This week I had the pleasure of interviewing one of Northern Ireland’s leading property investors Martin Mcauley of Lofty Property Investments. For the eagle-eyed amongst you, Martin is indeed my brother and ex-business partner of over 13 years.
Over the past number of months, I have obviously retired and left the business we ran together. Martin is still there today, but his second business is property investing and property development within Lofty.
Of course, being my brother, it was an easy conversation to have. But it was filled with knowledge and insights around property investing that I personally didn’t have. I hope you enjoyed the first in this new video series of business podcasts and don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
About Martin – Lofty Properties
An experienced business leader with a commercial focus and over 18 years of experience working for and with global brands. Early in my career time was spent with global brands Volkswagen and BMW.
In 2009 success came in the form of co-founding Kaizen Print, Brand & Digital. The team rapidly grew to 40+ employees with revenue in excess of £2m. Fast forward 11yrs to Dec 2021 when the company was acquired, it was a momentous occasion.
Today I remain part of a group of 80+ employees as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) steering commercial activity and focussing on the next phase of growth. The company itself continues to produce an excellent level of work for flagship companies namely Ulster Rugby, Horse Racing Ireland, Heineken Ireland, Coca-Cola, Applegreen, Bushmills Whiskey, Peroni, Agnew Group, Joe Duffy Group, Charles Hurst Group, Kingsbridge Group, S&W Wholesale and more.
With a focus on our people, the culture within Kaizen and the people we work with we continue to make huge strides forward. In a busy market, we continue to pioneer new ideas to give us the edge and offer a remarkable level of service.
Check out the Video on Youtube
Timestamps
- 00:00 Introduction
- 02:00 What do Lofty Properties do?
- 02:47 What does property investing mean?
- 03:39 What are the current properties you are working on?
- 04:41 What would you do to make money with a long-term hold?
- 06:25 Main strategy for the business
- 07:51 How to get started in property today
- 10:09 Distressed sellers
- 11:00 Finding distressed property sellers
- 12:46 Building a network. What if you’re not a salesperson?
- 14:18 Challenges in the property investing market
- 16:35 Mindset
- 17:50 Tradesmen in Northern Ireland
- 19:49 Finding experts to market your property
- 21:26 LTD Company versus Sole Trader
- 23:07 What challenges will I face as a new property investor?
- 26:07 What’s next for Lofty Properties?
- 27:05 Returns for investors
- 29:06 Types of deals
- 31:58 loftyproperties.co.uk
- 32:59 Marty admits I’m the smartest brother
- 33:45 Wrapping up the interview
Interview transcript
Hello and welcome to Foundered Money. It’s Connor here. Today we’re bringing you something a little bit different. This is the start of our new video podcast series on businesses. And today, if you’re a family friend or well-wisher of ours, you might notice my guest on this show. It’s my brother Martin ex-business partner of mine.
And now that we’ve gone our separate ways, he’s doing his own thing and I’m doing mine, which is this channel. So before we get into anything else, bro, how are you keeping?
Keep ’em. Well, thanks for having me. Absolutely delighted to be here and looking forward to catching up. It’s, it’s, it’s terrible that this is the only time we get to catch up.
I know, I
know. Like seeing each other for 13 years, every day. Nearly, uh, to, not these days, it’s a big change. Change for me too. Don’t worry. Yeah, indeed, indeed. So, bro, what are you up
to these days? So I suppose, um, obviously following a business sale, I have, the first thing you wanna do is obviously try and invest the money and, and, and, and play smart with it.
So, um, the big thing for me was, uh, to get into something that I enjoy and something I’m [00:01:00] passionate about. And, um, and I have found out a company, uh, Uh, called lofty property investments. So that done it without you? Yeah. Skipped on and, uh, and pushing on and, uh, uh, yeah. But here, listen, it’s, it’s, it’s in its infancy.
It’s early days, so just, just getting things kicked off and getting it going. So Brilliant.
Brilliant.
Why property bro? Well, I suppose, as I say, as I mentioned just before there, obviously, um, following a business seal, you wanna try and make your money work for you as best you can. Mm-hmm. Um, and uh, back in 2008, I made probably, uh, one of the worst property deals.
Um, Unforeseen property crash coming bit young. Yeah. Early, early twenties. And uh, uh, I suppose since then I’ve been educating myself over the last 12, 13, 14 years. Um, and, uh, just to ensure nobody, you know, I don’t make the same mistake again. And, uh mm-hmm. Between books, courses, YouTube, you name it. Um, and, and I suppose just I’m really writing the wrongs.
