A FEW years ago, she was making cups of tea for her male colleagues despite graduating in business management.
Fast-forward to 2024, and Lina Akhtar, from Bedfordshire, is raking in over an eye-watering £10,000 a month – all because she took the plunge and quit her 9-5.
The entrepreneur, 27, is making the astronomical sum thanks to an Airbnb side hustle, which sees her renting out properties that she herself rents from landlords – and pockets the difference.
The savvy woman, who now earns more than £100k a year, graduated from university in 2018 and like many, thought that joining the 9-5 rat race was the only reasonable step.
Lisa, who comes from a second-generation immigrant council household, didn’t have any passions or ambitions back then and imagined that now she’d be working the simple office job until it was time to retire.
Her mum came to the UK as a toddler and got an arranged marriage with Lisa’s father when she was 17 – before giving birth to Lisa three years later, at 20.
Whilst Lisa’s dad was working, her mother ”was a housewife relying on benefits”.
”We kept in an out of relatives’ homes until we got a council house,” said Lisa, who spent her childhood sleeping in a bunk bed with her sister until she moved out at the age of 10.
”We were always in a situation where we could never rub two pennies together,” Lisa said, adding she wasn’t after ”sympathy” – she’s simply aware that ”many others can relate”.
The first job – a small cybersecurity start-up in south London where she did sales – was an hour-and-a-half worth of commuting each way, five days a week.
Reflecting back on the experience in an exclusive chat with Fabulous, Lisa revealed the treatment as the only female in the box-sized room was terrible.
Not only was she expected to run errands, make and deliver tea and coffee, as well as buy fruit from the local shop, she’d also find herself cleaning after the blokes.
It wasn’t long until Lisa realised she couldn’t see herself doing this forever, desperately trying to come up with ways to become her own boss, whether that was a clothing range or writing articles.
Unfortunately, all of these ventures were a flop and the fresh graduate continued to work several dull jobs – once of which also saw the young woman made redundant after telling her manager she needed a chat about her mental health.
All throughout her short-lived career as a university graduate in business management, Lisa also tried her hand at managing other people’s properties.
”Just on the side. I never really did it full-time, I just experimented and dabbled with it on and off.”
By 2022, when COVID-19 lockdowns had finally finished properly, decided to fully shift her focus on the side hustle ”and go all in”.
The rent-to-rent model is when you rent a property long-term from a landlord, then rent the property to tenants, whether they’re tourists or are visiting the area for a long-term job, charging a higher rent.
The profit comes from the difference between what you pay in rent and what you charge others.
According to Lisa, who now manages several properties with this scheme, you will need a ”small capital” to start kickstart the process – around £4k to £6k.
At first, the young woman only had around £3k – and as this wasn’t nowhere near enough, Lisa had to find a way to come up an additional £6k.
The savvy graduate – whose only regret is that she didn’t start the hustle sooner – then started networking with landlords and letting agents.
Whenever there was a property available, she’d refer the property over to an already existing host on Airbnb ”for a bespoke finders’ fee”.
Once she had done this a few times, Lisa had generated an astronomical £10,000 – which was more than what she needed to furnish her own Airbnb.
”A lot of people think that it’s just for tourism – but there are so many different targets,” said Lisa who’s built a trusting relationship with landlords.
”There are contractors who stay there for massive projects and they don’t want to stay in a hotel room […] – or sometimes there are a lot of families.
”They have a leaky roof […] and then they will come and stay over there.”
Although the money was coming in straight away, that didn’t automatically translate to profit – as Lisa was still covering rent and other expenses, before making the decision to quit her full-time job a year later.
”You have to let it run its course for a couple of months just so the profit piles up and then you can get a second property – and when you get to around two or three, that will fully replace your income.”
The rent-to-rent model doesn't come without risks.
Although this model may sound lucrative, there are things to be aware of – such as ending out of pocket if you can’t find a tenent.
During your time looking after the property as a rent-to-rent host, you are responsible for any bills and property maintenance – both of which can quickly rack up.
Those who rent-to-rent must obtain a special permission from their landlord – and failure to do so could lead to a breach of their tenancy agreement.
Although Lisa estimates that she now makes three times more than she did at her previous office jobs, the huge amounts of earnings don’t necessarily tempt her to go on lavish shopping sprees.
Instead, she revealed in the chat, a big chunk of the sum will go towards investing and focussing on ”the long-term effects”.
”I am being very, very careful with it right now.
”People say you can’t really relax until you hit your first million or billion – and that’s why I’m like that, why I can’t relax until I have a lot of pies, not just a few pies.”
Taking a huge gamble a few years ago has paid off, as Lisa now works around ten hours a week – and she achieved the success all on her own, as friends and family were sceptical about the venture.
