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Overcoming All Challenges To Succeed In Rent 2 Rent · The Property Unleashed Podcast

0:10
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Property Unleashed podcast with me, your host, Mark Fitzgerald.
0:15
Speaker 1: Today I have a special treat because I have a guest joining me here.
0:20
Speaker 1: I have Luke White joining me today.
0:22
Speaker 1: How are you, Luke?
0:23
Speaker 2: I am excellent, Mark, Really really glad to be here with you today.
0:27
Speaker 1: Oh, it's great to have you on.
0:28
Speaker 1: So I met Luke recently at a property event.
0:32
Speaker 1: We were both speakers there and he had a fantastic story, did a fantastic talk Not quite as good as me, but I saw him up there.
0:40
Speaker 1: He was good.
0:41
Speaker 1: He was good For people that don't know about you, luke.
0:44
Speaker 1: Uh, can you tell us a bit about yourself please?
0:46
Speaker 2: yes, um, I've been in property for probably the last five years or so, a bit more um and really the the reason why I'm in property is because I just want to be able to do the things that matter with who it matters, when it it matters.
1:03
Speaker 2: And property allows me to be able to have my time to do the things that matter, and so that's really really my passion, and the things that I enjoy doing really centre around my family and my friends.
1:15
Speaker 2: I coach football, I coach my older son's football team, I'm heavily involved in community activities and just really building the life that my children can also do the things that matter to them.
1:30
Speaker 2: So we home educate as well, my wife and I mainly my wife so to allow my kids to really have full kind of reign and control over how they learn, what they learn and the things that they do.
1:42
Speaker 2: Long story short, I'm a bit of a rebel, a bit of a maverick who likes to kind of make my own path in life, and and that's what I'm doing and that's what I love to do.
1:55
Speaker 1: Wow, that's, that's amazing.
1:56
Speaker 1: I didn't know about a home education, so I've got to.
1:58
Speaker 1: I've got to drill you a little bit on that.
2:00
Speaker 1: I mean, how did that come about?
2:04
Speaker 2: So I was home educated until I was seven.
2:06
Speaker 2: So with that background I knew that it could be effective.
2:10
Speaker 2: Even joining school at seven years old I wasn't behind.
2:13
Speaker 2: I mean, I wasn't as sharp a reader as I would have been, but as soon as I got into school I quickly excelled through the reading ranks and so because of that backdrop I knew that it could be effective.
2:27
Speaker 2: And I know the Scandinavians do a similar thing, where I don't think their children go into kind of organised schooling until they're probably about seven years old, I believe.
2:36
Speaker 2: So there is kind of that thought out there.
2:38
Speaker 2: The Jesuit priests do a similar thing.
2:41
Speaker 2: They have that saying give me a child till they're seven and I'll give you a man.
2:46
Speaker 2: And so I believe that as much influence as possible on your children, as young as possible, is really powerful in shaping the adult that they're going to be.
2:54
Speaker 2: And so we wanted to have maximum impact and input into their lives in those formative years that matter.
2:59
Speaker 2: And yeah, they've excelled, they've loved it.
3:03
Speaker 2: I'll be honest, my oldest, who's nine, when she was an only child because her cousins were in school, she used to express this desire to start school.
3:14
Speaker 2: But once the next one joined, and the next one joined.
3:17
Speaker 2: I've got three now.
3:18
Speaker 2: She hasn't looked back since.
3:20
Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's great.
3:22
Speaker 2: It really is just amazing to be able to do follow their own speed, their own steam, follow their own interests, because all subjects are merged together anyway.
3:32
Speaker 2: Like maths is linked to science, is linked to geography, is linked to business, and I like the idea of, rather than you know, compartmentalising subjects.
3:41
Speaker 2: We're just learning everything and following the, the passion of the kids.
3:46
Speaker 2: So, yeah, that's what we're doing.
3:47
Speaker 2: I love that I love that.
3:49
Speaker 1: See, I was very, very, very close to doing that with my uh youngest son, who's just gone oh wow.
3:56
Speaker 1: So we were really debating it at the time as to whether or not to to homeschool it now.
4:02
Speaker 1: A lot of that might fallen on my shoulders as well, which I've got more time freedom, but I'm not much of a teacher like I'm not very good explaining things, I'm very high level.
4:11
Speaker 1: You know, do this and just get on with it, whereas you know you need detailed person.
4:15
Speaker 1: So you know your wife, has she got any background in in sort of educating or?
4:19
Speaker 1: She must have the patience of a saint as well.
4:22
Speaker 2: This, this is what it is.
4:23
Speaker 2: It's the patience I mean.
4:25
Speaker 2: She's always been a teacher when she was, you know, before she was a parent, she um did a lot of.
4:31
Speaker 2: She ran her own drama school, even for a while a drama group in our local church community growing up and um, so she's always been involved in in kind of helping young people.
4:43
Speaker 2: She worked for local council before she became a mother, so she worked in the youth offending team.
4:49
Speaker 2: So she was always working with young people and helping them, really teaching them life skills, more than the kind of the regimented curriculum, so that I think, put her in a good position to deal with her children.
5:00
Speaker 2: You know, no one loves your children like you do, and so being able to just really take that love and that patience that is needed and we don't always get it right, don't get me wrong.
5:09
Speaker 2: Sometimes we're screaming but you know we're quick to apologize and I think that is something that really helps them, um, at home and you know, because in school they just don't have the time to be patient and I don't blame them.
5:19
Speaker 2: Like you know, schools do their best but when you've got 30 children all vying for your attention, all with different needs.
5:26
Speaker 2: It's really hard to meet the needs of everyone.
5:30
Speaker 2: So, yeah, so she, just the love that she has, the experience she has of helping young people, I think has boded well, and just the way she's attacked the role and just really, I mean she's about to start her own forest school.
5:45
Speaker 2: That's how involved she really is in it and how much she loves it.
5:48
Speaker 2: So, yeah, hats off to her.
5:51
Speaker 2: She's excellent at that.
5:57
Speaker 1: I think that's amazing and brilliant, because people have said to me well, would you be concerned?
5:59
Speaker 1: When I was talking about doing the same thing with Lewis about his social skills, I said, well, I'm going to talk to him.
6:04
Speaker 1: I'm just going to put him in the corner and he's never going to interact with anybody else.
6:09
Speaker 1: Kids in this day and age, now a lot of their social skills are actually online, when they're playing games and things like that.
6:17
Speaker 1: He's got a VR headset and he's always playing and he makes friends with other kids, so he's always socializing anyway, aren't they?
6:23
Speaker 1: But I just haven't spoken to anybody recently that actually has done it, and it's done it with, like, multiple kids yeah, three kids, none of them.
6:32
Speaker 2: They've never been, never been in the, in the system.
6:34
Speaker 2: Um, probably, maybe, when they express a desire to, maybe we could.
6:39
Speaker 2: But for me, once a child can learn or can read and all my children can my five-year-old is just getting the last scripts of it they can teach themselves.
6:48
Speaker 2: To be honest with you, make sure there's books there, make sure there's things.
6:51
Speaker 2: They get to the point where once a child can read and has functional skills and it's the passion for learning.
6:57
Speaker 2: You want the children to have the passion for learning and you know, just like that famous.
7:01
Speaker 2: There's that famous TED talk with Ken Robinson talking about how school kills creativity, and I watched that numerous times.
7:08
Speaker 2: And it's true, because in school often you don't get to follow your passion, you have to do the curriculum, whereas with home, educate.
7:14
Speaker 2: And if you follow the child's curiosity, they will never lose their love for learning.
7:18
Speaker 2: And that's what.
7:19
Speaker 2: That's what we're finding anyway.
7:21
Speaker 1: It is.
7:22
Speaker 1: I mean myself myself at school.
7:24
Speaker 1: I got bored easy, you know.
7:26
Speaker 1: I mean unless I was into it, unless it, unless it was something and I'd pick it up.
7:31
Speaker 1: I couldn't pick up other things.
7:33
Speaker 1: I just switch off.
7:35
Speaker 1: So you just called thick at the end of the day, when you're at school and that was it, because I couldn't remember or I wasn't interested in what people were showing me.
7:43
Speaker 1: but, like I say, if it came down to doing um design technology, building something or drawing something or being quite creative, I was all over it and they were just like well, how come you can do that and you can't do it, because we're all different.
7:55
Speaker 1: We're all the same sort of people.
7:57
Speaker 1: So I love that and I love the fact that you know you're oldest, at nine years old.
8:01
Speaker 1: Now you can, sort of you can.
8:03
Speaker 1: You can actually put together what she's doing and what she's interested in and potentially, when she actually then goes out to do work or get a job or build her own business or whatever she chooses to do, she's been geared up for that for the last you know, 16 years or whatever.
8:17
Speaker 1: Rather than you walk out of a structured environment into a new environment and start from scratch again, aren't you of?
8:24
Speaker 1: You know a structured?
8:24
Speaker 2: environment into a new environment.
8:25
Speaker 2: It's starting from scratch again, aren't you absolutely?
8:26
Speaker 2: And I think there's no surprise that.
8:27
Speaker 2: Look, some of the sharpest minds in business didn't do that well in school yourself.
