From struggling at school while coping with ADHD to then discovering he had a flair for business, Joost Mijnarends is now a hugely successful property entrepreneur. At just 22, Joost is on target to make £30,000 a month from renting out furnished apartments owned by other people. He pulled his mother into the industry and together they control a portfolio of 33 serviced accommodation units. Joost also picks up hefty fees from sourcing deals for investors.
Social media users mock Joost
Joost was mocked on social media after he invested in training with Samuel Leeds. He posted on TikTok that he had paid £2,000 for the Deal Selling Masterclass and shared his plans – only to be ridiculed in the comments.
One person told him: ‘That’s never going to work. That’s illegal.’ Another said: ‘Lol, you got scammed.’ That theme continued when a user with 20,000 followers warned him: ‘It’s not worth it. You won’t get any support once you’ve signed up,’ to which another commenter responded: ‘You wasted your money then.’
That was in 2023 when Joost was 20. Two years on, the laugh is on them. After attending the £1 crash course, followed by the four-day masterclass, Joost joined the academy.
“This gave me the foundational knowledge to understand what rent-to-rent and serviced accommodation is, and to start building my business. Within my first month I’d secured my first serviced accommodation property,” he recalls.
In some ways, it was no surprise. Joost was 14 when he put his birthday money into Microsoft stocks and persuaded his father to do the same. And yet, despite this instinct for a good investment, he failed to do well at school early on.
Having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the teenager found it hard to focus on things he didn’t enjoy. Then he moved to a different area and school and excelled at A-level in subjects that interested him.
The youngster turned into ‘a straight A student’ and went to university. Joost, who was studying business, launched an Amazon FBA type of enterprise.
But he felt his knowledge wasn’t being extended on his course and just wanted ‘to go out and do it.’ After his first year, he dropped out and took up a degree apprenticeship at Amazon.
During the pandemic he saw his parents under pressure financially and highly educated people in his team being laid off. That and wanting to help his family made him want to get back to being an entrepreneur.
His mother, Francisca Oxley, accompanied him to the crash course in London. She then also became a member of the academy, having previously worked in the travel industry.
It was Joost who realised the rent-to-rent strategy represented an opportunity to gain an income without owning a single brick.
He learnt about the method on the deal selling course. After being taught the theory, he and his fellow students were told to ‘hit the phones.’ That led to him clinching his first rent-to-serviced accommodation deal on a three-bedroom property in Leeds in July 2023.
Joost and his mother, who was by now his business partner, expanded their operation rapidly. Contrary to the naysayers who had derided her son, they were supported all the way by their academy mentors.
Winners on a Wednesday goes on location
Rent-to-rent has proved to be a highly effective strategy for producing cash flow for many of Samuel Leeds’ students, and Joost was no exception.
On his training, he learnt it was possible to rent a property and then rent it out again for a higher amount on sites like Airbnb and booking.com.
The advantage to the landlord is that they receive a guaranteed monthly rent and don’t have to worry about filling their accommodation or looking after it day-to-day.
After taking on some more rent-to-rents, Joost and Francisca branched out by managing serviced accommodation owned by their deal sourcing clients.
They share the responsibilities of running their operation. Francisca describes herself as the analytical person. She handles the accounts and looks at how they can optimise their profits, while Joost is more active on the sales side.
“I’ve done a bit more marketing and sourcing because I pulled her into this to begin with. So, I was able to build a brand.”
Francisca also helps with the staging when they take on a new SA, along with another business partner, Jenna Roberts, with whom they have worked on multiple deals. Their views are very much aligned, and they have complementary skills. What he hates, they are good at, says Joost.
Eight of the units they control are in a block of flats called Springwell Gardens in Leeds. Most have two bedrooms and two bathrooms. They also have a three-bed apartment with three bathrooms which came fully furnished.
“This serviced accommodation in Leeds is making me a profit of almost £9,000 a month. This is just one of my blocks of apartments. We have others in the same area making the same kind of money,” Joost explains.
He proudly showed off some of them when he appeared on Winners on a Wednesday, giving viewers of the YouTube show a tour of the rooms and a breakdown of the costs involved.
The young businessman defines serviced accommodation as taking on a property and furnishing it to a standard where someone can walk through the door and live there.
“Then you rent this out on a nightly or weekly basis to paying customers. This is similar to what hotels do. You can stay there with all your linen, and everything sorted for you.”
Sometimes the accommodation is furnished which reduces their overheads, if it is a rent-to-rent.
In some of their SAs and rent-to-rents they put two double beds in a bedroom when space allows to make it more like a twin room in a hotel.