Brilliant,
[00:02:00] brilliant. So lofty properties in what do lofty properties do? What is
the business. Okay, so, so lofty probably, um, in investments, limited to the title, um, really has. Sort of three strands to it. So three strands being, uh, first one I’ll invest with my own money. Okay? Mm-hmm. So that’s kind of nice and easy.
Nice and simple. Um, second Strand is, um, I, I’ll work with investors, money, you know, people who maybe are cash rich, but time per. Um, and they obviously want to make their money work a bit better for them than, than than maybe they’re achieving in the, in, in the current banks. So, um, that’s strand two and then strand three, which is, uh, something I’m quite passionate about, sort of education.
So, uh, you know, educate people, like-minded people who maybe want to take a first step into, into the world of properly invest in. So,
Brilliant. And for me, who has just a periphery knowledge of property investing.
What is Property Investing?
What does that mean? So property investing. Property investing is really no different from investing in anything, you know, stocks and shares, anything like that.
I mean, it’s a long term growth thing. It’s a capital growth thing, you know? Yeah. The big, the big advice we would give people is to sort of buy and hold. Uh, no, again, it really depends. Everybody’s. There’s numerous different strategies, um, and, and, and not one strategy will fit everybody. Um, okay. You know, so there’s, there’s, there’s many different strategies from Bette to flipping properties to, um, Airbnbs, tomos, tons of different strategies.
And, and, and a lot of it, um, will suit certain people and a lot of it will, you know, a lot of different people will go down different avenues. So it’s, it’s, uh, okay, but really, really, it’s no, not, not, not a pile different from, from any other form of investing. Well look,
tell me about Lofty at the moment.
What type of properties are you working on at
this time? Okay, so currently, um, my plan really is just is to, is to work on a flipping strategy. So that kind of goes against what I’m teaching people in terms of buying and holding. But I suppose over the last three or four years I’ve been working on building my [00:04:00] own portfolio up.
Which are, you know, a range of ettes, which I’ve bought, which I planned the whole long term, and they’re cash flowing well. But just with interest rates on the, on the rise at the moment, market a little bit on steady, I kind of just gonna focus the next year or two just on, on flipping projects. So kind of getting in and getting out and making a profit and, and, and removing myself from it, feel it’s a wee bit safer, but it’s again, I think, uh, whatever you’re in investing in properly, it’s always good to have.
Two or three avenues out. So for example, the properties and buy are slightly lower value properties at the moment. Um, so that, you know, there’s maybe anywhere from 30 to 50 K profit in there. But at the same time, if the market was to dip and I had to hold it long term, it’s no great issue. So,
okay. So if you had to hold it long term, what would you do with the property to
make money?
Okay, so the big thing that you want to do there is obviously to, if you’re buying the, the, the house below market value. Okay? So let’s talk, for example. Mm-hmm. And you buy a house at a hundred thousand, sorry, the house is on the market at a hundred thousand pounds, but you were to buy the house for 75,000 pounds.
Okay? Yeah. And by the time you refurb the house and, and increase the value, the house may be worth 100 3140 K. Okay? Okay. And really, really what you wanna do there is. Refinance at that stage so that, you know, most banks are, are offering a loan to value rate of 75 20 5%. Okay. Yeah. So at that point, you’re actually refinancing 75% of that higher value.
Okay. Of 130 K. So you can actually draw a majority of your money out. Okay. So, yeah, I mean, it’s debt. Okay. But, mm-hmm. You hear a lot of people talking about good debt and bad debt, you know, bad debt being your credit cards, your car finance bills, and whatever else. Mm-hmm. This is no different from any business where people borrow money to buy something, to make money, and Yeah.
And that’s kind of what we call good debt. Um, so it’s just about managing your, your, your, your, your cashflow in there and making sure that there’s a profit in the middle. Um, and, and really, so really what you should end up is an asset with an asset that that’s cash flowing and making you a monthly profit.
Okay? But also [00:06:00] something that’s gonna go up in value in 10, 15 years. You, you know, we’ve all heard about a granny who has bought a house for 25 grand. Right. Yeah. Okay. You know, people thinking, you know, my goodness, how did that even happen? Right? I can imagine in 20 years we’re gonna be talking and saying, my goodness, do you remember you could buy a house for 150 grand?
You know? Yeah, absolutely. And that’s what’s gonna happen. So that’s capital growth. And, and, and that’s why you wanna be in for the long term.
Cool. So you buy a property, you fix it up. Mm-hmm. And you can either flip it or sell it at that point, or you can let it out. Is that generally the main strategy that you’re working to at the
minute?
