Liam talks to Oliver, a successful property investor who has achieved remarkable results in just two and a half years. Oliver shares his journey from being a structural engineer to becoming a property investor with 12 deals and nine rent-to-rent managed properties in his portfolio. They delve into Oliver’s initial struggles, decision to join a mentorship program, and the evolution of his property strategies. Oliver discusses the transition from rent-to-rent serviced accommodation to a management strategy, highlighting the benefits and challenges of each approach.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Oliver’s journey from working as a structural engineer to becoming a successful property investor in just two and a half years showcases the potential for growth and success in the property industry.
- The importance of taking action and getting started, even if you don’t have all the knowledge or experience, is highlighted as a key factor in Oliver’s success.
- The shift in strategy from rent-to-rent serviced accommodation to property management demonstrates the flexibility and adaptability required in the property business to maximise profits and minimise risks.
- Building a supportive community and seeking continued education and mentorship are crucial for overcoming challenges, maintaining motivation, and making informed decisions in the property investment journey.
- Oliver’s focus on scaling his business, hiring staff, and exploring new strategies like deal packaging and development reflects the mindset of continuous growth and expansion in the property industry.
BEST MOMENTS
“I think with any journey that’s worth going on, if you don’t have the knowledge base or the skill set to do it, you’re not going to get anywhere at all.”
“I think it will be a long-term thing for me, but I’ll definitely be looking at going into other strategies where you’d be making a bit more income.”
“You’ve stayed in the process. You’ve invested in yourself. You get to our retreats. You turn up. You’ve made great relationships in the community.”
“If you are sick and tired of where you are now, working too many hours, not spending time with the family, hey, I’ve got a message for you. Stop moaning about it and get up and do something about it.”
FULL TRANSCRIPT
If you’re listening to the dealmaker podcast, hosted by multimillionaire property investor, entrepreneur, and Guinness World Record holder, Liam Ryan, discover how to start scale and grow your business, become a better negotiator, create more opportunity and make massive profit so you can live the life of your dreams.
Today I am with Oliver, one of my inner circle graduates, who in just two and a half years has gone from zero. He’s done 12 property deals, and he currently has nine rent to rent Managed Property deals in his portfolio. So we are going to take you behind the scenes. And we are going to show you exactly how you can get these results as well. So Oliver, welcome into the studio environment. First of all, a massive congratulations. I know it’s been we’ve had some challenges along the way over the last two and a half years. But the bottom line is you’ve got nine live properties. Now, before we get into what type of properties and the strategy and how you got the deals, could you take us back to where you were two and a half years ago? And why you decided to become a property investor? What was life? Like? What were some of the struggles that you were facing? Yeah, sure. So I’m a structural engineer by trade.
So I was just working working as an engineer, I got chartered. Yeah, and I was just working in that industry. I remember getting chartered and thinking, you know, I’ve made it, but then he sort of big anticlimax and, you know, it’s not, not what I wanted to do. So then, you know, being in the construction industry and working for a lot of developers, that sort of piqued my interest quite a bit. So I knew that I wanted to start moving into into property into a different side of the construction game. And sort of, you know, my main aim was to go into developments. So then that’s where I stumbled across your, your courses and your education programs. So and then yeah, that’s when I went to one of your boot camps. And then and then signed up for the, for the full mentorship. Great, you know what, it’s quite interesting, because we’ve got a lot of property professionals within the assets for life Academy. And you’ve got two things that you can do in property, you can be on this side, or you can be on this side, you can be working for someone else and making them rich, or you can work for yourself. And I think that’s what really motivated you that you didn’t want to be a slave to society. And you wanted to have freedom, right, you know, and you wanted to have time freedom and be your own boss and and do what you want and when you wanted to do it. So what really made you make the decision to join my advanced training and mentoring program?
I mean, I think I was already at the stage to know that I wanted to do something else. And and I think it was just that the bootcamp the training that was provided. And then you know, the continued mentorship program. I was sort of sold on that during the free the free day boot camp because, yeah, I’ve never I’ve never run a business before I’d never been in property before I started. I’d literally just started one of my first developments, but I didn’t have any experience anything. Anything that I really needed to know. So that’s why I knew I needed some training. And then yeah, just just what you provided, what you’re offering, it just sounded like exactly what I needed to start my journey. Right. So once you joined me, how long was it before you got your first results, so to speak?
