April 22, 2024 • 41 mins
In the latest episode of the Wise World Podcast, we are joined by a trailblazer in the world of real estate, Nathan Khider. With a commendable rags-to-riches tale, Nathan shares his life journey which reflects perseverance, innovation, and the power of calculated risks. Learn about his transformative ride from a homeless man dwelling in a YMCA to a successful investor and entrepreneur in the property tech sector.
Nathan’s thrilling tales filled with ups and downs serve as invaluable lessons for all aspiring entrepreneurs. Get insights about his unique ventures, including his popular 'coffee-in-a-donut' concept, and the realities of the service industry. Hear about his upcoming ambitious tech-based project built on AI, projected to revolutionise the property platform without dwarfing the individual brands of agents.
We also dive deep into the complex dynamics of the real estate industry both in the UK and the US, shedding light on the dominant platforms like Zoopla and Rightmove, and the emerging trend of self-employment under recognised brands. Nathan's personal journey provides a fresh perspective on these industry trends along with the importance of client communication and maintaining integrity in business, however challenging the situations may be.
In a candid discussion, Nathan reflects on his past as the best learning lesson and emphasises the potential opportunities born out of economic downturns, reinforcing that successful investing is more about what you purchase than when you purchase it. Join us in this enlightening conversation with Nathan Khider as he inspires listeners to thrive amidst adversities and strive for success!
You can email Nathan Khider at hello@nathankhider.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to Wise World Podcast, everybody. Thanks for tuning in.
We've got an awesome guest on the show. We've got Nathan Khider.
I'm going to let Nathan introduce himself. I know Nathan for,
I'm going to say quite a few years now.
I know what he does. I don't really know how it got started and what he's really up to now.
All I see is there's so many different avenues that Nathan's gone down through his career.
(00:24):
And I thought it'd be great to get him on the podcast to find out a little bit
more about Nathan. So over to you, Nathan, if you can introduce yourself, that would be great.
Yeah, I'm Nathan Khider or Khider, however you want to pronounce it.
Most people say Khider, Khider, Kinder, whatever you want to say. Exactly.
It's all good. So right now I currently invest in small businesses,
small startup businesses.
(00:45):
I suppose where my journey began was 2005, sorry, 2004,
set up a property search company acting on behalf of cash rich,
time poor clients buying on behalf of them
properties residential properties in central london and
like i said now i invest in small businesses and yeah
it's been a whirlwind journey as i'm sure you mentioned or
(01:06):
you know about my past about when i became homeless and
was living in the ymca in watford charter place we briefly
touched base on that we we did a podcast that never
ever aired off if i remember rightly but yeah
we we touched base on it but i think it'd be nice
to know a little bit bit more about how that even got started and
how you started your first business so
(01:29):
when i was 20 i think i'm 21 20 maybe
21 22 i can't remember i'm getting old now i noticed
a small gap in the market where tech became part of real estate business in
in london where in terms of we had right move and find a property and as working
in an estate agent myself we would never take the online inquiry seriously so
whenever an online inquiry came through the like came through on on a laptop or computer,
(01:53):
we'll be like, they're not serious buyers. We'd only wait for people to come into the office.
And I saw a small gap in the market in terms of, actually, I could do,
if people are not taking them seriously, my clients have to come into the office.
Why don't I do the searching for them online, find the suitable properties that
these estate agents are advertising them, go view them on behalf of my clients,
arrange all the viewings, have a look at them and get them to offer.
(02:15):
And they were almost seeing properties that are coming on the market market
first before anybody else and getting offers accepted so I did really well from
that and we called it click click investments at the time there was no there
was no limited company there was nothing like that it was literally just you
know checks coming to me or bank transfers coming to me directly.
Did really well. And all of a sudden I started overspending.
(02:39):
So what I mean by that is in property transactions, residential property transactions,
you have two parts to it, exchange and completion.
Exchange, when the exchange is done, it means you're then liable to buy the
property on a certain date.
I started spending all of that money before the properties started exchanging.
So I was spending 150, 200 grand a
(02:59):
year easily without these properties you know exchanging
all of a sudden I go home one day my door's
a lot my car's repossessed everything gone didn't
know what to do was too proud to be telling people
that I've just lost everything and I'm now homeless effectively
so I slept in my car for a few weeks had to
claim job seekers allowance and then went into the YMCA
(03:22):
and I was there for six months and it was a big
culture shock and how how did you get out of that it
was a mindset so there was no no instagram there
was no youtube there was no there was nothing you know there's no audiobooks
to listen to to find inspiration and i struggle with reading so
for me it was like what what can i do every day
on a daily basis where i can get my mindset right
(03:44):
subconsciously thinking about mindset i never knew anything about mindset back
then it was there wasn't there was no such thing about get your mindset right
get motivated it was the culture wasn't like that there was no such thing as
as that back then so it was every day what makes me feel good on a daily basis
so it It was exercise, training.
Trying to keep my spirits high, trying to have small relationships with people
(04:06):
in the YMCA, people that were sane at the time.
Because there was a big mix of personalities in there from all walks of life.
So you need to pick and choose carefully who you speak to on a daily basis.
And it was literally just getting fit every day. Then it was finding opportunities.
Once I was then ready to move out of there, I sold my car. lucky enough I had
(04:27):
one car which they didn't repossess and it was something I bought for cash,
Back in the day, I sold my car, got a deposit on a flat to rent,
and then got myself a job back in an estate agency, worked for the estate agent for six, seven months.
And then so far, the rest is history, because then I started acting again on
behalf of buyers, doing what I do best, buying properties for clients,
(04:48):
whether it was investments or residential purchases.
Yeah. And then eventually just moved out of it and then started heading up different
agencies, worked for companies like Yopa, worked for Ferrari and Maserati in
the Middle East when property market crashed. When the markets turned in 2008, I took a year out.
Why not? Yeah, I had some really good times.
But getting out of the YMCA was fun. It was fun. Looking back at it,
(05:14):
it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.
You always seem like a very happy
person. And I know you've got a lot on your plate and a lot going on.
If you could just reel out what businesses you're owner of now,
maybe not day-to-day manager,
maybe go with what you own and then what you
actually manage day to day because i'm in i'm intrigued to know
what your actual schedule is because all i see is on
(05:37):
instagram all i see is on instagram is you moaning about
a bicycle guy or someone cutting you up or a vegan or or some football team
and i'm like he's always on the go and it looks like you're going to house viewings
but i don't know is that all you're doing or is there more to it so i currently
own so i'll go back say sort of seven, eight years.
(05:59):
So I set up a company called PT Workspace, which is a gym based around helping
personal trainers grow their own businesses by giving affordable rent based
on an hourly basis, as opposed to paying a monthly rent,
which they had to stick by, which is in London, it's more than their rent.
Personal trainers, when they're starting out, don't earn an absolute fortune
and they're stuck in these big gyms by paying 12, 1300 quid a month rent.
(06:23):
So I thought I'd change the model a little bit and do a rental business,
which I think I showed I showed you once when you came over,
I think I showed you the gym.
Sold that just before covid got out of
it set up another one so where it
starts again i set up another one with my business partner nick
so it's another gym just around the corner from there
i opened a coffee shop called your coffee hub and then opened
(06:44):
three of those in six months in hindsight is the worst thing
i've ever done um but yeah it's
a really tricky business coffee shops is really tricky unless you're working
in them every single day it's a tough business to be what else we've got mon
jolly shen which is a dog room as we set up a dog room as a year ago pretty
much this month a year ago a year yeah a year ago this month and we were featured
(07:05):
in the times as one of the best london luxury dog groomers just done a collaboration
with mark jacobs yesterday,
got so got the dog groomers i've got nathan k real estate i invested in i invested
in a company called agent and home which is a property platform for agents to grow their business.
What else is there goat property platform so agent homes is now changing we're
moving into to GOAT or Red Orange, which is we're building our own tech built
(07:28):
by, you know, with a corporation of AI and it's our own tech and it's our own property platform.
A lot of the property platforms at the moment out there like Keller Williams,
eXp, not to name all of them, but as an example, they have external tech.
They contract out their tech and we would rather build our own so then we can
license it out to anyone that wants to build their own platform, basically.
(07:51):
So we're in the process of doing that now. and it's
quite interesting because i know nothing about ai i don't know how it works but
i'm learning day by day but yet
effectively we're looking to yet build
our own tech and roll out a big big property platform probably
in about a year's time and these predictions that you
well i don't even know where to start so you do still you
(08:12):
still run the coffee shops or are you saying it was a bad idea just in
general still still got the coffee shop so they
went viral in so they went about a about
a year ago with the kona which is basically a coffee
and a donut and how it came about i invested in a pizza shop
called mutts nuts pizzas and donuts and
we did quite well we actually supplied donuts to google a few a
(08:33):
few times it was really good so what happened was
the the guy that andy who made the made the donuts threw
away one of the donuts because it was wrong was like that's such a waste of
a donut what could we do with that and i one day i
just cut it out and I put a coffee in it just
to see what would happen obviously just soak through and it
was like you need a barrier like what could we use it's like what about like
(08:54):
Nutella or Bistro so put Nutella in it then put a
coffee in it and then tried to drink it spilled everywhere then we cut it out
properly made the donuts a little bit bigger filled it with Nutella then put
a coffee then had a straw to drink the coffee through and all of a sudden this
thing went viral like 20 million views there was people queuing all the way
down the street for an hour and a half coming coming from Paris,
(09:14):
New York, Canada, India, everywhere. They'll come from all around the world to try this tone-up.