Main strategy that I’m working on just at the moment. Um, it’s, it’s nice and easy. Um, I, I’m actually still involved in, in the business that we sold it, you know? Yeah. So, um, I’m, I’m quite time per at the moment, so. Okay. Um, so for me, Um, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a basic and it’s an easy strategy that, that, that I can, um, I can get involved in, um, a huge aspirations to get [00:07:00] involved in, um, commercial to residential properties where we use basically back commercial property and uh, and flip it back into a residential, um, sort of.
State. Okay. Um, good. But also as well as that, um, H m O conversions where, um, I’ve done a bit of training at the moment where you could maybe turn a three bed house at the moment into maybe a five or six bed house with the en suites, et cetera, et cetera. So reposition,
I just imagine. That, that would make more money with a H M O like that where, you know, taking three bedrooms, making it six bedrooms, there’s bigger potential for Yeah.
More,
more income. Absolutely. You know, you’ll, you, you, and that’s what it’s all about. It’s all about maximizing your return for the property that you’ve bought and Okay. And, and you gotta get a bit creative with it. You know, you gotta, mm-hmm. You gotta go in with an eye and look at a three bed house and think, well, how the hell can I turn this into a five bed house?
And it takes away bit of a creative edge, but, but it can be done so.
So look, if I was looking to get started in property today and I like the sound of what you’re talking about and I, I’m looking at a property that I [00:08:00] could maybe do a little bit of work to that I could maybe rent out on the other side of that, yes.
How would I go about starting to look for that type of property and ultimately then when I find one or two of them
choosing the right property, Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, it’s like any business decision. It comes down to the fossils, you know, it comes down mm-hmm. To, um, the, the, the price of the property, uh, the area, the property.
I mean, there’s five or six golden rules that you wanna, you wanna live and die by on property. Um, especially when you’re, you’re, you’re investing on property. Um, for example, you want to make sure that you’re buying in an area. Where the rental market’s quite strong, you know? Okay. That, um, uh, you wanna buy a house that, um, could potentially cashflow quite well, quite well.
Mm-hmm. Um, for example, you wanna buy in an area, um, where there’s busy bus routes and busy train route in and outta the city center. You know, there’s gotta be high demand for that house. Um, you wanna make sure that you’re always gonna have a bit of a contingency in your, you know, just in, you know, a bit of a buffer, a cash buffer just in case.
Um, [00:09:00] Um, things go wrong, but in terms of, of, you know, you’re set about getting started, if you were looking for, A house. I mean, really what you want to be looking for is, especially if you’re new to the game, people think that you have to go for these almighty wrecks, you know, and kinda a bit worried about, you know, my goodness, there’s could be bit, maybe bit bitten off a bit more than a can chew here.
Um, but really what you’re looking for is something that’s in good condition. Something that maybe a, an older person’s maybe unfortunately passed away and. And, uh, something that just needs the aesthetics of the house chains and tid up. Um, so basically it’s all cosmetic. Okay. New kitchens. Mm-hmm. New bathrooms.
But it’s an, again, thing in business, it’s about buying cheap and selling high. Yeah. So if a house is on the market a hundred, you know, you want to get that house. Maybe if it’s fallen through three, four times. Yeah. And all of a sudden you’re 70 pound, or sorry, your 70 grand offer’s quite appealing. Okay.
Yeah. You might not get that on the first time. You might not get it at the second time, but maybe on the third time I’ve asking, you’re [00:10:00] looking to sell you, sorry, you’re looking to buy off a distressed seller. Somebody who can’t get their households usually distressed, but it’s like anything in a business, you buy cheap, you sell deer, and that’s,
you mentioned they’re distressed sellers.
What, what other types of distressed sellers would you find?
Yeah, I mean, believe it or not, And it’s sad, it’s in the world that we live in and probably more so relevant at the moment. But I mean, um, people in financial difficulties, people gone through divorce, people gone through marriage breakup people.
Um, unfortunately, um, if family members passed away and, and their remain remaining, members of the family need the cast and they need a quick, there’s more and more distressed sellers out there, um, than you would actually imagine. And okay. And, and, and. You know, you can look on it a number of different ways, but they need outta that house and they need outta it quick.
So really you are a good solution to them, you know? And if you can, you know, it’s all about moving fast when you see an opportunity, you know, and, and if, if your financial stack up, you jump at it. Mm-hmm. You know, don’t on [00:11:00] the
other side of that then, so when it comes to, you know, if you are. On the other side of the stress seller side, you’re looking to get rid of your property quickly.
But from the buyer side, how do you then find those properties? So is it marketing or is it just going in knocking doors on a series, or is it all
of the above number? Exactly. All of the above. Okay. It’s like, it’s, it’s, it’s a bit, it’s a bit like anything, you know, our, our background, um, and our previous business, you and I would’ve been, uh, Uh, selling, you know, out night sellers would’ve spoken to everybody, sold everybody, and we would’ve circled people and we would’ve communicated with people.