So in the first three months, I sort of set up all the business started making all the phone calls, you know, done everything that you know, you taught us to do. But yeah, I don’t know if you remember that at the time. I started my development project. renovating a property. Yeah. So I had that going on. I had a full time job. So I was doing 80 hours a week so I sort of had to park Yeah, park the the the essays, the serviced accommodation stuff for about six to six to nine months. But luckily, I’ve obviously I’ve already started to train in so I did actually take on a unit about sort of month eight, because I that was more talking with friends and family and everyone else what I was doing the training and then luckily enough, a friend of a friend had had a property come up for rent. So I said I’d take it off them. So I managed to manage to get my first one without even actually yeah, so that was no way. For landlords. Yeah.
I think this is a really interesting point, right? The fact is, is that you did the setup work within those first 12 weeks, your company name, your business cards, the Property Ombudsman, you set the bank account up, you had the intent, and then you took the action that you wanted to create this company. The fact that we paused it then for six or nine months really is irrelevant and actually then made it easier because if you hadn’t done that legwork in the beginning, when you would have then spoke to your friend of a friend of a friend, you may not have been in a position to take the property on because you didn’t have to accompany Yeah, no, exactly. So now, take us back to when you picked up the keys to your first property deal, not not the one that you were developing and living and living in a building.
For months, I remember. But take us back to when you got that first deal. When you how did that make you feel? What are the emotions going on? Did you have any sort of mindset shift what what happened? It was it was funny because it was it’s a little bit nerve wracking, obviously, when you’re taking on your first deal, obviously being so busy as well. But when the opportunity presented itself, like, you know, you just had to take it. And it was interesting, because obviously it even though it was a friend of a friend, you still had to you know, sell him on the idea and get them on board. So yeah, so it was all around things like it was it was very interesting, very exciting. And yeah, when that first deal actually got over the line, you know, they bought into what you were doing your idea and everything. It was sort of yeah, you sort of felt exhilarating for it. Do you know what is possible? Yeah, it’s possible and, and, you know, even our fault, I was wasting not wasting my time with the development project. But the fact that I wasn’t, you know, completely, completely involved with the SAE stuff, I still managed to get the deal. And then it was like hard, you know, so it’s all back alive again. So great.
I think that’s the most important thing is it’s the sooner you can believe that you can do something. Yeah, you’re able to go and do it. Yeah. And there’s so many negative articles right now you switch on the news, it’s negative, I’ve stopped. Friends, family members are negative. Because look, it is a tough time for many, many millions of people in the in the UK right now. But you can decide to be on the poor fence or rich fence and of course, you have to put in the work and you’ve got to put the effort in and do what’s needed. But so you’ve got the first one up and running. This will be a good time now to talk about the actual strategy. Yeah, so you initially did something called rent to rent serviced accommodation. So you don’t own the property. You haven’t got to go and get a mortgage, no major credit checks, no got to go and use a broker minimum cache maximum profit out. You rent the property from a landlord. Yeah, pay them guaranteed rent, and then they allow you to basically re rent it out, sublet it with the right legal contract, is that a fair description of rent to rent, serviced, accommodation, and obviously serviced accommodation where you’re then renting it out by the night, so you don’t have tenants? Now over the last year or so your business model has changed?
Yeah. So you still do rent to rent serviced accommodation? I certainly do. But from the nine deals that you currently have live, how many of them are rent to rent essay? And how many of them are the new strategy? And what is the new strategy? And how does that work? So, the new strategy is management? So this is, yeah, so we got was getting a few more properties near London, in and around London. So and I sort of teamed up with with, with who’s now a business partner who was an agent in in and around London. So we started offering management strategy because landlords, landlords, they were sort of more cottoned on to the idea and as we were selling the idea to them, yeah, it was, a lot of them looked like they they preferred the idea of this management where we just charge a fee to manage the whole property for them and yeah, and then the the landlords would would take the extra benefits, the extra income that we could generate for them. Yeah, but they also take on the risk. So that’s the benefits of this management strategy. As opposed to a renter rent, when you’re doing the renter rent, you take on all the risk yourself, you take on all the investment yourself, but then you take the upside to yourself is the extra profit. Yeah, was the benefits to the management strategy is you have no risk, you have no investment. And you can still make a good sum, but it’ll be it’ll be a bit less than a rent to rent strategy. But without the risk in the investment. We’ve found that actually quite quite like that.
