The Inside Property Investing Podcast | Inspiration and advice from a decade investing in UK real estate

Today I’m delighted to be joined by Jane Scroggs, returning to the show after a couple of years since her last appearance, not to talk about property this time, but about her business Beam, which supports property investors with her team of UK based virtual assistants and property specialists. Jane is a real pro when it comes to outsourcing, delegating, and generally helping you free up your time from the day to day admin of running a property business so that you can focus on the real valuable tasks in your business like sourcing your next deal, raising funds for your next development, or, god-forbid, taking a well-earned day off, safe in the knowledge that things won’t implode whilst you’re gone. During todays episode we talk about the who, what, where, when and why of getting help and starting to outsourcing some of the work in your business, and of course if you’re interested in Jane’s support with any of this, you can reach out to her via the contact details she shares at the end of the episode. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

Michael Lawson is a Dubai based investor who rapidly scaled his portfolio whilst holding down a successful career and living about 3,000 miles away - and when I say rapidly, I’m talking to the tune of 15+ new purchases per year. How does he do this? Well it’s a family business, and he has his mum back on the ground looking after more of the customer facing tasks while he focuses on the business growth and strategy; he keeps his attention on just two postcodes in Fife that he knows like the back of his hand - an approach I’ve always favoured rather than trying to cast your net too wide; and he’s kept things as simple as possible, with a portfolio made up predominantly of single lets. One of the reasons I love hosting this podcast is the constant reminder that there are so many different ways to make a successful career from property, and Michael gives us yet another perspective on how things can be done, so I’m sure you’ll get a ton of value from our discussion today. He also let slip after we stopped recording that he’s getting married next week, which will be before this podcast airs, so Michael, by the time you’re listening to this you’ll be a married man and I just want to wish you a huge congratulations and all the best to you and your new wife. Now, let’s get into the show. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

This week, I’m sharing our story of how we got into property full time - thanks to HMOs. During the episode, I share our background before we discovered HMOs, including our corporate jobs, early flips, and our limited single let experience, as well as the progress we've made with HMOs - from our first accidental 3 bedroom HMO in 2009 to our first intentional HMO in 2015, and beyond. I talk about the time required to create career replacing income from HMOs, and tackle the question of funding. I share our own experiences with different finance options, including using our own money, taking on debt, and working with joint venture partners. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

This is possibly my most awkward interview to date, because Jerry is a true expert when it comes to commercial property investing and I spent the whole time trying to think of answers beyond ‘we just make it up as we go along’. Jerry Alexander is the host of the Commercial Property Investor podcast and invited me on to talk about our own experiences in the world of commercial property investing. I could talk all day about commercial to residential conversions, and in fact if you’re interested in listening to me talk all day about them then on of our commercial to residential Open days would be the perfect investment for you, but in this case Jerry’s real interest is in commercial property retained as commercial property, which I am a novice in. But it’s an interesting discussion, particularly around how we moved from residential projects into commercial conversions, and some lessons I’ve learnt along the way, so I hope you enjoy, and if you feel so inclined, I’d be grateful if you could take a moment to leave a review for the show to help more aspiring investors discover it. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

I think you’re going to love today’s episode as I chat with Courtney Bryan about his investment story so far, specifically looking at the details of his first HMO - what worked well, what didn’t go to plan, how he selected his investment area, sourced the deal, and so much more, including all the numbers of that first project. Courtney mentions our Inside HMO Investing programme a couple of times throughout the interview, and I’m thrilled it’s had such a positive impact on his confidence to get out there and invest, but actually most of our guests these days we’ve worked with in the past, whether it’s through our HMO programme, our Open Days or our raising private finance programme. Some of our recent guests like Nikki Smith, Martin & Lauren Plummer, Howard Giblin, Jess Leader, and Kim Opszala have all invested in support and education with IPI, and as I said to Courtney after recording this, it’s so fulfilling 7 or 8 years after starting this podcast to be part of all of their stories, and I hope one day I can be part of yours as well. Maybe even, I’ll get to discuss it with you as a guest on the podcast. But for today, let’s see what we can learn from Courtney and his own investing story. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

Since last being on the podcast in 2020, Kim’s business and life have changed dramatically. From a property perspective, she’s switched her focus from R2R to buying HMOs, giving her much more security for the longer term by actually owning the assets that she’s renting out, although as you’ll hear during the interview, she still obviously has a soft spot for rent to rent and the opportunities that model created for her in the early days. But more excitingly, at least from my perspective, is the change to her living arrangements, as she recently converted a van into a camper and splits her time between life in the UK and life on the road, travelling with her family whilst continuing to run and grow her property business. And as a fellow travel junkie, I spent more than a little time asking her about how this is working out as well. A great follow up interview with Kim that I’m sure you’ll enjoy, so let’s get started. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

