LOOK AT WHAT YOU COULD HAVE WON!

LOOK AT WHAT YOU COULD HAVE WON!

In my property career I have a couple of regrets and disappointments over a couple of properties that I didn’t buy.

In fact, I have a folder, with a name inspired by Bullseye’s Jim Bowen, entitled LOOK AT WHAT YOU COULD HAVE WON!

 

This folder holds sales leaflets or details of around ten properties that I really really wanted, but didn’t end up getting, for a myriad of reasons.

 

This folder includes:

⁃ the house next door to my childhood home. Why didn’t I buy that?!? It was such a good price at the time! 🤦🏻‍♀️

⁃ An old hairdressers shop that I could have converted, but was too scared to. 🤦🏻‍♀️

⁃ A direct to vendor lead where she was about to be repossessed, in an estate where I have three other houses. 🤦🏻‍♀️

 

⁃ A really cheap flat next to a lovely church, one which the solicitor made an absolute balls of and caused me to lose the deal. 🤦🏻‍♀️

  

I occasionally look back in my LOOK AT WHAT YOU COULD HAVE WON folder to reflect on what went wrong with these deals, and what I could have done better.

Reasons, and more importantly, key learnings, include the following:

⁃ Having it drilled into me that every property deal should be an ‘all money out on refinance deal’. This cost me a lot of potentially good deals, because for far too long I believed that you shouldn’t end up leaving any money left in a deal. FOOLISH!

⁃ Faffing about, umming and ahhing, not making a decision quick enough. Success loves speed, and if you sit on the fence too long deciding, you get splinters in your arse!

⁃ Being a little bit too tight with my offers. Some of them eventually went for only 5-10 grand above what I’d offered. I’d have made that back within a year in rental income.

⁃ Hiring absolute garbage solicitors that didn’t know what they were doing. Incompetence on their part, really can, and did, ruin my deal.

⁃ Not knowing exactly what to do in a certain situation and then not asking for help.

⁃ Being too soft in thinking that because I hadn’t done a particular type of refurbishment before, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I should have said yes anyway, and then learned how to do it on the way!

I’m a very low risk person, and hate being uncertain, not getting things rights, and even worse, the ultimate Yorkshire sin: potentially losing money.

But I have to take responsibility for all these actions - me not getting each of these particular deals is Entirely. My. Fault.

Hey ho, hindsight’s a wonderful thing, isn’t it?!?

Nobody’s perfect, and nobody knows it all. I’m continuously trying to learn.

But if you don’t learn from your mistakes, then making them was futile - because the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.

Also pain is a much stronger driver than pleasure.

So I keep this folder to remind me of those painful disappointing lessons.

That feeling of regret spurs me on to LOOK AT WHAT YOU COULD HAVE WON! - to avoid doing those same silly things again!

# IF YOU’RE NOT EARNING, YOU’RE LEARNING

# Did anyone ever regret not winning that speedboat in Bullseye?!

Most of us live miles away from the sea!

 

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Kellyann is a property investment strategist from Leeds. 

In her work she creates wealth for private investors through refurbishing properties. 

Visit her website for more details:

https://kellyannmartin.co.uk/investment/

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To learn about 

STARTING OUT IN PROPERTY...: What I Wish I'd Known At The Beginning! 

.... buy Kellyann's book from Amzaon here!

STARTING OUT IN PROPERTY...: What I Wish I'd Known At The Beginning! : Martin, Kellyann: Amazon.co.uk: Books

3 THINGS I HATE ABOUT PROPERTY…

 

3 THINGS I HATE ABOUT PROPERTY…

 

But property’s awesome all the time, right?

Wrong!

 

And here’s my top three reasons why!

 

PROPERTY HATE NUMERO UNO: REPAIRS AND MAINTENANCE

 

Repairs and maintenance is my number one pet peeve in property – I just hate hate hate it when things break - and sometimes it’s not even the tenant’s fault.

 

Then you have to deal with the call from the tenant saying that something’s wrong, work out how to fix it, who to call to do so, have to faff about getting various quotes and solutions and appointments in order, and then finally set fire to my money to remedy the problem.

 

Or even worse, sometimes it’s a product or service that needs addressing by a telephone call to the dreaded call centre or customer service department… where you waste endless hours of time to untrained people on the other end of the line, who can’t deal with it, aren’t competent, put you on hold forever, or just fob you off. There’s nothing more draining than a call centre department.

