I bought my first house for £53k when I was a 19-year-old student – I spent my uni loan on carpets, paint & tools
A PROPERTY investor has told how he snapped up his first house for £53k when he was just a 19-year-old with a student loan. James Coupland, 27, splashed his loans on carpets and paint while his pals were spending theirs on booze and takeaways. He explained that he brought his first property with just a […]
A PROPERTY investor has told how he snapped up his first house for £53k when he was just a 19-year-old with a student loan.
James Coupland, 27, splashed his loans on carpets and paint while his pals were spending theirs on booze and takeaways.
He explained that he brought his first property with just a 10 percent deposit of £5,300, but was forced to wait in the “dingy” house for his loan to come in each month before starting work.
He told The Mirror: “I was studying at university when I realised how much money the landlord was making from our student house by charging us all individually to rent a room.
“All my friends were going out and buying Xboxes or new PlayStations while I was buying paint and carpets.”
James from York was studying to become a clinical analyst and spent his two days in university cutting up and examining cadavers.
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The other days were spent on his hands and knees trying to turn his property dreams into a reality – despite the costs gutting his £6,000 of savings.
But astonishingly his gamble paid off big time, and he has since bought another eight properties, all in Goole, East Yorks.
The 27-year-old has snapped them all up for bargain prices ranging from £49,999 and £74,500.
Of the nine properties, he has bought and sold three and currently owns five more which he rents out to multiple occupants.
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Some of those he has since sold on or “flipped” while others he maintains as HMOs (houses with multiple occupants) who pay him rent.
James refuses to say how much he rakes in from his property empire but says it’s enough to make a living from it.
But he says anyone can do it, but it will take time and effort.
He said: “If you’re lucky enough to have some money, you can do it but it’s not a quick fix, it takes time to turn a cheap house into something with a nice standard of living.”
James now runs a massively popular Instagram page that offers handy property tips and tricks to his 70,500 followers.
He even runs his own tutoring courses for those wanting to get into the property game.
His exploits over the last eight years have forced him to become familiar with everything from planning permissions, to government policies and requirements.
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James has even had to brush up on building regulations and other issues hopeful property investors who flock to his page should consider.
As well as setting up his own limited company for his property endeavors, the investor even took on and completed a masters.