We’d opened up doors and relationships. Yeah, it’s kind of very, very similar to that in that, that you’re selling yourself, um, and your services to people, to estate agents, so, Relationships with the data agents is key. Um, yeah, par follow up, stand in touch in front, you know, outta sight, outta mind. So if you’re, if you’re staying close to these guys, look letting them know you’re looking for opportunities.
There will be opportunities that will arise and they’ll will come your way. Um, alternatively yeah, marketing your [00:12:00] services door to door drop door to door calls, um, meal drops in specific areas. What you’ll actually find is that, um, You need to know your market area inside out because you need to know what the high end value of a property is in that area.
Okay? Okay. So whenever you’re stacking a deal, basically what you wanna know is if a, if, if a house would make 200,000 pound in that area. Yeah. What you’ll offer for that house is minus the refurb costs off the 200. So say your refurb costs are 50 K brings you back to your one 50 minus your profit off that, say, for example, 30 k.
That’s then the price that you offer. Okay? So you need to know your area inside out, know what the high end values are. Yeah, so you’ll tend to find that your market area is quite small, which allows you to market very easily too. So, Okay.
And do you knock on the estate agent storage? Is that something that you find works?
Is it making relationships or, you know, if I was to talk about our skills, you know, we were salespeople and we looked after our customers incredibly well. [00:13:00] But what if you’re not a salesperson? What if you’re not somebody who’s in customer service? Are there any other skills that you know, can anyone do
this?
Well, it’s like anything in business, right? Okay. Mm-hmm. I would always advise people if you can’t sell. You gotta learn, right? Okay. And in this game, you’re actually selling yourself, okay? Mm-hmm. So in this game, you are building relationships with the estate agents, building relationships with potential vendors.
You are selling yourself and, and the services that you offer. Yeah. And the services that you offer is that you can potentially take a house off their hands as quickly as possible. You can manage. All their conveyance and you can do whatever you, you know, you can offer whatever service you want to try and push that seal through as quick as you can.
But yeah, it’s building relationships. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s showing them your credibility. It’s showing them that you’re able to move fast. It’s, you know, what, what is Steve agents want, for example, they want to sell the house, right? Yeah. And they want to sell it fast. Okay? So they’re the guys that you don’t really wanna mess around if there’s an opportunity.
Know your numbers, do your [00:14:00] numbers. Mm-hmm. Stack the deal, get it close. There’s many a deal. I’ve had a phone call and within, within, within less than 24 hours, I’ve had the deal closed. You know, and you just gotta trust your gut and move. But it’s like anything in seals move at speed, you know?
Yep, absolutely.
Well, look, there are going to be some challenges and there’s challenges in every business, but in property and in that property, purchasing, property refurbishment, and property. Ultimately then either letting or seal, what are the challenges that you have to overcome now with Lofty,
I suppose for me, um, One thing that I’ve learned over the last lot of years is that the property game’s a slow game.
Okay. Okay. And in comparison to my, our previous business, sorry, um, which was 150 miles far, excuse, excuse me, our business. Um, but I, I find that the, the, the whole game of property is quite slow, and that’s taken a bit of [00:15:00] a, a fair bit of adjustment from me, for example. You know, if you’re running three properties a year, you get three windfalls per year.
Okay. So you’re always wait, you’re always waiting on, on, on, on realizing your profits, you know, and, and capitalizing on the winds. It, it, it doesn’t come that often. Um, okay. But it’s obviously a, a bigger financial windfall, so that’s something mentally you have to get your head around. Mm-hmm. Um, in terms of the actual project itself, um, where do you start?
You know, you are, you become a problem solver, you know, and Okay. But again, it’s like anything. You know, business to me is quite simple. You know? Yeah. It’s, it’s about managing your costs. It’s about managing the people to do the jobs correctly. It’s about putting it all together and kind of keeping the orchestra going and, and, and it’s kind of pushing it along.
You know, if you can do that in there, you’ll just find a sweet spot where you make a better profit and, and, and, and I, I gotta
stop you as well. Because I, like, I’ve known you your whole life and to see you with a high-vis versa, a hard hat [00:16:00] on and knocking down guards is comical to me. But,
but, but, but I’m, and, and for me, that’s what I’m enjoying.
