At the age of 16, Kaine Harris has not only survived cancer – he is believed to be the UK’s youngest landlord. As well as renting out serviced accommodation, Kaine sells property deals to investors. His grandmother set him on the path to wealth, taking out a loan for him to join the Samuel Leeds Academy. Three months later he had more than made it back after earning £14,500 in sourcing fees.
‘In school, you’d think I was the worst guy in the world’
Kaine discovered at a young age that he had a gift for making money. When he was at school, he set up an Amazon business and soon found himself in profit.
So pleased was he with his sales figures that he shared them with his head teacher, telling him he had earned more than him that day.
“I remember he said to me, no you haven’t. He hinted at me that he made more than £150 a day.”
At that point the teenager decided to ‘up his game’ and later told him he was on £400 a day!
Whilst his business fired him up, Kaine felt demotivated at school, arriving late at lessons and always trying to leave early.
“I’d wake up knowing I’ve just got school. It was so boring. I could never pay attention in class.
“Now I do something that I enjoy you’ll never get one person saying that Kaine’s a bit childish or a bit loud, but in school you’d think I was the worst guy in the world.”
Only his drama teacher saw the potential in him, telling him he was going to be successful.
It gave him encouragement. “In my head it was, yeah that is what I want people to think about me, especially in school – to actually read me and not just my bad behaviour.”
His online business provided him with a healthy revenue stream and yet he remembers a maths teacher telling him passive income wasn’t real. In his mind, his reaction was ‘not for you.’
The same teacher said he knew a millionaire who was unhappy and always angry and while he could be one himself, if he wanted to be, he enjoyed working.
The underlying message was that money makes you miserable, a view not shared by Kaine
It was during his unhappy spell at school that he was diagnosed with cancer.
“I had a big lump in my neck and everywhere I went, if I was on a bus or a train, people would say you’ve got a lump on your neck. You need to get it checked out.”
Taking the advice, he had it looked at and later had to have the lump removed. When doctors tested it, they found out he had Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.
His school gave him time off and for the next three months he was given chemotherapy to eradicate the cancer. Throughout his treatment, Kaine, who describes himself as a semi-professional boxer, maintained his training regime.
“I wasn’t going to school as much. They would let me have weeks off, but I was always in the gym every day. I’d never really let it affect me or stop me.”
“Normally, when someone gets told they’ve got cancer and goes to chemotherapy they’d be like, ok I’ve got three months to chill and do nothing. But that’s where the depression comes in, and that’s where you start overthinking and treat yourself as a victim.”
As part of his treatment the youngster had to have a portacath inserted into his chest. Kaine thought it was ‘cool’ and exciting.
“I don’t get scared about things, but all my family members were crying. I did say to my family if anyone was going to cope with it well, it’d be me. I’ve got a mindset where nothing really affects me.”
He puts that resilience down to his character and his boxing. “I’ve been boxing for about three years. But I think I’ve just always been like that.”
One day when Kaine was 15 he messaged Samuel Leeds on Instagram, asking for his advice about how he could get some training.
“I was thinking I wanted to change my actual life. I was just selling on Amazon. I was doing better than most people around me, but I wanted to get into property. I wanted to make ten times more than I was making. I was making £800 a month profit.”
The young entrepreneur was surprised when Samuel responded and took it as a sign to pursue his ambition.
“When Samuel replied to me, it was like I need to keep going and I kept coming to the crash courses.”
After finishing his GCSEs and leaving school, Kaine asked his guru if he could enrol on the academy because he wanted to become financially free. Samuel hesitated on two fronts: Kaine had just turned 16 and he couldn’t afford it.
Undeterred, the teenager assured the training advisers his ‘nan’ had authorised it and he joined the year-long training programme after passing a formal interview.
His grandmother supported him, even though she also had her doubts. “My nan was sceptical about me joining the academy. She was like, no, you’re being brainwashed. But my nan loves me. Even if she doesn’t like what I’m doing, if I’m asking her for help, she’ll still help me.”
As Kaine was too young to obtain a loan, she took out one herself to fund the academy. Her trust in him paid off. A week after he became a member, he hit the jackpot.
“I sold a property deal for £4,000 to an investor. I went to view the property. I saw that it was 25 per cent return on investment. If I had had the money, I would have put it into this, but I also know investors by just being at the courses and speaking to people.
“So, I said, well I haven’t got the money. Do you want it? Just give me £4,000 for doing all the numbers and stuff. I’ll help you out with everything and I got £4,000 that night.