 

This week’s issue has been a young 14-month-old integrated Logik oven from Currys which has stopped working after minimal use. Currys customer service seemingly couldn’t give a shit about their faulty product, nor helping me fix it.

 

Here’s my advice: don’t ever buy a product from Currys – it’s a waste of your time and money buying their substandard products, then a waste of your time, effort, energy and patience trying to get them to do the right thing.

 

PROPERTY HATE PART 2: NAUGHTY TENANTS

 

Aha, I bet you thought this would be the first on the list, didn’t you?!?

Not me, because the majority of my tenants are great, nearly all of the time.

 

Occasionally though, one goes rogue, and starts acting in a naughty manner.

 

I have three key rules I tell all my tenants:

 

1. Respect the house and keep it tidy

2. Respect your neighbours (and housemates)

3. Pay your rent on time

 

…and it’s when one of these three rules is not followed that things go wrong, tenants do naughty things, I get irate, start dismembering their wayward corpses into pieces and setting them on fire etc etc…

 

I jest, of course…

 

But there have been instances where people have not paid their rent, gave me a ream of bullshit about why not, told me barefaced lies to my face, behaved in ways which damaged the property, accidentally set fire to the kitchen, made an absolute tip of a pigsty to the house / their rooms, hoarding more things than I ever thought possible, not cleaning up after themselves in communal areas, carrying on and arguing so that the neighbours complain and the council send me whinging letters etc etc blah blah…

 

Thankfully, these things are not common ongoing occurrences, because naughty tenants don’t end up lasting long in my properties.

 

So yes, naughty tenants annoy me, because they are the exception to the norm in my portfolio.

 

But I must reiterate that on the whole my tenants are good people.

And when good people do the right thing, there’s nothing to worry about, is there?!

 

PROPERTY HATE 3: LE FINALE – EVERYTHING IS SO EXPENSIVE!!

 

I’ve already wittered on about the expense of repairs and maintenance, so I’ll not revisit that route… but EVERYTHING in property is just so bloody expensive!

 

This includes house purchase prices, the survey fees, the legal costs, the stamp duty land tax, refurbishment costs, gas and electric works, the insurances, the ongoing certificates and legislative measures.

 

It all costs a bomb, and that bomb frequently explodes in my purse and bank balance!

 

You know I’m Yorkshire, and you know that for me every pound is a prisoner.

 

It is always a sad day when money has to be traumatically prised from my parsimonious whimpering fingers to pay for necessary costs!

 

WHICH IN PROPERTY IS NEARLY ALL THE TIME!!! *cries*

 

So there we have it, the 3 things I hate most about property.

But hang on, lets not be a negative Nellie.

 

Because although there are many thunderstorms and showers in property, there are plenty of sunshine-y moments too!

 

Such as:

 

ü Providing housing for people

ü Acquiring assets

ü Long term pension pot plan

ü Majority of property portfolio work is now passive

ü Time freedom and independence

ü Gives me a salary!

 

Can’t have all these nice smooth bits, without a bit of rough too, eh?

 

That’s life for you!

 

Proper-teee…dious at times though!

Private Investors… What’s In It For You?

 Private Investors… What’s In It For You?

 

You might know that I help people build wealth passively, through the vehicle of property.

But have you ever wondered why people invest?

Why would people with funds want to work with me?

 

In this blog I’ll be exploring the reasons of what’s in it for them as private investors.

 

First of all, a key reason people choose to invest is that it gives them somewhere safe to invest their funds.

They realise that property is a good solid asset, and is unlikely to be stolen or magically disappear or reduce in value, like stocks, shares and other volatile online investment vehicles.

Property is a safe investment option, because it’s a tangible asset which really exists.

That’s why we have the phrase “Safe as Houses”! 🏠

 

 

Another great reason people choose to work with me is that they know it involves socially responsible investing.

They’re not putting their money into dubious activities, products or gambling - they are directly benefitting local families by providing housing.

There’s nothing more socially responsible than helping low-income families get a safe, secure home to comfortably bring their kids up in.

 

Here's another key reason that I know many people want to invest with me: it gives them the chance to help me help others.

Not only does it help provide housing for people, it helps me build my own future, and it helps them build their own wealth!