I mean, you know, yeah. I’m a pen pitcher. Okay. Yeah. And, and I suppose I’m on this journey of showing everybody that if a pen pusher like me, who couldn’t put, uh, you know, a picture frame on the wall four or five years ago, Can do this. Yeah. And make money at it. Well, anybody can do it, you know? Okay. And I suppose, you know, for me on this journey, a lot of the education that I’m gonna be doing is educating people to sort of believe in themselves and realize that if Marty McCauley can get involved and properly invest and make a few quid, Anybody can, you know?
And do you find that, that, that is a, a big over or point to overcome? For most people it’s that mindset that they can’t do it or they’re never sure of what to do.
Yeah. You know, I was involved in our business alongside you and we built it up and we sold the business. We, we were one. You know, and there’s a lot of hard work, [00:17:00] but there’s a lot of luck involved in that.
Right. Mm-hmm. I’ve then started lofty properly investments. Do I still get imposter syndrome? Absolutely. You know, do I still ask the question and say, why me? Why have I done it? Yeah. Why, why not somebody? Absolutely. You know, people get that I’m only, I’m only human, but it’s when you can overcome that and just, you know, just go for things.
Yeah. You know, people have gotta realize that, you know, I’m no rocket scientist. I’m not the smartest guy in the room, but I’m good at. Maybe surrounding myself with the right people to get stuff done. Yeah. And it’s, you know, you don’t have to be the smartest person, you just have to surround yourself with the right people who can get stuff done and Yeah.
Um, and, and, and in there, that’s, that’s, that’s where you get your sweet, your sweet spot and you make that profit. And yeah. So I mean, there’s, you just gotta have a bit of belief in yourself, and there is a lot of just, you know, just go for it. Just dive into two feet. You know, as long as you’re making calculated risks, you shouldn’t go wrong, you know?
Good. So finding suppliers, like, so trying to find tradesmen over this last couple of years has been hard as well, and you and I [00:18:00] don’t necessarily have those trades as skills in our history. Yeah. You know, as you said, we’re pen pushers, but have you found, you know, building those relationships easier or hard or finding the right type of people, especially North Ireland, you know, everybody’s busy at the minute.
Yeah. Um, how, what, what is lopping
like? So I suppose for me again, it’s just relationships. So, um, it’s the minute you start throwing yourself into this space and, you know, sorry, through social media channels, I’ve been putting myself out there. This is what I’m doing. You know, people wanna talk to you.
People want to help people generally in, in, in ni people are helpful. They want to help you. Yeah. You know, and, and I’ve had numerous people offer their services, um, brilliant. Even today, had somebody reach out and say, look, if you ever need any pa done, I’m your man loving what you’re doing. And, uh, you know, but that’s, that’s lovely.
I mean, I don’t know that person, the guy called Joe, I don’t know that guy from, do you wanna share this business? I actually can’t remember his name. Um, I’ll just look it up here now. Gimme one second. Um, he was, he messaged me today, let’s just check, um, Jay Dun Servicon, [00:19:00] but that man reach out to me today and Joe said to me, Mari, if loving what you’re doing, if you ever need anything at all, give me a shout.
Let me tell you, that’s lovely from Joe and price based job be getting all my, all my resurface and work, you know, because at the end of the day, he’s had the decency to reach out to me. So you, so you get a lot of Latin in Northern Ireland, right? Brilliant. And, and, and friends and family and people have recommended.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve burnt through a few trade people. Okay? Some, some people not turning up, some people not turning up on time, some people messing around and at the end of the day, I can’t do business like that. Yeah. So, so yeah, I’ve burnt through a few and, uh, but I’ve kind of found myself a nice little party team at the moment that’s, that’s working well and you’re really in this game, only really need.
A handful of people that you’re going to use all the time, and then you’ll pull in different sort of services and, and, and suppliers as re as required. So,
great. So we’ve bought our property at the right price. We’ve refurbished it with our power team there, and now we’re putting it on the market. Yep. Too.
Let now. Again, we would have marketing skills, but marketing [00:20:00] properties are very, very different. And it takes a lot of time, I imagine. But so how do you, you know, remove you from that equation and how do you help yourself to get the best tenants
in? Yeah. Well again, for me, you know, I can’t be an expert at absolutely everything, right?
So again, it’s about pulling in the right people for me. Um, a big thing that we feel that we’re doing a bit different is we stage the homes. So my wife and I would stage the homes. Do you know? They’re sitting absolutely perfect. Okay. Um, in the areas that we’re investing in, um, usually young families want to come in, so we’re making them nice and modern and things like that.
And then, you know, I can nip in and take photos on my phone or what I can do. Is bringing our good friend Richie Lowry from Phantom, who’s absolutely amazing. He’s a photographer and mainly just works in the, in, in, in this industry. Yep. And he, and you know, at the end of the day, picture sells up. So, um, I have to say, worth every penny you spend on it.