8:32
Speaker 2: You look at people like richard branson because you and richard, I mean, you're a bit of higher level than richard branson, but you and richard branson you but, you know, um, there's loads of people, gary vaynerchuk like, there's loads of people who didn't do well in school because but but are excellent in business.
8:49
Speaker 2: Why is that?
8:50
Speaker 2: Because they're in their passion.
8:51
Speaker 2: They're not thick, they just didn't.
8:54
Speaker 2: What the school wanted to teach didn't apply to them, didn't, didn't stoke that fire in you, whereas now, when you're let loose on your passions, the world's your oyster.
9:02
Speaker 1: The world's your oyster nice, but I could talk to you all day about that at the end of the day, but we must move on.
9:09
Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit about property, shall we?
9:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do it.
9:13
Speaker 1: First and foremost, you know you wanted time freedom.
9:15
Speaker 1: You obviously want the time with the family and things.
9:17
Speaker 1: I I always go back and say if you'd have said to me, you know five, six, seven years ago, mark, what would make you happy?
9:23
Speaker 1: I'd have said 10 million and a bank, a mansion and a Ferrari.
9:25
Speaker 1: Why?
9:26
Speaker 1: Because that was my mindset at the time.
9:28
Speaker 1: That was all I thought.
9:30
Speaker 1: The trinkets and the money would make me happy.
9:31
Speaker 1: You ask me now it's time freedom.
9:34
Speaker 1: It's time spent with people that I want to be with, with my loved ones, with my kids.
9:39
Speaker 1: Believe it or not, lockdowns and stuff that we had.
9:42
Speaker 1: I loved them.
9:44
Speaker 1: Why?
9:44
Speaker 1: Because I love being with my kids.
9:45
Speaker 1: So many of my friends were like kids, driving me mad.
9:47
Speaker 1: All right, I'm loving it.
9:48
Speaker 1: We're playing basketball, we're doing all of this.
9:51
Speaker 1: I'm spending quality time with them.
9:52
Speaker 1: Now, the homeschooling was the only thing that actually put me off, but that's because I was never that good at school anyway.
9:58
Speaker 1: So lisa, my wife, took a bit more of a hand on that uh we probably didn't do that as well as we we could have, but we're too busy having fun and playing you did your best.
10:06
Speaker 2: You did your best for yourself um white white property so I.
10:14
Speaker 2: So from the age of about 16, I was heavily involved in my church community and so the papa.
10:20
Speaker 2: At 18, I went to seminary, which is like, where we studied to be like a priest, a preacher, pastor, and I thought that was going to be my journey in life.
10:29
Speaker 2: Now, because of my, my maverick tendencies, my rebellious tendencies, it doesn't matter where you aim this gun, it will shoot Right.
10:37
Speaker 2: So, in the church environment, in the, in that environment where, even though it's the church environment, I still had ideas, I still wanted to change things, I still wanted to innovate, and what I realized is, if they were going to pay my salary, they were also going to control what I could say.
10:54
Speaker 2: So I started to think, even from as young as 20, I said you know what I need to do?
10:59
Speaker 2: Something where I can make my money entrepreneurially, so that when I'm on this pulpit, when I'm in church, I can say whatever I want to say without fear of losing my job, or what would happen if I lost my job.
11:12
Speaker 2: So that took me down the road of entrepreneurship and that's where I did social media.
11:16
Speaker 2: First, I had a social media company.
11:18
Speaker 2: I did a lot of freelance youth work.
11:21
Speaker 2: I did whatever I could, where I could make my money somewhere else.
11:25
Speaker 2: So in the church space I could say what I wanted to say how I wanted to say it.
11:30
Speaker 2: And that led me slowly down a path to property where one of the units I used to work with young people, as I said, and I was in a house.
11:38
Speaker 2: It was like you were basically like a security guard, more or less Like you just stayed in the house for all day, logged when they went in and out.
11:45
Speaker 2: It was like a basically like a security guard, more or less like you just stayed in the house for all day, logged when they went in and out.
11:48
Speaker 2: It was like a semi-independent living.
11:48
Speaker 2: So these are all 16 to 18 year old kids and I was, and I had a lot of time while I was there and I happened to ask my one of my colleagues.
11:55
Speaker 2: I said this house that we're in is it?
11:58
Speaker 2: Is it owned by the company that I work for?
12:00
Speaker 2: And they, she said no, it we.
12:03
Speaker 2: They rent this property from landlords.
12:06
Speaker 2: They rent all their properties from landlords.
12:08
Speaker 2: I thought that's interesting, isn't it?
12:09
Speaker 2: So then I thought do you know what A thought that often has been the downfall of many people?
12:15
Speaker 2: I said what if I wanted to do this myself?
12:17
Speaker 2: Then what if I wanted to set up my own semi-independent unit?
12:22
Speaker 2: That was the first thing.
12:23
Speaker 2: So I said, okay, then I'm going to need the property.
12:26
Speaker 2: And then, lo and behold, I had a family member extended family member who had a property that she was having problems with, and I said to her look, could I take on your property to run this semi-independent unit?
12:37
Speaker 2: I'll give you guaranteed rent.
12:39
Speaker 2: And she said yes, and that was how I ended up in the property space.
12:45
Speaker 2: But that failed as as, as things happened, I had two partners before we're due to open um, one just stopped answering his phone.
12:52
Speaker 2: He still hasn't answered his phone.
12:54
Speaker 2: It's that was 2018.
12:55
Speaker 2: He's.
12:55
Speaker 2: I'm still calling him with.
12:56
Speaker 2: We are trying to connect.
13:05
Speaker 2: You please hold, we're trying to connect.
13:07
Speaker 2: So he's gone.
13:12
Speaker 2: I don't know where he is.
13:14
Speaker 2: And my other partner, she she said it's not.
13:17
Speaker 2: She tried but said it's not really going to work, just the two of us.
13:20
Speaker 2: So she moved on.
13:21
Speaker 2: So I had this property which I had promised guaranteed rent for um, with no young people to stay in the property.
13:29
Speaker 2: And what am I going to do?
13:31
Speaker 2: Like I was, like you know, as I said in the talk.
13:33
Speaker 2: You know, I'm looking in the mirror thinking to myself Luke, you just this ain't it.
13:38
Speaker 2: You just ain't got it.
13:38
Speaker 2: What are you going to do?
13:39
Speaker 2: And so I started to go ahead.
13:41
Speaker 1: Sorry, I was just going to say and I've seen the pictures this was a high end property as well, wasn't it?
13:46
Speaker 1: We're not talking.
13:46
Speaker 1: You know running your mill.
13:47
Speaker 1: This was a beauty.
13:49
Speaker 2: Well, the high end property you're referring to, that comes later.
13:52
Speaker 2: That's a, that's a future failure Come on.
13:55
Speaker 2: Don't skip my failures now.
13:56
Speaker 2: Mark, this was the very first property.
14:06
Speaker 2: This was before I knew about rent to rent as a, as a model, before I knew, um, about all of this.
14:12
Speaker 2: This was just a property.
14:13
Speaker 2: I took it on to run it as a semi-independent unit for young people leaving, leaving care, and so now I'm struggling.
14:21
Speaker 2: How am I gonna?
14:22
Speaker 2: What am I gonna do?
14:23
Speaker 2: How am I gonna make that money?
14:24
Speaker 2: Um, and then then I thought, okay, well, I'm gonna.
14:26
Speaker 2: How am I going to?
14:27
Speaker 2: What am I going to do?
14:27
Speaker 2: How am I going to make that money?
14:28
Speaker 2: And then then I thought, ok, well, I'm going to have to rent it out.
14:32
Speaker 2: So I was then looking for tenants and then, as I started to research more and more online, that's when I learned about serviced accommodation and things like that.
14:37
Speaker 2: So my first attempt I then tried to run it as a as because it was five en suite rooms.
14:43
Speaker 2: It was basically hmo, but it wasn't a hmo yet officially, um, and so I then I then said, okay, let me try and rent it out on bookingscom and airbnb as separate rooms because it was really close to wembley, not far from wembley.
14:57
Speaker 2: So I thought, okay, let me try and get that tourist market.
14:59
Speaker 2: So I tried that for a bit, but again, I didn't know any of the systems.
15:02
Speaker 2: I didn't know anything.
15:03
Speaker 2: So it was me and my dad trying to clean, trying to do turnarounds, trying to do it all, trying to leave keys, trying to figure it out.
15:10
Speaker 2: I didn't know about, I didn't know what I was doing.
15:13
Speaker 2: Mark, right, I didn't.
15:13
Speaker 2: I didn't know what I was doing.
15:15
Speaker 2: And it got to the point I'm like, nah, this ain't it either, this ain't working, either Mark.
15:25
Speaker 2: And then, and then I was, by this time I'm now two months in the hole with money that I owe the landlord, right.
15:31
Speaker 2: So I'm like, what am I gonna do?
15:34
Speaker 2: So then I um, I I had to actually take out a personal loan to pay for those first two months.
15:41
Speaker 2: I took out a personal loan to pay for those first two months, and then I just got personal loan to pay for those first two months.
15:48
Speaker 2: And then I just got, I said you know what Did the numbers?
15:50
Speaker 2: I said I'll definitely be able to make the guaranteed rent if I just rent these room by room as a HMO.
