No-money-down property deals net cousins around £4K in a month

Cousins Jordon Williams-Weekes and Jahmeil Davis have been in property for just over a year and are already earning a healthy income. Last month their four rent-to-rents made them a clean profit of £3,800. The pair built up their portfolio by pulling off no-money-down deals, thanks to their training with Property Investors which taught them how to negotiate deals and raise finance. They spend 10 to 15 hours a week managing their properties after also learning how to systemise their business.

‘Samuel Leeds shows us the way into property’

Jahmeil and Jordon wanted to become property entrepreneurs from a young age. They used to watch TV programmes like Homes Under the Hammer and dreamed of buying houses.

Finally, towards the end of 2020, they decided to start saving for an investment property. Then Jordon came across Samuel Leeds and realised there could be another way of getting a foot in the door, other than the traditional route which they had been planning to follow.

“Jordon said: ‘Have you seen this guy on YouTube, Samuel Leeds? Watch one of his videos and tell me what you think,” recalls Jahmeil.

“So, I started watching them and then messaged Jordon saying this guy’s a genius. We have to try to do something about this. What Samuel was saying was resonating with me. It was like he was speaking to us.”

Jordon was equally excited. “When we saw that potentially we might get into it in another way than the conventional one we were all over it, just binge watching the videos.

“The way we were looking at it was we’ll both get into a job and save up as much as possible to get an auction property or something like that. Samuel showed us how much of a stupid idea that was.”

Having devoured the YouTube content, they attended a free Property Investors Crash Course and then signed up for advanced training. For Jordon, who had recently been made redundant, shelling out on property education was a test of his commitment. It paid off.

After completing the Rent-to-Rent Accelerator course online, the cousins clinched their first deal. They then invested in more education with Property Investors to learn about managing HMOs and serviced accommodation after missing out on one potential deal.

“When we went to one viewing, we thought it was just an HMO. Looking back, it was in Coventry centre by the train station. It would have worked perfectly as an SA but at that point in our journey we hadn’t been educated enough to know we didn’t have to use it as an HMO. We could have used it as a serviced accommodation,” says Jahmeil.

‘We sent out 200 letters to landlords’

Jordon and Jahmeil, who are based in Dudley, just outside Birmingham, sent out 200 letters to landlords to secure their first rent-to-rent deal. In their letter, they spelled out the benefits of doing business with them in the form of bullet points.

“We said we could provide a hassle-free approach and a guaranteed monthly rent which would give the landlord free time,” Jahmeil explains.

Jordon adds: “We also put in the fact that we were just coming out of Covid. We tried to use that as an advantage because I think landlords were panicking that they might not be able to get tenants. It allowed us to say we can still find you tenants.”

From around ten responses, they obtained one viewing of an eight-bed HMO. Having established that the landlady hadn’t got time to manage it herself, they went away to work out how much they could offer to pay her and still make a profit.

Their offer of £2,037 per month was deliberately precise – a tactic they had learnt from their training to suggest that this was their maximum bid and there was no room for negotiation.

“We factored in £2,050 and thought we may as well knock £13 off. It looked a bit more solid,” says Jordon.

Impressed by their confident pitch, the landlady accepted their offer. As they had contacted her directly, they were not required to supply references or pay a deposit.

The rent-to-rent arrangement was sealed in April 2021, and they agreed to take over control of the house share a few months later. This gave them time to find tenants.

Jordon and Jahmeil agreed to take on the property from August and asked the landlady if they could use the keys once a week to get some tenants in. They then negotiated a two-week rent-free period. It meant that from April to September, when the contract officially started, they could fill the rooms before the first instalment of rent to the landlady was due. By the end of September, the house was fully occupied.

Jahmeil and Jordon still had to put £3,000 into the deal to pay for furniture. This was a problem because all their money had gone on education and setting up their company.

Fortunately, one of the courses they had attended was about joint ventures and raising finance. So, they managed to find an investor to lend them the cash at a fixed interest rate of ten per cent.

They rent out the property for £3,600 a month. After deducting £600 for utility bills and paying the rent to the landlady, they are left with a profit of around £900, says Jameil.

Their second deal was on an apartment. It again came about through approaching the landlord directly, this time on the OpenRent website.

“The best thing we found out with OpenRent is that because it’s direct, the rapport can be built straight away,” Jahmeil points out.

“We viewed the apartment on Christmas Eve. The landlord loved what we were looking to do with the property which was to rent it out as serviced accommodation.

“As we finished the viewing, because the rapport was already built up, he said to us, ‘I’ve got another one in this building. It hasn’t been listed yet. Do you want to have a look at it?’