Um mm-hmm. And, and Richie come in, he’ll then obviously pass that over to over the, over to the guy so you know, properly Powell, whatever agent that you’re working with to get it up online. Yeah. But as we all know, the [00:21:00] rental market is super hot at the moment, and Yeah. And you’re still getting 30, 40 people to view a rental, you know?
Wow. You feel so sorry for people who are trying to, trying to get into a rental home because they’re literally, the demand is through the roof and the prices are reflecting on that as well. So, yeah. Um, it just gets a, there’s a sense that NIS kind of follow in Dublin a little bit. It’s not there yet. Okay.
But I mean, but, but, but prices are just going up and they just keep, keep going up.
And there’s been some changes in my, from what I know in the whole rental schemes, not rental schemes for rental businesses, you know, uh, is it you have to now become a limited company if you have a certain number of properties cause it’s more tax efficient?
Or is there something there that you could talk
about as well? Well, funny you, you know, I see a lot of people online and I was actually, I was actually creating a post, which I haven’t posted yet. It will go up in the next few days, but, but a lot of people get hung up on sole trader versus limited company in this game.
Yeah. You know, should I open a limited company? I don’t know what [00:22:00] to do. People get so confused, and I suppose my question to those people is, eh, are you an accountant? No. B are you training to be accountant? Likely not. Okay. Mm-hmm. So what you need to do is employ a good account, a good accountant, you know, and at the end of the day, You and I have both worked with the same accountant for 13 years and we, we, we hold him in the hash trick or he’s, he’s absolutely excellent at what he does.
Absolutely. Again, Keep him on your right hip. Every big financial decision, the guy gets a phone call. He, it’s, he is educated, he’s well trained. He’s well versed in, in this industry. Mm-hmm. So, so, so every big decision, he’s on my right hip and I contact him. I don’t claim to be an accountant. I know all the basics and I know, you know, yeah.
I know certain moves to make here and there. Um, but I don’t get too hung up on trying to figure out, and, and most recently we had a conversation, he said, right. Marty, the strategies that you’re working with, you know, The other forms of income that you have. Mm-hmm. The salary that you still have from your previous business, this is what makes sense for you.
But my situation could be different from years. Absolutely. And it’ll be different from Joe Blogs and it’ll [00:23:00] be different from the next person. Yeah. So again, not one size fits all, so, so good. So that’s kind of why it’s important to have him sitting there as close as you can. So, Brilliant.
Right. So if I am sold on property redevelopment here and I want to go in to buy the lets or to flip houses, what are the challenges that might trip me up as somebody who’s new in this arena?
Well,
what they need to look out for, I suppose a big thing there as well is, um, Whenever you’re banned the house, that’s actually very similar. Okay? So you’re trying to buy below market value from a distressed seller, okay? Mm-hmm. And you’re trying to buy within a certain price range that you’re gonna have a few different avenues out.
Okay? So for example, mm-hmm. You don’t wanna buy a 400,000 pound house. Because your rental return on, that’s not gonna be a whole pile better than maybe a hundred or 150 grand house. Okay? So you wanna make sure that you know the area that you’re looking in, in terms of, in terms of price range, okay? Um, where the difference between the two comes in is, is in relation to your refurb.
Okay? So, for example, a by, [00:24:00] um, really what you want to do is just polish the house up a little bit, maybe. Okay? Maybe a, like a paint better carpet. Make sure the kitchen’s in good condition. Make sure the bathroom’s in good condition, but maybe it doesn’t need to be at anywhere near the level that you would work on if you were flipping the house on.
Okay. So it’s, it’s a very basic refurb, so it can be done a lot quicker and it can be put on the market real quick. Real quick. Okay. So, and, and the reason for that is you might have a tenant in there for five years. Will they love that house? Like it was their own, probably not. Okay. And in five years, um, you’re probably gonna need to carry out a food refurb if you decide to sell the house on, if you’re, if you’re flipping the house, you’ll probably want to go the whole hawk, have it, um, have it sit in stage.
You’ll maybe finish it off. Mm-hmm. With a few more feature walls, you know, you’ll have it, you’ll have, you’ll spend a bit more money on it because you want somebody to be able to walk in and, and love that as their own home. So, so there’s, there’s different strategies for both. Pitfalls. Okay. You know, where do you start?
You know, you’ll, you’ll run [00:25:00] into all sorts of difficulties. You become a, you become chief problem solver. But I, I think you get that in any business. Um, I’m trying to think of, of some issues that I’ve ran into. Um, you know, for example, I’ve selling the Bungalow and Libo there recently. And, um, uh, Bit of paperwork needed, tied it up near the end, which held the seal up.
