Listen to this episode below:
Today I am delighted to be joined by Ryan Carruthers, who describes his life as a series of unfortunate events that have led to a series of very fortunate events.
He had to leave university to help run the family business and when he was able to step away from that a few years later he had a few income streams on the go including property sourcing. That was when he met current business partner Kim Stones and together they have just completed an award winning commercial conversion from pub to residential.
At only 28 years old he says he loves property for the freedom it gives, and is now working on some much larger and scarier conversion and development projects.
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Investing Strategies
Ryan started making serious money through trading on BetFair, a completely different avenue before he got into property investing. At the age of 24 he was offered £70,000 for his business which got him thinking about buy to let as a longer term proposal.
He found a house worth £100,000 and offered the £70,000 he had coming to him from the business sale, but given the speed at which the vendor wanted to complete Ryan realised he couldn’t make the timings work so sold on the deal to another investor for a £1,500 fee.
This introduced him to a whole new world of options in the property world and has spent the past few sourcing below market value deals and lease options, and is now focussing more on his own deals that he can retain ownership of.
Biggest Success
Ryan was invited to view an old pub by an estate agent he new well, and as soon as he stepped through the door he new he wanted it.
There was no article 4 directive in place, the pub was attracting the wrong type of crowd, and it was very close to the university – a winning combination in Ryan’s eyes to ensure they’d get planning for his proposal.
Sure enough, he achieved planning for one x 6 bedroom student HMO, one x 4 bedroom student HMO, and 5 x 1 bedroom flats, as well as retaining a 1,400 square foot retail unit at the front.
Biggest Difficulty
Prior to meeting his current business partner Kim Stones, Ryan was a little more gung-ho when it came to his investments. He got involved in a lease option where the build cost was escalating quickly as the other investor has got the pricing wrong during his due diligence process.
The only way out was to sell the deal on to a 3rd party, barely covering their costs but at least avoiding losing any money.
What’s Your Favourite Book?
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Fooled by Randomness – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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