I failed school & was so skint I had ‘Nick’ trainers… now I’m the Alan Sugar of property & flog mansions to billionaires
HE’S the ‘Essex boy’ who went from leaving school without a single GCSE and flogging double-glazing to selling mega mansions to the rich and famous.
Daniel McPeake, 48, heads up the UK arm of one of the world’s fastest-growing elite real estate companies.
And he’s been dubbed the ‘Alan Sugar of property’ ahead of starring in a new BBC Two reality show Crazy Rich Agents, in which he puts wannabe high-end estate agents through their paces, teaching them what it takes to be successful.
It’s a far cry from Daniel’s humble beginnings growing up in tower block in Woodford, East London, where his struggling single mum worked multiple jobs to keep the family afloat.
He tells The Sun: “Life was tough but not in a way where I thought, ‘This is horrible,’ because I knew no different.
“I accepted it and it encouraged me to work even harder so I could change things in my life and make it different for my kids in the future.
“I would love to be the next Alan Sugar. I think he’s a genius, loaded and someone I look up to. I see the same determination he had racing around selling car aerial radios in myself.”
Daniel – the UK Director for Nest Seekers International, whose most successful agents rake in a whopping £6.3million a year – left school at 15.
He struggled academically due to being dyslexic and believes “tough teaching methods” back then didn’t help his self-confidence.
He says: “In the late Seventies and early Eighties, you literally had a chalkboard eraser threw at you if you couldn’t spell and so for me that was pretty much all of the time.
“I was terrible at reading and writing too. Even today I have to ask my business partner to explain words I don’t understand and thank God I can use a PC to help me write.”
Daniel claims teachers had such little faith in him that his mum had to fork out a £14 deposit for his GCSE exams to make sure he sat them.
He says that was “a hell of a lot of money back then”, especially for his mum who juggled multiple jobs to make ends meet – including peddling cockles and winkles from a pram around the local pubs on weekends.
Daniel recalls: “I was cheeky to the point where, when I was told my geography exam was three hours long, I said, ‘There’s no way I’m sitting here for three hours.’
“My headteacher told me, ‘Just sign your name on the top of the paper and go so your mum can get her money back’.”
I would love to be the next Alan Sugar. I think he’s a genius, loaded and someone I look up to
Daniel McPeake
Daniel says he was mocked at school because his mum couldn’t afford to buy him trendy branded gear.
“I really wanted a pair of Nike trainers but knew that was never going to happen,” Daniel recalls.
“Then one day my mum came home and was really happy because she bought me some.
“But instead of saying Nike, they said ‘Nick’ on them. I didn’t have the heart to tell her they were wrong and really bad.
“I remember going into the school playground knowing my trainers were s*** and that I would get completely mocked by everyone.”
Daniel’s entrepreneurial spirit was inspired by his mum’s cassette tapes of American salesmen trainers, which he listened to from the age of 10.
“I was hooked,” he says. “I would play them again and again. While my friends were into music, I listened to American sales trainers to learn how people tick and was desperate to find out more about making money.”
Daniel worked a number of jobs when he left school including as a newspaper editorial assistant, car washer and window cleaner.
Eventually he found his calling in sales aged 19, initially flogging double-glazing.
He says the streets and people’s doorsteps were “his university” because it helped him hone his valuable sales techniques.
At his peak he was earning £800-a-month, which was “off-the-wall money for the time”.
I really wanted a pair of Nike trainers but knew that was never going to happen. Then one day my mum came home and was really happy because she bought me some – but instead of saying Nike they said ‘Nick’
Daniel McPeake
At 21, Daniel got a job as an estate agent after being told by a friend that the company would give him a car.
He says: “I was an Essex boy and there was no other reason to work for them apart from the fact that they would give me a brand new Volkswagen Golf GTI, and I didn’t have one.”
Daniel’s star was on the rise, but he was bothered by the public’s negative perception of estate agents.
“I tried to work out why everyone hated them,” he says. “I travelled to places like Hong Kong and Singapore to find out what was different there.”
Daniel came up with the idea of a “person-led” sales approach, based on the US model. He says real estate agents there typically don’t earn a salary, but get 70 per cent commission from each sale.
Meanwhile UK estate agents receive what Daniel describes as “a pathetic salary” and commission of between 10 and 15 per cent.
Ballsy proposal
In 2014, after watching the show Million Dollar Listing, Daniel contacted the man behind it – US property kingpin Eddie Shapiro, CEO of Nest Seekers International.
He bombarded him with messages for a year to try to convince him to launch a UK branch.
Then one night, while out with friends, he gave Eddie an ultimatum.
Daniel recalls: “I was a bit p****d and I said, ‘Look are you going to get your balls out and do this or not?’ and he said, ‘Yeah’.
“So that night I got on a flight from Heathrow to JFK airport and waited outside his offices. When he arrived I said, ‘I’m the crazy English guy you’ve been speaking to about real estate’.”
The gamble paid off as after years of testing the market, Daniel opened the UK arm of Nest Seekers in 2020, which he believes has disrupted the industry.
I’m at the level where it’s regular for people to invite me to look at £5m to £10m properties before they are thinking of putting it on the market
Daniel McPeake
Since joining he’s dealt with wealthy clients, including celebrities, who are usually keen to keep sales and purchases private.
“I’ve been involved in the sale of the most expensive property in Los Angeles and dealt with properties just outside central London that were on the market for more than £75million,” he says.
“I’m at the level where it’s regular for people to invite me to look at £5m to £10m properties before they are thinking of putting it on the market.”
Daniel – who refuses to reveal whether he too is a millionaire – says the biggest reward is his ability to travel, buy motorbikes and work to his own schedule.
He adds: “Money allows me to have freedom. I can tell people, ‘Go away, I don’t want you to speak to you today,’ and know they will wait – often I do speak to them that same day.”
No Selling Sunset
While comparisons have been drawn, Daniel insists his new show Crazy Rich Agents is nothing like the Netflix smash hit Selling Sunset.
He says: “Selling Sunset has a whiff of bullshit – it’s a reality show with fantastic, beautiful people in mini-skirts showing penthouses.
“But there’s nothing underneath the bonnet, nothing to show people how to do it or what’s going on in real estate – it’s a complete farce.
“That’s not the show we wanted to make. This is not LA, this is London. It’s cold, it’s rainy and you’ve got to get the Tube.
“They may be talking about million-pound homes but then go back to sleep on their sister’s sofa – that is the actual reality.”
Even with this new show and his successful career, Daniel still feels he has something to prove and has no intention of slowing down.
“The thought of not pushing, fighting and trying to make a difference feels like an insult to everything I’ve learned up to this day,” he says.
“Even when I try to sit back and think, ‘Ok, this is on track, this is good’ I can’t help wonder, ‘But how do I make it better?’”
Crazy Rich Agents: Selling Dream Homes starts at 9pm on Sunday 6 August on BBC Two and is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.