The seal actually then fell through cuz the individuals mortgage expired. So you learn things like that. Um, and, and you learn, okay, well I’m not gonna make that same mistake twice. Luckily the next bar came along, moved along, they were a cash bar was a lot easier. Sometimes it’s easier sound that the second time round.
Um, and
uh, would you rather have it the second time round or would you rather sold
first and foremost, you’d rather sell it first and foremost, however, Whenever you’re bann it, you’d rather the second time round. Okay. Okay. And the reason for that is first time round they’ve probably got full ask price.
Yeah. Second time round. They’re a bit more distressed. They need to sell. You’re mm-hmm. You’re, you’re, you’re 15, 20% below Ask price is [00:26:00] always, is always better for you. Um, okay. So, so somebody won’t say to me, when you’re ban, it’s often better bat the second time around. And that stuck with me. Very good. So,
so tell me, what’s next for Lofty properties?
If we’re sitting here a year from now, five years from now, or 10 years from now, where is the business
gonna be? Well, I have to say, I. You know, being a pen pitcher for the last 13 years and kind of getting involved properly investing over the last number of years, I’m really enjoying the hands on, knocking down garages, knocking at curb edging.
I saw that video
one the other day.
It’s, it’s, I, I’m finding hilarious. I’m loving it. I’m loving the different dynamic. Away from the, from the office environment, you know? Yeah. And don’t get me wrong, our office wasn’t the most corporate environment anyway. It was quite relaxed until Right. But working on a building site is completely different.
It’s a whole new dynamic. So I’m enjoying that. So I will continue to flip and, and, and, and invest in my own portfolio with my own personal money. Um, I’m obviously speaking to a few [00:27:00] investors at the moment who are looking to come on board, so I’ll continue mm-hmm. To, uh, to, to, to work on that channel as well, you know, because at the end of the day, so tell me a little bit about
that.
Would you please? Yeah. So if you’re an
investor, yeah. So for example, say for example, you want to invest them properly. Okay. Um, mm-hmm. But you’re maybe a, you’re maybe not a hundred percent sure about which avenue to go. Okay. Okay. Um, you’re maybe a little bit unsure about the market. You’re a little bit unsure about Ban.
You’re a bit, you know, Alternatively, you maybe don’t have a lot of time to get involved. Yeah. And say for example, you have 150,000 pounds sitting there, you can do a number of different things, whether you can invest in stocks and shares, as we all know, your best to diversify. So maybe you’ll already have money on that and you want to get into property.
Yeah. Um, so yeah, you can stick it in your bank and it’ll make a per interest rate. Or the way most investors work in this game is they’ll, they’ll, they’ll invest money in, in something like myself. Um, Uh, for a fixed return inside 12 months. So for example, okay, maybe, you know, the general rate seems to be eight to 10%, which is a great return on your money, of course.
And, um, [00:28:00] and, and, and basically what I would do is take your money, um, walk you through the whole process, invest that into a house, which we maybe flip on, okay? And, uh mm-hmm. And, and then you will get your cut of the profit and you’re eight to 10. Eight to 10%. And, and my share comes my way for doing, for doing all the work and finding all the property.
So it’s a bit of, a bit of a profit share. Mm-hmm. But it’s an agreement, you know, solicitor’s agreement’s all drawn up and in place. Um, very good. And, and, and, and I suppose based on the track record, I would show the houses that I’ve done in the past, the profit that’s been made around them, mall and, uh, and, and, and, and, and really that’s the relationship, you know?
Um, so again, it’s just one building trust and it’s, it’s, it’s, you know, somebody’s gonna invest their money in me. Um, but it’s like anything I could have. You know, me or anybody doing this, they could have millions of pounds in the bank, but. In a matter of time, in a matter of working on five or six projects, your mon you’re, you’re right of money.
Okay. Yeah. And you know, so there’s only so far your money will stretch in projects and as the project get bigger, you know, obviously it doesn’t stretch as far again. And, [00:29:00] and that’s why a lot of people do this and work with investors. So that’s kind of that. And sorry, j
just to clarify for myself then, cuz um, it’s, they get a fixed return of eight to 10%, generally speaking Yeah.
On money that they invest Or do you also do deals where you’re working. Beside the investor so that they get a, a different
percentage or you can do a profit share. So, so that’s what I meant for you. So, so, so another way you could do it is you could agree a profit share. So for example, you know, that they could front the hundred 50,000 pounds, um mm-hmm.
