Photographer Jagmeet Khalsa bought a house and in the time-honoured way rented it out to a tenant. Then he signed up to Samuel Leeds’ academy and turned it into serviced accommodation. Now the Wolverhampton-based entrepreneur is making eight times as much money as he was before and has five SAs, making him financially free.
‘Joining the academy changed everything’
Before becoming a member of the academy Jag, as he is known, had limited experience of property. He and his wife bought a house for £150,000 in 2013. Then they moved back in with their parents and rented it out.
It made a small profit, but his main source of income was as a self-employed wedding photographer. He still makes money from that and has done for the past ten years.
What has changed radically is the way he runs both his property and photography business.
It all began when Jag attended one of Samuel Leeds’ crash courses. The father-of-two admits he was reluctant at first. “I thought is Samuel really going to teach us how to become property investors. I paid for the £1 ticket, but I wasn’t going to turn up.”
He changed his mind when he saw that the tickets were sold out. Concluding that it must be a good event, he came along and sat on the front row.
Jag was impressed straightaway. “I just thought I need to do this. I’ve got to try something different. I've been working what feels like a full-time job for ten years. Even though it was my own business, I was just working in it.”
Nevertheless, he still needed a push. It was his wife who encouraged him to enrol on the academy. That decision was a pivotal moment for Jag who had always wanted to own property.
“That was my thing really. I thought I had to save up for a deposit – the traditional method – but joining the academy just changed everything for me.”
Contractors snap up Jag’s accommodation
Coming from Wolverhampton, Jag had doubts about whether renting out his first house for short stay lets was feasible. He couldn’t see holidaymakers coming to stay there.
“In my head I'm thinking: is this going to work? I'm from Wolverhampton. You have this kind of bias about where you're from and it's so difficult to get past that.”
However, after speaking to an academy mentor and a few others he was persuaded to give it a try.
“They were like, listen you own the property. What's the worst case? No one’s going to stay there. Just put it back on as an AST (assured shorthold tenancy). I thought you’re right.”
The property required some renovation and new carpets and furniture. So, Jag spent a couple of months doing it up. He painted it himself, put in new lights and got someone in to skim the walls.
“By November (2023) it was ready. Then I put it on Airbnb and booking.com It's been amazing since,” says Jag who still can’t believe how much money he is making simply by switching strategies.
“I started getting bookings and then I started learning about the type of people who are coming to Wolverhampton. That opened the floodgates. I was getting mainly contractors – occasionally relocating families – but mainly contractors now.”
They work for firms like Jaguar and Land Rover, as well as construction companies. Some are engineers carrying out servicing jobs for local breweries.
“They’ll fly in from Germany to work for a couple of months. I never knew that market existed,” Jag adds.
On the house, which he bought for £150,000, the profit has rocketed. “I get £2,800 per month. The profit is £1,600.” As a bonus, the house is also now valued at £200,000.
When there was a tenant, the turnover was £900 a month, leaving Jag with a profit of just £200 by the time he had paid his mortgage and other expenses. Now a family from the Middle East is renting it.
“They’re applying for residency in the UK. They can’t rent, so they need an Airbnb,” he explains.
Jag has an excluded licence agreement in place which means they are guests rather than tenants. Failure to pay the rent would give him the right to evict them immediately, in the same way that a hotel would ask a guest to leave if they didn’t pay for their room.
Jag’s guests have been there since March and have agreed to stay until December. “Then they’ll see where their residency is – if the application has gone through. It takes a long time.”
He took on a second property because the first one was full and then another one.
“The three that I’ve got make me about £3,000 a month.”
A joint venture partner put in the money for the other two rentals and will get paid back first. The profit on those properties is about £1,500 to £2,000 per month.
On top of that he has secured £1,200 worth of bookings from long-term contractors.
He obtained two of his rentals by approaching the landlords directly through OpenRent, explaining what he wanted to do with the properties.
That was no easy task. “It's difficult to even get through to them on OpenRent because they don't want to get on the phone. They just want everything to be messaging,” Jag says.
He had to weather lots of rejections, but being educated and having the support of the academy were crucial in overcoming those setbacks. He knew, for example, how to advertise an Airbnb, systemise it and synchronise calendars. And he had a vision.
For his third property, he dealt with an agent. “They were a bit reluctant at first because they wanted to know what my vision was. That’s why it's important to know who your customer is and what and why you’re doing it.
