Property Investors student leaves the Army after increasing his profits tenfold …

Property Investors student leaves the Army after increasing his profits tenfold…

Father-of-two Jervon Quinlan increased his profits from his rental property tenfold after joining the Property Investors Academy. He learnt how to turn it into serviced accommodation and immediately got a long-term booking. On top of that, Jervon found his first rent-to-rent deal while completing his training. Now he is financially free and about to quit his job in the British Army to become a full-time property entrepreneur.

‘I’ve already made back the academy fee’

Jervon has only been in property for five months, but he has already earned his academy fee from his investments. It all began for him when he attended several Property Investors Crash Courses with his wife.

From there, he enrolled on the rent-to-rent training and then became a member of the academy.

“It was captivating the way Samuel came across as a trainer. You could feel his energy and it was mind-blowing being around other academy members and like-minded people. It definitely lifted up your spirits and made you want to succeed in property,” says Jervon.

Deciding to take a leaf out of Samuel’s book, Jervon went on Gumtree and clicked the link for private sellers to find landlords advertising properties for rent. One listing caught his eye because it had been on the site for a while.

Seizing the initiative, he messaged the landlady directly through Gumtree and arranged a viewing.

“Before that I was trying Rightmove and ringing agents and nothing seemed to click. So, I did exactly what I’d seen Samuel do which was to go on Gumtree. I thought if Samuel has put it out there it’s got to work.

“I booked the viewing on the programme. It was a two-bed, end-of-terrace house in the centre of Chippenham, in quite a nice area. I did some due diligence on the area to see the demand for people wanting rooms and the rooms available.

“I remember on Samuel’s training he said to compare the ratios and make sure it’s three to one.”

Jervon originally intended to rent out the house as a single let but then did some research at the HMO Bootcamp course to see how he could rent it out on a room-by-room basis.

He managed to negotiate the rent down from £1,200 to £1,100 a month and then worked out how much he could rent it out for to make a profit.

“Samuel said if the deal is not bringing you £500 profit and above you shouldn’t really go into it. After expenses I was making £560. I thought this isn’t much but at least I can start building a good credibility with landlords.”

Jervon had only recently set up his property company and so it took time to persuade the landlady to allow him to take control of the house under a rent-to-rent arrangement.

“Initially she did give me a difficult time saying yes as my company had only just been opened and I didn’t have any references. I was acting as guarantor for my business just from being in the Army. That’s all I had to go on.”

He overcame this hurdle by being open about what he was offering and explaining how they could establish a long-term partnership which would be mutually beneficial.

From attending Property Investors’ courses, Jervon also learnt to look out for properties which could be improved and made more valuable. This house had two reception rooms. So, he turned one of the rooms into a third bedroom and retained the other one as a communal area. He also added a partition wall and refurbished the property with the landlady’s permission.

Three tenants moved into the house. Two of the rooms are rented out at £650 each per month, while the largest room brings in £700 a month. Out of that, Jervon has to pay the landlady her rent and bills of £340.

He spent £3,500 in total on the refurbishment and furnishings.

Property Investors students are taught that if they can pay themselves back from their profits in six months, then that is a good investment. Jervon calculated that he would be able to do that before taking on the house.

Turning single let into an SA pays off

Having sealed his first rent-to-rent deal, Jervon focused on converting his single let into serviced accommodation. He and his wife bought it four years ago without having any knowledge of property, he says.

It was only when he attended the rent-to-rent serviced accommodation course that he discovered he could make far more money by renting it out to guests for short stays.

So, Jervon took a picture of the front of the house and listed it on Airbnb after giving the tenants three months’ notice to find another place. By the beginning of March this year (2022), the keys were back in his hands.

With their two young sons in tow, Jervon and his wife spent every weekend doing jobs on the house to get it ready. Then, towards the end of the month they got their first booking.

It was for all of April and May and worth about £6,000 to them, says Jervon, but there was still work to be done.

They had intended to replace the carpet with laminate wood and do up the bathroom as it wasn’t properly tiled. They also wanted to paint the whole house. But when the booking came in the floor wasn’t fully laid out, the bathroom was incomplete and there was still painting to do.