Today, I’m joined by Jack Smith, and I think you’re going to enjoy this episode. Jack’s an investor who started off flipping houses, after spending time spinning his wheels and getting distracted by all the different investment options that were available to him. He made a £30,000 profit on his first deal, and quickly moved on to deals 2 and 3, but during his search for good projects, he realised he had a knack for finding off-market deals that were valuable to other people. His sourcing business was born, and that quickly surpassed his investment income, becoming more or less his full time focus ever since. During the interview we talk about both the flipping model and his sourcing business, as well as the value of his YouTube channel in helping him scale, and why this platform is a huge opportunity compared to most social media platforms. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

Lauren and Martin Plummer did pretty much everything with their first deal that the mainstream advice tells you not to do. In their defence, they’d built up some experience from renovating their own home a couple of times before they thought seriously about investing, but as far as first deals go this, was a biggie - the conversion of a period property into 5 flats, including a loft conversion which, as we discuss during the interview, may or may not have been worthwhile. But despite plenty of lessons learnt along the way, and dare I say a few mistakes, ultimately the project was a success with all 5 flats renting within 12 hours of viewings! And it certainly didn’t dampen their spirits, as the next project they are purchasing is another conversion, this time of a listed building into 4 flats that they intend to use as holiday lets. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

Unicorns really do exist, although the point of today’s interview with Jess Leader is that whilst we can occasionally find those projects that give us all of our money back out, they’re usually pretty rare and we certainly don’t need to focus on them in order to build a life changing income from property. Jess had completed 7 projects before she finally caught a unicorn on her 8th, and today she gets into the details of what her own investing story has been like. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, so let’s get started. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

Sometimes, life doesn't go to plan! Lawrence got first hand experience of this when he was diagnosed with Lime disease after years of major health issues. Despite barely being able to get out of bed or walk up a flight of stairs, he focussed first of all on his recovery with the help of functional medicine and a lifestyle overhaul that now sees him spending a 3rd of his time looking after his health and wellbeing, and then on his financial future, ensuring his wife would continue to have an income should the worst happen to him. It started with a small portfolio of single lets, that’s quickly grown over the past 4 years to a larger portfolio of single lets, several multi-unit block purchases, and a few serviced accommodation units, some of which he feels are worth the effort, and some of which aren’t. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

This episode is from a talk I did a few weeks ago for Tom Dylan and his Cuppa Property network meeting. In it, I'm sharing my thoughts on succeeding in business when the property market is full of uncertainty. This isn't about how to source deals in a down market, or handling with low valuations, but tips that have stood me in good stead at all stages of our business growth that I hope you can benefit from as well. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

Are you living in a different location to the one you want to invest in? Do you wonder why renovation projects always seem to be so inefficient, and wonder what can be done to improve things? Have you ever thought about making the move from single lets to HMOs? If any of these questions are on your mind, then today’s episode is for you as I’m joined by Howard Giblin, an investor who recently made the switch from his stable single let portfolio to the higher rewards of student HMOs; investing in Gloucester whilst living and working full time in Amsterdam; and with his lengthy career as a civil engineer for some of the largest construction companies in the world, he’s got some great insights into the efficiencies of building olympic stadiums that can be applied (sometimes) to the projects we’re working on as well. So stick around, and if you’re enjoying the show, I’d love if you could take a minute to leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from. It really makes a difference to me and to the investors that might discover us because of your review. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

Private finance continues to be a huge focus area for loads of you - or at least it’s something that you WANT to focus on in your business. It’s the subject of today’s podcast, as I outline the 4 steps of your marketing plan that you need to be thinking about to bring investors into your business. In fact it’s pretty much the 4 steps to market anything in your business, whether that’s your serviced accommodation properties or your property management services, so keep that in mind as I run through the 4 steps, but I’ll be talking about them specifically in relation to private investors. And if you want some more help bringing private finance into your business, head over to insidepropertyinvesting.com/finance to see what we’ve got going on. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