15:55
Speaker 2: And lo and behold, the market went up a bit.
15:59
Speaker 2: So I rented them out as a HMO, got the license, got all started to learn about HMOs.
16:04
Speaker 2: Got it all officially registered, got everything done I needed to get done.
16:08
Speaker 2: Got five tenants in and what was that?
16:11
Speaker 2: Four?
16:12
Speaker 2: But by month three or four.
16:14
Speaker 2: Three stroke four.
16:15
Speaker 2: I was OK.
16:16
Speaker 2: I was OK and it was a HMO.
16:22
Speaker 2: I had the one property.
16:22
Speaker 2: It was making the guaranteed rent.
16:23
Speaker 1: I was making a little bit of money and we were in business it was making the guaranteed rent, I was making a little bit of money and we were in business, nice, nice, nice I.
16:29
Speaker 1: I didn't realize.
16:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't realize about that one, of course, so did you.
16:32
Speaker 1: What was the knock-on effect from?
16:34
Speaker 1: That was like okay, I've had a few problems, but I think I've cracked this now.
16:38
Speaker 2: Uh onwards to the next one.
16:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, so with that.
16:41
Speaker 2: So that was, that was a revelation, that was a.
16:46
Speaker 2: It was a real moment where I thought, okay, I'm in this for real now.
16:51
Speaker 2: I'm in this for real, um, but I now know, I know a few things that I didn't know before, but that only tells me that there's lots more that I don't know.
17:00
Speaker 2: So that's when I then tried to increase my learning by going to events a bit more, doing a bit more in-depth search online, working out OK, how do I grow the portfolio, what do I do.
17:12
Speaker 2: And that's when I stumbled across Samuel Leeds.
17:14
Speaker 2: I love him or hate him, I know he's like Marmite, but for me he was massively influential in my journey and I'm indebted to the kind of the free, the freeness, that I learned from him, and it was from learning from him.
17:28
Speaker 2: It was sitting in one of his free events.
17:30
Speaker 2: Again, I'm not affiliated with him, I don't get no affiliation, but it was going to sit going to his free event and I happened to be sitting next to he asked one of those questions where it was like, okay, you know, put your hand up if you're an investor, you know, and this happened to be this investor who was sitting right next to me and she asked me a bit about my story.
17:48
Speaker 2: I told her the story I just told you and she said well, I'm I'm interested in investing in HMOs.
17:54
Speaker 2: So if you find anything more I'll be interested in.
18:01
Speaker 2: You know I've got.
18:01
Speaker 2: She had a pot of money.
18:02
Speaker 2: She said I can do that whole pot towards one or separate that up into a few, but I'd be willing to invest with you basically and that was a free event, that would have been just before.
18:15
Speaker 2: That was January 2019.
18:17
Speaker 2: That was was that January 2019?
18:19
Speaker 2: It was either January 2019.
18:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was January 2019.
18:22
Speaker 2: And then it was January 2020 where I thought I had found something and then, obviously, lockdown happened.
18:31
Speaker 2: So, and then it was after lockdown where we get to the situation which you were referring to earlier.
18:37
Speaker 2: So, basically, I've got, I've had one property really for two years.
18:42
Speaker 2: It was one HMO that I had for two years and it was after lockdown.
18:49
Speaker 2: So we get to January 21, where I reached back out to this.
18:53
Speaker 2: I said, hey, I don't know if you remember me Sent her an email, don't know if you remember me, but I'm looking to invest, to look for properties again.
19:02
Speaker 2: Are you still interested?
19:03
Speaker 2: She said yeah, for sure, when you find something, something let me know.
19:06
Speaker 2: And then, at the same time, I joined the rent to rent success course with Nikki and Stephanie, went through that process and then, halfway through 2021, that's when I found that dream property which you were referring to earlier, which I then also became that.
19:21
Speaker 1: That became my next failure, but yeah, yeah, it's amazing when you, when you actually manage to turn something around and then all of a sudden you get the rents through, you're paying the bills, you're paying the landlords and you've got some money left over and it's just like Ooh hang on a minute.
19:37
Speaker 1: I quite like this now, um, I mean, obviously there are easier ways of doing it than than how you got it.
19:43
Speaker 1: My friend, absolutely, if I had a hat on, I would take my hat off to you and basically say at least you took action and you had a go.
19:50
Speaker 1: And probably in a lot of cases not all cases, but a lot of cases can be quite forgiving.
19:55
Speaker 1: And I always say what's the worst case scenario is if it's filled and we've got people in it and it washes its face.
20:01
Speaker 1: Happy days.
20:05
Speaker 1: So you know, know, congratulations to you.
20:06
Speaker 1: Then, like you say, you've had that, you've been property investing for quite a long time now but as the old saying goes, you don't know what you don't know, do you?
20:13
Speaker 2: oh, my days, that is it, mark, and as you say, I think you're right it can be quite forgiving, especially it's relationships, isn't it?
20:19
Speaker 2: Because, fundamentally, it's me and the landlord, or the landlord and I, we together, we come to an arrangement and we do our best to uphold our ends of the bargain.
20:32
Speaker 2: And if things need to change or if things need to move, I've learned just to be okay with that, because there's seasons to everything and sometimes you're going to want something and your landlord's going to be like no, don't, don't call me for nothing, like.
20:44
Speaker 2: I've had landlords who's like don't, I don't, unless the ceiling's caving in, and I expect to see you they're holding it up with those two strong arms of yours when I get there.
20:52
Speaker 2: That's the only way I'll believe you mate right, like somewhere like that, and others are like no, keep me informed.
20:58
Speaker 2: I want to.
20:58
Speaker 2: You know I want this place to be the best it can be, so I want to invest in it.
21:02
Speaker 2: I'm happy to fix things and do things because I know that you're doing a good job.
21:06
Speaker 2: So, as long as you've got that relationship, you understand your landlord, you've got a good relationship with them, and be as transparent as you can and just share what's happening, share the wins, share where you need help, share what's going on as much as is possible and, as you say it can, it can be quite forgiving because worst case scenario, what's the worst case?
21:26
Speaker 2: Worst case scenario, it's not making money and you have to say you know it's not working, but I've never had to return a property for for that reason.
21:35
Speaker 2: Or, yeah, I've never had to return property for that reason.
21:37
Speaker 2: So, yeah, it just just keep that relationship as honest and as transparent and as real as you can.
21:46
Speaker 2: And, um, most landlords are are cool, are cool with that yeah, I would agree with that.
21:55
Speaker 1: I think transparency is everything.
21:56
Speaker 1: I think, particularly for landlords that work with letting agents and things.
22:00
Speaker 1: Then they don't know what they're getting each month.
22:02
Speaker 1: You know, not all letting agents are as transparent or do a good, good enough job.
22:06
Speaker 1: It is massively, like you say, then, about relationships, working together with people, but I always say it is business At the end of the day, it is a business to business agreement, and as much as I've struggled with this myself, removing the emotion when money's involved, emotions normally start to, you know, come up.
22:27
Speaker 1: We don't want to fail as well.
22:29
Speaker 1: We also look at ourselves from the outside.
22:31
Speaker 1: If I hand a property back, I think I've failed.
22:32
Speaker 1: I don't want to be a failure, I don't want people to think of me like that, but I look at things as business and business have to pivot and they have to evolve.
22:40
Speaker 1: And of course, what I would say is we haven't had it easy.
22:45
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
22:46
Speaker 1: Somebody said to me the other day.
22:48
Speaker 1: They said how are you getting on with your property business?
22:50
Speaker 1: It's not been easy, is it?
22:51
Speaker 1: I think there's been something kicking off near enough every year.
22:54
Speaker 1: You know, if it's not Brexit, it's recessions, if it's COVID, and then it's interest rates, it's utility.
23:00
Speaker 1: I've said do you know what?
23:01
Speaker 1: We're still going, we're still thriving, and I can't wait to have an easy period.
23:06
Speaker 1: Let's have a few years where nothing much is happening.
23:08
Speaker 1: We'll absolutely fly?
23:12
Speaker 2: Absolutely no.
23:13
Speaker 2: That's a really good point, I think, because even when we think about interest rates and people thinking about you know, is now the right time to buy, or what have you I, and people thinking about you know is now the right time to buy, or what have you I always see it like, well, let's say, I don't believe it's going to get much higher.
23:27
Speaker 2: Right, I could be wrong, but if you buy when it's the worst, then the only way is down.
23:34
Speaker 2: Really, I mean, some people might think, oh, it could go.
23:37
Speaker 2: You never know it could go up to I.
23:42
Speaker 2: Just for me, I don't think it would go much higher.
23:43
Speaker 2: But the point is, if you have worked your numbers out and and work the situation out where you can still survive in this climate I mean, we know property is cyclical, so the likelihood is that you're in an even better position when things change.
23:59
Speaker 2: When, when interest rates come down, should they come down you're going to have more money to play with, not less.
24:04
Speaker 2: You know so I.
24:06
Speaker 2: When everyone's buying when it's low interest rates, that's easy.
24:08
Speaker 2: You don't you don't need to be good at business, you don't need to be sharp, you don't need to be creative, you don't need to be anything.
24:14
Speaker 2: When, when interest rates are 0.000 or minus whatever any, anyone in this dog can go and buy a house in in that market, right, and the market gets flooded and people who are not necessarily practitioners, as I like to call it, can still end up in the game.
