Businessman Corey Rees says he makes around £10,000 from property every month which is virtually what he paid to sign up to the year-long Samuel Leeds Academy programme. In fact, Corey calculates that he has made back his investment tenfold. His favourite strategy is buy, refurbish, refinance, rent because it allows him to reinvest his money. He has also sold 22 deals and has a rent-to-serviced accommodation portfolio to bring in quick cash.
‘I like real estate because it’s so passive’
There was a time when Corey was trapped in a negative mindset. As he puts it: “I didn’t have a lot of money. I used to look at my life [and think] oh my life is sh*t.
“My life was amazing then, but I just looked at it the wrong way. I was looking for the negative stuff.”
Now, he says, his life just seems to get better and better every day, thanks to his income from property and an online coaching business training people how to get fit and healthy.
“A lot of entrepreneurs come to me when they want to get in the best shape. It’s good but you have to be constantly working on the business. I like real estate more because it’s so passive,” explains Corey.
Being a property entrepreneur is now his main occupation. It suits his personality as well. He has tried many times to work a ‘nine to five’ but knew it wasn’t for him. It made sense to him to buy a house and see it go up in value while also deriving an income from it.
“My favourite property investment strategy is buying a property with cash, fixing it up and then pulling all my money out because you can keep recycling it.
“So, rather than putting your money in and it being stuck [there] for five to ten years, sometimes even longer, you can grow your portfolio faster.
“There’s nothing that makes me happier than being like, I have got ten houses, but I’ve still got the same amount of cash that I started with or more.”
His most recent project was a house in Swansea which he bought before it went to auction. Someone had previously purchased it for £120,000 but as it was next to a Chinese takeaway the mortgage company would not lend against it, and the buyer pulled out of the sale.
As a result, the seller put up the house for auction. An estate agent with whom Corey had a relationship tipped him off and he made an offer before it went under the hammer.
“I said if you want to get this wrapped up quick, I’ll give you the cash now and let’s not let it even go to auction. What you don’t want is for it to go to auction and fail at auction. So, let me take the risk on it. I’ll take it on and find somebody to mortgage it.
“All in all, with the fees included, I bought it for £85,000. I just remortgaged it now and it came back as £120,000 something. I managed to pull £86,000 out.”
He adds: “Because I’ve got such good connections with estate agents, they show me a lot of the good deals which makes it really easy for me to come in and offer.”
The only drawback to the BRRR strategy is that the investor has to wait six months before being allowed to take a new mortgage out on a property. Corey is now looking at taking out bridging finance to enable him to take on more deals.
The businessman has also been focusing on the rent-to-serviced accommodation method to give him a ‘fast pound.’ He makes around £4,000 a month ‘easy’ from four rent-to-rent properties.
“If you add everything up, I’m making around £10,000 a month now. That’s almost my academy membership each month.”
‘I got all my money out, plus £10,000’
Corey completed his first BRR venture in 2020. Like all the other properties, which he owns, it was in Swansea.
He found the deal at Samuel Leeds’ £1 crash course. “I paid £60,000 for it. It’s a cottage. I put some tenants in. Then I went to Canada and worked out there as a PT (personal trainer) for a bit.”
After six months he had it valued and was stunned when told it was worth double what he had paid for it – even without doing any work on the property.
“It didn’t need much work doing on it. I was going to leave it until the end but because I wasn’t there I thought let’s just get someone in and see how much it’s worth. I couldn’t believe it. They said its worth £120,000. We’ll give you £80,000 with no refurb.”
The entrepreneur admits he got lucky, adding: “I got all my money out and £10,000 back. I make £200 or £300 off that house now [per month]. They pay £620. They’re DSS tenants.”
Corey was sceptical at first about investing in property training. Before attending the crash course, he had attended another free event. He took lots of notes but did nothing with the information.
Then a year later he went to the crash course and subsequently enrolled on the Buy, Refurbish, Refinance course.
Corey was impressed with the training and embarked on buying and doing up houses. However, despite clearly seeing that the strategy worked, his doubts remained.
This became apparent when he met up with some old friends. Corey had worked with Gavin and Mitch Vaughan years ago in Australia and they had kept in touch. When the identical twins returned to the UK, Corey told them he had been to the BRR course.
He recommended it but warned them to be careful. “I said at the end of it they’re going to try to get you in to something where it’s really expensive. I was still very wary. I’m looking for the catch.”
