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 61: How to do deal analysis and mitigate risk in real estate
Episode 60: Using village land to solve the problems of poverty
Episode 59: Using other people’s money to grow to 70 properties
Episode 58: Why you need a Quantity Surveyor on your next property investment project
Episode 57: From Fitness Trainer to negotiating a R1 billion (US$61 million) property deal
Episode 56: Profiting from rent to rent on the African continent
Episode 55: From a mud house to building dream houses
Episode 54: Overcoming addiction to own 35 properties
Episode 53: Why it is important to get your mindset right before you start off on your investment journey
Episode 52: How the #PropertyMagicians podcast has impacted listeners and guests
Episode 51: How to make a profit in 6 months flipping (buy, renovate and sell) houses using other people's money
Episode 50: Lessons learned from having your properties being auctioned and rebuilding a bigger portfolio during a recession
Episode 49: How to make money flipping properties and invest in property with your taxes
Episode 48: A high return property investment opportunity for the busy investor
Episode 47: Real Estate investing trends in Suriname
Episode 46: From growing up in a tin house to a 380 unit development by the age of 27
Episode 45: Exploring high cashflowing properties in the Cape Town ekasi market
Episode 44: From cleaner to building an international company
Episode 43: An inspirational 8 year journey to developing 14 units
Episode 42: Lessons learned from making R1 Million by 21
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Commercial Edge: Unleash the Power of People
The emPOWERed Half Hour
Aligned Money Show
Dubai Property Podcast
IBKR Podcasts
The Ramsey Show
The Clark Howard Podcast