Samuel Leeds’ property investors academy was my university, says Samuel Taylor. He learnt the ins and outs of the industry from trainers with years of hands-on experience. Now the 20-year-old makes a full-time living as a professional real estate entrepreneur. With hardly any funds to start off with, he opted for the rent-to-rent strategy which has given him a launchpad to buy his own assets.
‘If I lost all the houses I would just start again’
Samuel was a site manager for one of the country’s largest house builders but hated his work. He describes it as an ‘unforgiving job’ with lots of ‘shouting,’ and a heavy workload, particularly around Christmas.
He also felt he was getting scant reward for his efforts. His annual salary started at £20,000 and then rose to about £35,000 until property took over and he left his job. With tax and fuel to pay to get to work, he was left with about £2,000 a month.
On top of that, the young manager was spending three hours a day driving to and from his home to the site he was working at.
“I was leaving at six and not getting back till six or seven o’clock at night. It wasn’t fun,” Samuel recalls.
Sometimes he would work at the weekend for no extra pay, he says. “If the trades want to come in on Saturday, it’s in my contract I’ve got to go and sort them out on a Saturday.”
Nevertheless, Samuel recognised that for his age he was in an enviable position. He had dropped out of college, and it was his family connections which helped him to get the role.
“My dad, my uncle and my great uncle all worked for the same business, so I had a bit of an in that way. My dad was a QS (quantity surveyor) and he worked on some of the sites that I was working on.”
Samuel was an assistant to the main site manager, overseeing large-scale developments, including the construction of 250 houses at one site and around 400 on another one. And his prospects were good.
It went down like a lead balloon with his relatives therefore when he announced his intention to ditch his career to become a property entrepreneur.
“They weren’t fuming but they were beyond impressed. I can understand it. We were driving in the car, my dad and I, and he said: ‘I don’t think you’ll be doing this in six months’ – be in property.”
Samuel imagined his life in 20 years’ time and could see a clear path ahead of him. “I was very young to be coming into the industry and people were saying look at your managing director. You could be there in the next 10 to 15 years. You could be on £150,000 plus.
“At the time, to a 19-year-old that’s like wow. Yes, let’s go for that.”
But then Samuel realised that being an MD entailed working long hours and always being ‘stressed out.’ It was not the way he wanted his life to pan out.
By this time the teenager had set up a small, part-time property business and no amount of money would entice him to remain in the construction industry. His boss tried to persuade him to stay, but Samuel was firm.
“I said if you offer me £10,000 more, I might stay for another three months but three months down the line I might have another property. I might even have another two. At some point I am going to leave.”
He quit in the summer of 2024, waiting until the earnings from his business had replaced his wage.
“I thought that was the smart way to go, especially as I still at the time lived with my mum, so I didn’t have a house, kids or a wife. I had nobody depending on me.”
Samuel was confident he would never go back to his old job. “If I did come crawling back, they would take me. But I never would. If I lost all the houses, I would just start again.”
Airbnb in Stoke-on-Trent is booked up until Christmas
It was through a friend at work that Samuel clinched his first rental property. They were sat in the office having a chat when he told him that his flat had been ‘trashed.’
The week before Samuel had completed an advanced training course with Samuel Leeds which gave him an understanding of the rent-to-rent concept and how it worked.
So, Samuel suggested he repair the damage to his friend’s apartment for free in return for him being allowed to rent it out.
“I said to him what’s your budget? I’ll work around you. You don’t have to pay me anything. All I want at the end is to be able to use that as a rent-to-rent and he said yes.
“I had to replace a stud wall, and [put in] a new kitchen, new bathroom and a new floor. It wasn’t the ideal way to get into rent-to-rent, but it worked. And he said I have more. So, we can go from there.”
The same thing happened with his second property, which he took on from a different landlord. As the arrangement is working well for him, he is considering offering Samuel another rent-to-rent deal on three other houses he owns in the same area.
Samuel’s training gave him a thorough understanding of the rent-to-rent concept. He knows what to look for, how to calculate whether a deal makes financial sense, how to pitch a proposal and what contracts to use.
The entrepreneur is convinced that he did the right thing by investing in his property education. He attended the advanced training with a friend whose father was worried he was embarking on the wrong course of action.
As Samuel puts it: “I [then] joined the academy. My friend didn’t and now I’ve quit my job and he’s still working.”
Samuel’s family also had their doubts. “They were again quite negative about it but then when I explained to them, ‘I know the academy is a bit of money, but my sister went to university. I didn’t. This is my university. I don’t see why it should be any different,’ they slowly started coming around.”