When he saw them again, the twins informed him they had just paid £12,000 to join the academy after taking the BRR course.
Corey couldn’t believe what they had done, especially when he had told them to be cautious.
“I said you haven’t got any money. They were like yes but what we’re doing to do is rent-to- rent. I didn’t even know what rent-to-rent was at the time. I was like that doesn’t sound legit.
“At the same time, I was congratulating them because I was thinking they’ve taken the plunge and really gone for it.”
Corey wondered whether he should have signed on to the academy but was about to leave for Canada and so took no action.
The night before he was due to fly out, he stayed with Gavin and Mitch at their house. Corey says he will never forget it.
“They were on the phone to someone and saying we’ve got an investor. He’s going to pay £3,000 for a deal. I nearly spat my water out. I was like £3,000. You’re having a laugh.”
Corey was listening in as the pair confirmed the deal. Still, he doubted that it was possible.
“I said he’s probably not going to pay but they were so confident he would. Five minutes later lo and behold they had £3,000 in the bank account. I couldn’t believe it.”
Corey says he realised then that he had made a mistake but was committed to going to Canada.
Three months later he was watching YouTube when he saw Mitch and Gavin being interviewed by Samuel for his Winners on a Wednesday series.
“The minute I see it I get a phone call. It’s Mitch. I’m like what’s this, you’re making £30,000 a month. [He says} Oh yeah, we made £40,000 last month. We make more now. That was filmed a while back.
“That’s when I knew I should have just gone all in.”
Corey immediately booked himself onto a flight back to the UK and then became an academy member.
In hindsight, he says he was guilty of being negative and ‘thinking small’ because if he had acted sooner, he would have got his money back anyway.
“You get what you put in. Even though I did this big BRR and I was over the moon with it, Gav and Mitch were able to have more success than me because they went they went all in. They weren’t thinking negatively. They were thinking worst-case scenario it doesn’t work out.”
‘We all want each other to win’
Corey believes that coming from a tight-knit community in Wales had something to do with his initial reluctance to invest fully in his property education.
“With money you’ve got to be willing to let it go in order to receive it back in abundance.”
He needed real-life examples like Gavin and Mitch to persuade him that he too could be successful in the industry. They worked together in Australia for two years in a sales job.
“I was the number one salesperson in the whole of Australia selling what I was selling. I sold 80 in one week and did 30 sales in one day. So, I know all the strategies. As soon as I hear somebody trying to use them on me, I clam up. Now I appreciate a good sales pitch.
“There’s nothing wrong with trying to sell something to someone as long as you have genuine intent that it’s the right thing for them.”
His sales experience has stood him in good stead when it comes to selling property deals.
“I’ve done a lot of co-sourcing. I’m a people person. I like building relationships and adding value. I get a lot of people bringing me deals then.
“They say can you find me an investor and I say I know just the guy. I’ve sold 22 deals now.”
The co-sourcer sells the deal to an investor and they then split the fee. Normally this is £3,000.
The academy offers great value, he says, not just in terms of the coaching and mentoring, but also the network which students can tap into.
“The only way to get the most out of it is by networking, asking people’s opinions and building relationships because you never know when that person is going to change your life.
“It’s not just about having Samuel on the team. It’s about everyone else. Everybody has reached that point in their life where they’re willing to hand over £12,000 for training. So, they are all like-minded people. Instead of spending your time with the naysayers you are now with people who are winning and really want to win. We all want each other to win.”
Corey has invested in mentorship for his mindset, as well as reading personal development books such as Ask and It is Given by Jerry and Esther Hicks and Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.
From being a pessimist, these days he has a much more positive outlook on life as a result. The name of his company, MindandMuscle, reflects the importance he attaches to this.
“Now I feel if I was to lose everything tomorrow my reaction to it would still be thank you because life is a blessing. It’s amazing and it only comes around once, so I say stop looking for the bad stuff.”
Corey’s tips
- Consider investing in mentorship for your mindset.
- You can look at anything negatively and think, if it’s property, they’re never going to make any money by doing that. Be more open minded and give it a try.
Samuel Leeds verdict
“When I was 18 I turned my car into a mini university and listened to lots of personal development CDs. That changed the way I thought and my perspective on life. The key skills to be able to be successful in property are important but you need the right mindset to go along with it. You have to be committed. I’m really inspired by Corey’s story and wish him all the best moving forward.”