24:29
Speaker 2: But when it's like this, but then this time comes and it's cut for it, right, a lot of people have probably left the market.
24:35
Speaker 2: A lot of people are not in the game.
24:38
Speaker 2: Maybe a lot of people may now be in in, you know, back in their their nine to five and you know tesco, which is fine.
24:44
Speaker 2: But the point is that they might have to have turned their whole ship around because they went in when it was easy, whereas if you go, if you have that fight or flight kind of mentality when it's tough, then when it eases up, you're still.
24:59
Speaker 2: You're going to win even more and greater because you didn't come in when it was easy.
25:03
Speaker 2: Sailing, you know, smooth sailing, yeah.
25:06
Speaker 1: Love it.
25:06
Speaker 1: Anybody can sail a ship in calm water.
25:10
Speaker 2: Hey, see, that's what I love you, mark.
25:12
Speaker 2: You just said what I said You're like in seven words you said what took me seven minutes.
25:18
Speaker 2: So thank you for saying that, thank you for saying that, thank you for doing those.
25:21
Speaker 2: That's why mark's the guy, guys, this is why mark's the guy I'll tell you what.
25:25
Speaker 1: That's a first for me, because you normally can't shut me up.
25:28
Speaker 1: So we've we've left everybody on tender hooks.
25:33
Speaker 1: Now you've spoken to this investor lady.
25:35
Speaker 1: You know things are on the rise, you're making money and stuff you're now taking on.
25:39
Speaker 1: So you've got this beautiful property.
25:41
Speaker 2: I've got to tell everybody, this one, yeah, so I've got this beautiful property.
25:46
Speaker 2: It's like a one, two, three, four, five bed, like modern mansion, basically.
25:54
Speaker 2: Um, even you know so the pictures I didn't even show you mark, which I'll give you this inside scoop it even had a basement, mark, it actually had like a two bed apartment downstairs, like that's not even in the pictures, that was like a nice little sideline, like just it was going to be a games room.
26:11
Speaker 2: I was going to put games room down there, like beautiful.
26:13
Speaker 2: Anyway.
26:14
Speaker 2: So I have this large property.
26:16
Speaker 2: It's probably it was worth at that point about 1.6, I think 1.4, 1.6.
26:20
Speaker 2: I mean just exquisite, lovely property.
26:22
Speaker 2: And I found this property on just regular right move.
26:26
Speaker 2: It was on for a crazy sum.
26:28
Speaker 2: It was on for like 8,000 pounds a month.
26:30
Speaker 2: I was like this is crazy, no one's going to pay 8 grand.
26:33
Speaker 2: But anyway, I put in.
26:36
Speaker 2: I asked for a viewing through the letting agent and went for the viewing.
26:40
Speaker 2: I looked at it, it looked nice, spoke to the owners.
26:43
Speaker 2: They were nice people and I submitted my offer to the agent.
26:49
Speaker 2: I said I know you want you on 8,000, but I said I can offer.
26:54
Speaker 2: I think I said about five grand.
26:56
Speaker 2: I knew I could go up to about five and a half, I think.
26:58
Speaker 2: I offered around five to start with, or a bit under five, and she said, okay, I'll take the offer to them, but I'm sure you know it's not.
27:06
Speaker 2: I'm sure as soon as the agent says to you, but I'm sure they're going to say no, right, I'm like, okay, you ain't bringing them nothing, are you, susie?
27:14
Speaker 2: You ain't bringing them nothing.
27:17
Speaker 2: So she didn't even contact me back.
27:18
Speaker 2: I contacted her.
27:19
Speaker 2: I said, hey, did you take my offer?
27:21
Speaker 2: What was the response?
27:22
Speaker 2: She said yeah, as I thought they said no, they really, they really need eight thousand.
27:28
Speaker 2: I said OK, no problem, that's fine.
27:30
Speaker 2: Fortunately they had also advertised the property on open rent.
27:34
Speaker 2: And for those people who don't know, open rent is where landlords go direct to market their properties.
27:38
Speaker 2: They don't use an agent, it's just you're directly dealing.
27:41
Speaker 2: Generally, you're directly dealing with a landlord, not always, but a lot of the time.
27:45
Speaker 2: That's the idea of the platform anyway.
27:47
Speaker 2: Of course, me and Mark use it a bit differently, but we'll get to that later right?
27:50
Speaker 2: So the landlords are on there, the landlords are on there, and so they had advertised the property on Open Rent as well.
28:02
Speaker 2: So I said fine, then I can go directly to them, since they're there as well.
28:05
Speaker 2: And I spoke to them again.
28:06
Speaker 2: I said hey, I know.
28:07
Speaker 2: I came around with Becky, I think her name was.
28:09
Speaker 2: I came around with Becky a couple of days ago.
28:10
Speaker 2: Did she bring you my offer?
28:12
Speaker 2: They said no, she hasn't brought us anything.
28:15
Speaker 2: I said, ok, no problem, would you mind if I come around for a second viewing?
28:19
Speaker 2: They said, yeah, great, came around there for the second viewing, spoke about things.
28:24
Speaker 2: They were like okay, five and five and a half.
28:26
Speaker 2: They were like okay, um, you know, we really wanted seven because of, uh, we wanted to remortgage all this stuff.
28:31
Speaker 2: I said I understand, but five and a half is the best.
28:34
Speaker 2: And I explained to them why.
28:35
Speaker 2: I said, look, I'm gonna have to do it as, even to get that number.
28:39
Speaker 2: I said I said I can give you 3 000 if we run it as a hmo, um, but if you want that extra figure, those extra, that extra two and a half, it's going to have to be a serviced accommodation where I rent this, the whole property, out on airbnb and um and and bookingscom and all the other otas.
28:59
Speaker 2: So they so they were like okay, no problem, okay, go for it.
29:03
Speaker 2: So we signed the contract.
29:05
Speaker 2: We've got that move in.
29:06
Speaker 2: That's where I contact my investor Again.
29:08
Speaker 2: I said I found this property, it's beautiful, I need one month's rent and I need the deposit.
29:15
Speaker 2: So I need 11 grand.
29:16
Speaker 2: She said, yep, no problem, lukey, send me that 11 bags, as they say in the ends, send me those 11 bags, sent that across to the landlord and we were in business.
29:30
Speaker 2: We were in business.
29:31
Speaker 2: I mean this.
29:33
Speaker 2: For me this was like my retirement.
29:35
Speaker 2: I'm like this is going to make me even paying back each month, paying back the investor, investor.
29:43
Speaker 2: I was still making like set to make close to two grand, over two grand some months, that's.
29:48
Speaker 2: That was like um, conservatively.
29:52
Speaker 2: So once the investor was going to be paid off, I was going to be making like 4k.
29:56
Speaker 2: I'm like, plus the property that I already, the HMI I already had, I'm like I made it Mama.
30:05
Speaker 1: I made it Mama.
30:09
Speaker 2: I made it.
30:12
Speaker 2: I thought I had made it.
30:14
Speaker 2: I was listen, I was buying Rolex.
30:17
Speaker 2: Okay, I wasn't buying Rolexes, but I was in my mind I was Rolex, ferrari, badger, the holidays, 11 months of the year.
30:28
Speaker 2: I had done it, I had made it and it was the life.
30:30
Speaker 2: And lo and behold, I was right.
30:33
Speaker 2: At first, the bookings.
30:34
Speaker 2: Just I mean, I even put the property up before it was even ready, just to see, okay, actually, before it was even ready, just to see, okay, actually, even before we signed the contract, just to.
30:43
Speaker 2: So here's a trick.
30:45
Speaker 2: This is a good trick for people, not even a trick, a good tip, right.
30:50
Speaker 2: If you think that you know you're going to sign a contract or you're close to signing a contract, you can still put it up on the online.
30:56
Speaker 2: I put it up on Airbnb, but I put that you have to get confirmation.
31:01
Speaker 2: So not instant book, you have to get confirmation.
31:04
Speaker 2: So I had to say yes or no to the booking.
31:06
Speaker 2: By doing that, that allowed me to see the demand before I even had the keys, before I even had furnished the property.
31:16
Speaker 2: So, by putting it up online, even while we were signing and going through the negotiations, bookings were coming in or people were trying to book, book, book, book, and this was between 550 pound a night during a weekday to up to seven, eight hundred pounds a grand on the weekend, because this was Wembley, Wembley, this was 10 minutes walk from the stadium.
31:36
Speaker 2: This was when mansion, when you could come with a nice big group of people, like like up to 12, 14 people, and just have a blast.
31:43
Speaker 2: So I mean the highest booking I ever had on that property and I know it was a one-off, but I like to remember it because then it just makes the failure just even greater in my mind.
31:54
Speaker 2: And I'm a bit of this, you know, I like to just peel the bandage off over and over again, right?
31:59
Speaker 2: So the biggest night that I had there was the Euro finals.
32:04
Speaker 2: I think it was the Euro finals in England and Italy.
32:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, euro finals at Wembley.
32:10
Speaker 2: A group from work came together, a workplace came together, booked it.
32:14
Speaker 2: That was £2,000 for that one night and I was like, yes, I know the finals don't happen every year and I know England won't be in it every year and I know it won't be in Wembley every year.