This was especially true when he started making thousands of pounds a month from property.
After refurbishing his friend’s flat for £2,000, Samuel rented it from him through his company, having made it clear that he would rent it out as an Airbnb and keep the profit.
His lease on the property, which is in Stoke-on-Trent, runs for two years. He pays the owner £500 a month and rents it out for about £75 a night.
By the time he has deducted bills and the rent, his monthly margin amounts to £1,000.
“I also take a cut when I take direct bookings. I give them a bit of a discount. If they book direct, I don’t have to pay the commission.”
So far the apartment has been fully booked up. “I haven’t had a booking under 30 days for four months and I’ve had a direct booking for four months until Christmas.”
While Samuel is cashing in, the landlord also has a ‘very good deal’ as he has no management fees to pay and Samuel handles any maintenance issues.
“Two months ago, I had to do about £200 worth of maintenance in one month. That’s not so bad. I’ll take it on the chin. For him that means his rent for that property is only going to be £300 for that month. So, it’s a no brainer. Anybody would go for it.”
Had the owner been renting it out himself, he would have had to take time off work and lose money potentially.
“I try to work with him. There was a leak on the flat upstairs that was coming through into my rent-to-rent and I had a guest in there at the time. I sent my maintenance man around to sort his leak out and I paid for that.”
Samuel can afford to pay for the odd repair because he has built up a good income stream. He finds customers by contacting businesses and pointing out that his accommodation is available.
“They’re all local business owners or people who work for local businesses. I’ve got Bet365 head office for that. And a lot of people are coming over from America to do work for them.”
He adds: “You have to approach those businesses to say: I know you’ve got people coming. What’s the point in putting them in a hotel? Put them in with me and I’ll sort them out.”
Income from rent-to-rent portfolio is virtually passive
Samuel took on his second rent-to-rent, a four-bedroom house in Manchester, two months after the first one. The set-up cost was around £5,000 for furniture from Ikea, although he didn’t pay that amount upfront. Instead, he leases the furniture.
The monthly rent payable to the landlord is £1,800 and he rents it out on Airbnb and booking.com for about £140 a night, turning over £4,000 to £5,000 a month.
“I can get eight beds in there. There are a lot of contractors in the area. I get between £1,000 and £1,500 profit [per month].”
The house attracts long-term bookings, with Samuel renting out the whole house to one group of people which makes it easy for him to manage.
Once the property is up and running the income is virtually passive. “On the ones that are already set up I reckon I do half an hour per house a week. I would say that’s very passive. That’s little to no work.”
It feels ‘incredible’ to be making the same money and sometimes more than what he earned previously from having to work five or six days a week. “It’s brilliant. I can now grow the business more because I’m not tied into work.”
The young businessman picked up the keys to a third rent-to-rent in Manchester recently (autumn 2024) and another landlord wants to give him a house to rent out. A deal sourcer is also looking for a house for him to let.
Generally, however, Samuel is intending to acquire his own assets now, either as flips or as buy, refurbish, refinance, rent projects.
“I’m not going to actively look for rent-to-rents. If they come to me, I’ll take them but now I’m looking for flips and BRRs and trying to grow the asset column.”
By doing that he believes he can build a secure future for himself and create generational wealth.
“If I have a rent-to-rent, for example, I get paid once when a guest stays. If I have a flip I can get paid once. Granted it’s a lot more money. If I’ve got a BRR I get paid three times. I get paid from the refurb, the capital appreciation and then the rental income.”
Samuel agrees with his guru that there are old school investors and landlords who regard the rent-to-rent strategy as a ‘waste of time’ because they don’t own the property.
He quotes the example of his parents who own two buy-to-lets in Stoke-on-Trent. They receive a rent of about £500 a month. That amount can be whittled away if a tenant fails to pay or the property needs to be repaired.
By contrast he can take a two-bed flat which is a five-minute drive away from their properties and achieve a profit of £1,000 a month.
Having seen his success, one of his relatives wants to give him money to invest in property and he expects other family members, including his father, to follow suit.
“Life is better now,” Samuel concludes.
Samuel’s tips
- Every business needs a fast pound and a slow pound. Get some cash coming in and then start buying your own assets.
- If you’re afraid to fail, you’re never going to go any further.
Samuel Leeds’ verdict
“It’s good to have a job you hate because it teaches you resilience and shows you what hard work is. Samuel now earns as much or more than he did before for a fraction of his time. That’s what being a property investor can do for you. It gives you freedom and choices.”