Before going into property Patricia Masuda held a senior position with a luxury car manufacturer, earning £100,000 a year. Then Covid hit and Patricia found herself reassessing her life. After joining the Samuel Leeds Academy, she learnt about serviced accommodation and became financially free with her first deal. These days she is also a leading light in the training establishment, helping students to find success in property.
Lake District Airbnb brings in £500 to £700 a night
Patricia was working for a large Porsche dealership in Canada as a finance manager when the pandemic came along and took her in a different direction.
“They had shut it down and were just doing skeletal stuff. So, I was sitting at home for the first time since I was 12 years old. I was always working, so found it mentally challenging to sit there and not do anything,” recalls Patricia.
At the same time, she recognised that this unexpected break from the routine of work offered her an opportunity.
“I knew this is a gift to have this time, so what I do with it is going to be important.”
During lockdown in 2020, she messaged Samuel Leeds via Instagram, saying she wanted to get into property and asked him if serviced accommodation worked in Canada.
She was amazed when Samuel replied personally, giving her information about the training his company offered.
“That was just very touching that he would spend that kind of time with me. [I thought] if he’s doing that with me, he’s probably doing it with so many other people too. And he does, even to this day.”
It had been her intention to travel to the UK for one of his £1 crash courses, even though it would only be for one day. Many people do come from countries such as Australia and Dubai to gain an insight into the creative strategies that can be used to make money from property. A four-week online course had just been introduced, however, and so she signed up for that instead.
“I was very excited. We got weekly Zooms with Samuel. There were about 60 people on the class.
“I remember Samuel saying property doesn’t care if you’re a man or a woman, if you’re old or young. The numbers are the numbers. I loved that.”
Easing of coronavirus restrictions finally enabled her to attend a crash course. Hundreds of would-be investors flocked to the event. Afterwards she enrolled on an intensive course about serviced accommodation.
It was a difficult period with the training having to be delivered virtually at other times.
“Samuel made it work. He didn’t let any of us down. He still performed,” says Patricia.
She proved herself to be a fast learner and hard-working. Viewing properties from Canada with her-in-laws filming them for her on FaceTime, she quickly found a potential deal.
The property which she had identified was a five-bedroom house in the Lake District, and she asked her guru whether it would work as an SA. His opinion was that it could fetch at least £250 a night. Buoyed by his encouragement, she quit her job after 20 years in the motor business and moved to Britain.
By this stage, Patricia had become a member of the academy and emailed over an offer for the house.
“You can’t do that in Canada which is why if I wanted to grow in property I had to be in this country to do it,” she explains.
The offer was accepted, with Samuel and his wife Amanda, and three children then becoming her first guests in the house. It came with a hot tub, and he was dazzled by how well it was staged.
She was grateful for his visit. “I could feel his support and that he wanted to make sure I succeeded.”
It gave her a good start and before long, her calendar was full of bookings, bringing in £500 to £700 a night as an Airbnb.
“I was beside myself. I couldn’t believe it. I just worked so hard and did everything I was taught. I made the listing really beautiful. It was beautiful but the customer service also had to be there and so I was very personable with the clients – bottles of Prosecco when they get there, that kind of thing, checking in on them beforehand, while they’re there, afterwards with little Whatsapp messages so we’re friends.”
The businesswoman credits the training for giving her the knowledge and skills to turn an ordinary house into such a highly profitable serviced accommodation unit – that and the fact she had managed to secure it for £30,000 below the market value.
“I never would have known that is something that can happen, especially in Canada where everybody’s outbidding each other. It was not even imaginable for me. But because of Samuel’s training I was taught to go in low – embarrassingly low but in a very respectful way where it’s not offensive. It’s a bit sheepish and kind. Either they take it, or they don’t.”
That initial purchase enabled her to recoup the £12,000 academy membership fee twice over, she says, adding:
“I talk to people in the academy all day, every day as part of my role in the company and nobody ever says that’s too much because they’re taking action.
“But I also remind them your investment is your education. You’re going to have that for life.”
Samuel asks Patricia to manage his mansion
Samuel Leeds was so impressed with the way his student was running her first property that he asked her to manage a mansion which he had rented out as an Airbnb. He was paying £10,000 a month for it as a back-up in case his purchase of his Beaconsfield home in Buckinghamshire collapsed. In the event the sale went through, and he kept the mansion to rent out.