No risk strategy loving. Yeah, I might have to jump on that one myself. Well, yeah. That sounds incredible. And the only reason I’m guessing that you’re able to do that is because you had some experience with rent to rent yourself. Yeah, no, of course. Yeah. So it used to be I mean, when we first started doing it and offering it we it was great because there are some people in the community to actually do that strategy. So it was great that we could ask them questions and figure out get the right call. contracts in place the right, the right structure to set up them deals so far, it’s so yeah, you know, it’s good. I quite like the balance to be honest. Yeah, within the portfolio because especially, especially some of the properties that we take on, especially now you know, it’s getting, it’s getting a lot more competitive out there as well, it’s good to take on something a little bit less risk, because you don’t know exactly how it’s gonna go. And we also do shorter term contracts with the with the, with the landlord as well. So, it’s almost like testing it.
Yeah, testing maybe on like that how short those contracts. So we’d usually doing free month 299 A period, because it’s, it’s not worth it done any less than that, really, because you’re just never gonna find out your first month, always a bit slower, because you’re just starting to generate, generate a few bookings. And you’re new. Yeah. And then sort of by month, so it starts picking up. And by month three, you’re sort of in a position where you’ve got a few reviews, and that’s where you’re at. So the month three really tells you what and then also you’ve got you’ve got data to go to the landlord and say, hey, look, this is really worked. Yeah. Why don’t we carry on? And then really scale it? So no risk? The no risk property strategy? Obviously, you’ve got to put in some work. Yeah. You said that you’ll make slightly less on these types of deals? Yeah, on average, on a Managed Property deal? How much would you say you’re making? Roughly?
We’re looking at probably about six to 700 pounds? On a managed deal. Yeah. When? Yeah. Because because they’re a bit closer to London, it generates a bit more income than then the properties that we have further outside of London. So yeah, so the sort of margins to see the margins that you’re you’re earning on is a little bit higher?
Well, you know, you get someone listening to this now adopts this strategy, and gets 10 of those up and running in the next 12 months, you know, that’s an income of say, you know, tent, a tent, you know, you’re looking at over 6000 pounds a month, net profit. You know, most people don’t earn that in a year or two or three years, you know, the average salary is what 30k, in the UK, something like that now, and then you can really start to do what you want, when you want with who you want. So what would you say has been one or two of the challenges that you’ve faced? And how have we helped you overcome that working in the mentoring program?
So I’d say the first one, I’d say is mindset. Only because like I said, I was, you know, I went to school, went to university went in the job, like I was literally conditioned by society, as most people are to, you know, work for someone or be a slave to that sort of line of work. So obviously, coming out of that, I knew I didn’t want to do that, I knew I wanted to come out of that. But what you find is, it takes a bit of time for the actual mind, like you’re so engrained into doing that, for so long, that it it takes a bit of time for you, for you to actually convince yourself that, that this is this is, you know, there’s a better way to do things, you know. And also, it’s just quite difficult. So I’ve never run a business for never done anything like that. So there’s that whole, there’s that whole trainers training side, first start start it, and then also start to scale the business. And yes, it’s different, it’s different. It’s different type of workload, and, you know, everything’s reliant on you, everything comes back to you like, it’s not going to go and right, it’s your fault. But you have to deal with absolutely everything to begin with. Whereas, you know, when you’re in a job, it is a bit safer, but, but yeah, less reward and, you know, less challenging.
So, the bottom line is entrepreneurship is probably not for everyone. You know, there are always ups and downs, and it can be a lonely place from time to time. And this is one of the reasons why I, you know, created the community assets for life. I invest heavily every year, 60 70,000 pounds into training, mentorship, going off on a retreats and traveling the world and hanging out with high level business owners. Based on the experience you’ve had with us over the last two and a half years. Would you recommend my mentoring program property advanced training to people? And if so, what why would you recommend it? Yeah, for sure. I think with any any, you know, journey, there’s work done on if you don’t have the knowledge base, or the skill set to do it, you’re not gonna get anywhere at all. So, so yeah, 100% I’d recommend some training or mentoring program. And obviously, I’m with you, so I’m happy to do so. So yeah, I definitely recommend it. And you know, you get all the guidance that you need to get all the shortcuts that you need. And yeah, there’s always someone on hand to answer questions, if if you need so yes, well, no. Well, I appreciate your business. And we’ve had we’ve had a good two and a half years together. I’m pretty sure we’ve got many, many years ahead. You’ve been on some of our fantastic retreats over in Marbella level one, level two. You’re coming out a little bit later this year, to do the next retreat. Yeah, you know, those retreats are for me absolutely game changing incredible. You get to reset and beat be off the grid for sure. So how does life look now, compared to how it looked two years ago?
