Transcription
Hi, I'm Fi. It took me 18 months to say confidently, "I am a property investor."
Over the last four weeks, I have completed on four BRR deals. When you first go to view a house, has it got a nice door? That's a plus, right? I have got ADHD. I see things differently. So therefore, I do things differently. You can buy more than one house on one mortgage. That's what I do.
I had £65,000 debt. I was just saying, "God, can you help me find the English version of Robert Kiyosaki?"
"Hi, Greg. Come to fetch the keys for Angley."
"Oh, hi Ree. Thank you. That was quick, wasn't it?"
"Nice chocolates. You say thank you."
"Thank you."
"A thank you so much. What day was the offer accepted?"
"31st of July."
"4 months."
"Yeah."
"That's the quickest I've done it. Okay. Well, anything else on the market? You know where I am. Gone."
"We might actually."
"Okay."
"It is a refurb, but the gentleman's not living around here anymore."
"Okay. How much?"
"He's got it on a 60, 65."
"Okay. Put me in. How do you do it?"
"You go like that."
"I don't know."
"Sorry, my hands are cold."
"It's freezing here."
"Thank you. Thanks."
"Exactly. Thanks for that. See you. Bye."
"Bye."
I was my local home organizer from my local Jewish community in Salford. Then I noticed I kept on seeing that all my clients had ADHD symptoms and they were all begging me for time management help, and I didn't know how to help them. I trained to become an ADHD coach with the best ADHD coaching school at the time, Adco. So over the next few years, I slowly lessened my home organizing work and I turned it into books. I wrote two books on the topic and I started to churn out all my courses about how to part with your clutter the ADHD way. And over the next 10 years, I deep dived into the coaching.
"I know. I know. It's my my nightmare. All these keys. Oh my gosh. Hold on. Townly street. I want the other one. They're all the same. Boring. All the same. Too many keys. Too much stuff."
So, when you first go to view a house, has it got a nice door? That's a plus, right? This is the house that we fetched the keys from before. Why did I put an offer on this? Because I had just put an offer on another house that needed a lot of work doing, and I was a bit fed up and I thought, "More work." And I had a goal to buy five properties by the end of the year. I don't like to buy a house where there's loads of other people putting in offers and the whole pressure and the whole bidding war. There was no one else putting an offer for this one. I said, "You know what, this is the best that I have today. Let me see what I can do."
Whenever I go to view a property, I take my damp meter with. And if the damp meter reads very low or zero, I think straight away, "I think this could be a goer," 'cause Burnley, the houses are notorious for damp. So this kitchen is just a nice large eating kitchen. The carcass is good. I might just change all the doors. Put a cooker here, like an induction hob here, and then you've got your eating there. And then I would put some form of door on that little space behind for the cleaning cupboard. Fridge. Maybe that would be for the fridge.
I first started off three years ago. Um, I had £65,000 debt and I was still paying it back. That happened because of COVID. I've got five children. They were all at home on on my head, and we had to create more space for them. So we ended up doing more and more and more and more and more work until we had used up all our savings and £65,000 in debt. I did some money mindset courses, learning about how to increase your financial means, but first do it in there. And then I bought the book from um Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad. Loved it. I was just saying, "God, can you help me find the English version of Robert Kiyosaki?"
That same night, I went onto my computer. I don't know what I typed. Can't remember. But Samuel Leeds popped up. Said, "This is interesting." And I said, "God, this is too quick. What's the catch?" So I did a deep dive, deep dive research for two weeks, and there was no catch. It was just better and better. Can buy more than one house on one mortgage. That's what I do. So when I get one offer accepted, I say, "Right, come on now. Let me just, you know, scoot around and find a second one pronto quickly." And I'll be honest with you, I'm not that bothered if they're like all money out of deals and all that, because every deal is going to be a good deal one day. I make sure that I don't buy houses that are real, real doo-ups. And also, you can see from these streets, the houses are all the same style. You just rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. So that's why I can say I was able to um complete on four houses in four weeks.
This house I saw was for sale, and I parked up and I saw in Rightmove it was a bit more than what I would pay. And as Samuel Leeds says, "When you book a property viewing, it's a chance to meet the agent." I thought, "You know what, let me go and meet them." And that day when I went to view the house the first time, my daughter was in labor. She was having her baby. So she had just called me to say, "Mom, I think it's starting." So I felt like it's a very, uh, how should I put it now? Special day, you know, there's like good things happening in the day. So I went in and it looked really good, and it's much bigger than any of my other properties. And I did my homework. So of course, I made a much more cheeky offer, and we went up and up and down and down, and we worked out the price, and within two hours I had the offer accepted.
I want this to be a five-bed HMO of some sort. Either HMO, social housing, it can also be an Airbnb. It's just outside Article 4. It's next to the hotel. Really good spot. I don't yet know what I'm going to use it for. Let's just get it over the line. An HMO is a house of multiple occupation. Many people choose not to live in a flat or a house by themselves. They choose to rent a room in a shared house. Burnley, there are areas where you can't do HMO, and it's called Article 4. And this spot is just outside Article 4. This house I could rent out if I do it up nicely. Pushing it 900. I don't think I'd get 900, 800, 750. Whereas for an HMO, for one room, I could get £495 * 5 easily. I could get much more per month.
The bedroom. A bit, a bit of a funny shape because they made the stairs to the loft cutting into this room. So what I would do is we're going to move the stairs. So here's a really strange room. It's um, not going to pass HMO regs. So we'll move these stairs over here. Simple like that. And here I could make two singles or one big double. I could, if I really want to, I could do an en-suite in all of them, but it's not necessary. Again, cash flow wise, is it worth it or not? So we don't make our decisions based on a feeling. We do it based on the numbers. Very important.