“It was on the same level as the one we’d just seen, if not better. We made him an offer for this the following day, and he accepted our offer for the other apartment as well. So, we went to find one and ended up getting two.”

The importance of picking up the phone and booking viewings was instilled into them on their training with Property Investors. As Jordon and Jahmeil had discovered, just one viewing can produce other leads and deals.

During one session Jordon teamed up with another student to call up agents and book property viewings. In the process he learned a valuable lesson which was to not overthink a situation.

“Effectively I was factoring in too much due diligence. Before I’d even made the call, I was thinking will the figures work? How much can I pay? Whereas if I just picked up the phone and made the call to get the viewing, I could figure out the rest later. That was a big tip.

“We got five viewings. We were up on stage. Everyone was cheering for us.”

‘The energy you get in the training is amazing’

The cousins now manage one HMO and three serviced accommodation properties in Coventry and Leicester. They have systemised the business by installing key safes at the latter so that guests can let themselves in.

They also have a ‘brilliant’ power team, especially in Coventry, says Jahmeil.

When one tenant complained that their toilet was blocked, they called their plumber who fixed it the next day.

Jordon admits that, at first, they found it overwhelming going from managing an HMO property and then taking on three SA’s in quick succession – particularly as they didn’t have the right power team in place.

They were also operating on a shoestring budget with rents to pay each month to their landlords.

Despite that the entrepreneurs remained optimistic, having been schooled in the importance of persistence by their trainers and to expect tough times along the way.

“We just said we’re way too far in. We’ve got things we want to accomplish in life. We’re already in the middle of the ocean. To stop would be as bad as going forward,” says Jordon.

Jahmeil adds: “It’s easy to look back and think of the mistakes we made but how far we’ve come since the point we started has been great. Why can’t we keep going forward?”

It helps that they have friends who are supportive. Some of them are young entrepreneurs like themselves. Although not in the same line of business, they share ideas about scaling up and marketing, and can see how they are each operating.

Their family is also behind them all the way. Jordon recalls how their mothers, who are sisters, berated them one night as they went out to watch a football match.

“They said to us, ‘You can’t be going out. You’re getting complacent. You need to focus all the time.’ They’re more onto us than we are!”

They believe the most important thing they have learnt is to take action. On a day off, they headed to Leicester to speak to letting agents. Initially, Jahmeil had been hesitant to go, but then changed his mind.

“We hadn’t been out of our comfort zone. So, I said let’s do it. We drove to Leicester and went to six letting agents. That’s where the Leicester SA came from.”

They credit their property education for giving them the knowledge to succeed and the confidence to stick to their task.

“At some point you pick up the phone to call an agent and something changes. It just clicks. That’s down to the education. Once you get educated and you know what you’ve got to say it’s hard not to prosper in the end.”

Jordon says the online training gave them the ‘technical fundamentals’ to get a deal, but when they went to a physical event they were swept away by the atmosphere.

“I remember on the first day it went on till about nine at night after a 10am start. If that was a normal job or even another education course, you’d be tired and ready to KO. But at that course the energy and just being around like-minded people was amazing.”

His business partner agrees: “The energy in the room is brilliant. You get immersed in it and then you get carried away.”

Jahmeil and Jordon want to celebrate their achievements but then move on as they feel they are nowhere near where they want to be yet. They are also driven by a desire to help others.

Jordon says: “I’ve seen where my mum and my sister have come from and what they’ve done to make ends meet. So, it’s engrained in me to be able to elevate my family.

“We also want to help other people and one day be in a position of giving, not just receiving.”

Jordon’s tips

You need to be an action taker. If you’re just a thinker, you won’t get anything done.
Have a real strong reason why you’re doing this and what you want to achieve. That will keep you going.

Jahmeil’s tips

Forget what anybody else says. Follow your own mind and make sure you just do it.
Make sure you believe in yourself regardless of anything and you can get through any situation. Just keep being persistent.

Samuel Leeds’ verdict

“Some people say, ‘I can’t do rent-to-rents because I can’t pass the referencing.’ In Jordon and Jahmeil’s case they didn’t need to get references for their first deal because the landlady trusted them and warmed to them as people.

“Another objection I hear is, ‘I ain’t got the money.’ On this occasion Jahmeil and Jordon didn’t need any money. It was a perfect deal. Now they have a rent-to-rent portfolio and are financially independent. They deserve everything they’ve achieved.”

Contact Jordon & Jahmeil: Instagram- @jordon__ww | @j.jnr Share this video: https://youtu.be/XOBUupHVLsM