What’s been some of the biggest positive changes that you’ve seen in yourself as a professional as an individual, but maybe also in the relationships that you have with other people as well? Yeah, so main difference is, I was sort of working five days a week nine to five. So I’ve not completely given up that side of job yet, because I don’t like taking money out of business cuz I want to keep reinvesting it and grow in the business. I do still work two days a week there. But it’s not, it’s nice to go day to day split with different scenery, like it gets a bit busy, sometimes don’t get me wrong, but that also pays pays my bills. So so that means I don’t have to constantly take money out the business. So So yeah, so like I said, this has definitely given me it’s definitely allowed me to cut down, cut down my hours of work.
When he was able to do that. How did that how did how, and we’ll get back to the rest of the conversation. But when when you actually said well, I don’t have to work five days anymore. I can work to
graduate wasn’t five to two is it? Well was five to three, and now it’s down to two. So yeah, it was ah, but it was a great feeling great feeling to know that I don’t have to, I have to turn up somewhere five days a week. And then which then led me to work in all my evenings on the weekends, whereas now, now I can have full days just purely concentrating on on, on my future, really, so. So yeah, that was definitely game changing. And that was definitely the target. That was definitely my first target. When I first I had to start cutting down him hours at work. So do you find it hard to motivate yourself? Sometimes. If you’re used to be in a, I’m not saying this, in general terms, if you’re used to being a robot being told what to do, when to do how to do it, even now, two years into your entrepreneurial journey, that will still have its own challenges, even though it’s a lot of fun, and you get to do what you want. But those days where you’re not working? Do you find yourself sometimes lacking in motivation? And what do you do to overcome that? Like I say that this, you said being an entrepreneur is like a journey. And there’s ups and downs, like so you just got to be sort of ready for that. And when you’re stepping into obviously, you can’t always prepare for these situations. But yeah, sometimes sometimes you definitely like, motivation is lacking. And you’re wondering if this is the right thing, or obviously, this is the right strategy and stuff. But But yeah, like what I’ve found time is because it comes in peaks and troughs like that, that period will be over, you’d be back in a motivated state again, at some point. So for me, I just try and stay, try and stay focused, try and keep my keep my keep a vision on the picture. You know what I mean? Yeah, and yeah, and you just get through 10 times as good. That’s, really, really, really good advice there. So if I said to you today, I will double the salary that you used to be on as an engineer, and you got to come back full time starting tomorrow. Would you take that? Or would you carry on doing what you’re doing? No.
Take that? No, because I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m not making that money at the minute in the business. But the potential for where we’re at where we’re going is is way, way in excess of that. And like there’s not just like I do, I am working on this strategy in a minute. I think it will be a long term thing for me, but I’ll definitely be looking at going into other strategies where you’d be making a bit more income. And you’re like I said, at the beginning, my whole aim was to get into development. So the trajectory is definitely still to go there. So yeah, so and, you know, I’ve got the right community around me and stuff. So I know I’ll get there. Eventually. It’s just, you just got to keep on plugging away and keep on making the right decisions. What to share with the amazing assets for life audience, the Liam Jay Ryan audience, what would be some really big tips that you could share with people that have maybe not started the journey yet? Or perhaps they’re on the journey, but they’re finding it a bit difficult? What would be some of your words of wisdom that you’d like to share?
