Father and son, Carl and Kenny Hawksworth, struck a rich vein when they extracted the ‘golden nuggets’ from Samuel Leeds’ academy and then became property entrepreneurs. Over a six-week period the duo notched up a profit of £27,000 from deal sourcing and rent-to-serviced accommodation. Now they are using that money to build their own property portfolio.
‘One week’s booking during British Open brings in £6,000’
It was Carl who had the idea of setting up a joint enterprise with his son. “Kenny had a resin floors business which wasn’t going very well, and he was down in the dumps. So, I said we need to do something together. Have a look at this guy Samuel Leeds. When you’ve had a look, come back to me and see what you want to do.”
Kenny came back with the answer that they should book themselves onto the £1 Crash Course. And so, they headed to Heathrow where the event was taking place.
Carl, who owns a construction company, was on board from the start. “I wanted to do this together and I wanted it to be a business built from scratch that Kenny put loads of input into. He wasn’t a silver spoon boy. He was going to make his own money.”
Kenny was equally committed. “Regardless of whether I thought the crash course was any good, I was going to do property.”
They went on to join the Property Investors Academy and then adopted deal selling as their strategy. After a slow start, Kenny managed to source a buy-to-let for an investor who found him through Instagram.
The property needed renovating, which was going to cost £8,000, and so Kenny and his father set to work. Then it occurred to Kenny as they were doing the rip-out that they could take it on as a rent-to-rent.
“I said to him why don’t we rent this off you. We’ll give you what you want for it, so you’re making your profit. We’ll increase it by 3.5 per cent each year to stay in line with inflation. Then we will use it as serviced accommodation for contractors. He was like, bingo let’s do it.”
Carl adds: “We found the deal and then we said you buy and refurb it and we’ll rent it back off you for three years. So, it’s a double deal.”
The pair not only picked up a sourcing fee of £2,000, plus £1,200 for the project management, they also added £35,000 of equity (£27,000 net) by improving the property.
And the money keeps rolling in. “We’re paying him £650 a month. In April we made £2,500 profit off that one,” says Kenny.
The reason the owner doesn’t rent it out himself is that he is wary of ‘chancing it,’ Carl believes, and doubts whether he could cope with managing it.
It is also time-consuming, Kenny points out. Carl and Kenny know the systems and procedures involved in running a successful SA business. They have learnt, for example, how to find cleaners and install key boxes. They have also been taught how to work with online travel agencies and channel managers to synchronise bookings across multiple platforms.
In addition, the academy provides extensive support to students through its experienced mentors which helped them as they made their way in the property world. Even so, Kenny admits he made a costly mistake early on.
One night, he got a call at 2am informing him that shouting and screaming had been heard coming from an apartment which they were renting out. The agreement beforehand with the landlord was that they would install a sound monitor but Kenny forgot to do it.
Kenny apologised but faced a dilemma because the guests denied being responsible for the disturbance. “I’m like I can’t charge them because they’ve said they haven’t done anything. I’ve got no noise monitors to prove it and the ring doorbell wasn’t charged.”
“We had to take it on the chin and say it’s our fault. We’ll put it right,” recalls Carl.
There was, however, a silver lining. In fact, the Liverpool entrepreneurs hit the jackpot. The flat is near to where the 2023 British Open golf tournament was being held on Merseyside. As a result, they got a week’s booking worth £6,000 when their rent is only £800 a month.
“It turns its wheels anyway without that,” says Carl who likens it to a ‘Brucie Bonus’ from the Play Your Cards Right TV game show hosted by Bruce Forsyth.
‘We took the golden nuggets and made them work’
Kenny’s latest triumph is sourcing a buy, refurbish, refinance deal for an investor on a property close to one of the Mersey tunnels.
It will be converted at a cost of £18,000 into serviced accommodation after Kenny and his father negotiated £7,000 off the asking price. Kenny expects their client to be able to refinance it to a value of £145,000 once the work is finished.
The partners operate two companies, Barnston Property Sourcing and Barnston Construction, with the latter now systemised.
They have put foremen in place to run jobs so that Carl spends less time on site and can talk to his son about business plans and where they are going in a particular week.
Kenny does their social media and goes to the property viewings. They are also training someone to source deals for them while they bring investors on board.
It is a formula that has worked to great effect so far in terms of the average monthly profit they derive from their property company.
Kenny describes how they had a ‘long slog’ for a few months where they made no money up until January this year. Then their fortunes changed dramatically.
“Since then, it’s been £13,000 a month up until we made a profit of £27,000 over six weeks from mid-May to June.”