32:24
Speaker 2: So there were a lot of factors, but still I mean just I'm like what a beauty, what a two grand in one night.
32:33
Speaker 2: Mark, I know it's conservatively, you could make a grand 900 night, but two grand.
32:45
Speaker 2: I was like mate, let's go.
32:45
Speaker 2: So how did it all end?
32:46
Speaker 2: How did it all end?
32:46
Speaker 2: It all ended one fateful night when I get a text on my phone from a neighbour who didn't have my number so had gone through the Airbnb booking to message me saying there are some individuals smoking weed in your garden.
32:57
Speaker 2: I said I said what?
33:00
Speaker 2: I was like okay.
33:01
Speaker 2: She was like yeah, and there's actually there's quite a few people here, maybe you need to head over.
33:06
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, no problem, mark.
33:10
Speaker 2: As I'm driving to the property, mark, I'm passing Wembley Park station, I'm just seeing like young people, like maybe 18 to 21 year olds probably a bit younger coming out the station.
33:23
Speaker 2: I'm like tell me they're not coming to my yard, tell me they're not coming to my property, please, but you don't have that sinking feeling.
33:32
Speaker 2: I get to the top of the road, there's just lines of ubers just dropping people off, and this is you've got to remember this is summer of 21, I believe, just summer of 21, so we're not even properly out of lockdown yet.
33:44
Speaker 2: It's still kind of.
33:45
Speaker 2: I think we're at that point where we can meet up in two bubbles together or some amalgamation of that.
33:51
Speaker 2: Right, you're an arm length apart, you're an arm length apart, you know masks, all of that.
33:57
Speaker 2: And there's like hundreds of kids just outside the property, in the property, around the property, just taking the absolute liberties.
34:07
Speaker 2: And you have to remember the booking that had come through was a young man, had said hi, it's me and my four brothers.
34:13
Speaker 2: One of my brothers is getting married, so all the other brothers and the groomsmen, we just want to stay at the house so we can get ready together.
34:24
Speaker 2: You know the whole nine yards, so we can get ready together and head over to the wedding.
34:26
Speaker 2: I said no problem, sent me his driver's license, sent me his passport, like everything seemed legit.
34:32
Speaker 2: I checked him in, even I checked him in that day, either that day or the day before.
34:38
Speaker 2: Everything seemed normal, no issues.
34:41
Speaker 2: And when I get there just to see these hundreds of kids, I'm like blood clots, as we say blood clots.
34:50
Speaker 2: I'm like what is going on and I was just like what am I going to do?
34:57
Speaker 2: Like the street's going mad.
34:58
Speaker 2: And it was a suburban street, you know, all expensive houses, but all very kind of nosy and they don't want much going on in their neighborhood anyway.
35:08
Speaker 2: So they were kind of waiting for an opportunity and it was just terrible.
35:14
Speaker 2: It was that now, to be fair to them, they didn't destroy the property or anything, but they I couldn't get them out that night because when I called the police, the police said it's a civil matter, we're not getting involved.
35:25
Speaker 2: So I couldn't get them out at that point and um, they left the next day, left the street in a mess and it was just a nightmare.
35:33
Speaker 2: And because of the stress and all the drama that the neighbors made as a result of that night, can you imagine just opening your and I I understand you open your curtain 10 o'clock in the evening, 11 o'clock in the evening, and there's just waves of kids just down your street, music, playing loud.
35:50
Speaker 2: I mean, this is what we call a viral party.
35:52
Speaker 2: A friend of mine said that they had seen the invite on Snapchat.
35:56
Speaker 2: They were Snapchatting the invite around.
35:59
Speaker 2: They charged people.
36:00
Speaker 2: I reckon they made about 10 grand that night charging people like 20 pounds, 15 pounds for a ticket, just getting people in through the doors.
36:07
Speaker 2: They even had the giveaway they even had.
36:10
Speaker 2: This is where I thought to myself my God, they even had a security guard at my front door.
36:17
Speaker 1: Oh, what did you turn up the day?
36:22
Speaker 2: that I turned up security guard there in his green little high viz I'm like bloody up, like you guys took the capital piss.
36:31
Speaker 2: So.
36:31
Speaker 2: So that was that.
36:33
Speaker 2: As a result of all of that and as a result of not being able to control they, you know, they tried, even when that one, I kind of rode the wave a little bit they kept on trying to do the same thing.
36:42
Speaker 2: They kept on trying to repeat the same fate using different names, using different people trying to.
36:47
Speaker 2: I thought I couldn't realistically secure and I didn't know enough how to secure that premises to make sure that this didn't happen again.
36:54
Speaker 2: And the streets were watching, as they say, the streets were watching man.
36:58
Speaker 2: So I had to.
37:00
Speaker 2: In the long run, after just a few months, I had to return that beautiful property to the owners, devastated, mark Devastated.
37:09
Speaker 1: Now, you know, when you rang the police, yeah, and they said it's a civil matter, did you not say there is, you know, still lockdown restrictions, and these are being breached massively here.
37:20
Speaker 2: I tried everything, mark.
37:21
Speaker 2: I tried everything, mark.
37:22
Speaker 2: I tried everything.
37:22
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, they were like how many kids are in there?
37:24
Speaker 2: I said at least two, 300.
37:26
Speaker 2: They're like, yeah, well, do they have a booking?
37:29
Speaker 2: I said I have a booking with one person.
37:32
Speaker 2: I said that person is not in the property.
37:35
Speaker 2: I'm calling him.
37:35
Speaker 2: He's not coming.
37:37
Speaker 2: He's not there or he's not coming out.
37:38
Speaker 2: So these other people, I said, as far as I'm concerned, I trespassed it, he.
37:42
Speaker 2: They said, well, you, you rented out the property for that evening.
37:45
Speaker 2: It's nothing to do with us, mate.
37:47
Speaker 2: That's crap isn't it?
37:51
Speaker 1: yeah, proper, that is.
37:52
Speaker 1: Poor, that is well.
37:53
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to hear that.
37:54
Speaker 1: Um the crest of a wave reality literally and, as I said in my talk, sitting there packing up, I remember.
37:58
Speaker 1: I just Back down to reality.
38:00
Speaker 2: Literally and, as I said in my talk, sitting there packing up.
38:05
Speaker 2: I remember packing up so vividly, like I don't think I'm very emotional so I might have cried, but I don't remember crying.
38:11
Speaker 2: I just remember that experience.
38:14
Speaker 2: After that experience it was the closest I got to like real, like just it's not I don't know how to Just real, like sad, sadness over property.
38:25
Speaker 2: I was just like I just how did I lose this?
38:29
Speaker 2: I just couldn't yeah, like very demoralized.
38:32
Speaker 2: How did I lose it?
38:34
Speaker 2: I lost this and, as I said in the talk, that's when I had to face the fact that I was not good enough at that point.
38:40
Speaker 2: I was not yet good enough for the game I was trying to play, right, and that is the reality you have to face.
38:47
Speaker 2: Look, I'm a man United fan.
38:48
Speaker 2: When we get battered 7-0 or whatever it was, by Liverpool, right, we have to sit there.
38:52
Speaker 2: You have to say to yourself you guys just are up for scratch right now.
38:56
Speaker 2: No-transcript.
39:35
Speaker 1: You know exactly Exactly.
39:37
Speaker 1: Well it's.
39:38
Speaker 1: You don't know what you don't know.
39:40
Speaker 1: It's one of those old sayings again, isn't it?
39:42
Speaker 1: It really is so, so true.
39:44
Speaker 1: I mean, when I started out it's the same thing.
39:46
Speaker 1: That's why I just thought I need to invest.
39:48
Speaker 1: Initially, I wasn't going to invest any money in any education or anything like that.
39:52
Speaker 2: Why?
39:52
Speaker 1: Because I could find books, podcasts and YouTube at the end of the day.
39:55
Speaker 1: So why spend thousands?
39:57
Speaker 1: They're all crooks.
39:58
Speaker 1: I spend thousands.
40:06
Speaker 1: They're all crooks.
40:06
Speaker 1: I used to think they're all crooks who just have no money.
40:08
Speaker 1: But then, all of a sudden, when you actually find decent education, stuff that saves you money and this is the thing you'll make more money spending money on your own education than you ever will, fumbling and bumbling around on your own.
40:15
Speaker 1: So you're sat on the steps you can't remember whether you cried or not, but maybe you did shed a tear or two after you lost 5,000 a night bookings.
40:25
Speaker 1: What picked you up and what kept you going?
40:27
Speaker 2: my man, just being hearing that supportive community and hearing people support one another, comfort one another in their failings and give them advice.
40:35
Speaker 2: It slowly gave me the courage to be able to say, all right, I'm going to speak up, I can talk it.
40:41
Speaker 2: And then I put my camera on one day, walked outside, walked down the road and I just said, hey guys, this is what happened.
40:48
Speaker 2: And, as lo and behold, just the support that came just helped me to get back on that horse.
40:53
Speaker 2: But community is everything to me.
40:57
Speaker 2: And look, this is a narrative that's run through my whole life.
40:59
Speaker 2: I told you, from 16,'ve been involved in in community work with my church and then I'm in.
