Lymm man earning £20k a month after going on The Eviction

Now, just a year later, he says that severe blow to his pride was the silver lining in the Covid cloud.

Lawton Hopwood, 32, is banking £20,000-£25,000 a month from selling property deals alone. And he says that is just the tip of the iceberg. He has set up his own company, Hopwood Homes, and also become a property developer involved in multi-million pound deals.

How Covid impacted his life

Up until spring last year the former Sale man was enjoying a good life with his partner Rachel and young son Mason. He had a well-paid job as a project manager with a large construction firm, a company car and lived in a nice house in Lymm.

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But suddenly along came Covid, unemployment and insecurity. He says June 2020 was a ‘nightmare of a month’ which destroyed his income and self-esteem.

“I couldn’t bring myself to tell anyone I’d lost my job other than Rachel. I just couldn’t bear the thought of having somebody put their arm around my back and say ‘it’s alright Lawton you’ll find your feet again’. ‘You’ll get another job.'

“I needed someone to say ‘look Lawton this is your big chance now. You’ve got a moment to sink or swim. You can change your life if you do something’. That was the voice I had in my head," he said.

“My heart just fell. I was afraid of losing my home and my relationship, but I knew I needed to take action straight away.”

Moving on up on the ladder

Lawton, who was brought up by a single mum on a Sale council estate, decided to turn to property as it was something he had always been interested in.

“As a youngster I was always drawing houses and wanted to be an architect,” he explained.

“Nobody in my family has ever been entrepreneurial and everybody worked for an hourly rate.

“Looking back, I think I was a natural businessman. As a kid I used to print out Pokémon posters on the school printers and sell them to other pupils.”

Within minutes of telling his partner he was unemployed, Lawton had opened his laptop and paid £1 for a week-long trial of an online property training course.

During the next seven days he studied hours of educational videos making notes from early morning to late at night.

The lucky break

Then he got the ‘luckiest break’ of his life. He applied to take part in a national competition for aspiring property entrepreneurs called The Eviction.

Lawton (right) pictured on his life-changing Financial Freedom Challenge with his property guru, Samuel Leeds

The Apprentice-style contest is organised nationally by property investor and trainer Samuel Leeds whose videos he had been studying online. Leeds left school at the age of 16 and was a millionaire in his early 20s through property investing. He now also heads up Property Investors, the biggest training school of its kind in the UK.

Lawton was gutted when he was not selected, but he got a second chance – and all because of the pandemic which ironically had just cost him his job.

The Eviction attracts hundreds of applicants but because of the coronavirus pandemic several of the 12 candidates chosen had dropped out.

“I said yes straight away, count me in. The only other thing is it starts tomorrow – yes, I’m in. Oh, just one more thing it’s in London. I said yes, I’ll see you there. Send me the address."

The contestants were required to complete some training first, but several were quickly shown the exit door.

During the contest Lawton ended up netting six property deals and sold one of the options he secured to another constant.

That contestant was Evans Willie who was jointly named a winner with Lawton and David Eccles, a budding entrepreneur from Ireland. The prize for each of them was spending a week with Samuel on one of his Financial Freedom Challenges in which he attempted to help people become financially independent within seven days.

The next step

If The Eviction was hard work, the freedom challenge was even harder, says Lawton. He also got to see first-hand the work ethic of Property Investors’ founder.

“From the morning we woke up, to when we went to bed, I could see how switched on Samuel was. Everything he was doing on his phone was laser focused to his business and creating opportunity. I realised that was exactly how I needed to be to be successful,” he said.

In just seven days the Financial Freedom Challenge netted Lawton £11,000 in commissions from packaging and selling investment opportunities in the housing market.

He also secured some deals himself. One of them was a no-money-down scheme to build six houses on land near his home. It is being funded with development finance and will make him six figures ‘easy’ when completed, he says.

“I’ve always wanted to build luxury homes with beautiful sea or river views. I love architecture and I love the build. I’ve been a project manager and helped build skyscrapers. I’ve got a good understanding of the industry.

“So, when Samuel said come down to the development course, this was my jam because my end goal has always been to become a developer.”

Lawton’s ambition is to complete three to four developments a year, while also continuing with his deal sourcing.

“I am nothing more than just a typical northern lad. This life has changed me for the better. One thing I have been able to do during the pandemic is get work for several of my mates who were on the same plumbing course as me. That makes me feel good.”

“One of the biggest highs for me was when I overheard my son at rugby talk to his little mate and say my dad’s a property investor and he builds houses. I thought that’s why I do it."