The thing with Instagram and pipes, they don't last long.
So you need to be, you know, you need to come up with really good ideas consistently
to keep that momentum going.
Yeah. So in terms of coffee shops, I'm still running the, I've still got the
coffee shops, hard work.
As soon as you've got staff that are not paid the most amount of money,
(09:39):
if they get offered a job for a pound extra an hour, one pound 50 extra an hour, they leave.
And in a business where you're not involved every single
day and you're not around every single day as soon as
staff don't turn up you're in big trouble because you've got
wasted you've got supplies to pay for you've got still got staff to pay for
rent rates etc so for me now looking back at that business it's definitely something
(10:01):
i want to wind down and close as much as i really enjoy it and there's a really
good markup on coffee when you start serving food coffee and becoming having
coffee shops where people go to eat.
Yeah, you need to be involved every single day to stop the wastage.
So we've got a new concept coming back later on.
Have you ever had to rock up and do a full day shift in one of the coffee shops?
(10:23):
Yeah, when we first opened, I did a full day shift.
So it's like you're just getting a message like, mate, two staff off today.
No one's going to be at this coffee shop. And you're like, great.
I'd rather close the shop.
I've never done that. I've only been there when we first opened with our staff.
I could never turn up to the shop. I'd poison somebody and then I'd be an absolute...
(10:45):
I'd rather just close the shop for the day and lose the money.
Oh, I would love to have come that day.
He's running it. Let's just see how many GG Vegan Donuts.
Absolutely not we did actually do you know what right we
we did we did you know so many people were messaging us
on instagram and there was thousands of messages we had to get somebody to
run our instagram account for us at the time because it was just too much to handle and
(11:08):
she kept saying to me nathan everyone's asking for vegan donuts i'm not doing
vegan donuts anyway we had to we did vegan donuts guess how many people came
like less than 20 less than 20 what a waste of time and money and energy so
yeah we binned off the vegan donuts nuts, binned off all the stuff that they wanted. Yeah.
Not worth it. Crazy how quick it went viral and how you just had a huge influx.
(11:31):
How many people do you think actually turned up to come and get that viral donut slash coffee?
We actually worked it out. I think we sold something like 10,000.
Fuck. That is a lot. It was a lot. We did really, really well.
And I'm sorry. How does it die down? I would have thought you would have got
more people coming and been like, right, need to go get that.
That's the place to go in London.
(11:51):
People still go and get the coat. you can still go and get a Kona,
but it's, it's, there's just not as many as they used to be.
I mean, it's not, you can only have it once or twice. It's not something that
you could probably have every day. You know, it's definitely like you've had
it once, you've had it twice, you're done.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So yeah. It's a one hit wonder. Yeah. Soon,
soon wears off sort of thing.
It's bloody cool that that came about. Nice idea, I suppose.
(12:14):
So you're looking to wind that down and now you're moving to focus on more property platforms.
Well, these sort of like from an idea, just for talking to someone that doesn't
understand property platforms is this something that's like going to compete
with the likes of Zoopla or.
Things like that no no more the EXP Keller Williams so it's more about helping
(12:34):
agents grow their businesses but in a,
in a way where they're building their own brand. So the problem I see at the
moment in the market, in that particular space, agents aren't able to grow their
own brands. They're growing the brand above the door.
And I would rather help agents build their own business and grow their own brands in their local area.
(12:55):
And the reason why that is because at some point, they'll all want to leave their platform.
We don't want them to leave our platform. We want them to stay and add the value
and the value is actually helping them build their own business and their own brand.
Forget about our own brand. We want to build their brand.
So the platform is based around building their own brands because I've noticed
(13:15):
it with Agent and Homes, Keller Williams, EXP, all of these agents, they all want to leave.
Once they get a bit too big, they're thinking, why am I giving you 25,
30% to grow your brand instead of my own?
And then all of a sudden they they get stuck there. The problem is with starting
your own business in property is the portals that people use,
like Rightmove, Zoopla on the market, they're really expensive.
(13:37):
You're looking at sort of three to four grand a month before you've even started. Wow.
That's, yeah, it's a big outlay. So you can imagine how many deals you'd need
to do, how much pipeline you'd need to have, how many clients you'd need to have in your black book.
But yeah, that's something that we're trying to eliminate.
So instead of being an EXP or
Keller Williams. We want to grow our own platform by using our own tech.
(13:58):
I'm surprised no one's tried competing with the likes of Zoopla and Rightmove.
They try to, but the problem is the outreach. So if you speak to nine times
out of 10, if you ask somebody what property platform they would use to look
for search and properties, they'd say Rightmove.
As in, it's a household name. It's ingrained in everybody and it's part of their DNA.
A lot of the younger generation from rentals, for instance, are using Zoopla.
(14:23):
So I find a lot of the first-time buyers also use Zoopla.
So Zoopla and Rightmove, you've got the likes of On The Market,
but I've got On The Market in my agency.
No one ever uses it. I get very few inquiries from On The Market.
So Rightmove and Zoopla, big players, and it's going to be very hard to move that.
I always find On The Market is more like your Scotland country sort of manners.
(14:49):
I wouldn't use On The Market really to look at London.
But yeah, I think for like Scotland and out in the sticks, I've always sort
of, I've seen, I've seen on there. It's quite, quite good. We've got some good stock.
Yeah, it's a bit weird, isn't it? I suppose it's just based on what regional
areas focus on what sort of.
It depends on the agents on what they feel they're going to get benefit from their portal.
(15:13):
If they feel that they've got a good, you know, if they feel like Prince of
Scotland or in the north, lots of people using on the market,
then all the agents will have on the market.
But all agent, most big agent should have all three portal.
If you want to make sure you get the right inquiries, the right buyers to the
door, you need all three portal and all three portals cost money.
Yeah and so from your your experience you think are
(15:35):
you seeing a lot more people wanting to do this on their
own rather than grown saying like uh another person's brand basically do you
think that there's there's a huge gap there i suppose you'll see do i was you
wouldn't be investing in it i think there's always been a gap there and i think
the u.s market did have done it really really well because obviously you have
a broker that buys and sells on behalf of you and they They all work independently,
(15:58):
self-employed, under an umbrella for a brand,
whether it be Remax or Century 21 or Keller Williams, whoever it might be.
There are big property platforms for them to tap into, and that's how they use their brokerage.
But it came to the UK, I'd probably say 2005 with Remax. Remax did a similar
thing, but it just couldn't get the branding right.
(16:19):
And I've noticed it since, especially since COVID, where people want to work
from homes, agents that are currently working for large corporate estate agents
don't want to be stuck in the office from nine to five.
And that have got a decent clientele where people go back to them,
you know, they do have repeat business and pick up their mobile phone and call
them and say, I want you to sell or help me buy.
Those are the sort of agents that are now wanting to start their own business
(16:41):
so they can have more time with their family, earn more money.
But ultimately, you've still got to work hard. You've got to go out and do the
hard work by door knocking, speak to your clients, networking,
asking for referrals. It's tough.
It's not easy. And I think if you've only got a few years experience,
I'd probably say stay away from it and go learn your trade in an estate agent,
(17:04):
build up a good client portfolio, and then leave and start your own business.
Are you a one-man band in that business?
Yeah. So in terms of Nathan K k real estate just me
so i didn't even want it to be an
estate agent that's the thing so nathan k real estate is all
about property search and that's all we do and that's all we've ever
focused on however when i opened an
(17:25):
office on my street because i don't like to travel too far for
my work right i wanted everything close to me so i can always be around i got
the shop i got my i got the shop on my street and it it turned into an estate
agent just by accident i didn't want it to but all of a sudden the local clients
walk in and go Nathan oh can you sell my two million pound house you're never
going to turn down away a 35 40 grand fee it's never going to happen,
(17:48):
so I'm like okay fine and all of a sudden this search agent this property buyer
all of a sudden turns into a local estate agent so I've got a local estate agents
now which focus I've got 28 properties in in my area which is more than some
of the agents that have been in it for 25 years It's crazy,
but I'm not complaining.
So I do need somebody to come and help me. So we are currently hiring for a negotiator, but.
(18:13):
It's finding the right people that want to do the job. Do you think that they're coming more to you?
Because I've always thought this, like when there's a face behind the brand,
like yourself, they see you, they see your name above the shop.
So they know that they're talking to you. Whereas when they go somewhere else,
it's like you said, it's lots of different people working for a name above a door.
Yeah. And no disrespect to the high street estate agents. I mean,
(18:35):
someone selling, you know, their biggest asset doesn't want some little spotty kid.
Driving around in a company car, probably lives at home with his mom and dad
there's nothing wrong with that, but they don't want someone in a shiny suit
turning up to sell their house and they've never bought or sold before.
Why would you want somebody acting on behalf of your biggest asset that doesn't
know what they're talking about?
I've been there, I've done it. I was that agent once upon a time and I've got
(18:58):
my trade and I've got my stripes.
And I am where I am today because I've currently worked hard for it.