41:05
Speaker 2: Then I worked with young people, again trying to help the community, and then working with young believers, um, semi-independent living, working with children, young people leaving care, and then now this community again being part of a property community like.
41:18
Speaker 2: I'm forever indebted to community.
41:21
Speaker 2: For me, community is everything.
41:22
Speaker 2: Like it's.
41:23
Speaker 2: It literally is the purpose of life, like, what is the point without community?
41:27
Speaker 2: What is the point?
41:28
Speaker 2: And it's the same thing I tried to create in my HMOs.
41:30
Speaker 2: Where possible, I try my best to foster a community there.
41:34
Speaker 2: You don't have to like it everyone, you don't have to talk to everyone, or you know, or you don't have to go out your way to talk to everyone, but if you see them in the corridor you can say hi, you know, you can be nice to each other.
41:44
Speaker 2: You can empty your washing machine after you've used it, knowing that someone else is going to use it.
41:48
Speaker 2: Come on, put your recycle things in the recycle bin so that there's space in the normal bin, so that when you, when you're, when your fellow tenant comes out, they don't have to put you know, I mean just little things like that.
41:59
Speaker 2: Community is everything.
42:02
Speaker 2: I, I seriously believe that, and so it was that community that brought me slowly back to my feet and just allowed me to to believe that I could keep going and believe I could do it again.
42:14
Speaker 2: So, yeah, community, that's what brought me, brought me back no, that's great.
42:20
Speaker 1: That's great and I'm I am a massive, firm believer in that as well.
42:23
Speaker 1: That you know you've got to surround yourself with like-minded people.
42:26
Speaker 1: You've got to.
42:26
Speaker 1: You know, people, that anything you do in life, anything worth doing, is going to be hard.
42:31
Speaker 1: It's going to have its pitfalls.
42:33
Speaker 1: Now you may enjoy the hard or, you know, you may enjoy the efforts that you've got to put in there, but you're going to have your ups, you're going to have your downs.
42:39
Speaker 1: So it really is being in a community and now maybe you're all striving to do the same thing but in different areas or whatever.
42:45
Speaker 1: But it is being there for other people, having people there for you and of course you know they say you, you are, you know the five people you spend most of your time with.
42:53
Speaker 1: Well, why do you have to spend people time with five people?
42:56
Speaker 1: Why can't you spend time with more people?
42:57
Speaker 1: And really helps you guys and boost yourself.
43:01
Speaker 1: But that's why I work very hard on my communities.
43:03
Speaker 1: I look at and I I'm quite picky with the communities that I'm in as well.
43:08
Speaker 1: I like to keep myself in communities.
43:10
Speaker 1: You know, you know yourself.
43:11
Speaker 1: Negative people, they're everywhere.
43:13
Speaker 1: You can't always get away from them, but you don't have to surround yourself with them.
43:18
Speaker 1: We have choices, don't we?
43:19
Speaker 1: We can make the choices and I always, always say you are through the choices that you've made, because we're grown adults now.
43:26
Speaker 2: You know, we can choose to do something different.
43:29
Speaker 1: We can choose not to do that, not to do this, or we can choose to do it.
43:33
Speaker 1: And I have to say hats off to you as well, because a lot of people in your situation and predicament would have just thrown the towel in and said, oh, I can't be asked for this, it's just not going well at all for me.
43:47
Speaker 1: Oh, Bob, I'm going to try something completely different.
43:49
Speaker 1: But you didn't.
43:50
Speaker 1: You stayed in the community.
43:52
Speaker 1: You stuck in the community and then, you know, you got yourself back out.
43:56
Speaker 1: You got back on the horse, as they say, didn't?
43:58
Speaker 2: you back on the horse, as they say, didn't you?
44:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
44:05
Speaker 2: And I sometimes, yeah, it's so interesting because it you don't, you don't appreciate just how important people are, until you're kind of in a sticky wicket, right, when everything is kind of going positive and flowing well, you, you run the risk of almost believing that you, you know, it's kind of just you like, you've done this or you can do this without people, but you really can't.
44:28
Speaker 2: It's just impossible, right.
44:31
Speaker 2: Even my landlords, you know, I try to foster some type of relationship with them, community with them, and I just think it's so important, man, and it's important to appreciate also those people who have been fundamental in helping you and being part of your community.
44:48
Speaker 2: I mean, I've got this planner that I use each morning and it's got a prompt in there and it just says who can you say thank you to today, or appreciate, or send a surprise note of appreciation, and I don't always do it, but I try to do it and I did it this morning with a couple of people who were influential in my life growing up, and I just think it's just, it's a game changer, right, it's a game changer.
45:12
Speaker 2: And you know, even seeing you, the way you operated at the event that we met at.
45:17
Speaker 2: You know me and you have never met, but still you were with one of your friends and you both approached me and you spoke to me and you have never met and but still you, you were with one of your friends and you both approached me and you spoke to me and we had a good laugh and you asked me if I would come on the podcast.
45:29
Speaker 2: And you've been active in, in, in continuing to build your community, even though I know you have an extensive network, but still someone completely new you've never met before reaching out and you're just so humble with it and you don't have come on.
45:46
Speaker 2: We know how successful you are, we know kind of the groups you're in, but to reach out to someone who you just met, that is for me, just.
45:54
Speaker 2: I want to commend you for that and just say how much I appreciate that because it's just, it's everything.
46:00
Speaker 2: To me, community is everything and I consider you a part of my community.
46:02
Speaker 2: So I just really want to say how much I appreciate that being here and you connect me now with your community.
46:07
Speaker 2: It's just, it's huge.
46:09
Speaker 2: So I really do appreciate that no, I well.
46:12
Speaker 1: I thank you for that.
46:12
Speaker 1: That's very nice, very nice thing to say.
46:14
Speaker 1: But your network is your net worth at the end of the day, and it's not always in money terms.
46:18
Speaker 1: A lot of of the time it's psychological terms, it's relationships.
46:22
Speaker 1: As we said before, it all boils down to relationships At the end of the day.
46:26
Speaker 1: I was brought up and I will treat people the way I want to be treated.
46:30
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter who you are At the end of the day, that's what it's all about.
46:33
Speaker 1: People are what matter.
46:34
Speaker 1: You know, things properties will come and go, things, trinkets will come and go, but people are what matter, and we're only here for a short space of time, so why not have fun?
46:43
Speaker 1: And, of course, I mean I listened to you talk and everything.
46:46
Speaker 1: I just thought, wow, brilliant, what a story.
46:48
Speaker 1: You know, at the end of the day, some people have got a story you think, well, you know, it's a good story.
46:53
Speaker 1: When you went through yours and the way you did it, with the emotions and stuff, I was blown away and I just thought I've got to have this guy on the podcast because he's got a great story, he's got a great personality and it, like you say, it's all about building relationships.
47:05
Speaker 1: So no, right back at you as well, I mean thank you for coming on, because it is and that's what it's all about.
47:11
Speaker 1: And of course you know, if we can ever help you in any way, shape or form, in the future, or you're stuck with anything, then you know you can reach out to us amazing, amazing.
47:18
Speaker 2: I really appreciate that, mark.
47:19
Speaker 2: I really do, honestly.
47:21
Speaker 1: No, no, no.
47:21
Speaker 2: You're a lovely guy, Marky.
47:22
Speaker 2: You're a lovely guy.
47:24
Speaker 1: Don't try me, guys.
47:25
Speaker 1: It's like you said at that event.
47:26
Speaker 1: You said Mark's now an honorary brother.
47:30
Speaker 2: I do say that, listen, when I'm on that stage, I cannot be held accountable for the things that I say.
47:37
Speaker 2: I mean I should be really, but I mean, yeah, no, you were right in there in the thick of it, mate, you are an honorary brother, you wear that with pride.
47:46
Speaker 2: And look, mark Luke, all we need is Matthew and John, and we've completed the set, haven't we?
47:51
Speaker 2: The four gospels of the property game.
47:54
Speaker 2: Let's go.
47:55
Speaker 2: I love it, I am conscious of your time, my friend, and I always like.
48:03
Speaker 1: To end these with some questions.
48:05
Speaker 1: It's like a quick fire round, but you can take a bit of time to answer if you like you alright for that.
48:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, go for it.
48:10
Speaker 1: This is a good one.
48:11
Speaker 1: So what's the best advice you've been given?
48:15
Speaker 2: in general, property or in general, just in general.
48:18
Speaker 2: In general, best piece of advice I've been given, oh, uh, just that the process is the progress.
48:29
Speaker 2: I love that the process is the progress, like a lot of the time we have this destination in mind, where we think, when we get to there, that will be it.
48:37
Speaker 2: But I really try to remember that the process is the progress.
48:40
Speaker 2: So every step, as you're moving forward, as you're on your journey, that is the step, is the reward.
48:48
Speaker 2: Right, the fact that you took that step, that is the reward.
48:50
Speaker 2: Don't worry about what's out there, because that out there is just another step.
48:54
Speaker 2: So the process is the progress.
48:57
Speaker 2: If you can fall in love with the process, you're off to the horses, because success or failure, up or down, left or right, you appreciate that it's all just part of that process.
49:05
Speaker 2: So for me, yeah, best piece of advice, yeah, the the progress, the process is the progress the process is the pro.
