So when Samuel Leeds offered me the opportunity to interview him, it seemed like a great chance to get his view on things. In this interview I will ask Samuel about his opinion on his critics, his top bit of advice, about the future of his company and much more.

Hi Samuel, thank you for agreeing to do this interview! Much appreciated. As a property investor and educator you have inspired so many people to get into property. What inspires you most about property?

The thing that inspires me most about property is that it is bricks and mortar, you can see it and touch it. I love being able to make a living whilst providing homes for people.

You have made hundreds of videos, written books and have put on countless training courses. If you could teach only one lesson to people about property what would it be and why?

If I could teach one lesson about property it would be to invest with your formulas and not your feelings. Property is a business and it is so important to know how to calculate the numbers and not get wrapped up in the emotion of the houses.

Who is your role model in business and what have you learnt from them?

I have many role models in business but one of the most influential mentors in my life was Jim Rohn. I never had the honour of meeting him before he died but have listened to thousands of hours of his seminars and talks.

Can anyone do well in property or are there personality types it is not suited to?

Anybody can do well in property if they really choose to, but the reality is that not everybody will. Becoming successful in anything takes hard work, commitment and patience.

Some people say that ‘no money down’ deals are impossible. Is this true? Can you give some examples of ‘no money down’ deals you have done?

“No Money Down” deals are deals where you personally put none of your own money into the deal. All deals require some money somewhere, but it absolutely doesn’t have to be the buyer.

An example of this would be that when I bought my castle using a combination of bridging finance and other peoples money. I myself didn’t pay a penny to purchase that castle and the profits will pay back the investors and the bridging company. Most of my property transactions have been no money down deals.

You have given out so much advice and information to people freely, there must be very little you haven’t shared before. However, is there any advice that you would like to give people that you haven’t said publicly yet?

I hold very little back when teaching what I know, namely, property investing. I rarely talk about auction properties because I fear encouraging people to bid at an auction and buying a dud property, of which there are many! The rules are very different from buying at auction so I only teach my advanced students usually. If I had to offer a piece of advice I would say make sure you pay for a survey before you bid and never resent the money spent even if you lose the bid.

Clearly, you are passionate about property and education, but if you weren’t doing that what would you do?

If I wasn’t doing property and education I would most likely work full time within the church because I love helping people and my faith is very important to me.

Recently, you have been dealing with a lot of criticism both from social media and mainstream media. You have replied to it all and explained your case. Do you think any of the criticism has been justified? What do you think motivates the criticism?

I don’t try to understand why people say the things they do or even think the way they do. My job is to deliver a top quality service to my customers, provide good accommodation to my tenants and be a good husband and dad to my family. I believe I do a good job of that.

If you could speak to one of your critics face-to-face who would it be and what would you say to them?

I would have very little to say apart from continue to let my actions speak for themselves. Everybody is entitled to their opinion and free to believe what will serve them best in their life. I am not here to convince anybody of anything, but to train those in property that want to be trained.

What are your plans for the future of your business? Anything coming up that you haven’t yet spoken about?

I am very excited about some online software and property tech that we are building. Most recently I have partnered with “Deal Sourcr” which is an app that streamlines the best property deals from the internet and calculates the return on investment automatically.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. Is there anything more you would like to add before I let you get on with your busy day?

Property is the second best investment, the best is yourself. Thanks for the great questions and thank you for your excellent contribution to the property community.

In conclusion…

I very much appreciate Samuel’s willingness to share his time and provide the community with his insights. You can find more info about Samuel Leeds on his website here.

In the future I intend to interview various people in the property industry including deal sourcers, rent to rent experts, property investors, landlords, new arrivals to the property industry and more. If you would like to be interviewed for this blog, please do get in touch with some details about yourself.

Thoughts on Samuel Leeds and Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back.

I should probably start off by saying I have never attended a Samuel Leeds live event or bought his in-person training. I have, however, purchased his online subscription service called Samuel365. It offers weekly group mentoring, 1-to-1 phone mentoring and video courses among other things. Other than being a customer (as described above) I have no connection to Samuel Leeds and this blog post is just my personal opinion.

Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back is entertaining and informative. I think the concept of mixing comedy with consumer protection is a great one. However, perhaps this can sometimes lead to the facts not always being the focus.

In this episode a number of claims were made about Mr Leeds. I will go through them one by one:

#1. Lycett says Samuel Leeds is a ‘get rich quick scammer’.

To claim something is a scam is a serious allegation. It is more than simply saying something is poor quality or that a sales pitch is over hyped. It is a claim that the scheme itself is dishonest, a fraud. It is a claim that requires serious evidence. No evidence is offered anywhere in the broadcast that the training being sold is a scam.

Lycett does not review the content of Leeds paid training. Although Lycett does show negative reviews from some customers, Leeds interviews success students each week on his YouTube channel. Maybe some people find Leeds’ training useful and others don’t, this certainly doesn’t prove that his training is a scam.

