Overseas Property Investors student is financially free – three times over!

Overseas Property Investors student is financially free – three times over!

Electrician George Drumev spent £3,000 on one of Samuel Leeds’ property courses and has gone on to become financially free three times over with three rent-to-rent deals in Sheffield. One of them is a hotel which is making him £7,500 a month. Despite the pandemic, it has been full ever since he took it on just over a year ago. Even more remarkable is the fact that George lives in Sweden and only visited England once to set up his ‘virtual’ property company.

‘Big decisions bring big rewards’

Making big decisions comes easy to George. Originally from Bulgaria, he left his home country in search of a better life 15 years ago. After travelling around for a while, he and his wife arrived in Sweden and stayed.

George established an electrical business and they prospered. As he puts it: “My life is beautiful there. I have everything I want – a house and a nice car. I like sports cars particularly.”

He drives a Porsche Macan and still works in the business. One day, however, it occurred to him that he would need to change the way he earned money.

“My work in Sweden is dependent on me physically. If I cannot work, we cannot continue with our life.

We started to think about what we could find to bring us a passive income. You can stay at home, meet people and earn money this way, not just by working physically.”

His wife googled the options and came up with property. So, they enrolled on a month-long course in Sweden, but became dissatisfied with the slow pace of it.

“I needed speed,” George recalls. “I said I must find something in England. I was typing in property investments UK on YouTube and Samuel’s name came up first. I started watching his videos and following him. Then I decided to attend one of his crash courses.”

He followed that up by signing up for Property Investors’ three-day Deal Finding Extravaganza programme.

While some people might hesitate to jump on a plane to go to a course in another country, George had no such qualms. It took him five seconds to decide that that was what he needed to do to pursue his goal.

He has enrolled on two more Property Investors’ Crash Courses since attending his first one, where he was captivated by the atmosphere.

“That first time, when I came into the room, I just felt the energy. It was something I’d never seen in my life before. Samuel’s energy was amazing. My body was shaking, like wow, what is this?

“I’m an emotion guy who has energy too and when I went there, I felt that’s my place.”

George soaked up the positive vibe at the course and engaged fully in the activities, including finding investment properties, and coming on stage with another member of the audience to sell deals.

“The Deal Finding Extravaganza was like the magic,” he adds. “I learnt so much on this course about how you find and sell deals. I think one of the most important things on that kind of course is the networking. You meet the right people in the right place. During that course I met three people who became my joint venture partners.”

Delegates on the course also learn about other strategies and are encouraged to book a big day out viewing as many properties as possible in the search for an investment opportunity.

George went straight from the DFE in Birmingham to Sheffield to follow up a deal passed on to him by a Property Investors Academy member.

As a result, George was offered the chance to take on a hotel with 14 apartments on a rent-to-rent basis. The owner no longer wanted to run it on his own and was selling the business for £50,000.

George admits he felt some trepidation at the prospect of taking on such a large deal.

“I wondered whether it was too big for me. I was scared a little bit but thought, you know what it doesn’t matter. I will jump in the water and learn how to swim in the water. It was a big moment for me, especially as I was at the beginning of my journey.”

His decisiveness rewarded him. He went into partnership with Elena Jackson, a Sheffield lettings agent, and negotiated to pay the owner a guaranteed monthly rent of £7,000.

They took over the hotel business on a five-year lease in January 2020, not knowing that just two months later the world would be paralysed by the spread of a deadly virus.

‘The hotel has been full throughout the pandemic’

The Covid-19 crisis has left many businesses struggling to survive, including property companies. And for once George was frightened by how it would affect him. But his choice of business partner proved to be a shrewd one. Elena secured a contract with the local council to house people in need of accommodation.

While other hotels were closing and not accepting guests, their rooms were full throughout the pandemic.

“We were making £25,000 almost every month during the Covid period. After our expenses, we were left with a profit of about £15,000 which we split.

“I couldn’t believe it was true. It was like a miracle. Just that one deal gave me financial freedom.”

Since then, George has added two rent-to-rent apartments, also in Sheffield, to his portfolio. One has two bedrooms and the other four.

Together they are earning him around £2,500 per month, giving him a total of three deals. As a result, George says he has become financially free ‘three times’ over.

Systemising the business has been crucial in enabling him to run his property business from Sweden. Elena took on the management of the hotel and he has a separate management company for the flats.

Finding the right people is critical to making the system work, the entrepreneur says. He found the management company through asking for recommendations on Facebook property groups.

Modern technology also helps. Most of his day-to-day dealings are conducted through Zoom calls and Whatsapp, as well as over the telephone.

George spent a few weeks setting up his business so that he could run it remotely, realising that he needed to put the effort in initially to get it going. That meant working hard.

He is a strong advocate of taking ‘massive action.’

Some people think Samuel will take their hand and walk them through the whole process [to become financially free]. This is wrong. He will give people the tools, but they have to use the tools themselves.”

Having made his mark with the rent-to-rent strategy, George is now involved in another project with one of his other joint venture partners to renovate a large house in Yorkshire.

The property has already been converted into five flats but needs work doing on it. George plans to buy the house and fit new kitchens and bathrooms so that it can be turned into a mini hotel.

His advice to any overseas investor who wants to follow in his footsteps but is reluctant because of the cost of travel and hotels is to set some money aside and just go ahead.

“Many people cannot take the step. It’s difficult to decide. I think first the most important thing is the mindset. They have to have the mindset of success. They have to just jump on the journey and not think about money or travelling, and simply go for it. It’s not easy but it is possible. Maybe they can be inspired by my example.”

He agrees with Samuel when he says that most people live their life with their foot on the accelerator but also on the brake and wonder why they’re not getting very far.

“You have to take your foot off the brake and just go, full gas like with a Porsche.”

His wife joined him at the outset in his quest for financial independence, but has now found her own path as a life coach. Meanwhile, George is eying up more development possibilities for the future. He says he loves property as a vehicle for investment because it is something he can touch and smell.

“I love real assets that’s why I chose property because it’s something you own and when you build a property portfolio you can leave it to your kids to secure their life forever. And their kids after them.”

George’s tips

Take action. You don’t have to go to hundreds of millions of courses and learn, learn learn. You just have to jump into the business and learn by doing. I know many people who attend course after course and get more knowledge that way but then don’t do it.

Trust people because without trust in people you cannot succeed. You must trust. Sometimes when you trust you lose but that’s the game, you lose and you win.

Talk to people and find out how they think and how experienced they are to judge whether you can trust them or not.

Samuel Leeds’ verdict

“The strategies we teach work with big and small deals, as George has demonstrated with his hotel deal which has been making him thousands of pounds every month throughout the whole of the pandemic.

“Some people are sceptical that rent-to-rents work. The truth is it’s completely possible. You can get started with little money or no money or lots of money, but you are going to have to put the work in and be prepared to do whatever it takes. The rewards have paid off massively for George because he’s done that.

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