49:12
Speaker 1: I love that, absolutely love that.
49:13
Speaker 1: Because, as you say, we all look at the mountain, it's like, well, I want to be up there, I want to my 10 properties, they're all cash flowing and doing this and doing all of that, and we forget to enjoy the journey, don't we?
49:22
Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely brilliant.
49:25
Speaker 1: I love that.
49:25
Speaker 1: I'm going to use that.
49:26
Speaker 1: I'm going to nick that.
49:27
Speaker 1: Damn it, dang it.
49:29
Speaker 1: So if you could sit down and have dinner with three people, dead?
49:41
Speaker 2: Dead or alive?
49:41
Speaker 2: Who would you like to sit down and chat to?
49:42
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that is an amazing question.
49:43
Speaker 2: Oh boy, dead or alive?
49:47
Speaker 2: Okay, I think.
49:54
Speaker 2: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
49:57
Speaker 2: Kwame Nkrumah I hope I said his name right.
50:00
Speaker 2: He was a leader in Ghana.
50:03
Speaker 2: He was a leader, one of the I don't know which one, but one of the a prime minister or president of Ghana back in the day, and he was quite influential in their quest for independence.
50:15
Speaker 2: So that would be one Also right now.
50:23
Speaker 2: I am also inspired by Pele Pele.
50:31
Speaker 2: I started down with Pele farming, the chroma, and oh gosh.
50:35
Speaker 2: This always gets people thinking.
50:37
Speaker 2: I know I'm taking it, maybe I'm taking this too seriously, and oh gosh it always gets people maybe I'm taking this too seriously, but I have to take all Mark's questions seriously.
50:46
Speaker 1: Okay, one other person well, not all of them who do I meet?
50:55
Speaker 2: oh yeah, I mean, how could I forget Kanye West?
50:57
Speaker 2: Come on, what were you even talking about, in fact?
51:00
Speaker 2: Kanye west, kanye west and kanye west, because he has about three personalities, at least.
51:04
Speaker 2: So for me, how could I forget my man, kanye kanye, um kwame and um who's the who's the second one?
51:16
Speaker 2: I said pele, pele, pele them three.
51:19
Speaker 2: We would have an absolute blast.
51:21
Speaker 2: Oh my days, I think that's a good table.
51:24
Speaker 1: I think that is a good.
51:25
Speaker 1: It's certainly a mixed table, isn't it?
51:27
Speaker 1: You've got all the elements yeah, yes, different worlds, that's.
51:30
Speaker 2: That's what I like.
51:31
Speaker 2: We've got the music, the entertainment, we've got the political and we've got the the, the sporting.
51:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah yeah, brilliant good stuff like that, like that now.
51:38
Speaker 1: Now, this doesn't have to be property related either.
51:41
Speaker 1: What's your top three recommendations for books that people should read?
51:46
Speaker 2: okay, um, so there's a book called the power of less by a man called leo we are too, I think that's his name, babiata, but the power of it's a phenomenal book it teaches what I love is a kind of a productivity method which is as stripped back as possible, and I use this method even to today, where it's really about each having like what he calls MIT most important tasks, and really he says they should be about three of them a day, no more than three most important tasks a day, and they should not take more than an hour each.
52:23
Speaker 2: And then, once you've completed them, even if your list is longer, you know that your day is golden.
52:28
Speaker 2: If those three tasks have been completed for the day and those tasks really the power is.
52:35
Speaker 2: If those tasks, or at least one of those tasks, are tied to your one goal for the year, then you know that every single day you're moving towards your yearly goal, whatever that goal is.
52:46
Speaker 2: So the way I've interpreted this is I've made three goals for the year, one in my personal life, one health-related and one finance-related and then I set those as targets for the year, and then I break them down into monthly goals, weekly goals and then daily tasks, and so I make sure that every day I've moved the needle towards one of those goals every day.
53:12
Speaker 2: And that was all inspired by that book the Power of Less.
53:15
Speaker 2: So that would be my first recommendation the Power of Less, the power of less.
53:18
Speaker 2: So that's my, that would be my first recommendation the power of less.
53:19
Speaker 2: Um.
53:19
Speaker 2: The next one would be, uh, the success principle by jack canfield.
53:29
Speaker 2: Um, I read that when I was like 17 and that was really where it was first cemented into my mind, this idea of, um, radical accountability.
53:38
Speaker 2: That's where this book really taught that and, and really I I didn't realize how intentional you could be of your life, like, like, how, the way he thought about his year, like I mean, this might be normal to people who are CEOs or been in the corporate world, but this wasn't normal to me.
53:53
Speaker 2: To think about your life like, okay, how many holidays do you want for the year?
53:56
Speaker 2: Um, how would you break that down?
53:58
Speaker 2: He would talk about things like he would have one weekend away a month with his, with his wife.
54:02
Speaker 2: He'd have one summer holiday, like he broke it all down.
54:05
Speaker 2: I'm just like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
54:10
Speaker 2: You don't just wake up one day and decide you're going to jamaica for a summer, like you, actually plan this stuff out, uh, and that just for me was like run, I'm still not there with that level of kind of, and I know, look, they always say man makes plans and god laughs, and I get it right.
54:25
Speaker 2: But I would still rather have some plans that god can laugh at rather than just having nothing, you know.
54:30
Speaker 2: So I love, I love that book.
54:32
Speaker 2: Jack can't hold the success principle.
54:34
Speaker 2: Leo babiartu, the Power of Less, and my third book would be, third book would be.
54:42
Speaker 2: I know they're all kind of business success related, but that's just how I am.
54:49
Speaker 1: I can't sorry, I can only give you what I've got.
54:51
Speaker 1: I'm just checking to see if I've got any of those.
54:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, the next one I know you do have the Compound Effect by Darren Hardy.
55:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, that book.
55:04
Speaker 2: Just because we are, fundamentally we're never stationary.
55:10
Speaker 2: We're either getting better or getting worse.
55:12
Speaker 2: There's no stationary, right, it's just there's none.
55:15
Speaker 2: And he really breaks that down.
55:17
Speaker 2: It's just if there's none, and he really breaks that down.
55:23
Speaker 2: It's like the compound effect of little things are either working against, working for you or against you.
55:26
Speaker 2: Right and um, he really breaks down how, like he gives great examples like having two people who are you know, exactly the same, like weight for example, and then this person, um, adds you one or few more calories a day to their diet, and this one adds a few less calories a day to their diet, and where they end up in 10 or 15 years, it's like it blows your mind, like a slight incremental difference here in the played out in the long run puts them as far as the North is from the South.
55:56
Speaker 2: It's just crazy.
55:58
Speaker 2: So for me that is another, just a great book.
56:00
Speaker 2: And Darren still makes some cool videos on YouTube as well.
56:03
Speaker 2: So the Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, the Success Principle by Jack Canfield and the Power of Less by Leo Babiartu.
56:13
Speaker 1: Love it, absolutely love it.
56:15
Speaker 1: That is great.
56:16
Speaker 1: Good books as well.
56:17
Speaker 1: Good choice there, good choice.
56:18
Speaker 1: I do like the compound effect and, like you say, it's so, so true.
56:21
Speaker 1: Do you have the chocolate bar?
56:22
Speaker 1: Do you have the you know the apple?
56:24
Speaker 1: And which one do you keep having?
56:26
Speaker 1: Because that's.
56:27
Speaker 1: Those are the choices that you're making, aren't they?
56:30
Speaker 2: Absolutely Like.
56:30
Speaker 2: The body of the life that you have right now wasn't created yesterday.
56:34
Speaker 2: It was created over the last 15, 20 years, and that is.
56:38
Speaker 2: It's a nice thought when you're happy with where you are, but it's a scary thought.
56:45
Speaker 1: when you're not, well, that's it.
56:46
Speaker 1: And you don't accidentally get obese, do you?
56:53
Speaker 2: Because you can't accidentally eat anything.
56:55
Speaker 2: Remember, I started my talk with that analogy.
56:57
Speaker 2: I told you what my friend said to me.
56:58
Speaker 2: I said my friend said to me Luke, if you're really serious about losing weight, if you really want to lose weight, from this day forward, every time you eat a meal, sit down in front of a mirror, butt naked, right and that is the point right when you're putting that food in your mouth and you're looking at where that's got you.
57:16
Speaker 2: Hopefully, hopefully, that drags you into reality, hopefully, accountability takes a big slaps you around the face.
57:25
Speaker 1: That's it, Accountability.
57:27
Speaker 1: You know people say, well, I need an accountability partner.
57:30
Speaker 1: Just go and look in the mirror, Because who's looking back at you is the person you're accountable for.
57:36
Speaker 2: Listen, look at your bank balance.
57:37
Speaker 2: Look at the car in the drive.
57:39
Speaker 2: Look at where you're accountable for.
57:39
Speaker 2: Listen.
57:40
Speaker 2: Look at your bank balance.
57:40
Speaker 2: Look at the look at the car in the drive.
57:41
Speaker 2: Look at where you're, where you're living.
57:43
Speaker 2: Look at the person you're sleeping next to or with depending right.
57:47
Speaker 2: Look at those situations that tells you.
57:50
Speaker 2: That will tell you everything you need to know about your current state.
57:53
Speaker 2: Right and and if you're happy with it, fantastic right.