There is also no evidence that Samuel Leeds claims you can “get rich quick” with his training. In the videos I have seen, Leeds says it takes time and hard work to make money.

Lycett challenges the accuracy of many of the statements made by Samuel Leeds, but it seems that he isn’t able to evidence his own claims here.

#2. Lycett complains about the sales aspect of the £1 Property Investors Crash Course.

I have heard this criticism before and have never really understood it. If a business regularly rents conference rooms at hotels and pays their staff to be there for 2 days – does anyone really think there isn’t going to be a sales pitch! If you have actually been to an event like this and were surprised that you were being sold to, I have some questions! How did you think the money was going to be raised to host the event? Why did you think a business would pay for this or did you think the £1 booking fee somehow covered the costs?

Now maybe I am being a little flippant about all this! Lycett did talk about pressure sales. He references Regulation 7 of The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. This regulation states that a commercial practice is aggressive if “it significantly impairs or is likely significantly to impair the average consumer’s freedom of choice or conduct in relation to the product concerned through the use of harassment, coercion or undue influence; and it thereby causes or is likely to cause him to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise.”

Lycett does not explain how Leeds’ sales pitch is “likely significantly to impair the average consumer’s freedom of choice or conduct”. He shows footage of people being told to “go to the back of the room and buy”. Is it really Lycett’s claim that such an exultation would prevent the average consumer from choosing not to do so? Does Lycett believe every market trader that says “roll up, roll up and buy this product” is also in breach of the regulations?

It may well be that other aspects of Leeds’ conduct are the basis for the claim that he is in breach of the regulations, but Lycett didn’t elaborate. Lycett’s claim therefore is not evidenced.

#3. Lycett says Leeds sells to people that can’t afford it.

Lycett’s researchers (apparently, although this is not shown on screen) went to the back of the room to speak to the sales people. Lycett says (again, no footage is shown) that they told the salesperson that they don’t have much money, but were still sold to.

Can we apply a little common sense here? If you voluntarily walked up to salespeople telling them you want to buy something; would you really find it shocking if they tried to sell to you?! Is there any situation where a business will tell you not to buy their products or that it is a bad idea to buy their product with financing or a credit card? I don’t think so!

Maybe you would like to live in a world where businesses advise people to not put their products on credit. Maybe you would prefer a world where salespeople don’t exist. But we don’t live in that world so it isn’t fair to hold Leeds’ business alone to that standard. Lycett isn’t ‘exposing’ anything outside of the norm here.

#4. Lycett says he ‘debunks’ Leeds by quoting unnamed property experts.

Lycett lays out some of the claims he says Leeds makes and then attempts to debunk them by referencing unnamed property experts:

Claim 1. Sourcing deals from Rightmove.com.

Co-host Katherine Ryan just mocks the idea because it is a well-known website and “not exactly a big secret”. Of course, Rightmove.co.uk isn’t a ‘big secret’ but Leeds teaches how to evaluate the deals. Nothing is mentioned about whether his information is useful or not. Therefore, this claim is not debunked.

Claim 2. Sell leads to property developers and ‘angel’ investors.

Ryan ‘debunks’ this by claiming they have ‘been told’ that it is “extremely difficult for someone with no experience, cash or contacts to successfully pitch leads that were found on the internet to genuine property investors”. Firstly they don’t show any evidence Leeds encourages the sale of leads. I have only ever heard him talk about the sale of deals. This means although the deals may have been found on the internet, the person has added value by negotiating the price down significantly.

Secondly, the programme makes no attempt to investigate whether Leeds training can teach someone how to do this “extremely difficult” thing or not. If it wasn’t difficult, what would be the point of Leeds offering training on how to do it?

Ryan does state that none of the customers of Leeds they had spoken to had sold a deal. But as a consumer show they naturally speak to dissatisfied customers. Leeds brings success students on his YouTube channel, many of whom say they are now successful deal packagers. For Ryan or Lycett to honestly say they had debunked this claim they would need to show that those people were either lying or didn’t learn their skills from Leeds. No such evidence was offered. Therefore, this claim was not debunked.

Claim 3. Buy property without spending your own money.

Here Ryan admits it is possible with debt but says this isn’t open to everyone. This isn’t the only method Leeds talks about however. Joint ventures is another method, whereby one party puts in the sweat equity and the other the capital.

Ryan also says investing with someone else’s money in something you don’t know about can be a problem as you have to pay them back. This is true, but Leeds sells training so that people can learn about the subject. Once again, Ryan and Lycett offer no evidence whatsoever that Leeds training fails to provide such knowledge. Therefore, this claim was not debunked.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, I watched the segment on Samuel carefully and was open to any evidence that could be shown that he is a “get rich quick scammer”. However, none was provided. So until, and unless, some actual evidence is offered….Samuel Leeds – I’ve Got Your Back!