She also took on a seven-bed, grade II listed farmhouse between Preston and Southport as a rent-to-rent, paying the landlord a fixed rent and then letting it out for a higher amount.
“I couldn’t have dreamt of a better, more beautiful property. The owners were moving to Australia. They were business savvy, so they got the idea very quickly and they were sold.
“I had to sit down with their neighbour because their neighbour was concerned, and I won him over.”
Her business dealings didn’t end there. In a joint venture with two partners, she bought a set of derelict barns in a ‘gorgeous tiny village’ in the Lakes. It had prior planning approval to be turned into two, three-bed holiday lets.
The foundation was laid but as this had been done some years ago the local council asked them to submit a new application. In the meantime, they clinched a land development deal with planning consent for 12 houses.
Patricia and her partners are now applying for planning permission to build 19 houses on the site to maximise their profits.
She has brought in an investor as her money is tied up in the barns. “When you run out of money, you don’t stop doing property. You just raise finance. You bring in investors. You give them a piece of the pie and everybody’s happy.”
The investor she attracted is a friend who owned five flats, managing them herself while trying to pay off the mortgages. Patricia met her after putting a post on Facebook.
“I said, I’m here from Canada. If you’re a landlord and would like some guaranteed rent, let me know. She was the only person who responded.”
By giving people value and support, other opportunities presented themselves to Patricia. But then she went through a divorce. She and her husband were partners in business. Combined with some other problems, it had a devasting effect on her.
She leaned heavily on the academy and the mentors, as well as Samuel for support and recovered.
One of the things Patricia had to learn was not to be too trusting in business. She put money into deals with people who were not on the academy against the advice of a mentor.
The entrepreneur admits she was naïve, blaming it on her background. “I was a bit sheltered and protected in Canada. My mum and dad are big Buddhist leaders and I always feel this bubble around me of safety. But I’m smarter. I can say no now.
“It also comes a bit with age. The older you get the less you care about what other people think about you. What’s important is doing the right thing, being healthy mentally and physically, appreciating everybody who’s in your life and giving as much as you can back.”
‘Culture of love and support starts at the top’
In 2022, Samuel Leeds invited Patricia to join his team as an accountability coach. She declined initially, but then he called her again.
“You can’t say no to Samuel too many times and it was the right time when I needed it. I said let’s do it and it was amazing.”
It took her mind off the divorce and gave her a new purpose. “I felt that I was making a difference because I had so much to share in terms of how to take advantage of the academy, to book those mentor calls, to show up, do the training and make those phone calls.
“I wanted to make sure people knew it was going to be hard, but it would be OK because they had his whole support system that he put into place.
“I’d call everybody every month – 1,000 people at the beginning. How are you doing? Have you finished all your live courses? No, okay next week is BRR. The following month is HMO.”
Patricia points out that there are many new features on the academy which weren’t there when she joined, such as an AI mentor chat and an Article 4 checker indicating areas which have additional planning controls. Other tools, like Deal Connect, allow members to find off-market investment opportunities and to obtain quotes for refurbishments.
She has also played a pivotal role in assisting with the launch of the Inner Circle groups where students from the same locality can meet up with one another. So far 25 have been set up in cities as far apart as Scotland and Devon. They include two which have recently been established in London, in Shepherd’s Bush and Canary Wharf, and one in the Cotswolds. More groups are ‘ready to go’ in Sheffield, Nottingham and Derby.
The inner circles reflect the culture of support and love which starts from the top, she says.
After her divorce, her own activities as a real estate investor are about to resume. “I’m going to dive headfirst back into property and really start to make some waves. I love development and raising finance. I think I’m good at it too. I’m 100 per cent a people person.”
Patricia’s tips
- The fact that people come from different countries to attend the crash course shows how valuable it is. Invest in your education. You have it for life.
- There is no reason for a spouse to be a director or shareholder in a company if they don’t put in equal amounts of investment.
Samuel Leeds’ verdict
“Patricia has made and lost money. It’s been a real roller coaster. But she’s done some great things in property, including serviced accommodation, buy, refurbish, refinance projects and rent-to-rents.
“I’m grateful for everything she does for the academy. Some people need an arm around them and that’s what she gives – that pep talk which is huge.
“Since Patricia joined the academy in 2020, we have produced five books filled with my students’ success stories. This for me is part of my legacy and wouldn’t have been possible without Patricia’s help. She’s been one of the lead accountability coaches who literally make sure people turn up.”