57:57
Speaker 2: If you're not, then that should be everything you need.
58:00
Speaker 2: Your surroundings will tell you what needs to change.
58:04
Speaker 1: And you can use the compound effect to start today.
58:08
Speaker 2: Only £9.99 on the link below.
58:14
Speaker 1: Little kickback there Podcasts, podcasts, okay, podcasts.
58:19
Speaker 2: Podcasts okay, podcasts, have you got three?
58:22
Speaker 2: I know you'll try to, we're meant to be wrapping up but you're asking.
58:29
Speaker 2: You saved the best questions to last right.
58:31
Speaker 2: I love podcasts.
58:34
Speaker 2: One of the businesses I ran was podcast companies helping people to set up their own podcast.
58:42
Speaker 2: I have a podcast force, in fact, where people could actually learn how to launch their own podcast, right, which I'm not selling today, but I'm just telling you that exists.
58:50
Speaker 2: So I love them.
58:53
Speaker 2: And my favorite type of podcasts are our narrative podcasts.
58:57
Speaker 2: So I love they take longer, they're real storytelling podcasts, but they're my favourite type, apart from when it comes to.
59:05
Speaker 2: I have a list of podcasts for the information, like the Property podcast I listen to, like Property Unleashed, obviously, and then there are the others I listen to, which is more for entertainment.
59:14
Speaker 2: So my favourite one at the moment is have you he george's podcast?
59:19
Speaker 2: That's literally what it's called.
59:20
Speaker 2: Have you heard george's podcast?
59:22
Speaker 2: It's by a guy called george the poet.
59:24
Speaker 2: I call him george the genius, but he goes by george the poet.
59:27
Speaker 2: Um, it's like award-winning.
59:30
Speaker 2: It's on bbc sounds, it's.
59:32
Speaker 2: It's just amazing, it's phenomenal.
59:34
Speaker 2: You've not heard, unless you're into narrative storytelling.
59:37
Speaker 2: You have not heard a podcast like this ever in your life.
59:40
Speaker 2: It is, it's one of the just as a creative piece.
59:43
Speaker 2: It's just one of the greatest things ever ever created this season that he's just done.
59:48
Speaker 2: Um was recorded in abbey road studio, where the beatles the famous abbey road studio, with the, with the bbc concert orchestra, like.
59:55
Speaker 2: So the soundtrack that goes underneath it, I mean, this guy is just phenomenal.
59:59
Speaker 2: So number one has to be have you heard george's podcast?
1:00:03
Speaker 2: That's number one.
1:00:04
Speaker 2: Number two I also like um.
1:00:08
Speaker 2: Oh my, I switched my phone off, didn't I?
1:00:11
Speaker 2: Uh, I also like there's a podcast called startup, which startup, again, itup, again, it's narrative.
1:00:21
Speaker 2: It's by Gimlet Media.
1:00:23
Speaker 2: Gimlet Media is an American company that have loads of these type of podcasts that I like, but the very first season of the very first podcast that they launched so this was back in 2014, is called Startup and it's all about him launching this podcast company.
1:00:37
Speaker 2: So it's an amazing listen.
1:00:39
Speaker 2: So I'd listen to that as well.
1:00:40
Speaker 2: So, startup, have you heard George's podcast, the first season of Startup?
1:00:45
Speaker 2: Have you heard George's podcast?
1:00:46
Speaker 2: And what else do I like?
1:00:48
Speaker 2: I like and that's a lighthearted one, just for fun.
1:00:56
Speaker 2: Hmm, what do I listen to for fun?
1:01:02
Speaker 2: Um, I mean, I'm I'm influenced by quite a bit of American culture, so this might not appeal to your audience, but I like um.
1:01:11
Speaker 2: Earn your leisure.
1:01:12
Speaker 2: Earn your leisure is a.
1:01:15
Speaker 2: They are two guys in america who started to want to educate um the communities that they're from with business advice.
1:01:24
Speaker 2: So they've now.
1:01:25
Speaker 2: But they've now branched out.
1:01:26
Speaker 2: They cover everything again.
1:01:27
Speaker 2: It's even though it's american-based, there's still a lot of tips and ideas you can take from it.
1:01:31
Speaker 2: They talk about property, they talk about investing, they talk about just the culture in general music.
1:01:36
Speaker 2: They've got loads of different, different things there.
1:01:39
Speaker 2: So earn your leisure is my third and final choice.
1:01:44
Speaker 1: Have you ever listened to business wars?
1:01:47
Speaker 2: no, who's that by?
1:01:52
Speaker 1: now you've got.
1:01:53
Speaker 1: It's like tesla versus ford and mcdonald's versus.
1:01:57
Speaker 1: Let me write that down and what they do is it goes through all of it, so they have different episodes.
1:02:02
Speaker 1: I love it.
1:02:03
Speaker 1: I can't find it.
1:02:03
Speaker 1: You know, mcdonald's versus Burger King and all of that sort of thing, and it's all the different places.
1:02:07
Speaker 1: So Microsoft and Apple, oh I love that.
1:02:10
Speaker 1: And they tell it as a story and then they play out scenes like main scenes that would have happened, with two actors chatting away and things I really enjoy it.
1:02:18
Speaker 2: Love that.
1:02:19
Speaker 2: No, that's exactly what I'm into and I'll give you a little secret.
1:02:22
Speaker 2: Um, I plan to launch a new podcast myself where I'm trying to well, not, I'm trying to.
1:02:26
Speaker 2: I will launch a podcast shortly and this podcast is going to merge my love of storytelling with also property advice and property tips.
1:02:38
Speaker 2: So look out for that.
1:02:40
Speaker 2: I'll send you an exclusive first episode Mark when it's recorded.
1:02:44
Speaker 2: But, yeah, that's what I'll be launching because I absolutely I love podcasts.
1:02:49
Speaker 2: I'm a huge fan.
1:02:51
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
1:02:51
Speaker 2: And, of course, let's not forget let's not, of course, properly Unleashed, as I mentioned before.
1:02:56
Speaker 2: I mean, come on, I mean they're already listening to this was properly unleashed, as I mentioned before.
1:02:59
Speaker 2: I mean, come on, I mean they're already listening to this.
1:03:00
Speaker 2: All right, true, fair enough.
1:03:01
Speaker 2: Tell your friends.
1:03:01
Speaker 2: Tell your friends to tell a friend what goes around comes around.
1:03:05
Speaker 1: Share the love, share the love.
1:03:06
Speaker 1: Um, I could chat to you all day, mate.
1:03:08
Speaker 1: I mean it'd be great to get you back on in the future as well.
1:03:10
Speaker 1: I always say that to guests I like so if you're ever on and I don't say that's because I don't like you, but uh- but I do like you, so you can come back on again if you want I appreciate it.
1:03:23
Speaker 1: So if anybody wants to reach out to you, is interested in podcasting or property or anything like that, what's the best ways to do that, my friend?
1:03:30
Speaker 2: yeah, the best way would be to.
1:03:32
Speaker 2: You can head over to my website, lukewhitecom l-u-k-e-w-h-y-t-e white, with a y rather than an I, um, and you can partner with me on anything.
1:03:42
Speaker 2: You can partner with me there on property partner podcasting, if you want me to speak at your events.
1:03:47
Speaker 2: I love to speak, um, and you never know, you might hear some of my terrible failures in person, um, so, yeah, so, lukewhitecom.
1:03:56
Speaker 2: Or you can shoot me a dm slide in the dms, as the kids say at lukecrwhite, as you can see there on the screen if you're watching, but if you're not, it's just at l-u-k-e c-r.
1:04:07
Speaker 2: White, w-h-y-t-e.
1:04:10
Speaker 2: On instagram um, that's basically my handle in most places, to be honest.
1:04:13
Speaker 2: But, yeah, dms on instagram, or head over to my website and, yeah, let's get cooking brilliant.
1:04:20
Speaker 1: Well, do reach out to him, do check him out, do follow him.
1:04:22
Speaker 1: He's a great guy.
1:04:24
Speaker 1: He's got a fantastic talk.
1:04:25
Speaker 1: So if you are, are you hosting the events?
1:04:27
Speaker 1: Invite this cat along.
1:04:28
Speaker 1: I tell you now he will entertain.
1:04:30
Speaker 1: It is great to be once again my man.
1:04:33
Speaker 1: Thank you ever so much for joining me here today.
1:04:35
Speaker 1: It's been an absolute pleasure and an honor to have you on.
1:04:43
Speaker 2: Thanks a lot, mark, and just keep doing what you're doing, and I'm so proud to be part of your community, and now you're part of mine, so I'll see you again soon.
1:04:47
Speaker 1: Brilliant, great stuff.
1:04:48
Speaker 1: So thank you very much for joining us today.
1:04:51
Speaker 1: If you've enjoyed this episode, please feel free to follow it, subscribe, share it, put it out there so that it can help others, and remember to have a vision yourself.
1:04:59
Speaker 1: Make sure that you focus on that vision.
1:05:01
Speaker 1: You break it down into bite-sized chunks, into bite-sized steps that you can win at each and every day.
1:05:09
Speaker 1: You move yourself forward and you create the life that you desire you all.
1:05:11
Speaker 1: Take care and bye for now.