So if you’ve not started yet, I mean, definitely the action taking part of it is okay, which is like, for me at the time. I remember when I first went to that bootcamp, I knew I wanted to do it, but I hadn’t really started I was still starting my own little development thing, but I knew I needed some training. I knew I needed to do this and it was, it was yeah, it was that just sort of getting started. I just knew I needed to get started how when, what wherever, which is why when your calls came along, and you were offering what you’re offering, it was just like, right, I’ve just I’ve just got to take the action. So Oh, that definitely. Yeah. And as the journey goes along, you sort of as the journey goes, you develop and light you sort of you learning new things. I’ve done a number of your courses now as well on different strategies. And I’m now really figuring out what my next steps are and what I want to do. So it’s definitely, definitely getting the training and all the different strategies and then figuring out once you once you’ve got start is then figuring out what, what is what’s more, best for you to follow one, but what you’re a bit more passionate about are all the different strategies. So yeah, so I’d say first is action get started. And second is sort of, you know, getting on his diet and figure out what continued, yeah, continue education, figure out, what is the strategy that’s going to, that’s going to, you know, keep you motivated is going to keep you going and then sort of down periods, and what’s gonna keep you a bit more passionate about.
So let’s just sort of start to summarize now, because it’s been an incredible, incredible session. How does your vision look for the next two years? Yeah, you want nine units? Yeah. Are your scaling? Uh, yeah, a different strategy, I think I’ll be the pivot into a different strategy. So I’m still going to keep this one going. For sure. I’ve just, I’ve just started employing people into this business now. So so I will be looking. So my main aim at the Ministers get off the actual general management of the property is dealing with the guests dealing with this and only really deal with more high level stuff, taking on new units, the financial side of things. And then yeah, I’m going to veer off and start looking at another strategy. Now. I still one more of your boot camps to do with development. And have it done. I’ve done a deal packaging isn’t really like that. I’ve done the sales bootcamp as well. So like, sort of a dummy on that as well. Yeah, I don’t think that’s quite my bag. But yeah, I really, I really liked them, I really liked the deal packaging, and I think that might be a good lead into the development, start finding them deals, selling them on etc. And not
just that, once you have a really good understanding of how to package deals, yeah, you can find these managed deals, and then sell them for five or six grand and manage deal perhaps, something for you. What I like the sound of is that you are now actively looking to remove yourself from the business work on the business, not in the business. It’s fantastic that you’re employing a member of staff to take away and do the low hanging fruit. You know, I remember my first member of staff building assets for life, you know, nearly eight years ago, and and now we’ve got over 42 of them, right so that you can only grow in proportion to the number of staff that you have around you. So hiring staff is really, really important in in my view, you’re looking to build multiple streams of income. If you could summarize your journey with me as one of your mentors and the assets for life, you know, everyone we have in the community?
How would you summarize your experience over the last two and a half years? It’s been ups and downs. Great. But yeah, it’s community, I think I think what you’ve built is you’ve got a great community, there’s, there’s always, there’s always some sort of webinar or inner circle day or even just a member’s day or something where you can go to you can, you can do a bit of training, and you can do a bit a network, and you can keep in touch with everyone. We’ve also got all the WhatsApp groups and things where we can ask questions. Yeah, so I mean, yeah, the summer has been difficult. But like I said, you got the community there. You grow through ups and downs. And, and yeah, but I mean, I look back on it, and I don’t regret anything I’ve done and it’s just part and parcel.
That’s part and parcel of being an entrepreneur and a property investor, there’s going to be times when it’s difficult, you know, there’s going to be ups and downs, there’s going to be the problem with a tenant or a guest or a landlord or a business partner, or you lose motivation. But, you know, what I’d like to say to your lover is that you’ve stayed in the process with us, you’ve turned up, you’ve had some moments where you’ve disappeared for a month or two. But you know what, you’ve stayed in the process. You’ve invested in yourself, you get to our retreats, you turn up, you’ve made great relationships in the community. I feel really positive about the next two and a half years working with me and the rest of the assets for Life team. So massive Congratulations. Well done. Thanks for coming in today and sharing your journey with our amazing audience members. Wow, absolutely incredible. You know, there you have it. Oliver just been an absolute pleasure to see his journey over the last two and a half years, even though there has been times of difficulty and ups and downs. But if you want to change your life, if you are sick and tired of where you are now working too many hours, not spending time with the family Hey, I’ve got a message for you stop moaning about it and get up and do something about it. This is what Oliver is done, do something different in order to get something different. Hey, my name is Liam Jay Ryan, host of the dealmaker podcast. I love business love property, love entrepreneurship. If I can do it, you can do it. And I’ll see you in the next episode.
You’re listening to the dealmaker podcast, hosted by multimillionaire property investor, entrepreneur, and Guinness World Record holder Liam Ryan, discover how to start scale and grow your business become a better negotiator create more opportunity and to make massive profit so you can live the life of your dreams.
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