“It wasn’t shocking to me because I’d been trying to sell deals for ages. So, when it came into my bank, I was like this works. I then called my mum into the room.”
She was taken aback when he showed her the evidence, asking how he had done it.
“She was thinking I’ve just done something stupid online. ‘[I said] ‘No, no, I’ve sold a deal. I worked for it.”
Investor hands Kaine £1,000 deposit to find a deal
Kaine still lives at home with his mother who takes him to all his property viewings as he cannot drive. He acknowledges that without her he would be unable to carry on sourcing investment opportunities.
The entrepreneur also attends networking events to pitch his deals to potential clients. He finds that a useful way of drumming up business.
“If you go to networking events and meet people eye to eye, you automatically gain respect, especially if you can speak well. You learn how to introduce your character and then get their phone number.”
When Kaine was previously trying to sell deals, he would simply introduce himself while networking as ‘a deal sourcer from Chester.’
“I wasn’t going round speaking to people. I was just sat there waiting for people to speak to me. It wasn’t that I wasn’t confident. It was just that I didn’t really know what to do.”
That changed as he studied the online courses. He began networking ‘like mad’ and now has 60 investors on his contact list.
A fortnight after landing his first sourcing commission, he sold two bespoke deals at a course on acquiring properties through the buy, refurbish, refinance strategy. Another academy member referred one of the investors to him at the course.
“He said, ‘Wait, are you the 16-year-old? I was like, oh no, he’s not going to trust me. But then he said, ‘I rate you. I rate your drive. I heard about your cancer stuff. I’ve been following you on Instagram. Yeah, I rate you actually and I got £1,000 in the bank just sat at the dinner table.”
That was the deposit towards the full sourcing fee as Kaine had not yet found the deal. “He just said here’s £1,000. Go find exactly the deal that I want and then once you find it I’ll give you an extra £2,000.”
The other investor was also interested in him because of his age and liked his drive. Having a good reputation helped him, Kaine points out. His first customer praised him on The Mastermind, a weekly Zoom session where students can get instant feedback. She said Kaine had sold her a ‘brilliant deal’ and that sparked interest from other investors wanting to work with him.
“If I’d sold a bad deal for my first one it would have been a lot harder to sell for my second investor. You’ve got to deliver. I’ve sold five deal sourcing deals [in three months of being on the academy]. That’s £14,500 because one of them was a co-sourced deal with my other co-source partner.”
The amount more than covered the £12,000 academy fee and he picked up lifelong lessons along the way.
‘My goal is to retire my nan’
Alongside packaging and selling deals, Kaine controls a rental property in Wolverhampton. The rent-to-serviced accommodation agreement is in his mother’s name, but he views himself as the landlord. He was involved in doing it up and handles the promotional work to bring in guests.
His time has also been taken up with securing another rent-to-rent near Heathrow Airport in a joint venture.
The plan is to turn the 16-bed property which used to be an HMO into a hotel. The agreed rent is £14,000 a month, leaving a projected monthly profit of around £15,000 to be split with his partner.
“As soon as I finalise this one I could literally retire my nan who loaned me the money for the academy. That’s the goal.”
His 59-year-old grandmother works nine to five on a minimum wage and he is keen to reward her for supporting him at the start of his journey.
Kaine stakes his claim to being the youngest landlord in the country, having researched newspapers and not knowing of anyone else his age renting out accommodation.
Now fully recovered from cancer, he spars every week with Samuel Leeds at his gym and continues to prosper.
Recently, he took one of his friends to the £1 crash course and helped him to earn some money. “He won £300 off the deal I gave to him. But on the way there I was asking him why he wants to go to university.
“He said by the time he’s 22, once he’s finished uni, he wants to be a dentist. I’m like bro, that’s six years’ time. I’m going to be a millionaire by then.”
Kaine’s tips
- If you’ve not had a job yet and you’re still studying, look at other options. Don’t stay on one path because then you’re in your comfort zone.
- Give value to people. Don’t just try to sell to them.
- Go to the crash course and get networking with people.
Samuel Leeds’ verdict
“I know there are a lot of 18-year-olds in property because I’ve trained them, but I’m not aware of any 16-year-olds doing what Kaine does. The way he carries himself and talks and his confidence is incredible. I’m extremely proud of what he’s achieved. He’s making on average £4,000 o £5,000 a month from the deal selling. He packs a pretty big punch as a boxer too.”