But yes, people come to me because they say, actually, Nathan,
you've been doing it for 20 years.
I know what you're about. I'd rather you look after it because I know that you're
going to be dealing with it.
But that's what they pay for so my fees are very
set i'm really strict about how
i do my business so for instance with property searching somebody came
(19:20):
in on thursday or friday of last week
said oh i can do property searching i've seen your reviews they're great can
we discuss my property search i said no he's like why i
said before we have any conversation about me trying
to find you an investment or going through my book of properties
for you to buy you're going to pay my invoice and
he's like what do you mean i said we have a i charge 1500 pounds
(19:41):
just to have that conversation that fit
that obviously 1500 pounds is a retainer fee it goes towards their success fee
but i'm not you know i have a very strict way of working and people respect
that because i can't waste my time with people that say i want to buy a property
i want to buy a property you start a search for them and they say i'll change
my mind so before i get involved in in conversations you You pay my invoice.
(20:03):
My fees are set out on my leaflets. It's don't like it, don't use me.
There's no negotiating.
There's no discussions about my fees.
It is what it is. So, but people respect that. Do you think,
is that a completely different approach then to your competitors?
Yeah, a lot of agents that I know, they drop their pants as quickly.
You know, as soon as somebody says, oh, another agent's doing this,
(20:25):
they'll match it straight away.
How can you, if you can't justify and negotiate your own fee,
How can you negotiate the best price for your client's house?
These are negotiators. And all of a sudden, yeah, I'll drop the price. Well, hold on.
That's your money. What about my money when it comes to getting an offer on
my house? How are you going to negotiate with buyers?
(20:46):
It's different. And they'll go, it's different. It's different.
It's not different. You're willing to give away your own cash.
Do you think you're going to care about mine?
So for me, it's like, no, I negotiate hard. I work hard.
But the high street agents, they drop their pants quickly because there's so
much competition. But hold your nerve.
Because they've asked you to go in there for a reason. So be confident in what
you do. Trust the process.
(21:07):
Demonstrate you're good at what you are good at and go from there.
When you're talking about that sort of experience with youngsters coming in
to sell your property, I remember when I was selling one of my properties and
this 20-year-old person came in.
I won't say if it was a guy or a girl. They came in and they took their shoes
off to walk around the property to have a look and familiarize themselves with it.
(21:27):
And their feet absolutely stunk and
i was just like i would rather i'd muddled
my carpets it was that bad i was sitting there thinking this person
ain't selling anything if you're rocking around with those sorts
i wasn't even close i was like that
is ridiculous anyway yeah i
(21:47):
was sitting there thinking this can't be actually legit you know
as in it's good you've got to have an issue you or something walking around
with stinky i was like no especially if
it lingers that's pretty it's pretty
interesting i think i've like i said i've always taken my hat
off to you and what you do in business i think it's pretty pretty astonishing what
you're doing and i think like you bring a comical aspect to
(22:10):
it one question i do have do you think that some of your customers that
you are representing follow and
watch your stories on social media and have
you ever had any you kick back or criticism from some of
the stuff that you're saying on there yeah so uh there's.
A client that followed let's say there's a client that followed i'm going
to go buy a recent something that recently happened so
(22:32):
a client follows me i'm selling his flat around the corner because he's buying
something through me so i'm acting for him as a on the purchase and i'm also
selling his property and i had a few viewings booked in and someone was was
running late and they told me at at the time that they were supposed to be there, I said.
I'm going to give you three minutes to be here. Unless you're not here, I'm off.
(22:54):
And he's like, you won't. I said, I'm leaving. I will not be here.
You can turn up whenever you like, but I will not be here.
And the client saw it and laughed. But ultimately, look, this is someone going
to view his house to buy and he needs to sell it.
But he just laughed at the comment because it's my time. I don't care if I'm
selling someone's house or not.
(23:16):
It's my time. And then if I'm late for my next client, that can't happen.
I can't stand people with bad punctuality.
And that all stemmed from back when I was late for a job and I nearly got fired
from it. And it really shit me up. Sorry for my language.
And yeah, it really scared me. And from then I've never been late.
I mean, of course things happen, but I always leave early.
(23:38):
I'm always on, I'm never late, always on time.
So look, if people don't like it, don't use me. me. I am who I am and I'm not
going to change for anyone. It is. I am who I am.
I suppose from a client side, it just doesn't show. It means like you are a
person clearly ain't serious about buying it.
If they're turning up late and not, you know, giving me last minute notice. But I suppose from a.
(24:01):
From a client base, I'm just surprised you haven't had anybody leave a negative
review and like the guy was so rude.
I was three minutes late and disappeared. Have you not had any of that?
Yeah, there's a Google review on, so Nathan K real estate, there's a bad Google
review saying do not use rude, unprofessional.
And what happened was I called her, I said, where are you? She said,
(24:22):
I'm running late. I said, I know that because you're not here and we're due to meet.
She said, oh, I didn't know. I was a bit scared. I said, you're a text.
They're saying you're an absolute waste of time do not rebook and
then she put a review on google but i'll leave it there i
don't care i'm not going to remove it i it you cannot
be late for appointments like if you're going to book appointments in
with people turn up or at least give them plenty of notice so they can make
(24:46):
rearrangements or read but i don't mind if people are late or want to reschedule
but give me plenty of notice so whenever you book a viewing through me or my
agency it sends an email saying please these arrive on time or the viewing will be canceled.
Yeah, it's really simple. Yeah. So now we've put that in place just to stop any messes.
So where do you see the housing market going at the moment from an economy perspective?
(25:09):
And how do you see the economy and have you seen it affecting any of your businesses?
Because you're well diversified through sort of dealing with high net wealth individuals.
Then you're diversified from dealing with your day-to-day Joes from the coffee shops.
And then also from grooming as well. Some of these can be seen,
like you said, as a luxury.
(25:29):
And usually during hard times you
see them you know people kicking back on that
and cutting their sort of cost in have you
seen any sort of downturns in the overall market or and depending on the different
ranges of people that you're dealing with i suppose i know to sit so in terms
of different markets i notice it in the coffee shop more where people would
(25:49):
rather maybe not buy that croissant or that cookie or that lunch or that sandwich
or something that goes with it i know to sit more in that market.
In terms of the property market, we're dealing with the higher end of the market.
So there's always liquidity there.
And remember, whenever there's a bad market or a quiet market,
there's always opportunities. And that's the way that I've always looked at
it as well when investing.
(26:10):
So in the property market, it's never about, you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
So forget about the timing. It's about what you buy, not when you buy it.
Okay it's it's a really it's really simple if you buy really well
it doesn't matter of the market it will always that property or
that investment will always do well dog grooming
(26:30):
no i think most of the people people love their dogs
more than they love their kids i promise
you they would rather get their dog groomed and smelling nice than buy their
kid the pair of trainers that they really need i mean and there's very there's
very there's a shortage of good dog groomers in london so we're lucky at MJC
(26:52):
we're fully booked until May.
And so what you just went out hired a dog groomer and was like a couple of dog
groomers yeah we hired a couple of really good dog groomers one's just gone
on the maternity leave so we're absolutely you know,
We were bricking it because we thought, how are we going to replace a really
good manager? She manages a shop, Megan. She's brilliant. But she's now gone on maternity leave.
(27:14):
We found another dog groomer to run the shop.
We've got three full-time people in there at any one stage.
And then we've got part-time staff. So we've got seven people that are in and out of there.
It's a really busy little shop. I think the key thing for us now and how we're
going to diversify and expand and grow would be to create an academy where we
actually train really good dog groomers.
(27:36):
And the reason why i say that is because there are
courses you can go on there are lots of people qualified the problem
with it is they don't know then what to do with it afterwards they don't
know how to set up a business how to set up a brand how
to open a shop so they're lost what do i
do next sorry sorry sorry can
you see see me still yeah yeah just someone was
(27:58):
calling me even though it's on do not disturb sorry so
that's fine we're setting up an academy
where we're going to help people train to be a really good dog
groomer but then also help them grow their business and
effectively maybe take a percentage of that business and oversee everything
help them implement the systems the setup you know and let them understand the
cost actually help them understand how it is what it is and what it takes to
(28:22):
run a company yeah so what you've what you've done is I wouldn't say is an easy thing.
Are you leasing these properties or are you physically going,
do you know what, I'm getting this at a good below market rate through my real
estate contacts and I'm going to buy the building, the building's sat there
as an asset and then I'm going to open my shop in them.
(28:43):
Because like you said, look at your offices now, prime location,
people are walking off the street and giving you lots of listings.
Are you renting, leasing, owning those?
Because You know, because if he was a dog groomer, half of these people wouldn't
even be able to get their foot in the door of getting a good place to get set up.
So I think if you're a start-off, you're better off just leasing them and renting them to start with.
(29:07):
If you can afford to buy it, and if you can afford to... No,
where our shops are, say for instance, this shop here, the building's two and a half million pounds.
The shop at the dog room is, again, two and a half million quid.
My gym, the building there is probably worth about 10 million.
I mean, trying to buy these properties is almost going to be impossible,
and it's not going to be for you.
