In 2014, with hardly any experience, James Murphy started his property investment journey with two properties he didn’t own.
Murphy and his wife Stephanie knew they had to make a change; their growing family was stretching their finances and they wanted to find a way to supplement their income that didn’t take them away from their kids and loved ones, but still offered the flexibility and worry-free lifestyle any parent of young children craves. When they came across the concept of being able to leverage properties they didn’t own by leasing properties through landlords and upgrading the lodgings themselves, they felt they had found an answer.
In three months, the Murphy’s investments yielded more than their combined household income, enabling them to scale their venture and develop over six million pounds of property they already own, all while leading an expert team of United Kingdom-based staff.
Now, Murphy is determined to train others to follow in his footsteps. Through property investment training, coaching, and mentorship, his Property Scale Up Accelerator teaches participants how to grow a property business and portfolio without owning any property.
“It was a massive wake-up call for us”
“We started off with 5,000 pounds*,” Murphy said. “We leased apartments from landlords and turned them into service apartments, charging more on a nightly basis and then paid what we needed to pay to the landlord. That was the basic principle.”
Without any investors, this was a risky gamble; Murphy was putting up his family’s money as an investment in this venture, not even sure if it would pay off.
“We’ve never had any investment funding,” he said. “We never seeded the growth of the business. We just put 5,000 pounds* down and acquired a couple of properties. Then later we acquired another four, and then we managed to convince [the landlord] to give us the whole block.”
Out of those investments alone, Murphy and his wife were bringing in between 6,000 and 10,000 pounds* a month. This was a welcome surprise to Murphy, who never dreamed such a small venture with very little backing could make such an impact.
“All of a sudden, we’re earning more than our entire combined household income,” he said. “And we did it in three months. It was a massive wake-up call for us.”
“I started where you are.”
That initial momentum made it easy for Murphy to scale the venture. Through their company Opulent Living, they grew their portfolio to 100 properties in the 2019-2020 year and either rented rooms to individuals for an amount greater than the total rent or rented entire properties as a serviced accommodation or apartment on a night-by-night basis.
Murphy’s risks paid off even as the entire world confronted the COVID-19 pandemic. From April 2020 to April 2021, Opulent Living continued to grow; Murphy successfully doubled the business’s portfolio and expanded the company’s in-house staff to over 50 full-time employees.
After seeing his own property investment business find success, it was all-too-natural for Murphy to begin thinking about how he could pay his fortune, knowledge and experience forward.
Last year, Murphy started the Property Scale Up Accelerator, an online program and community both centered around growing participant’s property business and portfolio. No matter participants’ experience level, knowledge base, financial status, or property strategy, Murphy aims to take his experience – as well as that of the Opulent Living team – and leverage it for the good of others who want to savor the same success he has.
“We went from 0 properties with no experience, to 9 in about 11 weeks”, says Stephen Pearce, a student of the Property Scale Up Accelerator course. “It’s a great bunch of people, it’s a great atmosphere to learn in.”
“I want to show other people how we produce revenue from property strategies that aren’t traditional methods,” Murphy said. “This new way of doing things yielded us ten times the results that you get from older traditional methods. There’s nothing wrong with trying a new method, a new way, and I want to help other people do that and make a better pathway for their family.” For people ready to kick-start their property business and improve their portfolio, check out James’ innovative and results-driven program here.
*current Pound sterling to USD conversion: 1 Pound sterling = 1.42 USD
James Murphy, Business Coach and CEO of Opulent Living Companies, strives to offer opportunities for real estate businesses to secure 3-5 year rental agreements. His vision is to offer short-term accommodations that compete with the best in service, design, and comfort. James is also devoted to eliminating all of the stress of renting a property and improving profits for the property manager. For more information, please visit https://jameszmurphy.com/