“I was asking myself if I could make this happen because we only had two days left until the guests were moving in the following Monday. My wife was also wondering if we could take on this booking, but then I said, ‘No. I’m an optimistic guy. When I set my mind on something I always want to see it through.”

Luckily, a colleague from the Army who had some experience of property refurbishing, was in the area with his brother and offered to help out for free.

Leaving their boys at home with a carer so that they could concentrate on the task in hand, Jervon, his wife and their two helpers got the work done in time.

“Literally from Saturday night to Monday afternoon I didn’t sleep. We worked so hard and got all the furnishing in two days from Ikea and Facebook Marketplace. The guests moved in on a Monday and they were really happy. We got it done and I was like, this is a blessing.”

Jervon is now hoping to get a 10-month booking which would bring in around £36,000. Even if that falls through, other bookings have already come in for June, July and August.

As a single let the property was earning him £200 a month, he says, after paying off the mortgage.

“I was thinking that’s alright. Now it’s making a profit of £2,000 a month. For April it was £2,000 and for May it will be £2,000. Then come June my intention is to have it fully booked for the rest of the year.”

Jervon’s wife convinces him to go into property

For years Jervon’s wife had been trying to persuade him to leave the Army. He was also regularly being deployed at short notice away from home and she became depressed. Helping her through that finally led him into property.

“If I’d known a couple of years ago what I now know I’d have listened to my wife sooner. It was her who brought the idea of property to the table from 2019 and said we should really get into this.”

When the Covid situation became more relaxed, he signed off from the Army in June 2021.

“When my wife went through a mental depression, I thought that’s enough. I enjoyed my career. I loved it but the Army does make you deploy a lot away from home and from your family. That could affect anyone mentally if they have to work and look after kids and you’re just away working and living your life.”

His employers gave him a year to prepare himself for civilian life by going on courses, although he has to report for duty still when he is needed.

“My wife is over the moon and I’m a lot happier now. June 10th is my last day.”

The benefits of the Army, such as guaranteed pay and subsidised housing made him feel comfortable. He recognised, however, that it was time for him to move on.

During his training Jervon was paired up with a mentor, Evans Willie, as they were both born and raised on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia.

“We connected straight away from one of the crash courses I attended. He came up to me and I said, ‘I remember you. You were two years below me in high school.’

Samuel Leeds’ energy and practical training attracted him to the Property Investors Academy, as well as seeing the results achieved by other members.

“We’d been on other property trainers’ courses before as well. It was nothing compared to the environment and what we felt working with Samuel.”

There was a point when Jervon admits he wanted to quit, particularly when he was supporting his wife and trying to juggle his work with looking after their children. During the Freedom Intensive section of the Deal Selling Masterclass course his wife was out of work which intensified the pressure on him.

Staying motivated was difficult, he says, but he maintained his belief that property investing could be ‘a game-changer.’ Having the support of the academy and mentoring calls kept him going.

His family, including his son who was born in 2020, continue to drive him on.

“I still want to grow my family and I want to be able to do it comfortably financially and not have to worry about where the money is going to come from to pay for this and that.”

Jervon’s tips

Tell the world what you’re doing. This could be putting a post on social media or sending letters to landlords. If you have a conversation with someone in a supermarket, tell them what you do.
Knowledge is power. You need to be educated in what you are doing.

Invest in your own personal development and growth. If you have all the knowledge and your mindset isn’t right, it’s not going to work. You need to have the right mindset because in property people will always tell you no more than they tell you yes. You need to be comfortable with accepting the no’s and seeing it as a step closer to the yes.

Implement the knowledge you’ve learned, and you will get that yes. Be patient. Everybody’s journey is different.

Samuel Leeds’ verdict

“A lot of people say they haven’t got time to do property because of their job and family but actually that’s the very reason they should do property. If they carry on just running on the rat race of life, they’re going to end up being retired and realising maybe they’ve wasted their life.

“Jervon saw that there were options out there to make a better living for his family and is now in a position to leave the Army. He deserves every success.”

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