I am really excited about this new series, which is all about going full-time in property. Today is just a brief introduction to set the scene.
What we shall aim to reveal over the coming weeks is to profile two types of people: those that have already gone full-time in property and those that are aspiring to do so or just starting out. The aim is to show a kind of real time before and after view with these guests at contrasting points on their journey. I think this will be fascinating to hear...
Not only this but the guests on this series are what I would describe as everyday people that we can relate to. Of course, to go full-time in property, you will have something special about you, no question about that. However, it is often a process or an incremental progression that culminates in realising that goal.
I hope you are going to enjoy this series as much as I am looking forward to sharing it with you!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Resources mentioned
Link to TPV Live - Lunchtime Wednesdays Zoom Meeting available 1 pm every Wednesday during the Lockdown (Note: telephone dial-in option also available, contact us for details)
Link to The Property Voice YouTube Channel
The Property Voice Meetup Page & Eventbrite Page
How to Reach Richard By Telephone
Link to the Podcast feedback survey
TPV Apprentice Programme info HERE
Today’s must do’s
Subscribe to and review the show in iTunes…and while you are at it please help us to spread the word by telling all your friends too!
Property Investor Toolkit – here is the book link on amazon.co.uk & amazon.com in case you would like to get yourself a copy to accompany this series
Get talking!
Join in the discussion, either here in the comments section below, or by emailing us at podcast@thepropertyvoice.net
Start a conversation on Twitter with us @PropertyVoiceUK or on our Facebook page
Transcription of the show
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Property Voice Podcast. My name is Richard Brown, and as always, it's a pleasure to have you join me again on the show today. Well, this is going to be probably a very short and sweet introduction to the new series on the Property Voice Podcast. I've been looking forward to this one actually for a little time now, and it's all about going full-time in property. Now, a few months back, actually, was it a few months or was it even a year or so back? I'm not sure now. Of course we had the Property Heavyweight Series. And in that particular series, the internal criteria at least was that the people who appeared on that series had to be decamillionaires, worth at least 10 million. I don't know if they were or not, but that was the end, and that was the objective. So I guess that pitches them at a certain level.
Now going full-time in property does not mean that you need to be a decamillionaire. It does mean that you have to have a wealth or an income stream that is sufficient to support you full time in property. And in the course of this series, what really excites me is that I'm going to be showcasing if you like, what I call everyday people. These are people that you probably know, that you probably are. And so it's a different kind of inspiration that I'm really looking to share with you over the next few weeks or so of the series. I've already bagged a couple of the recordings, and there's just interesting conversations. People have done things in different ways. People who've gone about things in different ways.
The other thing that I plan to share actually, over the next few weeks is not just people who've actually done it, which I will do. People who've been there and done it and got the battle scars to prove it. But also people who are embarking on that journey, they're at the early stages. And so you're going to get a bit of a contrast, really. You're going to get people who've perhaps achieved that going full-time in property objective already. And you'll hear how they did that and the learnings and the lessons and the strategies and the way they did it, et cetera, over that period of time.
But at the same time, we're also going to hear about people who are at the early stages of that journey and perhaps how they're looking to do that themselves. And we can compare and contrast of course, between the different types of approaches. Maybe the different types of points in time, which people are looking to implement the way they're going to go about this.
So I think that's going to be interesting. Everyday people, some before and afters, if you like, in terms of the case studies. So I hope like me, you're looking forward to that. As I say, I'm really pretty excited to be sharing that over the next few weeks. I guess in my own case, I've gone full-time in property. And when I say full-time in property, it's not the only thing I do. I have multiple streams of income and perhaps we'll touch on that with one or two of the guests in fact. But I think there's quite a few takeaways. I don't really want to get too much into my own story, but maybe just a couple of reference points for you.
The idea if you like, of effectively my future earnings and welfare, if you like, coming through property related activity was crystallized in my mid-forties. So I wasn't a spring chicken, so to speak. And so it was crystallized in my mid-forties when I had what I call my eureka moment. And then it took another four years before actually I started investing in property after making that realization. And of course if I knew then what I know now, I would have started a lot sooner than four years, but there we go. You probably heard me talk about that four year gap, probably cost me a couple of million pounds in terms of property values that I missed out upon if you like. So this is one of those things. We don't know what we don't know.
And so the other thing about my journey, my own personal journey is that I was always a value-adding investor. I like to say I'm a value investor like Warren Buffet, but in truth, I'm a value-adding investor. I like to take a property and either convert it or change it in some way or realize some sort of value through a project. And I guess that's my particular core competence. Usually that's capital intensive as well though. So it's not necessarily for everyone, especially if you're relying on your own resources potentially to make your way through that.
But I guess one of the real game changers for me was when I realized I could actually access other people's money to help support some of that capital expense. Now, of course, that meant less of my own money and I could make it stretch further. And obviously I could give good returns to other people who wanted to participate in those sort of projects with me. So win/win, really, all around. So I think there was a couple of mindset shifts, I think is really what I wanted to say in terms of my own journey. The realization in the first place, the stepping into it four years later, but realizing later that I could have stepped into it sooner. The value-adding strategy, which I love basically, which is all about forcing the appreciation to actually get ahead of the curve, so to speak, in terms of accelerating the property value and the return on investment and making your funds go further. And then of course the next step change was really accessing other people's money and then getting into larger projects as well.