“You've got to have a vision and identify a problem that you're trying to solve. Because I've done weddings for the past ten years I travel quite a lot and so I use that same story with the agent. When you are taking equipment with you, you want somewhere secure to park. You don’t want to go to a hotel. You want your own kitchen.”
The mentoring on the academy was ‘fundamental’ in enabling him to craft his story and script when speaking to agents.
In May 2023, Jag attended a Mastermind session conducted by Samuel Leeds’ mother, Sue Gray, a successful property entrepreneur in her own right.
“It was on May 22. I remember the date because that Mastermind was brilliant. Sue went through crafting a story and where to start from. That was really useful.”
Everyone has a different story, based on their circumstances, which they can use to explain their vision, he points out.
Jag also used the one-on-one mentoring and took advantage of the power team available to academy members, which includes lawyers. Students also have access to mortgage brokers and accountants.
“At the beginning I was booking so many calls. It was good to pick up the phone because doing it on your own is difficult and having someone experienced who’s been there before is encouraging.”
His favourite feature on the academy is Rate My Deal, a platform where students can get expert advice on the strength of an investment.
“You'll basically submit all the information about your deal – what condition the property is in, what you know about the area, all your due diligence. Then one of the mentors will look at the deal and give it a rating out of 100.
“They'll identify things that you've probably missed and that's why mentorship is so useful.”
His mentor again was Sue who gave him a rating of 80. He went on to raise about £7,500 to put into his deal.
“I used that as almost a certificate that this is a good deal. It’s been looked at by a mentor.”
Jag breaks the mould to appear on Winners on a Wednesday
As a Sikh, Jag broke the mould when he spoke about becoming a successful property investor for Samuel Leeds’ popular YouTube Winners on a Wednesday series.
In the past he looked up to people within his community who were secretive about how they built their wealth. He says: “In the Sikh community we do share our resources. We have open kitchens and feed people who are struggling. But when it comes to building wealth and sharing that, that’s something we’ve been taught to keep to ourselves which is fair enough.”
Jag had that attitude but hearing how Samuel talked about wealth changed his mind. Jag wanted to inspire others by sharing his success.
Academy meals and Monday night Zoom Mastermind sessions give students further opportunities to highlight their triumphs in a way that is informative.
When Jag went into property, he wanted more freedom. By systemising his two enterprises Jag has achieved that.
He has a team of editors helping him in his wedding photography business which is also thriving. He is making more now money from it than he ever was and doing less than ever.
“Post pandemic I’ve learnt that you can’t do everything yourself. You’ve got to replace yourself in the business wherever you can.”
The entrepreneur has also systemised his property operation which was essential as his portfolio now includes five SAs.
“It got to the point where I was getting a lot of guests reach out about things like the wi-fi password and how to check in. Even though they were getting automated messages on the channel manager for bookings, they would still ring up.
“It was distracting me from finding other property deals because I felt like I was just managing a lot of the time.”
His solution was to sign up to a virtual PA service which deals with frequently asked questions. It allows him to focus on growing his business. As opposed to working in it, he is now working on it.
“That’s something I wanted to do. It’s the same thing with the wedding side of things. I felt I was working in it. I couldn’t do other things and it was too much.”
Having extra time has freed him up to crew at Samuel Leeds Education events. “I love crewing because I want to give back. It is scary at the start of your journey in property, so it’s always good to find people you can relate to.
“I met three people on the advanced training that I was crewing at, and they were just asking me questions I knew I would have asked them previously.”
Jag sums up the academy as all-encompassing in the sense that it offers a place to do business and enjoy social interaction – alongside the training, having someone to turn to in challenging moments and the extra services, such as Rate My Deal and Quote My Refurb.
One of Samuel’s goals is to educate parents like Jag about financial literacy, as well as personal and business development, so that they can pass that knowledge on to their children.
Jag, for example, learnt about good and bad debt and interest only mortgages. “That’s huge. It’s so good to learn everything that Samuel taught us and then to pass it on to my kids as well.”
Jag’s tips
- Delegate your work. Trust the process.
- Know your customer and what you’re trying to do in property.
- It’s not about what you leave your kids. It’s about what you leave in them.
Samuel Leeds verdict
“Jag is not only financially free, he has also received the academy People’s Choice Award. Now he’s systemised his wedding business he spends so much time volunteering to come and help other people. He’s got a massive heart, and I can see that he genuinely cares about the community. I appreciate that so much.
“We love people from all walks of life and religions and it's great to have Jag sharing his story.”