It’s nice to be nice, it gives you a good feeling inside. It is often said that we rise by lifting others, and that helping others is the secret sauce to a happy life.

I fully believe this, in fact I even wrote a blog on the subject - do have a read!

https://kellyannmartin.co.uk/2019/02/26/the-benefits-of-helping-others/

At present in Britain, there is a severe housing shortage. Every year we need an extra 300,000 homes in addition to the new ones that have been built, just to keep up with demand.

Investing with me gives you the knowledge that you’re helping create much-needed homes.

Demand vastly outstrips supply, which means your investment funds are providing a much-needed commodity.

There’ll always be a need for housing, meaning there’ll always be investment required to fund this, meaning you will be financially rewarded for the value you provide through investment funding.

 

Finally, a good draw for private investors is that they have the opportunity to make far more interest on their funds than they would by having it sat in the bank.

If you have £20,000 idly sitting in your high street bank, at current Bank of England interest rates, you are only likely to make around 25p interest per month.

Whereas if you put that £20,000 into one of my property projects, you are guaranteed a minimum of 6% per annum, which means you would receive £1200 interest per annum - which equals £100 a month in interest!

That’s a much better return than 25 pence, isn’t it?!?

How can I afford to give you such a high return?

Well, that’s because of the magic of uplifting the values of property development.

There’s always enough money in the deal to enable me to do this, and you deserve a great return for your trust in me and helping me deliver these projects.

Win-win for all!

You help me provide housing, and I help you grow your wealth passively within short periods of time.

It’s a great feeling to give someone back a large chunk of money in interest, knowing you have effectively beaten the banks!

 

 

So there we have it: a range of reasons explored as to what’s in it for private investors who choose to invest in my property project opportunities. 

If you would like to discuss becoming an investment partner to gain these benefits, do book in to have a call with me, by clicking the link below.

 https://calendly.com/kellyannmartin/phone-call?month=2022-04

💷 💷 💷 💷 💷

The Benefits of Renting to Tenants on Benefits!

 The Benefits of Renting to Tenants on Benefits!

  

You might know that I have a property rental portfolio here in Leeds.

 

What you might not know is that half of my single let rentals are occupied by tenants on benefits.

 

Now whilst benefits tenants often get a bad reputation, many low-income families are just like you and me: decent, pleasant people, that have found themselves in a certain situation.

 

Being on benefits does not mean that you are a write-off, or a bad person. It does not mean you are scum, a degenerate, a waster, or any of the other negative connotations the media try to impose on us.

 

Of course, there are some people who aren’t as savoury as we would hope, throughout all areas of life - but we cannot tar everyone with the same brush.

 

Not all benefits tenants are bad ones, in the same surprising way that not all high paid ‘professional tenants’ look after the property and pay their rent - as some of my landlord friends will vouch for! 😱

 

As with anybody, carefully check out your prospective tenants, and be convinced that they are a good choice.

 

So here’s my reasons for the benefits of renting to tenants on benefits:

 

✳️ They are usually families, looking for a long term home, which means they stay longer.

 

✳️ There are lots of them looking for housing, as the council has a severe shortage of available local housing authority accommodation.

 

✳️ Often the council will provide a deposit for them or a scheme whereby they will fix damaged items

 

✳️ You can request for the rent to be paid directly to yourself as landlord. This massively reduces the risk of rent not getting paid.

 

✳️ You are helping vulnerable families by giving them a chance to build themselves a secure lifestyle, and a steady foundation for their children to progress in the future…

 

… because that’s exactly what happened to me.

 

I’m the product of a single parent on benefits. And although we were poor, our council house was immaculate, and we tried hard to improve our situation.

 

I’m not scum, a reprobate, a degenerate, a lowlife, or any of those things.

 

I’m a good person, just like my tenants are.

I was a kid who had a good grounding to want to do better than the situation I found myself in.

 

A couple of these kids in my class are from benefits families, can you tell which? 
Of course you can't - but all kids deserve a decent start in life!

I appreciate everything, because I still remember what it means to have nothing.

And that’s exactly why I choose to rent to low income families - because I’ve been there, and know how important is it for someone to just give you a chance and believe in you.

So as there’s over 3 million people claiming housing benefit in Britain… why not consider renting to them?!?