I think if you i think if somebody if
(29:28):
you could team up with somebody that wants to buy buildings shops and
uppers great but it's finding them that are available at the right
price so i would just say look if you're going to start just rent them like
we have we've rented that shop see how it goes and go from there if we can buy
them if the right price why not but if they're going to be overpriced there's
no point buying them you might as well just rent them so on a monthly basis
(29:49):
then you actually have quite a bit exposure then because if you've got all these coffee shops.
You've got all of these different rentals for
these different properties do you do not do you not feel the
pressure from that on a month-to-month basis no i
don't feel pressure i don't feel pressure i just quite enjoy
what what's the worst that could happen look people are
always fearful and i think when you're when you're fearful you know
(30:11):
what your worst scenario could be people don't
expand or grow or take risks and for me i don't really care what's
the worst that could happen for me i sleep in my car i
go homeless i can always start again like i'm
i'm lucky in the sense that i've not got any children so i've
got no dependents apart from my dog my dog will sleep anywhere and
eat anything so your dog yeah absolutely although she never she never gets groomed
(30:36):
bless her she's been groomed like once in the last three months so it's always
that way right when you whenever you're in that trade you never you never have
you know if you're if you're building your house is falling apart if you're
a mechanic your car's always broken same thing like Like if I ever try and buy
myself a house, it's almost impossible.
But I think with, you know, just being fearless and not worrying about what's
(30:57):
going to happen, just take risks and enjoy it. Just enjoy the process.
And do you know what? When things go wrong, that's when you learn and get stronger.
So I'm always up for things going wrong. Like I quite enjoy it. I enjoy that challenge.
I'm not looking to become a multi-billionaire. I don't need everything to go.
That's not my part. That's not what I'm trying to follow.
But just taking risks and not not
(31:19):
not caring but just seeing what happened yeah
i i don't disagree with you because i'm i'm
a big risk taker myself but i do think that not everybody can do it i think
the common knowledge is actually pretty on the low spectrum at this moment in
time especially from the the sort of younger generations i feel like the education's
(31:40):
just not there and And I had this conversation quite a few times.
I think that the generation where I'm at just below me is probably the last
generation that I think can actually deal with patience and understanding timing
rather than the now society of must get this now.
Even on buying stuff, I don't even understand buy now, pay later.
(32:03):
I'm just like, well, if you can't afford it, why are you buying it?
But that's the whole sort of side of future that we're looking at.
It's all about instant gratification of how they can achieve
and i just think that's gonna that's almost like a nightmare
for building a business because it's like i
think if they're looking for instant gratification then yes but that's
why a lot of them are using tiktok to sell products
(32:24):
and you know you can do it you can go on everyone's trying
to do amazon fba and it's all been done like you
know move away from it there's always something new but
look they're just gonna have have to learn
because they're going to realize not everything is going to come straight away
you've actually got to go and work for it and just manifesting it every day
is just that's not enough you actually have to do something and you have to
(32:47):
make mistakes and you have to fail and you have to suffer a little bit and not
have to go to that meal that you wanted to go to or go on the
friday night binge that you wanted to go all that rave in fact
you know what it's funny i saw a study the other day a lot of the younger generation
don't actually go clubbing anymore yeah a lot of of them tend to go to more
house parties or gigs or festivals maybe once a year so they're probably saving
(33:10):
a few quick because back in my time you know a thursday night at china whites
would cost us about five or ten grand so hence why i became homeless right.
Well, that's, yeah, it's a big thing. There's a lot of clubs are shutting down, aren't they?
They're just like, they're seeing it more from a health side of things rather than that.
But to be honest, I've been seeing a lot more stuff of like the younger generations
are now doing online watch parties.
It's something I don't really sort of fathom, but they sort of sit there.
(33:32):
They all put their headphones on at the same time, watch each other and start the movie on Discord.
And they're all sat there watching the movie in their own homes,
chatting to each other rather than being present with each other. I find that, you know.
Do you know what Sam, right? Do you know what, I always thought the other day,
(33:52):
I would love to try and change that culture and get everyone back together and,
you know, have conversations with each other.
It's never going to change. yeah that is that that is
going to be the new norm for them and i'm so glad i
wasn't born then because i thank god i've lived
the life but if i was younger i would
look to our generation about what we
(34:12):
do and find out why are we so happy
like why why we've had a we've been really lucky
in the generation that we were born in you know tech became a really
like big part of our lives but also it was
remembering people's telephone numbers as a child like
i used to remember remember everyone's like phone house phone number off the
back of my head or it was just such great times like just picking up shit and
(34:36):
eating it as a child and just like rushing like being in the mud and playing
football every day and the lights turn off and you're back home and.
Life was good life was good and i i feel bad
for them but i think if they just ask us for a bit of advice and
what they think they should do they'll learn a lot how do you
think that a kid that's listening to this you
(34:57):
know i say a kid 18 to 20 year old that's listening to
this podcast listen to your story of how you was you know
ymca homeless all the way up to
where you are now multiple businesses what sort
of advice would you give that person to get started started
and you know what sort of useful
tips could they take away i think the first thing is stop
(35:17):
listening to the outside world stop looking for people's
like respect or their opinions you
know other people's opinions of you don't don't matter they don't
put the bread on your table so you have to keep your
circles really small not only by circles like the people
that you really trust and your support and your support network
that really support you that want you you to do well have
(35:39):
them really small like one or two mates that you
absolutely trust and they really want you to do well and you all thrive
together so sort of get a group of you together that you really trust.
Don't forget about the outside world
and what people think if you ask too many
opinions of what you should be doing you'll never
get the answer that you want you've just got to follow
(36:00):
your gut and do what feels right for you if it feels right
go and do it forget about what other people say
and learn from that mistake whether it goes right or it goes wrong
learn from it if it goes right carry on
and you know just carry on until you make make mistakes and just
learn from it but just don't be afraid of making
mistakes and failing because no one
(36:21):
actually cares if you fail and in fact people really
like it when you fail like whenever you're in hospital and
you put it on instagram the amount of messages you get
oh my god are you okay the amount of attention that you get as
soon as you put something good on there no one gives a
shit yeah yes this is the
most truest thing i've actually heard because my office
(36:43):
i obviously you know i moved away from the
uk and then my one
of the units next to my office that we spent so long refurb
and caught fire and then my office is caught fire
and i was only putting a real notification notification
out to be like we won't be answering the phones at.
The office for next week because we can't get in because it's a fire you
(37:04):
know the trainings that we had booked in
person you know unfortunately there's a fire so when you anyway so
i was like we're gonna have to put a notification out so we just we just did
a reel on it and then next you know we've got like 80 000 views in three days
i'm like are you fucking kidding me that you lot are re-watching my office burning
down i was like just goes to show you how much people like negative news over over positive news.
(37:30):
So when I say keep your circles tight and small, it's people that surround,
like whenever I see my best friends doing really well, we always message each
other, love it, congratulations, smash it.
Like even my friend Chris yesterday said, go smash today.
Like you need people around you, even me, you need people around you that support
you, whether it's my wife, my dad, my brother, whatever it might be.
Have a really small network of people around you that support you.
(37:55):
So that's probably the best thing that i'd look for and don't care about
what anybody says forget about publishing your.
Successes because no one cares and no one's gonna like them
you're better off people when i get traction put something really
sad out there and really down and that
you failed and that you're upset and you're miserable and your
traction will go through the roof do you know what
(38:15):
right you speak fucking volumes because i i was getting
so annoyed on social media like uh the days
when i had the fraris and the rolls royce i put those out now everyone
would love that they're like oh fucking supercars la la la
la and i was like right i'm gonna put out some really nice sort of
educational information that can help people learn and get
better it did all right but nowhere near as
(38:36):
good you know i'm talking about so you want to do investments
why not go to do like understand what premium bonds is
something super basic where you can get started and it's
like no viewership i put i put a
video up i'm not joking this this just shows you the proof right and
you can look at this look at my instagram i pinned it at
the top i put a video up of like this 12 year
(38:57):
old kid right drawing a dick pattern on his
trading charts explaining what the sector's
like and then you saw in his search history that this kid was watching
simpsons porn and my video's gone
viral and i've got 750 000 views and i'm
like mate this this world this
world that we live in is is there for the taking and you got to focus on bullshit
(39:19):
in fact it scares me to the point of where i'm like i cannot believe that this
is the world that we've we've moved to where it's like there's all the content.
All the education in the world on the other hand we could watch simpsons porn
and dick pants and that's gonna this is it.
That's gonna drive the traffic but you know that's gonna separate those that
(39:39):
want and ones ones that really don't want, you know, they're the ones that just don't know.
I don't know what their mentality is of looking at that. I can't waste my time
watching that or looking at it. It's great to post it because it's really good for you.
Right. But people love that stuff. I'd rather look at the educational side of
it. Actually, what can I learn from that?
What little golden nugget can I take from that and actually do something with?
(40:00):
It's madness. You're giving away free advice and people don't want to take it.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm just like, well, we've got a million impressions from it.
Out of those million people, there'll be like 200, 300 that actually give a
shit and the rest will carry on watching this instance porn,
you know, the world that we live in.