This is a quick intro to a relatively long podcast I recorded just before Christmas with Paul Lanfear. For a change, it was Paul asking me the questions for his own podcast, The Property & Investor Podcast, with a particular focus on burnout, how to cope with it and how to come back from. It’s something we’ll all experience at some point as we try to grow our business, and I think it’s important to shine light on some of these less instagrammable moments that we experience so that if you’re feeling burnt out you know that you’re not alone. If you enjoy the discussion, let me know with a quick review so that even more people can find it, and you can check out more conversations with Paul on his own podcast as well. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

Nikki and her husband Mark have got over 35 years experience in the property world through their construction business, creating bespoke homes for their clients. But in 2020 during the first lockdown they decided it was time to put their experience of developing properties for other people to better use for themselves, and started to build their own recurring income by investing in their own deals. They joined our Inside HMO Investing programme, and since then they’ve moved quickly, acquiring a portfolio of single lets, HMOs and serviced accommodation. In today’s episode, Nikki shares exactly what they’ve been up to over the last couple of years, including what’s worked for them and what has been more of a struggle. So I hope you enjoy, I hope you get inspired, and if I can be so cheeky, I hope you take 2 seconds to leave us a review wherever you’re listening to this today. They make a huge difference to me in terms of helping new aspiring investors find the show, so if the podcast has been in anyway helpful to you, I’d love for you to pay it forward. I really appreciate it. Now let’s get into the show - oh and by the way, if the audio sounds a little funky, I was recording this in my car in December during that really cold spell on my headphones microphone, so there you go. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

Happy New Year! I hope you had a great 2022, but the reality is many of us didn't. And unfortunately, I don't see 2023 being much better, in terms of market stability or certainty. There will be challenges ahead, but challenges also mean opportunity. This is my pep-talk to myself to set myself up for a successful 2023, and I hope it inspires you as well. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

Today’s guest is Lee Chaloner, one half of passive.property if you’re on the Instagrams. Along with his wife Ceri, they’ve been building a portfolio since 2019 in and around Wrexham in North Wales. I’ve got a lot of admiration for these guys - they’ve taken a long term view to building their property income, and only recently started to think about scaling back their day jobs as their business gets to a point where it can sustain them and still allow them to grow. They started off flipping a house to raise additional capital, before directing most of their attention to HMOs, with direct to vendor deals and buying existing but run down HMOs where they could see an opportunity to add value; and they’ve recently added serviced accommodation to the mix. As Lee points out during the interview, their focus isn’t on one strategy or another, but instead on high cash flowing deals within easy reach of their home. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

Candice & Dan, are still pretty new to the property world, but with a couple of deals under their belts their on the right path and by the sounds of it, doing all the right things. It was great to hear about their progress so far and some of the decisions they’ve made - like why they started out investing in flats even though they don’t think they’re the best long term investment; how they’re balancing the time requirements of investing along with days jobs, and how they made the ultimate sacrifice in their relationship in order to push their business forward faster than they would otherwise have been able to do. Today’s episode will hopefully give you a ton of inspiration and show you that whilst property isn’t the key to overnight success, you can still cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. So let’s jump in to the interview. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

As we transition back to the UK for winter, back into our winter schedule, and back into a regular podcast calendar, I thought it was long overdue to provide an update on our own projects. There are a few specific aspects I want to call out on certain projects in more detail, like how we saved almost £40,000 with our approach to a planning application on IPI Carrwood; and why we’ve been forced to go from plan A to plan C on IPI Washway, so I’ll do that in upcoming episodes, but for today I just want to bring you up to speed on exactly what we’re working on right now and how we see these projects progressing over the coming months. Hopefully there’ll be at least a couple of insights that are relevant to what you’re working on right now as well, so let’s get started. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing

Today I’m delighted to be talking with Jackie Tomes - a favourite of mine in the property world who has built an amazing portfolio and property business along with husband David. I’m such a fan of hers for a couple of reasons: In today’s episode we’re discussing the 3 major reasons that most property investors actually fail to ever get to live their dream life, and what Jackie thinks you can do to make sure you do hit your goals. I had a lot of fun talking through these ideas with her, and I hope you enjoy the discussion as well. =============================== Join our exclusive mastermind group for experienced property investors looking to scale their businesses without the burnout – apply now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/mastermind and let's grow together! ******************** Are you interested in scaling your portfolio with the best strategy in the property world? Register for one of our upcoming Commercial to Residential Open Days and discover why commercial conversions have been our focus for so many years now at insidepropertyinvesting.com/openday Check out our content on your favourite platforms: Website: InsidePropertyInvesting.com Instagram: @InsidePropertyInvesting Youtube: Inside Property Investing