Kyle Huckerby and Thomas Lowe left Long Field Academy in Melton Mowbray when they were 16 with barely any qualifications to their name.
Today the pair, who are both 23, are highly successful property entrepreneurs with an income they could only previously have dreamt about.
As fledgling businessmen, they made remarkably rapid progress taking just a year to achieve a £250,000 turnover with their company Cutting-Edge Properties.
They controlled more than 40 properties they didn’t even own, raking in handsome monthly returns. They also set up a letting agency which they sold last month for a ‘significant six-figure sum.’ It had only been launched the year before and they received an offer they couldn’t refuse.
Their skills have not gone unnoticed. The friends recently entered into a property-related business venture with Joseph Valente, a previous winner of The Apprentice, the hit reality show in which contestants vie with one another to become Lord Sugar’s business partner.
Kyle, from Asfordby, and Tom, who comes from Thurmaston, have been close friends since they were 13.
Tom says their success as entrepreneurs is proof that doing well in life is not just about passing exams at college.
“To be honest, we both found it impossible to concentrate in class,” he said. “We knew the academic life just wasn’t for us and anyway we felt we could achieve something bigger without all that.”
After leaving school Kyle and Tom embarked on a string of ventures, including setting up an ecommerce business and investing in cryptocurrency. None of them succeeded.
The major turning point in their lives came when Kyle listened to a property investing podcast by multi-millionaire entrepreneur Samuel Leeds.
He had previously presumed that property investing was solely the realm of the wealthy. He was, therefore, stunned to hear of the ‘rent-to-rent’ strategy which enabled people with little capital to get on the ladder.
Fired up, he decided to discover more and soon afterwards attended a £1 crash course organised by Mr Leeds. It whetted his appetite to go into business and he attended another crash course, this time with Tom in tow.
Convinced property was the way forward, Kyle then joined Samuel Leeds’ academy, with Tom following suit soon afterwards.
At that time Kyle was working as a bricklayer and Tom was an engineering recruitment consultant. Within a year of going into business together they both were able to give up their day jobs and become full-time property entrepreneurs.
Tom recalls how they joyously drafted their resignations while on holiday in Turkey sipping cocktails on sunbeds.
“We did a poolside business session, just ringing up agents and we landed two HMOs on a rent-to-rent basis. So, we literally drafted our resignations from there, came back after our holiday and just cracked on.”
Explaining how rent-to-rents work Tom says: “It’s where you rent a property and then legally sublet it room by room. So, you pay the landlords what they’re asking for and then with their agreement you make your profit on top of that. It’s got advantages for both parties.”
Their most profitable rent-to-rent property to date was an eight-bed house share in Nottingham. They charged £650 a month each for seven of the rooms and an extra £100 for the eighth one which has ensuite facilities.
Thomas says they filled all eight rooms in a week, giving them a monthly turnover of just under £5,500 for just that one property. The rent to the landlord amounted to £2,770 a month. With bills of £500 to £600 to pay, it left them with a profit of £2,000.
Initially they were alarmed by the thought of having to pay a landlord the equivalent of a full-time salary every month – and then being unable to find tenants for the rooms. As their confidence grew, however, they learnt to trust their calculations on potential yields.
Their research is extremely thorough. Before taking on any property, they look on SpareRoom and Rightmove to check the market. They also ring HMO management agencies to gauge how quickly rooms can be rented out and what the going rates are.
“We’ve phoned pretty much all the agencies throughout Nottingham, Leicester and Coventry to get the most accurate data we can,” Kyle added.
A very successful tactic they employed was to deal with agents who had ‘tired student lets’ on their books which were not being rented out.
“We went to student HMO agencies and said look, we’re not trying to tap into your market or steal any students from you. All we want to do is let out the properties that you can’t,” Kyle explained.
They then converted the accommodation into something which would attract professional people with bigger budgets. At first they raised the money for these projects by unearthing property deals which they could sell to wealthy investors for £3,000 a time. Deal sourcing was something they had studied in depth whilst on the academy.
Kyle says their strategy was driven by the fact that new purpose-built developments for students were sprouting up all over the Midlands.
“These developments have got 5G, cinema rooms, gyms, cafes all on site. So, in the next couple of years students will be flocking to them. What are these landlords going to be able to do with their HMOs? Nothing! So we cashed in by taking on these redundant student houses and then repurposing them for a different market.”
Having built up relationships with letting agents in different areas, they were regularly sent details of any properties which fitted their strategy.
“As we built up a large portfolio, we found that our confidence just flowed through the phone when dealing with agents.
“We had an agent in Nottingham who gave us multiple properties in the same block. She’s done extremely well for us.”
It was towards the end of 2023 that the friends realised their company was making ‘serious’ money.
One night they reflected on what they had built up together and were amazed by how far they had come in just over a year of being in the industry.
They made a ‘clean profit’ of £9,000 in February (2024) from their rent-to-rents and £6,000 from sourcing deals for investors, turning over £40,000 in a month, they say.
Thomas says while working for themselves has given them more freedom they have had to abandon the nine-to-five mentality.
“You’re not doing a nine to five, but the rewards are all for us at the end of the day, so you don’t mind.
He says the fact that there is no cap on their earnings drives them on, as well as the fear of being broke again.
Kyle says they are also scared of being ‘average.’
“I don’t want to live an average life. I think it’s boring. No one in my family’s ever made it big and I feel like I’m the person who’s going to change that.”
Thomas has the same mindset. He says they both come from working class families and it would be nice to help them.
“I get up in the morning thinking make tomorrow better than it was today, and just make a difference and loads of money.”
More recently they have been partnering with local authorities to provide social housing. This has proved so successful that they are looking at developing their own properties for this specialist market.
“Some councils have been paying for people to stay in hotels, but we provide a far more affordable solution for them. At the moment we are looking into buying a bungalow which we would then demolish and use the land to build nine apartments. Property development is something we are looking at moving into more and more now.”
Their success has ‘delighted’ – but not surprised their business guru.
“Like them I also left school at 16 and even sat on the special needs desk at times as I had ADHD,” said Mr Leeds.
“I thought my destiny was to become a binman, but at the age of 33 here I am, worth more than £20m. People who fail at school can be hugely successful in business. I am cast iron proof of that and so are Kyle and Tom. I think what they have achieved already is amazing, but I also suspect that it’s just the beginning for them.”