Anyway it's honestly it's been awesome having you on
(40:21):
the podcast really appreciate all your time and your tips
for everybody that's that's tuning in if people
wanted to find out more about you maybe more about this
academy that you've got going on or the platforms of
how people can you know potentially join and take
advantage of it where should they where should they go i think just send me
an email so you've got one of my email addresses just use my hello at nathankeita.com
(40:43):
just drop me an email and i can go through any bits and pieces that people want
to know about So whether it's the academy we want to go for or the academy for
MJC for the dog grooming, property platform,
if you want to buy a coffee shop, you're welcome to take it off my hands.
But I think the best thing to do is just drop me an email.
You heard it here, guys. You can email Nathan. Yeah, that's something.
(41:06):
That's going to get loads of emails now.
Awesome. I'll put the email as well in the podcast description for everybody
listening so you can reach out to Nathan. Nathan.
Again, thank you so much for joining in and I wish you all the best,
Nathan. Cheers, Sam. It's been a pleasure.
Welcome back to Wise World Podcast, everybody. Thanks for tuning in.
We've got an awesome guest on the show. We've got Nathan Khider.
I'm going to let Nathan introduce himself. I know Nathan for,
I'm going to say quite a few years now.
I know what he does. I don't really know how it got started and what he's really up to now.
All I see is there's so many different avenues that Nathan's gone down through his career.
(00:24):
And I thought it'd be great to get him on the podcast to find out a little bit
more about Nathan. So over to you, Nathan, if you can introduce yourself, that would be great.
Yeah, I'm Nathan Khider or Khider, however you want to pronounce it.
Most people say Khider, Khider, Kinder, whatever you want to say. Exactly.
It's all good. So right now I currently invest in small businesses,
small startup businesses.
(00:45):
I suppose where my journey began was 2005, sorry, 2004,
set up a property search company acting on behalf of cash rich,
time poor clients buying on behalf of them
properties residential properties in central london and
like i said now i invest in small businesses and yeah
it's been a whirlwind journey as i'm sure you mentioned or
(01:06):
you know about my past about when i became homeless and
was living in the ymca in watford charter place we briefly
touched base on that we we did a podcast that never
ever aired off if i remember rightly but yeah
we we touched base on it but i think it'd be nice
to know a little bit bit more about how that even got started and
how you started your first business so
(01:29):
when i was 20 i think i'm 21 20 maybe
21 22 i can't remember i'm getting old now i noticed
a small gap in the market where tech became part of real estate business in
in london where in terms of we had right move and find a property and as working
in an estate agent myself we would never take the online inquiry seriously so
whenever an online inquiry came through the like came through on on a laptop or computer,
(01:53):
we'll be like, they're not serious buyers. We'd only wait for people to come into the office.
And I saw a small gap in the market in terms of, actually, I could do,
if people are not taking them seriously, my clients have to come into the office.
Why don't I do the searching for them online, find the suitable properties that
these estate agents are advertising them, go view them on behalf of my clients,
arrange all the viewings, have a look at them and get them to offer.
(02:15):
And they were almost seeing properties that are coming on the market market
first before anybody else and getting offers accepted so I did really well from
that and we called it click click investments at the time there was no there
was no limited company there was nothing like that it was literally just you
know checks coming to me or bank transfers coming to me directly.
Did really well. And all of a sudden I started overspending.
(02:39):
So what I mean by that is in property transactions, residential property transactions,
you have two parts to it, exchange and completion.
Exchange, when the exchange is done, it means you're then liable to buy the
property on a certain date.
I started spending all of that money before the properties started exchanging.
So I was spending 150, 200 grand a
(02:59):
year easily without these properties you know exchanging
all of a sudden I go home one day my door's
a lot my car's repossessed everything gone didn't
know what to do was too proud to be telling people
that I've just lost everything and I'm now homeless effectively
so I slept in my car for a few weeks had to
claim job seekers allowance and then went into the YMCA
(03:22):
and I was there for six months and it was a big
culture shock and how how did you get out of that it
was a mindset so there was no no instagram there
was no youtube there was no there was nothing you know there's no audiobooks
to listen to to find inspiration and i struggle with reading so
for me it was like what what can i do every day
on a daily basis where i can get my mindset right
(03:44):
subconsciously thinking about mindset i never knew anything about mindset back
then it was there wasn't there was no such thing about get your mindset right
get motivated it was the culture wasn't like that there was no such thing as
as that back then so it was every day what makes me feel good on a daily basis
so it It was exercise, training.
Trying to keep my spirits high, trying to have small relationships with people
(04:06):
in the YMCA, people that were sane at the time.
Because there was a big mix of personalities in there from all walks of life.
So you need to pick and choose carefully who you speak to on a daily basis.
And it was literally just getting fit every day. Then it was finding opportunities.
Once I was then ready to move out of there, I sold my car. lucky enough I had
(04:27):
one car which they didn't repossess and it was something I bought for cash,
Back in the day, I sold my car, got a deposit on a flat to rent,
and then got myself a job back in an estate agency, worked for the estate agent for six, seven months.
And then so far, the rest is history, because then I started acting again on
behalf of buyers, doing what I do best, buying properties for clients,
(04:48):
whether it was investments or residential purchases.
Yeah. And then eventually just moved out of it and then started heading up different
agencies, worked for companies like Yopa, worked for Ferrari and Maserati in
the Middle East when property market crashed. When the markets turned in 2008, I took a year out.
Why not? Yeah, I had some really good times.
But getting out of the YMCA was fun. It was fun. Looking back at it,
(05:14):
it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.
You always seem like a very happy
person. And I know you've got a lot on your plate and a lot going on.
If you could just reel out what businesses you're owner of now,
maybe not day-to-day manager,
maybe go with what you own and then what you
actually manage day to day because i'm in i'm intrigued to know
what your actual schedule is because all i see is on
(05:37):
instagram all i see is on instagram is you moaning about
a bicycle guy or someone cutting you up or a vegan or or some football team
and i'm like he's always on the go and it looks like you're going to house viewings
but i don't know is that all you're doing or is there more to it so i currently
own so i'll go back say sort of seven, eight years.
(05:59):
So I set up a company called PT Workspace, which is a gym based around helping
personal trainers grow their own businesses by giving affordable rent based
on an hourly basis, as opposed to paying a monthly rent,
which they had to stick by, which is in London, it's more than their rent.
Personal trainers, when they're starting out, don't earn an absolute fortune
and they're stuck in these big gyms by paying 12, 1300 quid a month rent.
(06:23):
So I thought I'd change the model a little bit and do a rental business,
which I think I showed I showed you once when you came over,
I think I showed you the gym.
Sold that just before covid got out of
it set up another one so where it
starts again i set up another one with my business partner nick
so it's another gym just around the corner from there
i opened a coffee shop called your coffee hub and then opened
(06:44):
three of those in six months in hindsight is the worst thing
i've ever done um but yeah it's
a really tricky business coffee shops is really tricky unless you're working
in them every single day it's a tough business to be what else we've got mon
jolly shen which is a dog room as we set up a dog room as a year ago pretty
much this month a year ago a year yeah a year ago this month and we were featured
(07:05):
in the times as one of the best london luxury dog groomers just done a collaboration
with mark jacobs yesterday,
got so got the dog groomers i've got nathan k real estate i invested in i invested
in a company called agent and home which is a property platform for agents to grow their business.
What else is there goat property platform so agent homes is now changing we're
moving into to GOAT or Red Orange, which is we're building our own tech built
(07:28):
by, you know, with a corporation of AI and it's our own tech and it's our own property platform.
A lot of the property platforms at the moment out there like Keller Williams,
eXp, not to name all of them, but as an example, they have external tech.
They contract out their tech and we would rather build our own so then we can
license it out to anyone that wants to build their own platform, basically.
(07:51):
So we're in the process of doing that now. and it's
quite interesting because i know nothing about ai i don't know how it works but
i'm learning day by day but yet
effectively we're looking to yet build
our own tech and roll out a big big property platform probably
in about a year's time and these predictions that you
well i don't even know where to start so you do still you
(08:12):
still run the coffee shops or are you saying it was a bad idea just in
general still still got the coffee shop so they
went viral in so they went about a about
a year ago with the kona which is basically a coffee
and a donut and how it came about i invested in a pizza shop
called mutts nuts pizzas and donuts and
we did quite well we actually supplied donuts to google a few a
(08:33):
few times it was really good so what happened was
the the guy that andy who made the made the donuts threw
away one of the donuts because it was wrong was like that's such a waste of
a donut what could we do with that and i one day i
just cut it out and I put a coffee in it just
to see what would happen obviously just soak through and it
was like you need a barrier like what could we use it's like what about like
(08:54):
Nutella or Bistro so put Nutella in it then put a
coffee in it and then tried to drink it spilled everywhere then we cut it out
properly made the donuts a little bit bigger filled it with Nutella then put
a coffee then had a straw to drink the coffee through and all of a sudden this
thing went viral like 20 million views there was people queuing all the way
down the street for an hour and a half coming coming from Paris,
(09:14):
New York, Canada, India, everywhere. They'll come from all around the world to try this tone-up.
The thing with Instagram and pipes, they don't last long.
So you need to be, you know, you need to come up with really good ideas consistently
to keep that momentum going.
Yeah. So in terms of coffee shops, I'm still running the, I've still got the
coffee shops, hard work.
As soon as you've got staff that are not paid the most amount of money,
(09:39):
if they get offered a job for a pound extra an hour, one pound 50 extra an hour, they leave.