And, you know, we could go out, I could source a house sale around a hundred, um, with a, maybe a refurb cost of 30 or 40 given us. So we bit of a contingency in there. And, uh, and we could work it on a, you know, we could, we could agree on some sort of profit share. For example, a recent flip project. Um, I completed, um, netted me 48,000 pound profit.
So you could agree, you know, that that could be a, a 60 40 split, a 50 50 split, whatever, you know, so you can always brilliant some sort of agreement with somebody to, um, to try and, uh, but I, no one [00:30:00] deal will look the same as the next deal. And, uh, and it depends who you’re working with, what your investor, what your relationship is with your investor, and, and how that deal gets structured.
So, And what they’re
bringing to the table as
well. Exactly. I guess. Yeah. That’s really it. Brilliant. You know, so,
yeah. So you’ve got your own properties, you’ve got properties that you’ve gotta partner up on with investment. Yeah. Um, what else is coming up for you? So,
so the big thing for me, and I suppose equally is exciting.
Yeah. I’m really enjoying knocking the guards is down and stuff, but you know, I suppose even throughout our business, I’ve always loved coaching our team to do better. Yep. And to be better and to, to invest in themselves and, and I suppose a big part of my journey, um, which, you know, at the moment I’m working on some education packs, probably education packs.
Mm-hmm. Um, working, this is all new to me, this business. So I’m, I’m, I’m kind of growing up, you know. Gonna build a website out, um, which we’ll have these packs on offer on the website. But what I’d really love to get into is sort of like 1, 2, 3 day education type courses. You know, small, small group education, um, where we can bring a load of like-minded [00:31:00] people together.
Um, I can share my fractional property investing journey, I can share the stories and, you know, basically give them a startup pack as to how to, how to get into it, how to get going. Mm-hmm. Because, Finding the first deal, and I remember it, finding the first deal mm-hmm. Is the hardest deal to find. You know, you’re scared, you’re unsure, and I suppose I just want to instill confidence in, in, in, in, in groups of people that you know Yeah.
To know what a good deal looks like, you know, and, and, and how you then structure the, you know, how, how you work through the whole process. From conveying, from gaining a mortgage to how you remortgage to, because a lot of these terms are really into people, you know, and a lot of, you know, at the end of the day, you know, How to manage a refurb, how to ensure it, how each tons of different strategies, how to make sure that you’re ticking all those golden routes to make sure that Yep.
You know, that no matter what happens in the market, well I’m still gonna be safe, you know, and, uh, um, and that’s, so that’s a big area that I’m gonna be passionate about and I’m gonna be working on over the next, next sort of 12 months. So. And what’s your website, [00:32:00] bro? So lofty properties.co. Dot code uk. Um, so if you, if you’d like to get a, uh, just jump online, get a look at that, that explains sort of everything about the three strands of the business and, um, contact form on there.
If you want to get in touch, feel free to reach out. Brilliant, and
how
can we find you online elsewhere? So social media, mainly just rolling through lofty underscored properties on Instagram at the moment. You’ll get to see garages coming down. You’ll get to see walls getting knocked down and uh, yeah, no, you’ll be able to find me on there and keep keeping everybody updated on the progress.
Very good. And is there anything else before we finish off that you wanna say or direct us to any other places?
No, listen, um, just delighted to be here and, um, it’s great to get chatting, um, with you about all things properly and, um, you know, at the end of the day, Just trying to be a real person, showing people that, you know, they, they, they can, they can do this as every bit as much as I can.
And you know, I’m not the smartest guy here. Um, but if I can do it, anybody can do it. And, and [00:33:00] that’s really, well, if there’s only,
there’s only two of us on this course, that must mean I am
well here. But listen, you know, I suppose, I suppose what I want, I’m just. I’m trying to normalize business to people and make them realize that mm-hmm.
You know, you don’t need to be extra special to run a good business.
Yeah. No. And like the, the universe is not gonna wake up one day and realize your greatness. You have to go out there and do it for yourself. Yeah, exactly. And take it for yourself. And you know, that first step, as you said, is the hardest.
Yeah. But with somebody guiding you, coaching you, and bringing you forward, it makes it a lot less scary.
And if you’re doing something that you’re passionate about, something you enjoy mm-hmm. That’s half the ball. Absolutely. You know? Well, we got three, 13 years of it. We did. We did Indeed. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Very good. Well look, we’ll wrap it up there, bro. Yeah. So thank you very much. Thanks for being the first guest on this new Anette unnamed podcast. Um, I will probably see it mums tomorrow night. Thanks for having me. For everybody else, I’ll see you on the next video.
Thank you, [00:34:00] bro. Thanks for having me, guys.
See you later. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
