the area for £80,000, putting down a deposit of £20,000 – 25 per cent of the purchase price. It was then that his day job as a project manager with a bank paid him dividends.
Aydin realised his skills, working with budgets and planning, could be used in the property world. Having also been a salesman in the past, he negotiated hard to reduce the cost of renovating the property to less than £5,000.
“I got a really nice kitchen for around £2,000. It was from a rapid kitchens place in Liverpool and a bathroom for £2,000. I also got the electrics set up and did a lot of painting myself.
“For less than £5,000 I was able to boost the value of this property to £132,000.”
As he puts it, he struck gold.
‘You need a power team and good people skills’
Aydin followed the teachings and principles of Property Investors’ founder, Samuel Leeds, to give him the knowledge required to be successful.
“I read his Buy Low Rent High book and binge watched hours of his videos of how to renovate a property, get a good deal, and search the market. I was such a newcomer to it.”
Aydin recognises he was fortunate to bag such a good deal. Nevertheless, he is still amazed by how much money he made.
“In a matter of months, I’d gone from having £500 and being miserable on my own in lockdown to having £40,000 in my bank account. So, I just carried on.”
One of Aydin’s recommendations to anyone hoping to be a property investor is to build up a solid power team of people who can be trusted.
“I’ve got a really good broker, a real estate agent and brilliant solicitors who I can call at any time. We help each other. We make things happen.”
With the £40,000 made from refinancing the mortgage on his first investment property, Aydin bought two more in Liverpool. He repeated the process of refurbishing them to increase the value, and then releasing the equity for two more acquisitions.
“It’s so bizarre but I almost became desensitised to the money. It didn’t feel like I was wasting £50,000. I was investing and using the principles that Samuel communicated on his videos.”
For someone who couldn’t even paint a wall when he started out and was ‘a terrible DIY person,’ the fledgling entrepreneur slowly learned how to carry out simple tasks. This enabled him to keep his renovation costs low.
The ability to haggle with contractors and not accept their first price was also crucial to his success, he says.
“I’m a salesman at heart. For 10 years of my early life, I was in sales and Samuel teaches great principles. He has a system in place of what people can do from zero to being financially free.
“There is skill involved as well. It’s a bit like climbing Everest. A teacher like Samuel gives you the right equipment and shows you how to climb. Even the Sherpas drag people up the mountain, but there are going to be times when they have to jump over a wall themselves. That’s where your natural skill comes in.”
Aydin used his know-how to good effect with one of his house purchases. The owner had already received an offer of £112,000 but Aydin’s budget was £106,000.
Trying to work his ‘magic’ on her, he messaged her through the Purplebricks estate agency. He introduced himself as a young investor who lived ten minutes away and loved her house, suggesting they meet up to discuss a deal.
After establishing a rapport with her, she accepted his offer, even though it was £6,000 less than her initial offer.
“I thought to myself I’ve actually sold something there. She’s left £6,000 on the table to work with me. So, you need to have good people skills and work on building a rapport. I thought that was really profound.”
‘People like us don’t go to places like that’
One experience which left a lasting impression on Aydin was a conversation he had with his father when he was a child.
“I remember we were watching a boxing match on TV with Chris Eubank and I said, ‘dad I’d love to go to Vegas one day to see a fight’ and he said, ‘no people like us don’t go to events like that.’
“I thought to myself what does he mean by people like us? Then I’ve heard people say if you go to Dubai or Miami, it’s fake. People like us don’t go to places like that. That’s a different world.
“That’s always stuck with me because it’s like why is it fake? Why can’t you enjoy the nicer things? It’s like some people are living in this matrix. Anything outlandish and cool is just not attainable and it isn’t for you.
“What I was getting from certain people was almost like be quiet, sit in the corner and do your job and that’s it. Do what everyone else does. For me it was, actually I don’t want to do what everybody else is doing. I don’t want to be in a job all my life not thriving.
“Breaking away from that was like stepping out of the matrix. It was very difficult and all the while I’m battling with these emotions and thoughts: no, no, don’t do it.”
It was watching Samuel’s free YouTube content which persuaded him to take the leap into property investing. As a project manager, Aydin knows all about risk-taking but says good planning mitigates risks. In property, the market could crash or there could be a damp problem, which costs thousands of pounds to fix. Planning ahead, on the assumption there will always be problems, minimises the effect when things don’t go smoothly.
“Taking action is really important. It took a long time and a lot of tunnel vision to take that first step of refinancing my existing place.
“Now it doesn’t feel like a big step. I’d do it ten times over but at the time it was, ‘Is this safe. Is this right? Everyone else is saying don’t do it. I can’t be the only one that feels that way.’ Taking action and planning for problems is the key.”Aydin’s motivation for going into property is to give himself freedom to follow his own path.
“I’ve been working for the ‘man’ for the last 11 years. I work with great people and enjoy what I do. I’m not in a position where I want to leave my day job, but I don’t want to do that for the rest of my life.
“My goal in life is just to have a bit more freedom to work on my own projects. Obviously, there are also financial goals that I’ve set myself.
“We have a sort of depression pandemic in the world where a lot of people are miserable. It’s because they don’t have any goals. They’re not working to anything. They’re just in a job they trudge along to.
“I’m very goal driven. I’m happiest when I’m collaborating with other people, working on big deals.
“The last 18 months have been really fun as well. I’ve had more fun in the last two years than ever really. I’ve been able to go on a nice holiday in Dubai and stay in a villa with my girlfriend. I could never have done that before.
“I don’t think money gives you happiness, but it opens doors and gives you that freedom.”
He adds: “I just want more and more now. It’s like a drug almost, that feeling of success, and I just want the deals to get bigger and bigger.”
Aydin’s tips
- If you want to refurbish a house cheaply, remove the wallpaper, sand it all down and give it two or three coats of white paint. I also use Polyfilla to cover any gaps.
- You can buy cheap light fixtures for £15 to £20 that look nice. I paid an electrician £200 for a couple of days to put them in.
- There are going to be ups and downs. Fortune favours the brave and you have to persevere.
- If you’ve got a goal, go for it. Don’t listen to negativity.
- Be ambitious and surround yourself with good people.
Samuel Leeds’ verdict
“Aydin completed the perfect buy, refurbish, refinance deal with his first deal and now he’s about to become a property millionaire and move on to other strategies like rent-to-rent and HMOs with the help of our courses. He’s also about to buy another house for £200,000. I can’t wait to see him becoming a property multi-millionaire.”