And in a business where you're not involved every single
day and you're not around every single day as soon as
staff don't turn up you're in big trouble because you've got
wasted you've got supplies to pay for you've got still got staff to pay for
rent rates etc so for me now looking back at that business it's definitely something
(10:01):
i want to wind down and close as much as i really enjoy it and there's a really
good markup on coffee when you start serving food coffee and becoming having
coffee shops where people go to eat.
Yeah, you need to be involved every single day to stop the wastage.
So we've got a new concept coming back later on.
Have you ever had to rock up and do a full day shift in one of the coffee shops?
(10:23):
Yeah, when we first opened, I did a full day shift.
So it's like you're just getting a message like, mate, two staff off today.
No one's going to be at this coffee shop. And you're like, great.
I'd rather close the shop.
I've never done that. I've only been there when we first opened with our staff.
I could never turn up to the shop. I'd poison somebody and then I'd be an absolute...
(10:45):
I'd rather just close the shop for the day and lose the money.
Oh, I would love to have come that day.
He's running it. Let's just see how many GG Vegan Donuts.
Absolutely not we did actually do you know what right we
we did we did you know so many people were messaging us
on instagram and there was thousands of messages we had to get somebody to
run our instagram account for us at the time because it was just too much to handle and
(11:08):
she kept saying to me nathan everyone's asking for vegan donuts i'm not doing
vegan donuts anyway we had to we did vegan donuts guess how many people came
like less than 20 less than 20 what a waste of time and money and energy so
yeah we binned off the vegan donuts nuts, binned off all the stuff that they wanted. Yeah.
Not worth it. Crazy how quick it went viral and how you just had a huge influx.
(11:31):
How many people do you think actually turned up to come and get that viral donut slash coffee?
We actually worked it out. I think we sold something like 10,000.
Fuck. That is a lot. It was a lot. We did really, really well.
And I'm sorry. How does it die down? I would have thought you would have got
more people coming and been like, right, need to go get that.
That's the place to go in London.
(11:51):
People still go and get the coat. you can still go and get a Kona,
but it's, it's, there's just not as many as they used to be.
I mean, it's not, you can only have it once or twice. It's not something that
you could probably have every day. You know, it's definitely like you've had
it once, you've had it twice, you're done.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So yeah. It's a one hit wonder. Yeah. Soon,
soon wears off sort of thing.
It's bloody cool that that came about. Nice idea, I suppose.
(12:14):
So you're looking to wind that down and now you're moving to focus on more property platforms.
Well, these sort of like from an idea, just for talking to someone that doesn't
understand property platforms is this something that's like going to compete
with the likes of Zoopla or.
Things like that no no more the EXP Keller Williams so it's more about helping
(12:34):
agents grow their businesses but in a,
in a way where they're building their own brand. So the problem I see at the
moment in the market, in that particular space, agents aren't able to grow their
own brands. They're growing the brand above the door.
And I would rather help agents build their own business and grow their own brands in their local area.
(12:55):
And the reason why that is because at some point, they'll all want to leave their platform.
We don't want them to leave our platform. We want them to stay and add the value
and the value is actually helping them build their own business and their own brand.
Forget about our own brand. We want to build their brand.
So the platform is based around building their own brands because I've noticed
(13:15):
it with Agent and Homes, Keller Williams, EXP, all of these agents, they all want to leave.
Once they get a bit too big, they're thinking, why am I giving you 25,
30% to grow your brand instead of my own?
And then all of a sudden they they get stuck there. The problem is with starting
your own business in property is the portals that people use,
like Rightmove, Zoopla on the market, they're really expensive.
(13:37):
You're looking at sort of three to four grand a month before you've even started. Wow.
That's, yeah, it's a big outlay. So you can imagine how many deals you'd need
to do, how much pipeline you'd need to have, how many clients you'd need to have in your black book.
But yeah, that's something that we're trying to eliminate.
So instead of being an EXP or
Keller Williams. We want to grow our own platform by using our own tech.
(13:58):
I'm surprised no one's tried competing with the likes of Zoopla and Rightmove.
They try to, but the problem is the outreach. So if you speak to nine times
out of 10, if you ask somebody what property platform they would use to look
for search and properties, they'd say Rightmove.
As in, it's a household name. It's ingrained in everybody and it's part of their DNA.
A lot of the younger generation from rentals, for instance, are using Zoopla.
(14:23):
So I find a lot of the first-time buyers also use Zoopla.
So Zoopla and Rightmove, you've got the likes of On The Market,
but I've got On The Market in my agency.
No one ever uses it. I get very few inquiries from On The Market.
So Rightmove and Zoopla, big players, and it's going to be very hard to move that.
I always find On The Market is more like your Scotland country sort of manners.
(14:49):
I wouldn't use On The Market really to look at London.
But yeah, I think for like Scotland and out in the sticks, I've always sort
of, I've seen, I've seen on there. It's quite, quite good. We've got some good stock.
Yeah, it's a bit weird, isn't it? I suppose it's just based on what regional
areas focus on what sort of.
It depends on the agents on what they feel they're going to get benefit from their portal.
(15:13):
If they feel that they've got a good, you know, if they feel like Prince of
Scotland or in the north, lots of people using on the market,
then all the agents will have on the market.
But all agent, most big agent should have all three portal.
If you want to make sure you get the right inquiries, the right buyers to the
door, you need all three portal and all three portals cost money.
Yeah and so from your your experience you think are
(15:35):
you seeing a lot more people wanting to do this on their
own rather than grown saying like uh another person's brand basically do you
think that there's there's a huge gap there i suppose you'll see do i was you
wouldn't be investing in it i think there's always been a gap there and i think
the u.s market did have done it really really well because obviously you have
a broker that buys and sells on behalf of you and they They all work independently,
(15:58):
self-employed, under an umbrella for a brand,
whether it be Remax or Century 21 or Keller Williams, whoever it might be.
There are big property platforms for them to tap into, and that's how they use their brokerage.
But it came to the UK, I'd probably say 2005 with Remax. Remax did a similar
thing, but it just couldn't get the branding right.
(16:19):
And I've noticed it since, especially since COVID, where people want to work
from homes, agents that are currently working for large corporate estate agents
don't want to be stuck in the office from nine to five.
And that have got a decent clientele where people go back to them,
you know, they do have repeat business and pick up their mobile phone and call
them and say, I want you to sell or help me buy.
Those are the sort of agents that are now wanting to start their own business
(16:41):
so they can have more time with their family, earn more money.
But ultimately, you've still got to work hard. You've got to go out and do the
hard work by door knocking, speak to your clients, networking,
asking for referrals. It's tough.
It's not easy. And I think if you've only got a few years experience,
I'd probably say stay away from it and go learn your trade in an estate agent,
(17:04):
build up a good client portfolio, and then leave and start your own business.
Are you a one-man band in that business?
Yeah. So in terms of Nathan K k real estate just me
so i didn't even want it to be an
estate agent that's the thing so nathan k real estate is all
about property search and that's all we do and that's all we've ever
focused on however when i opened an
(17:25):
office on my street because i don't like to travel too far for
my work right i wanted everything close to me so i can always be around i got
the shop i got my i got the shop on my street and it it turned into an estate
agent just by accident i didn't want it to but all of a sudden the local clients
walk in and go Nathan oh can you sell my two million pound house you're never
going to turn down away a 35 40 grand fee it's never going to happen,
(17:48):
so I'm like okay fine and all of a sudden this search agent this property buyer
all of a sudden turns into a local estate agent so I've got a local estate agents
now which focus I've got 28 properties in in my area which is more than some
of the agents that have been in it for 25 years It's crazy,
but I'm not complaining.
So I do need somebody to come and help me. So we are currently hiring for a negotiator, but.
(18:13):
It's finding the right people that want to do the job. Do you think that they're coming more to you?
Because I've always thought this, like when there's a face behind the brand,
like yourself, they see you, they see your name above the shop.
So they know that they're talking to you. Whereas when they go somewhere else,
it's like you said, it's lots of different people working for a name above a door.
Yeah. And no disrespect to the high street estate agents. I mean,
(18:35):
someone selling, you know, their biggest asset doesn't want some little spotty kid.
Driving around in a company car, probably lives at home with his mom and dad
there's nothing wrong with that, but they don't want someone in a shiny suit
turning up to sell their house and they've never bought or sold before.
Why would you want somebody acting on behalf of your biggest asset that doesn't
know what they're talking about?
I've been there, I've done it. I was that agent once upon a time and I've got
(18:58):
my trade and I've got my stripes.
And I am where I am today because I've currently worked hard for it.
But yes, people come to me because they say, actually, Nathan,
you've been doing it for 20 years.
I know what you're about. I'd rather you look after it because I know that you're
going to be dealing with it.
But that's what they pay for so my fees are very
set i'm really strict about how
i do my business so for instance with property searching somebody came
(19:20):
in on thursday or friday of last week
said oh i can do property searching i've seen your reviews they're great can
we discuss my property search i said no he's like why i
said before we have any conversation about me trying
to find you an investment or going through my book of properties
for you to buy you're going to pay my invoice and
he's like what do you mean i said we have a i charge 1500 pounds
(19:41):
just to have that conversation that fit
that obviously 1500 pounds is a retainer fee it goes towards their success fee
but i'm not you know i have a very strict way of working and people respect
that because i can't waste my time with people that say i want to buy a property
i want to buy a property you start a search for them and they say i'll change
my mind so before i get involved in in conversations you You pay my invoice.