It was on sale for 130. I bought it for 102,500. That's 21% below market value. So it's my first larger one. And now that I'm doing this one, you know what? I don't think I'm going to go back to the small ones again. But the small ones were good. They were very good practice and they got me to where I am now.
My boys and me were hooked every night watching Samuel Leeds. And then I went to his one-pound crash course. After that, I signed up. But there was a massive block in my head. "What am I doing here?" After about a year, I said, "So, I think I need to get a little BR 'cause that's how I'm going to learn it." 'Cause if I have ADHD, I learn by doing. I don't learn by learning. I learn by doing. The cheapest place is Burnley. But there was a problem. Burnley is on a motorway. And I never drove on motorways. Terrified, really, really scared. Well, the first few times I drove to Burnley on the back streets. Took me like one and a half hours. And after a while, I realized this is probably more dangerous than if you drive on a motorway. The first few times I was so terrified, I said, "You know what, if anything happens to me and I don't get home in one piece or there in one piece, doesn't matter. Because on my tombstone they will write, 'Here lies Fearless Fi, who pushed through every fear that she had.'" And then something very funny happens when you push through your fears. On the other side, there's no fear. Now I'll go to Burnley three, three times in one day.
So this is my up and running Airbnb. My very first one. And I can't wait to show you around. It was such a mess. I bought it with a tenant in, and when she left, she left two and a half skip loads of rubbish. The walls were yellow from the smoke. The kitchen was so bad, you put your hand on the counter and it sliced it through. And I realized only after I'd done the kitchen, you don't need such a big kitchen, so many cupboards for an for Airbnb. The refurb was about 15 grand, and it was valued at 75. What a question. The whole refurb process for this property took me one year. Or would I do things different? No, not really. I learned the lessons that I have to learn through that process.
This is the garden, and it was in such a state, you don't even know. Just a little lick of paint and cheap grass from B&M, table and chairs makes such a difference. And a brand new bin. Of course, this house is almost fully booked from August, and now we're in December. And people here book the last minute. I noticed that I had to put the price down, then people will book. So it even works if it's for £65 a night. So that's what I'm doing, 65. And then I'm slowly inching my way up to 80 over the next few months. The profit that I'm making per month easily is 1,200. My goal is 1,800. So it's a really good deal for a tiny house that cost me 52,500.
Long-term goal, financial freedom for myself and my family. My family comes from Hungary and Romania, and during the Holocaust, a lot of my family members were killed. My aunt, my great-grandparents owned property in Hungary, and all the property was taken away from them. So that's also fueling my drive that I, I don't know what the future holds. However, I'm doing my best to create financial wealth for myself and my family.
We're going to visit Fatima from the agency around the corner. I was in this area about a year ago. I just went around the street looking at the houses, and there was a house for sale, and I called the agent, and they said, "Yeah, we're just around the corner. We'll come and meet you." The guy said to me, "You're the only one." And I, and I knew exactly what he meant. I said, "Yep." And I'm the only female Jewish investor in my area in Salford. Then I um popped into the agency and I met him again, and the lady who runs it, Fatima. I messaged um Fatima yesterday, and I told her that I won an award last week for the Relentless Achievement Award, and she was so excited for me, and she then sent me a whole bunch of deals. So we're going to meet her.
"Hi, Fatima."
"Hi. How are you, baby?"
"A thank you. So nice to see you. I like those um two deals that that that you sent me. So you let me know when I can view them."
"I'm going to get you the key code on one. The other one that Preston, they're going to post me the keys. So I'll get that to you."
"Brilliant. I went down for the dinner."
"Yeah. He thought, you know how Samuel is, he he like does the intro and you have to guess who he's going to. And he says, well, this person when they first joined, didn't think they would really succeed. And then this person when they joined, they kept on booking mentor calls the whole time."
"Okay."
"And then people started to look at me. Everyone knows I'm the mentor queen. And then he says, 'And they have done so well despite the severe ADHD.' Well, then I've got ADHD. Everyone knows. I'm like, 'You're an absolute inspiration. We'd love to hear a few words from you.'"
"Okay. I've pushed through impossible challenges, and I'm here. If I can do it, so can all of you. Woo."
"Remember that first time we met? You told me all about that. So I completely I remember."
So then, yeah, I won the award, the Relentless Achievement Award. Women do business in our own unique way. We do business that we build relationships first, and we nurture it, and it takes time. And I'm not so focused on the end goal, more on building connection. Usually lately, whenever I go on Rightmove, I say, "Why did I waste an hour on Rightmove? I can just call an agent and they'll give me deals." So that's what I'm doing.
Here is the lesson. You know, when you're successful, when two things happen. First one is people start to ask you, "How did you finance these deals?" And you can't quite answer it because it's hard to answer it because it just happens as you go along. But the main thing that you know that you've reached a success point is when people hear a story and they hear the um struggles that you had, but they don't hear it. All they tell you back is, "Wow, it's really was really easy for you. Oh, oh, it's it's it's all right for you." Then I know I've reached success. And most people want the actual results, but they don't want to work so hard.
My goal is to be in the Samuel Leeds Academy for life because the value that I have gotten so far is just off the charts. It's not just a place where you learn about properties. It's a whole lifestyle change, and you meet the most amazing people. All of my friends now are from the academy.