Thursday 26 October 2023

THE TOP FIVE BOOKS I’VE READ

THE TOP FIVE BOOKS I’VE READ… in the last few years, of a self-development nature, although two of them were audiobooks I listened to but I’m still counting them…

Well, the title pretty much tells you what this blog is about!

I'm so old now, I have to wear my glasses to read...

I’ve always been an avid reader, but I switched from fiction to self-development books when I started my property career.

I meticulously log the titles of all the books I read, but it was only in January 2021 that I started grades for each book, giving each one a mark out of 5.

So this is how I can easily pick out the best I’ve read to share with you. Well, from the ones since I started grading them that is!

So here we go, in no particular order:

1.     Happy Sexy Millionaire by Steven Bartlett

An audiobook, which I listened to the majority of whilst driving to and from Birmingham earlier this year. I like authentic storytelling of genuine hardship childhood stories, mixed with no nonsense fluff, so this was good for me.

Here’s the tinterweb link I used to listen to it for free! 

https://youtu.be/Z2-x2bANIUw

 


2.    The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari – Robin Sharma

I bought this on the recommendation of a lovely lady, and it got one of my (few!) 5-star ratings. Again, an interesting biographical story, about, well again, the clue’s in the title!

 




3.    Atomic Habits – James Clear

Another audiobook I’ve given a 5 to. This was over a year ago, and with memory failure I’m not sure why - that’s the problem with driving and listening, you can’t make notes or plan out things to implement immediately! I do remember thinking at the time though: this is useful to help with my (as yet undiagnosed) ADHD traits - so I will definitely be revisiting this book. And making notes this time!

 


4.    Eat The Frog – Brian Tracy

I go through phases where I’m a terrible procrastinator, so this book definitely helped with my mindset to stop faffing about and gerronwi’it. And I tell you what, Mr Tracy must have had a positive effect on me, because he’s made it into my list twice!

 


5.    No Excuses – Brian Tracy

Doing well for ‘clues in the title’ today, aren’t we?! Anyway, Brian did well again with inspirational mindset work which fired me into action. This was an audiobook too, get yourself a bit of Brian ont speakers!

 

BRUCIE BONUS –

Yes, I know I said Top 5, but this one’s also down in my list graded as a 5, and so I’ll feel bad / unfair / it will upset my Libra sense of righteousness if I miss it out! So, last one:

 


6.    Get Rich, Lucky Bitch – Denise Duffield Thomas

A lady that changed her mindset around money and gives inspirational help and insight into how to do it too! I like Denise, and I follow her on various platforms. She’s no nonsense, casual in her approach, and non-ranty (sorry Mr T. Robbins; I like you, but forced positivity is hard work for us Brits!). Anyway, DDT’s a top lass 😊

 


So there’s my best book recommendations for you, and before you go, here’s why reading self-development books is so beneficial:

You get to learn in a few hours, key skills and knowledge that has taken other people spent decades of experience and research to learn.

How’s that’s for a quick-fix, easy way ‘cheat’ to success?!

And books are mere pounds in cost, compared to hundreds or thousands spent on courses and seminars!

 


It is said that Warren Buffett spends 5-6 hours a day reading, and look where that has got him: one of the five richest people in the world.

So if reading is good enough for Uncle Warren, it’s good enough for me!

 

UNCLE WARREN SAYS:
GET READING, GET CLEVERERER!
(or something like that, probably!

Best wishes, and happy reading (or audiobook listening),

Kellyann

Monday 24 July 2023

How Do You Know When to Walk Away From a Deal?

It’s a very rare occurrence, but I rarely walk away from a property once I’ve had an offer accepted on it. 
But that’s what’s happened recently.

I was initially very excited about this property – but also, a little baffled about how quickly the vendor accepted my low offer.

Further due diligence revealed that there was a flying freehold issue - which meant the loft space above the property’s main bedroom belonged to a neighbour in the house attached to the back of that property… very strange layout.

So the room in the loft space was someone else’s space, with their bedroom / bathroom above our bedroom.

I think it would’ve been very difficult to get a mortgage on that sort of flying freehold issue – hence why the vendor was desperate for a cash offer, having already had other buyers drop out.

It's no good doing a load of work on a property and then not be able to pull the funds back out - I don’t take scary risks like that, especially not with other people’s investment money.


So today’s blog has three main points…

How do you know when to walk away from a property deal?

Or in the words of Kenny Rogers: know when to walk away, know when to run!

 


1. WALK AWAY IF…

A property isn’t mortgageable, or it will be very difficult to get a mortgage on it… assuming you did intend being able to get a mortgage on it at some point, and not just buy it cash outright and leave cash in it. Yes, sometimes unmortgageable properties can be made mortgageable, e.g. by adding in kitchens to make it habitable and so on.