(20:03):
My fees are set out on my leaflets. It's don't like it, don't use me.
There's no negotiating.
There's no discussions about my fees.
It is what it is. So, but people respect that. Do you think,
is that a completely different approach then to your competitors?
Yeah, a lot of agents that I know, they drop their pants as quickly.
You know, as soon as somebody says, oh, another agent's doing this,
(20:25):
they'll match it straight away.
How can you, if you can't justify and negotiate your own fee,
How can you negotiate the best price for your client's house?
These are negotiators. And all of a sudden, yeah, I'll drop the price. Well, hold on.
That's your money. What about my money when it comes to getting an offer on
my house? How are you going to negotiate with buyers?
(20:46):
It's different. And they'll go, it's different. It's different.
It's not different. You're willing to give away your own cash.
Do you think you're going to care about mine?
So for me, it's like, no, I negotiate hard. I work hard.
But the high street agents, they drop their pants quickly because there's so
much competition. But hold your nerve.
Because they've asked you to go in there for a reason. So be confident in what
you do. Trust the process.
(21:07):
Demonstrate you're good at what you are good at and go from there.
When you're talking about that sort of experience with youngsters coming in
to sell your property, I remember when I was selling one of my properties and
this 20-year-old person came in.
I won't say if it was a guy or a girl. They came in and they took their shoes
off to walk around the property to have a look and familiarize themselves with it.
(21:27):
And their feet absolutely stunk and
i was just like i would rather i'd muddled
my carpets it was that bad i was sitting there thinking this person
ain't selling anything if you're rocking around with those sorts
i wasn't even close i was like that
is ridiculous anyway yeah i
(21:47):
was sitting there thinking this can't be actually legit you know
as in it's good you've got to have an issue you or something walking around
with stinky i was like no especially if
it lingers that's pretty it's pretty
interesting i think i've like i said i've always taken my hat
off to you and what you do in business i think it's pretty pretty astonishing what
you're doing and i think like you bring a comical aspect to
(22:10):
it one question i do have do you think that some of your customers that
you are representing follow and
watch your stories on social media and have
you ever had any you kick back or criticism from some of
the stuff that you're saying on there yeah so uh there's.
A client that followed let's say there's a client that followed i'm going
to go buy a recent something that recently happened so
(22:32):
a client follows me i'm selling his flat around the corner because he's buying
something through me so i'm acting for him as a on the purchase and i'm also
selling his property and i had a few viewings booked in and someone was was
running late and they told me at at the time that they were supposed to be there, I said.
I'm going to give you three minutes to be here. Unless you're not here, I'm off.
(22:54):
And he's like, you won't. I said, I'm leaving. I will not be here.
You can turn up whenever you like, but I will not be here.
And the client saw it and laughed. But ultimately, look, this is someone going
to view his house to buy and he needs to sell it.
But he just laughed at the comment because it's my time. I don't care if I'm
selling someone's house or not.
(23:16):
It's my time. And then if I'm late for my next client, that can't happen.
I can't stand people with bad punctuality.
And that all stemmed from back when I was late for a job and I nearly got fired
from it. And it really shit me up. Sorry for my language.
And yeah, it really scared me. And from then I've never been late.
I mean, of course things happen, but I always leave early.
(23:38):
I'm always on, I'm never late, always on time.
So look, if people don't like it, don't use me. me. I am who I am and I'm not
going to change for anyone. It is. I am who I am.
I suppose from a client side, it just doesn't show. It means like you are a
person clearly ain't serious about buying it.
If they're turning up late and not, you know, giving me last minute notice. But I suppose from a.
(24:01):
From a client base, I'm just surprised you haven't had anybody leave a negative
review and like the guy was so rude.
I was three minutes late and disappeared. Have you not had any of that?
Yeah, there's a Google review on, so Nathan K real estate, there's a bad Google
review saying do not use rude, unprofessional.
And what happened was I called her, I said, where are you? She said,
(24:22):
I'm running late. I said, I know that because you're not here and we're due to meet.
She said, oh, I didn't know. I was a bit scared. I said, you're a text.
They're saying you're an absolute waste of time do not rebook and
then she put a review on google but i'll leave it there i
don't care i'm not going to remove it i it you cannot
be late for appointments like if you're going to book appointments in
with people turn up or at least give them plenty of notice so they can make
(24:46):
rearrangements or read but i don't mind if people are late or want to reschedule
but give me plenty of notice so whenever you book a viewing through me or my
agency it sends an email saying please these arrive on time or the viewing will be canceled.
Yeah, it's really simple. Yeah. So now we've put that in place just to stop any messes.
So where do you see the housing market going at the moment from an economy perspective?
(25:09):
And how do you see the economy and have you seen it affecting any of your businesses?
Because you're well diversified through sort of dealing with high net wealth individuals.
Then you're diversified from dealing with your day-to-day Joes from the coffee shops.
And then also from grooming as well. Some of these can be seen,
like you said, as a luxury.
(25:29):
And usually during hard times you
see them you know people kicking back on that
and cutting their sort of cost in have you
seen any sort of downturns in the overall market or and depending on the different
ranges of people that you're dealing with i suppose i know to sit so in terms
of different markets i notice it in the coffee shop more where people would
(25:49):
rather maybe not buy that croissant or that cookie or that lunch or that sandwich
or something that goes with it i know to sit more in that market.
In terms of the property market, we're dealing with the higher end of the market.
So there's always liquidity there.
And remember, whenever there's a bad market or a quiet market,
there's always opportunities. And that's the way that I've always looked at
it as well when investing.
(26:10):
So in the property market, it's never about, you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
So forget about the timing. It's about what you buy, not when you buy it.
Okay it's it's a really it's really simple if you buy really well
it doesn't matter of the market it will always that property or
that investment will always do well dog grooming
(26:30):
no i think most of the people people love their dogs
more than they love their kids i promise
you they would rather get their dog groomed and smelling nice than buy their
kid the pair of trainers that they really need i mean and there's very there's
very there's a shortage of good dog groomers in london so we're lucky at MJC
(26:52):
we're fully booked until May.
And so what you just went out hired a dog groomer and was like a couple of dog
groomers yeah we hired a couple of really good dog groomers one's just gone
on the maternity leave so we're absolutely you know,
We were bricking it because we thought, how are we going to replace a really
good manager? She manages a shop, Megan. She's brilliant. But she's now gone on maternity leave.
(27:14):
We found another dog groomer to run the shop.
We've got three full-time people in there at any one stage.
And then we've got part-time staff. So we've got seven people that are in and out of there.
It's a really busy little shop. I think the key thing for us now and how we're
going to diversify and expand and grow would be to create an academy where we
actually train really good dog groomers.
(27:36):
And the reason why i say that is because there are
courses you can go on there are lots of people qualified the problem
with it is they don't know then what to do with it afterwards they don't
know how to set up a business how to set up a brand how
to open a shop so they're lost what do i
do next sorry sorry sorry can
you see see me still yeah yeah just someone was
(27:58):
calling me even though it's on do not disturb sorry so
that's fine we're setting up an academy
where we're going to help people train to be a really good dog
groomer but then also help them grow their business and
effectively maybe take a percentage of that business and oversee everything
help them implement the systems the setup you know and let them understand the
cost actually help them understand how it is what it is and what it takes to
(28:22):
run a company yeah so what you've what you've done is I wouldn't say is an easy thing.
Are you leasing these properties or are you physically going,
do you know what, I'm getting this at a good below market rate through my real
estate contacts and I'm going to buy the building, the building's sat there
as an asset and then I'm going to open my shop in them.
(28:43):
Because like you said, look at your offices now, prime location,
people are walking off the street and giving you lots of listings.
Are you renting, leasing, owning those?
Because You know, because if he was a dog groomer, half of these people wouldn't
even be able to get their foot in the door of getting a good place to get set up.
So I think if you're a start-off, you're better off just leasing them and renting them to start with.
(29:07):
If you can afford to buy it, and if you can afford to... No,
where our shops are, say for instance, this shop here, the building's two and a half million pounds.
The shop at the dog room is, again, two and a half million quid.
My gym, the building there is probably worth about 10 million.
I mean, trying to buy these properties is almost going to be impossible,
and it's not going to be for you.
I think if you i think if somebody if
(29:28):
you could team up with somebody that wants to buy buildings shops and
uppers great but it's finding them that are available at the right
price so i would just say look if you're going to start just rent them like
we have we've rented that shop see how it goes and go from there if we can buy
them if the right price why not but if they're going to be overpriced there's
no point buying them you might as well just rent them so on a monthly basis
(29:49):
then you actually have quite a bit exposure then because if you've got all these coffee shops.