So there was a number of different twists and turns along the journey. I'm 11 years in now, as I sit here and record this for you today. 11 years in, and in fact, the most significant part of that growth has come in the last two to three years. So that tells you something as well. I think at this point in time, I've got 75 rental units span four countries. I think the assets and the management surround about seven and a half million pounds. So, that's a sort of quantum, if you like. And as I mentioned, the vast majority of that's come in the last few years, it's not been plain sailing. You might have picked up from a couple of points in time. But I think as I mentioned last week, and by the way, just the people have been dropping me notes over the last couple of weeks with some of the shares they've been making. I just want to say a big thank you to you. It really makes the world of difference. Sometimes you sit here and you just talk into a microphone and you don't get the feedback you might do with a one-to-one conversation, unless somebody actually engages with you and says, "I got something out of that."
So I just want to thank one or two of you who reached out to me personally and said some nice things on social media or in an email or something like that. It really means a lot because just to keep going with the motivation to record this podcast week in, week out sometimes it's a challenge. So it's good to get a bit of feedback, especially the positive type. You can give me constructive feedback as well, but I really like the positive type, because it motivates me to keep doing this and keep sharing and keep giving to you. So thanks for those who did that. Maybe a bit of a call out there. You can, by all means, drop me a note, say, "Thank you." That'd be most welcomed, but why don't you just drop a podcast review on iTunes or your favorite podcasting application where you listen to the Property Voice Podcast. It'd be really great if you could do that. I don't really ask for reviews that often, but I guess if I don't, I don't get, do I? So yeah. Maybe I can ask that as well.
Anyway, so I digress perhaps. It was really just a brief setup today. I just wanted to introduce the fact that we got the series coming on. I wanted to let you know that it's going to be a compare and contrast, a before and after. Some people have already done it and how they did it. And some people are just embarking on the journey. I think that'd be really interesting to get that kind of contrast going over the next few weeks as well. And as I mentioned, it's kind of what I call everyday people. So it's people you can relate to. I think that's the point I'm really trying to get out of this is that if you can relate to one or two of the people that you're going to listen to over the next few weeks, then it's going to give you some belief, it's going to give you some encouragement and hopefully a bit of a stimulus to keep working forward. Keep moving forward.
Obviously we're in difficult times, but you know what? When I started, it was during the global financial crisis. I bought my first property in 2009, which was literally in the middle of the global financial crisis. So don't be disheartened by what's going on around you. Actually, on the country, I'd be probably hopeful if you were just about to start out, then maybe it's not such a bad time to be starting at all. Yeah, of course, we're going to go through some challenges over the next few months and even potentially next couple of years, but if you can lock in decent price property assets at this point in time, and you're wise in the way you go about things and perhaps take advice from some of the people you're about to listen to over the next few weeks, I'm sure you're going to find that you look back on this moment as being pivotal in your own sort of progression.
And of course, if you were already embarking and maybe now it's time to put the foot on the gas a bit, press a little harder, push a little harder, to maybe push yourself on and do a little bit more than perhaps you were thinking you could do or should do even at this point in time. And even if you're perhaps a little bit more advanced and maybe even struggling a bit at this point in time. Sometimes people asking me, "How are your empty [inaudible 00:09:44] units?" How about those HMOs where everybody left? Well, not everybody, but a lot of people left in a short period of time. Yeah, it's a bit bumpy at times, but this too shall pass. We'll get through this, we'll come out the other side and we'll be stronger for it.
Of course, I always advocate trying to have the defenses up so that you can survive difficult moments. So it's controlled growth, really, rather than, [inaudible 00:10:10] if you like, is what I always advocate. So anyway, less of me, I just wanted to set things up. It's quite short and sweet, as I mentioned today. But tune in please, over the next few weeks, listen to some everyday people. Some of them are millionaires next door, and some of them are aspiring to be millionaires next door or even greater things.
So I'm looking forward to it. I think it's going to be a really good share. I know many of the people I'm already going to be speaking to. And I know that they've got some really interesting stories from a variety of different backgrounds and a variety of different strategies. So join me over the next couple of weeks. It's going to be good fun. And thanks for joining me today. The show notes for what worth are going to be at the website, ThePropertyVoice.net, as always. And if you want to drop me a note, Podcast@thepropertyvoice.net. I'd be very, very happy to hear from you particularly if it's relating to this particular series, in fact. So please do drop me a note. But I guess all that remains now is to say, thank you very much for listening once again this week. And until next time, on the Property Voice Podcast, it's ciao-ciao.
That's all from me this week, remember if you want to talk about anything from today’s show, or just talk property investing more generally, email me at podcast@thepropertyvoice.net, I would be happy to hear from you! The show notes can be found at our website www.thepropertyvoice.net
Thanks very much for listening again this week, so all that left to say is ciao ciao!