But you can’t do much about someone else’s bit of house over your bit of house!

2. WALK AWAY IF…

The deal simply doesn’t stack. If you’re going to end up leaving way more money in than you ever imagined, perhaps the deal isn’t really a good deal at all.

3. WALK AWAY IF…

The house is a turkey. If there’s something terribly wrong with it, which is either unfixable, or it will cost you a massive bomb to fix it eg. major subsidence.

 

So those are three reasons to walk away. Unless of course you’re super rich and are willing to pay for fixes and problems and headaches, or can afford to leave loads of money in the problem.

Is it really worth the cost, stress and sleepless nights?!

That’s up to you to decide, dependent on your available funds, your mental wellbeing and your risk factor!

But I don’t take high risks. I like to sleep at night, and have an easy, calm, drama-free, stress-free life - so I always play it as safe and securely as possible.

In my view, yes, it’s a shame if things don’t work out to plan, and it’s disappointing when it rains on your parade… but it’s better that than being struck by lightning!


SO DON’T TAKE CRAZY RISKS!

It’s not worth the stress, hassle, and major risk to yours or other people’s investment funds!

 


PS – I saw the late great Kenny Rogers in concert in Manchester back in 2010… but I can assure you, I’m no Gambler... 

And had I known I would feature him in my blog a decade later, I would have taken much better photographs!!

          

Monday 29 May 2023

BLOCKBUSTERS…. How do you bust through those blocks?!?

 


For weeks and weeks I’ve had a block.

Not just a writer’s block, although that too has been an issue too as I’ve put off and put off writing a blog.

A mental block, if you will.

Some sort of life block, which is stopping me moving forward, and I can’t work out what it is - but it’s very frustrating.

If you remember that awesome TV game show Blockbusters, you’ll know how the contestants had to work their way across the board without getting blocked. They had a route in mind and a plan to get there, and when things went wrong, they had to work out a way around the blocked hexagons.



That’s how I feel.

Except I can’t work out what the blocks are.

I feel an enormous sense of frustration at not moving forward, and all year I’ve been trying to work out why this is happening, and what’s the solution to fix it.

I’m consciously aware that we’re nearly in June, and as we reach the halfway point of the year, it is blatant that I’m not yet halfway through my planned targets.

Very concerning, frustrating, demotivating, annoying and bewildering as to what’s going wrong, and why 2023 is not panning out as I’d planned.

I’ve never been in such a rut before, and it’s jarring.

I feel stagnant, still, stuck, and can’t work out how to move forward.

It’s been said that if you’re not growing, you’re dying, and that becomes glaringly apparent as the days tick on, and nothing of any real property progress has been achieved.

Yes, the housing market’s a struggle at the minute, and house prices have soared, which is very frustrating for me looking for a cheap, cheerful deal 😤

But I’m not overpaying for a property that’s not worth the price, so I’m having to sit on my hands until the mad buying frenzy calms down.

This is difficult, as I’m not the most patient of people.

What’s to be done?

How do I bust my blocks?!

How do I become a blockbuster?!?

Still scratching my head trying to work it out…

…Can I have an A please, Bob?!





Wednesday 1 February 2023

What I’ve Learnt from my House Getting Trashed

What I’ve Learnt from my House Getting Trashed

 


You might have seen on social media over the last couple of months that a tenant left one of my rental houses in a horrific state.

 

Despite the tenant only being in the property two years, and the first/only tenant since it was all newly refurbished, poor choices meant things spiralled out of control in their life, and the property suffered badly because of this deterioration.

 

This included: trashed and ruined carpets throughout, broken kitchen units, smashed windows, a kicked-in door, damage to the walls and electrical sockets, a garage filled with illegal waste removal items, plus a couple of tons of asbestos dumped on the drive.



 


I was left to deal with all this, along with the disposal of all the furniture, rubbish and items left in the house, which had been abandoned. Oh and I nearly forgot to mention getting rid of the cannabis farm that had been set up in the loft.

 


Deep joy, eh?

 

It took several months and many thousands of pounds to get it back to a lettable state. It caused me stress, headaches, drama, worry, sleepless nights, and money.

 

But still, I’m a strong believer in karma, so I’m not too worried about those people getting justice. Everyone gets exactly what they deserve in life; whether that’s good or bad is down to them!

 

And writing this blog is almost cathartic – because if we don’t learn anything from the harsh unpleasantries in life, we are destined to repeat our mistakes until we do learn the lesson!



So here we go:

 

Five things I’ve learned from my house getting trashed:

 1. Some people just don’t behave themselves.

No matter how nice or helpful or trusting you are of some people… some people just don’t give a shit about how much time, effort or money you’ve put into a property. It’s not theirs, so they’re not bothered if it gets trashed.