You've got all of these different rentals for
these different properties do you do not do you not feel the
pressure from that on a month-to-month basis no i
don't feel pressure i don't feel pressure i just quite enjoy
what what's the worst that could happen look people are
always fearful and i think when you're when you're fearful you know
(30:11):
what your worst scenario could be people don't
expand or grow or take risks and for me i don't really care what's
the worst that could happen for me i sleep in my car i
go homeless i can always start again like i'm
i'm lucky in the sense that i've not got any children so i've
got no dependents apart from my dog my dog will sleep anywhere and
eat anything so your dog yeah absolutely although she never she never gets groomed
(30:36):
bless her she's been groomed like once in the last three months so it's always
that way right when you whenever you're in that trade you never you never have
you know if you're if you're building your house is falling apart if you're
a mechanic your car's always broken same thing like Like if I ever try and buy
myself a house, it's almost impossible.
But I think with, you know, just being fearless and not worrying about what's
(30:57):
going to happen, just take risks and enjoy it. Just enjoy the process.
And do you know what? When things go wrong, that's when you learn and get stronger.
So I'm always up for things going wrong. Like I quite enjoy it. I enjoy that challenge.
I'm not looking to become a multi-billionaire. I don't need everything to go.
That's not my part. That's not what I'm trying to follow.
But just taking risks and not not
(31:19):
not caring but just seeing what happened yeah
i i don't disagree with you because i'm i'm
a big risk taker myself but i do think that not everybody can do it i think
the common knowledge is actually pretty on the low spectrum at this moment in
time especially from the the sort of younger generations i feel like the education's
(31:40):
just not there and And I had this conversation quite a few times.
I think that the generation where I'm at just below me is probably the last
generation that I think can actually deal with patience and understanding timing
rather than the now society of must get this now.
Even on buying stuff, I don't even understand buy now, pay later.
(32:03):
I'm just like, well, if you can't afford it, why are you buying it?
But that's the whole sort of side of future that we're looking at.
It's all about instant gratification of how they can achieve
and i just think that's gonna that's almost like a nightmare
for building a business because it's like i
think if they're looking for instant gratification then yes but that's
why a lot of them are using tiktok to sell products
(32:24):
and you know you can do it you can go on everyone's trying
to do amazon fba and it's all been done like you
know move away from it there's always something new but
look they're just gonna have have to learn
because they're going to realize not everything is going to come straight away
you've actually got to go and work for it and just manifesting it every day
is just that's not enough you actually have to do something and you have to
(32:47):
make mistakes and you have to fail and you have to suffer a little bit and not
have to go to that meal that you wanted to go to or go on the
friday night binge that you wanted to go all that rave in fact
you know what it's funny i saw a study the other day a lot of the younger generation
don't actually go clubbing anymore yeah a lot of of them tend to go to more
house parties or gigs or festivals maybe once a year so they're probably saving
(33:10):
a few quick because back in my time you know a thursday night at china whites
would cost us about five or ten grand so hence why i became homeless right.
Well, that's, yeah, it's a big thing. There's a lot of clubs are shutting down, aren't they?
They're just like, they're seeing it more from a health side of things rather than that.
But to be honest, I've been seeing a lot more stuff of like the younger generations
are now doing online watch parties.
It's something I don't really sort of fathom, but they sort of sit there.
(33:32):
They all put their headphones on at the same time, watch each other and start the movie on Discord.
And they're all sat there watching the movie in their own homes,
chatting to each other rather than being present with each other. I find that, you know.
Do you know what Sam, right? Do you know what, I always thought the other day,
(33:52):
I would love to try and change that culture and get everyone back together and,
you know, have conversations with each other.
It's never going to change. yeah that is that that is
going to be the new norm for them and i'm so glad i
wasn't born then because i thank god i've lived
the life but if i was younger i would
look to our generation about what we
(34:12):
do and find out why are we so happy
like why why we've had a we've been really lucky
in the generation that we were born in you know tech became a really
like big part of our lives but also it was
remembering people's telephone numbers as a child like
i used to remember remember everyone's like phone house phone number off the
back of my head or it was just such great times like just picking up shit and
(34:36):
eating it as a child and just like rushing like being in the mud and playing
football every day and the lights turn off and you're back home and.
Life was good life was good and i i feel bad
for them but i think if they just ask us for a bit of advice and
what they think they should do they'll learn a lot how do you
think that a kid that's listening to this you
(34:57):
know i say a kid 18 to 20 year old that's listening to
this podcast listen to your story of how you was you know
ymca homeless all the way up to
where you are now multiple businesses what sort
of advice would you give that person to get started started
and you know what sort of useful
tips could they take away i think the first thing is stop
(35:17):
listening to the outside world stop looking for people's
like respect or their opinions you
know other people's opinions of you don't don't matter they don't
put the bread on your table so you have to keep your
circles really small not only by circles like the people
that you really trust and your support and your support network
that really support you that want you you to do well have
(35:39):
them really small like one or two mates that you
absolutely trust and they really want you to do well and you all thrive
together so sort of get a group of you together that you really trust.
Don't forget about the outside world
and what people think if you ask too many
opinions of what you should be doing you'll never
get the answer that you want you've just got to follow
(36:00):
your gut and do what feels right for you if it feels right
go and do it forget about what other people say
and learn from that mistake whether it goes right or it goes wrong
learn from it if it goes right carry on
and you know just carry on until you make make mistakes and just
learn from it but just don't be afraid of making
mistakes and failing because no one
(36:21):
actually cares if you fail and in fact people really
like it when you fail like whenever you're in hospital and
you put it on instagram the amount of messages you get
oh my god are you okay the amount of attention that you get as
soon as you put something good on there no one gives a
shit yeah yes this is the
most truest thing i've actually heard because my office
(36:43):
i obviously you know i moved away from the
uk and then my one
of the units next to my office that we spent so long refurb
and caught fire and then my office is caught fire
and i was only putting a real notification notification
out to be like we won't be answering the phones at.
The office for next week because we can't get in because it's a fire you
(37:04):
know the trainings that we had booked in
person you know unfortunately there's a fire so when you anyway so
i was like we're gonna have to put a notification out so we just we just did
a reel on it and then next you know we've got like 80 000 views in three days
i'm like are you fucking kidding me that you lot are re-watching my office burning
down i was like just goes to show you how much people like negative news over over positive news.
(37:30):
So when I say keep your circles tight and small, it's people that surround,
like whenever I see my best friends doing really well, we always message each
other, love it, congratulations, smash it.
Like even my friend Chris yesterday said, go smash today.
Like you need people around you, even me, you need people around you that support
you, whether it's my wife, my dad, my brother, whatever it might be.
Have a really small network of people around you that support you.
(37:55):
So that's probably the best thing that i'd look for and don't care about
what anybody says forget about publishing your.
Successes because no one cares and no one's gonna like them
you're better off people when i get traction put something really
sad out there and really down and that
you failed and that you're upset and you're miserable and your
traction will go through the roof do you know what
(38:15):
right you speak fucking volumes because i i was getting
so annoyed on social media like uh the days
when i had the fraris and the rolls royce i put those out now everyone
would love that they're like oh fucking supercars la la la
la and i was like right i'm gonna put out some really nice sort of
educational information that can help people learn and get
better it did all right but nowhere near as
(38:36):
good you know i'm talking about so you want to do investments
why not go to do like understand what premium bonds is
something super basic where you can get started and it's
like no viewership i put i put a
video up i'm not joking this this just shows you the proof right and
you can look at this look at my instagram i pinned it at
the top i put a video up of like this 12 year
(38:57):
old kid right drawing a dick pattern on his
trading charts explaining what the sector's
like and then you saw in his search history that this kid was watching
simpsons porn and my video's gone
viral and i've got 750 000 views and i'm
like mate this this world this
world that we live in is is there for the taking and you got to focus on bullshit
(39:19):
in fact it scares me to the point of where i'm like i cannot believe that this
is the world that we've we've moved to where it's like there's all the content.
All the education in the world on the other hand we could watch simpsons porn
and dick pants and that's gonna this is it.
That's gonna drive the traffic but you know that's gonna separate those that
(39:39):
want and ones ones that really don't want, you know, they're the ones that just don't know.
I don't know what their mentality is of looking at that. I can't waste my time
watching that or looking at it. It's great to post it because it's really good for you.
Right. But people love that stuff. I'd rather look at the educational side of
it. Actually, what can I learn from that?
What little golden nugget can I take from that and actually do something with?
(40:00):
It's madness. You're giving away free advice and people don't want to take it.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm just like, well, we've got a million impressions from it.
Out of those million people, there'll be like 200, 300 that actually give a
shit and the rest will carry on watching this instance porn,
you know, the world that we live in.
Anyway it's honestly it's been awesome having you on
(40:21):
the podcast really appreciate all your time and your tips
for everybody that's that's tuning in if people
wanted to find out more about you maybe more about this
academy that you've got going on or the platforms of
how people can you know potentially join and take
advantage of it where should they where should they go i think just send me
an email so you've got one of my email addresses just use my hello at nathankeita.com
(40:43):
just drop me an email and i can go through any bits and pieces that people want
to know about So whether it's the academy we want to go for or the academy for
MJC for the dog grooming, property platform,
if you want to buy a coffee shop, you're welcome to take it off my hands.
But I think the best thing to do is just drop me an email.
You heard it here, guys. You can email Nathan. Yeah, that's something.
(41:06):
That's going to get loads of emails now.
Awesome. I'll put the email as well in the podcast description for everybody
listening so you can reach out to Nathan. Nathan.
Again, thank you so much for joining in and I wish you all the best,
Nathan. Cheers, Sam. It's been a pleasure.
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