In this week’s episode we talk to Lester Philander, a property investor and the founder of Corp Cafe based in Muizenberg, South Africa.
He started his property journey by making an offer on a property in Mitchell’s Plain, but ended up quitting his job to start his business after getting the initial approval but not the final approval, so the process fell through.
A few years later, he and his wife bought their first property to live in Muizenberg and later bought a second property with 3 units on the premises to help family members by renting it out to them. They are now planning to rent that property out to other tenants.
During Covid, he announced that a lot of coffee shops were closing down. So he developed a concept called “rent my restaurant.”
He invested R80,000 into a restaurant, signed a lease and confirmed a lease and then rented out the property to a restaurant owner. The idea was that as a restaurant owner, you would then lease the restaurant with everything in it and you just focus on managing the restaurant and paying them a set fee of R10,000 a month.
The result was great, but he realized that he wanted to make more than R10,000 a month and that Cape Town had more coffee shops per capita than New York City, which means that for a coffee shop to succeed they need to offer a bit more than other coffee shops on the market.
They then started a franchise model (Corp Cafe) where their franchisees can become a hands off restaurant owner (they manage the coffee shops for you), where they buy the franchise for R450,000 and in return Corp Cafe will manage the restaurant and pay the franchisee R10,000 a month (a 24% yield per annum) and reinvest the extra R20,000 profit and leave it in the business bank account for the franchisee to use at a later date.
They currently have 10 stores open and they plan to set up two stores every single month from now on.
This is a really incredible episode.
Episode 99: What happens when one discovers that property investing is not for you
Episode 98: Building a property portfolio using predominantly cash
Episode 97: Growing a property portfolio using different investment strategies
Episode 96: How to build an international property portfolio as an African
Episode 95: How Commercial Property Management is being changed by Covid
Episode 94: Life- changing lessons for building a successful property investment portfolio
Episode 93: How to ensure that the wealth you build through real estate is passed down from generation to generation
Episode 92: How to build 21 units in 2 years using other people‘s money
Episode 90: Formalizing & digitizing the back room market in South Africa
Episode 89: How to grow a property from scratch during the pandemic
Episode 88: How home staging can help you sell/rent your property faster
Episode 87: Identifying real estate investment opportunities in Nigeria
Episode 86: How to improve your credit score & grow your portfolio with bank money
Episode 85: How to accelerate the growth of your portfolio by buying properties cash
Episode 84: How to invest for appreciation and cashflow
Episode 83: Building a profitable portfolio of 12 short term rentals at the age of 23
Bonus Episode: How to own property in South Africa without Bank Funding
Episode 82: How to make money from flipping houses as a newbie property investor
Episode 81: Understanding additional costs in buying property & what makes a property a good buy
Episode 80: How the podcast has turned ordinary folk into Property Magicians - a chat with our listeners
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