If you get an initial unusually cautious feeling in your stomach when meeting them… even if it’s only a teeny tiny gut reaction… listen to it, and don’t let your empathy in wanting to help someone overrule the concerns.

Even pink flags are closer to red flags than white ones!

So check, but verify.

Especially if you get *that* feeling, no matter how minute.



2. The council doesn’t give a shit about you.

Don’t think for a second the council want to help you as a private landlord.

They don’t.

And even if they say they do, they drag their feet, and you have to chase them for weeks and weeks to get them to do the thing they’re are supposed to do.

There was only one lady at the council I was impressed with during all this fiasco, and she didn’t even work in any of the departments for housing, lettings, tenants or social services, but the environmental waste team. She worked harder than all the other civil servants I dealt with put together, and this issue wasn’t even her remit.

Also, the council actually provided me with this tenant to begin with, under a housing private landlord letting scheme. Let me be clear about why they do this: not only because they have a shortage of houses, but sometimes they are actually glad to have problem people off their books and onto yours. They are glad to have washed their hands of certain tenants, because now they become your problem, not theirs.

The insurance loss adjustor man told me this, which leads me onto our next point…

 


3. The insurance company doesn’t give a shit about you.

Listen carefully: Insurance loss adjustors are not your friend.

They might come and assess your house damage and smile and say nice reassuring things and pretend to be helpful, but they are not on your side. They are there to mitigate their loss.

In fact here’s an industry secret, told to me by an insurance broker: many loss adjustors actually get a bonus if they can manage to reduce your claim. ie – they get monetary bonuses for you not getting money from the insurance. That’s a sly little secret they keep quiet, isn’t it?!

 


Thus, my claim for malicious damage was pooh-poohed away as ‘tenant lifestyle choices’ and ‘wear and tear’, despite photographic evidence to the contrary. Oh, and if need be, they also pull out about a million tiny clauses from your policy, meaning unless you can manage pull some particular minute obscure piece of evidence out of your arse, the claim ‘cannot proceed without it’. ie: you get nothing.

 


4. People are wretches when a house is empty.

Fun and games whilst the property is empty sometimes… not all neighbours are nice ones. Apart from the asbestos dumping the tenant allowed, other lovely people also took the opportunity of an empty property to fly tip the drive. Several times.




 


One person lovingly handballed black bags of rubbish all the way to the front door’s path, and a horrible landlord developer decided to offload all their property refurbishment waste of rubble and plasterboard onto my land. Wretches.

 


Oh and then local naughty kids/teenagers set fire to said rubbish in the garden, meaning two nights running the fire brigade had to be called out to put out the arson fires… whilst hooded teenagers watched them undo their incendiary work. Lovely, eh?





This is what I did: asked the police to patrol the area more often. Allowed the council to put up a warning notice flytipping / CCTV sign. Locked the gate with a bike lock to deter more reversing vehicle flytips.

This is what I should have done: Put the actual camera up, fast. Get a timer switch much earlier so the lamps inside went on to make it look occupied at night. Got the mess of the trashed house sorted out quicker, and filled the house quicker.

Still, we live and learn; every day’s a school day, eh?

And sometimes no matter what you do, certain people will always behave like scumbags.


5. Don’t become jaded because of one bad experience, and continue to give people chances.

Final lesson… listen: one bad tenant does not mean all tenants are bad. In fact, since starting landlording in 2008, that’s the worst tenant experience I’ve had in all that time, so that’s not bad going in 14 years.

Statistically it had to happen at some point!

We can move past it now and just call it what it was: a bad time in the business.

Sometimes bad things happen so that better things can occur instead.

In this case, a new and very lovely tenant. In fact there were three lovely families who viewed the property on the same day that I would gladly have housed, all pleasant, polite, family-orientated, and genuinely nice and good people in need of accommodation.

I have a favourite phrase: don’t bleed all over someone who didn’t cut you.

This means you shouldn’t take things out on people when they didn’t cause you the distress in the first place. It’s not fair to them to do that.

Thus, a new tenant, a fresh start, with the same positive hopeful attitude towards them that all my new occupiers get.

We cannot tar all tenants with the same brush. I have many other lovely long-term tenants that always do the right thing, and for that I am very grateful.

So a snippet of bad luck, a stressful, horrendously difficult and unpleasant time, but now it’s time to learn from it and move onwards and upwards for the future.

I do hope you never have to go through such chaos, but at least we’ve learnt some lessons if you do.

And remember, when bad things happen, remind yourself: I’m too stubborn to let this take me down!


Thanks for reading, and my very best wishes,

Kellyann x x x