It was their training on the Samuel Leeds Academy and having belief which enabled them to make so much money in such a short period, says Carl.
“We took what we wanted from the course. We took the golden nuggets, worked away at them, and made them work.”
Carl remembers a speech made by a Property Investors coach. “He said you haven’t got a business unless its systemised. You’ve got a job.”
It made him realise that, although he owned a construction company, he had a full-time job.
Carl immediately offered one of his employees more money to take on the task of overseeing jobs so that he could concentrate on property.
“it’s not as chaotic because I’m not trying to do everything. I feel I’ve got my life back.”
Carl still spends about two days a week on the construction side of his business. Before that he was putting in ‘nine days,’ he quips.
Kenny enjoys working with his dad. “It’s ace because there’s no one I trust more than him. We’re two males, so sometimes we do clash heads naturally, but it always ends in a nice open discourse. We’ll agree on the best solution and move forward. There are no lumps in the carpet. It all gets ironed out straight away.”
They have defined roles. “Once I’ve got the client on the hook and we have a Zoom call, I’ll bring dad in. We’ll do the Zoom call together because I want people to feel he’s a credible source of information for building. I’ll handle the property sourcing and we come together like that.”
Carl and Kenny eye up a multi-million pound development deal
Carl is excited about the prospect of building their own portfolio of properties through the buy, refurbish, refinance strategy. They plan to buy their first property this year with their £27,000 windfall and then do it up and remortgage it to raise capital for more acquisitions.
“We’ll probably put sweat equity into that one and do a lot of the building work to make it more fruitful,” says Carl.
The plan is to continually reinvest their money into the business and give themselves a passive income through their rent-to-rents.
They also want to move into joint venture developments. Kenny says: “We build new houses, anyway, so why can’t we leverage that skill and bring other people in on the finance side?”
Carl and Kenny have identified a plot of land in an area where houses sell for around £1.6m. “It’s got planning permission already, but the house next door needs knocking down. So, there’ll be two plots. It could be a £4m or £5m deal,” Carl says.
They are also continuing to sell deals. Their service is a bespoke one. Explaining how it works, Kenny says: “The client pays you a deposit to go and look for them.
“You’ll have a contract to say how many properties you’re going to source in an amount of time and the criteria to work to, which is a framework to protect the sourcer and the client.
“You’ll find a property. Take the deposit away from the sourcing fee and then charge them on whatever your terms are. For us, it’s sale agreed.”
They find their deals through estate agents who they have done business with in the past. The agents pass them details of properties which Kenny can sell to an investor, avoiding the need to market them.
He also attends networking events and often finds investors through word of mouth.
“Say they come through Instagram, which some of them do, or the academy, then I’ll put them in touch with previous investors to ask them what they thought of me. They won’t hold anything back and then all of a sudden, they call me and say let’s do it.”
Kenny has had to learn to be more thick-skinned when there is a setback. One customer paid him his sourcing fee for a BRR deal in Liverpool but then demanded his money back.
The complaint was that the comparable property used to estimate the value of the property, which the investor was about to buy, was in a different postcode area.
“The comparable used was a like for like property in the next road, but the investor said that’s not secure and safe enough. So, I sent the money back. I said to my dad, it’s not working. Now I’ve come through the trials and tribulations I know to put all the due diligence in the pack.
“Sometimes it’s 50 pages deep for bigger deals which a lot of people can’t be bothered to read. But if you say the information’s not there, I can guarantee you it is.”
At the Deal Selling Masterclass Kenny watched Samuel Leeds selling deals live on stage. It taught him that you need to be direct when closing deals.
Kenny praises the academy. “The training and the network is unbelievable, and you’re held accountable because you’ve paid for it.”
His nan is his biggest fan. “She is on board with anything we say we’re going to do. My grandad was not too sure but now he’s seeing it he’s like, boys well done.”
Carl agrees, revealing that both his parents are interested in having serviced accommodation after seeing their success.
Carl and Kenny’s tips
- You’ve got to be realistic about your construction costs when assessing a potential BRR deal. Do not try to inflate those numbers to make it work. If it doesn’t work move on.
- Do your research and get your data right.
- There is a difference between the asking price and the true market value. Compare what you’re paying per square meter in that area on average with the asking price. If it is more, and the property has been improved, then that’s justified.
Samuel Leeds Verdict
“It’s great working with family. My brother Russell is my business partner. Everything has to be fair, and you have to quickly resolve issues. Communication is important. I’m really pleased to see Carl and Kenny winning in business.”