“What you need to think about when you’re doing your serviced accommodation is that you’re competing with hotels, so you can make it more like that.”
The Springwell Gardens apartments are just a ten-minute walk away from the train station. Their guests include many international students.
When examining the suitably of a property as an SA, they look at how many people might be coming to the area and why. The proximity of a football club, for example, could attract fans needing somewhere to stay.
Another tip which Samuel teaches his students is to analyse local hotel charges and the standard of accommodation – and to find out where hotels are being built. If there is a cluster of hotels going up in a particular place, then it is probably because there is demand. The billionaire owners have therefore effectively done the market research for the investor.
‘Initially people were thrown by how young I looked’
Breaking into the property industry when you are young can be tough, Joost concedes. However, there is a rider to that.
“What I’ve learnt and experienced over time is that initially some people were thrown off a bit by how young I am and look.
“I found when I could go in there with knowledge and experience, and tell them what I’m doing and how, these landlords and the people I’m working with are more impressed because I’m so young.”
His confidence comes from being trained well and knowing what he is talking about. The reason he has so many SA’s in one apartment block is to attract more reviews and make them stand out.
“People who are doing one rent-to-rent can get one booking and one review, whereas we have eight units running off the same listing. So, we can get eight times the reviews on one listing and immediately push ourselves up the algorithm to be beating most of our Airbnb and serviced accommodation competitors and competing more closely with the hotels.”
It is a tactic that has paid dividends. The average turnover you can expect on a three-bedroom apartment in Leeds across 12 months is about £3,000 per month, says Joost.
The rent to the landlord on each of the eight units his firm re-lets is £1,500 a month. Then there are further expenses.
“There’s no gas in these properties. You’re looking at about £200 for electricity, £50 for water and another £150 for council tax.”
That leaves a profit of £1,100. Multiplied by eight that amounts to a net margin of £8,800 in one month.
“We’ve got another nine units in Leeds. Off that we’re making about £10,000 a month which brings us to around £18,000.
“We’ve got a couple of units in Harrogate which we expect to bring in another £5,000 profit. This will put us at £23,800 a month profit just for these blocks alone.
“We also have eight other rent-to-rents across the area, which will bring us to about £30,000 profit.” This is the figure Joost hopes to hit by the end of April 2025.
The average yearly occupancy for all the units in the last 12 months has been 85 per cent. This was achieved through targeting long-term guests.
The accommodation has a luxury feel to it. One of the apartments Joost shows off has a rainfall shower, with a spacious en suite and a bath.
“We provide mats, both for the shower and bath, and for when people are walking around and on the toilet to keep them nice and warm and make sure their stay is as comfortable as possible.”
Another apartment seen on Joost’s tour is ‘a work in progress.’ To fully stage it will cost about £2,000.
“When it comes to staging your SA’s, there’s a lot that goes into it that you don’t necessarily think of.”
Pots, pans, plates and cutlery have to be purchased. Armed with a massive shopping list, they buy from Asda Living or Amazon when ordering large quantities of furniture. It requires a high level of organisation and keeping track of everything that is delivered, including TVs in case anything gets broken and needs to be returned.
‘Property has given me freedom’
One of the hardest lessons for Joost was learning that he cannot please everyone all the time.
“Some people are looking for a refund or are rude. You shouldn’t let that stress you out. As you get more time in this game you get less stressed by these things.”
Persuading landlords to hand over their properties to a rent-to-renter is hard, Joost acknowledges. The key for him was being creative in his approach. He rang a firm of architects, which had been working on some developments in Leeds. Explaining what his business offered, Joost asked to be put in touch with the landlord who was open to the rent-to-rent concept and passed him on to the estate agent.
“People find they get a lot of no’s from estate agents but because the landlord was already open to the idea, the estate agent couldn’t say no.”
“That deal didn’t end up working. However, we got passed another deal by the same estate agent because they had other units available.”
“What going into property has done is given me the freedom to work when I want, where I want,” Joost concludes.
“I work very hard because I enjoy it. Both my mum and I are now in business full time. Being on the Samuel Leeds academy has accelerated that growth.”
Joost’s tips
- The marketplace doesn’t discriminate against your age. If you do a good job and provide a great service, people will always want to work with you.
- It’s all about who you know and what connections you can make to get amazing rent-to-rent deals.
Samuel Leed’s verdict
Samuel says: “Joost is paying very low deposits and putting very little money down but then getting a fortune by listing them on sites such as Airbnb. You don’t need a lot of money to do this. It doesn’t matter how old or young you are.”
