Latest / The Property Unleashed Podcast / 7 Mistakes I See People Make In Their Property Businesses

Transcript

7 Mistakes I See People Make In Their Property Businesses · The Property Unleashed Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Seven of the biggest mistakes I see people make when doing property investing.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hello, my name is Mark Fitzgerald and today I'm going to share with you seven of the biggest mistakes that I see people getting caught up in when getting out there, getting started and wanting to build a property business, and hopefully I'm going to help and share with you how you can avoid these as well.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: So let's get started with this, shall we so?
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: At number one, it really is about making sure that you've got a clear vision and goals.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: You'll have heard me say this time and time again, but you really need to know the destination that you're trying to get to.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: If you don't have a clue and you just think, well, maybe a few properties here, a few properties there, then you can play at it, you can make it a hobby, you know that's fine, but you're never really going to get the serious results that you should be getting and can be getting by having a clear vision.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: When I started out in property, obviously I used the rent to rent strategy to build up a property portfolio using other people's properties, but it was all about having that clear vision.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I wanted 10 properties.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I wanted the cashflow from 10 properties to start to give me the lifestyle that I wanted, but not only that.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: It wasn't just to spend all of that money on trinkets and fast cars and all of those sorts of things.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: It was to bring in enough money to be able to survive, to have the time freedom I wanted, but also to build me up an investing pot for myself so that I could start buying properties for myself.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Because obviously, rent to rent is a great strategy to use, but you don't own other people's properties.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: When you're doing it, they're still getting the capital growth and possibly at some point, unless they sell it to you, they're going to want that property back as well.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: So you need to have a clear vision and clear goals of what you want to do, and you really want to try and make them smart goals, if you can.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Now, what do I mean by smart goals?
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Well, you want to make them specific, so specific to your circumstances, to what you're trying to do.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: You also want to make them measurable.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: So in what sort of timeframe am I going to try and hit these?
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: If I'm going to try and get 10 properties over 12 months, how many properties do I need to be getting each and every month to achieve those goals and measure something, because if you measure it, you can see whether you're on track or whether you're off track with however you're marketing, however you're getting out there and getting the leads through to start building your property business.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: And, of course, if you're looking at buying properties as well, are you speaking to enough agents?
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Are you meeting enough new people?
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, you also want to make sure that they're achievable.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Out of the smart goals, okay, is what you're trying to set yourself an absolute no brainer?
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: It's going to be really, really easy.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Is it going to stretch you?
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: And I always say do try and stretch yourself as well, because even if you get halfway, if you say I want 20 properties and you hit 10, you're still in a good place, aren't you?
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: But if you say I want two properties and you hit one, it's not so good, is it?
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: So make sure, though, that it is achievable, that you look at the resources that you have, you look at the time that you can put into this and you set yourself some achievable targets and goals as well, and make sure, again with the achievable, that it's realistic.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Have you got the time frame to do this?
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Have you got the capacity to do this.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: You know some people are just, you know having babies, obviously, starting families, starting new jobs, have very time demanding jobs.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Is it realistic that you're trying to take something else on right here, right now, or would you be better off just leaving it for a month or two, or six months or 12 months, depending on your circumstances, to get yourself out there and the T out of SMART goals is time bound, so make sure you set deadlines to everything.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: If it doesn't have a deadline, it probably will not get done.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: When was the last time you had a deadline for something and you were up all night long making sure you hit that deadline, but then you could have really got it done a few weeks beforehand?
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: A lot of us work well to deadlines.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I know I need a deadline to get me going, so make sure that you've got a deadline.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Use smart goals to help you okay when starting out, but make sure you've got that clear vision.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Make sure you know what it is that you're trying to achieve, that you want to hit, and make sure that you can get out there and you can do it with the resources and the means that you've got at your disposal.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, at number two a mistake I see a lot of people make is not getting educated.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, they rely on friends, on family, on people down the pub you know who are reading the news, that are all gurus that are saying, oh, getting involved in property, that's risky, and all of those sort of things, when they're not actually educated themselves.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: So do make sure that you enjoy watching the videos, listening to the podcasts, but see who you resonate with, who you think could actually help supercharge your results.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: You know the students and the people that I work with is to try and help them achieve more in a shorter space of time than they would on their own making costly mistakes.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: It's also, you know, when you're getting educated, look at it as an investment.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, I've spent a lot of money.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I continue to spend a lot of money on my own education.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Because it actually saves me loads of money in the long run by paying out a bit.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: A it sharpens my pencil.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: It means that I'm going to take this seriously.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: I want to get it done.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Because I want to get my money's worth out of this.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: But B it also means that I don't have to do this alone, that I don't have to make costly mistakes because I can go and speak to somebody who's been there and done it already.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: So make sure that you know what you're doing.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: As the old saying goes, you don't know what you don't know why.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Because there's a lot of people out there that don't know to buy properties below market value.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: They don't know that they can use different bridging companies to get the properties over the line.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: They don't know how to do a joint venture or where to even start looking to find joint venture partners.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: They don't know how to structure or use other people's money Basically, having personal loans and agreements and having other investors help them build their portfolio whilst they're not doing it, equally helping them earn more money with their money.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: And, of course, you can offset mortgages, you can use vendor finance.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: You can do all sorts of creative things if you know what you're doing and, of course, the average investor doesn't know what they're doing.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: They also don't know how to go out there and find the properties.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: They don't know to do leaflets, postcards, networking in the properties.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: They don't know to do leaflets, postcards, networking social media.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: They don't know to run the letter campaigns.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: They don't know to have the brochures.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: They don't know how to get out there and realistically mix it up so that they get so many leads coming through that potentially they have to sell those on.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: But if you've got more leads coming through, you can pick the very, very best ones to build your own portfolio with.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: And, of course, the average person, the average investor out there who's never taken the time to learn a bit more to invest in themselves, will struggle with this.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: And, at number three, with the mistakes that property investors make, or new property investors.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Some of them are old ones as well.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: In fact, this doesn't just go down to people who are starting out.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: I see investors who've invested in the last 20 years coming up to me saying I've got a big portfolio, mark.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: They might have hundreds of properties, but they're not cash flowing the way that they want.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Because they've never educated themselves in the new ways of doing things, and sometimes I've even gone in there and helped them and just pointed them in the right direction with this, and I've only been doing this, you know, six, seven years now.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: So it's not like I've got the 20 years of experience that the other investors have got, yet I can see from the outside exactly what they need to be doing.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: So number three as we move into this.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Now it's not having the right location Okay, it's not having your location set up.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Now you can have multiple locations.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Ok, it's not having your location set up, now you can have multiple locations.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: It's entirely up to you.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: But a lot of people will jump from location to location to location.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Because they can't quite find the deals that they want.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: And why can't they find the deals that they're looking for and want?
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: It's one easy thing they keep bouncing around everywhere.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: So, basically, find an area that you know that you want to invest in that suits your strategy.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: So, if it's rent to rent, if it's HMOs, it suits the HMO strategy.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: If it's service to accommodation, it suits the service to accommodation strategy.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: If it's buy to lets you know, and so on and so on.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: It's just going like that, but you need to stick to it as well.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Now you can have some outside areas.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: When I first started, I looked at the major cities, okay, and that's where I predominantly sent most of my marketing and spent most of my time talking to people.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: But I also looked at the smaller towns around the edges as well, and I've done some very, very good deals in the towns around the edges as well.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Because everybody's focusing on the major cities, okay.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: So make sure that you've got a location.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: That is where you want to be basically be targeted, and you stick with it long enough to actually start getting some leads coming through.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Some people again.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: They'd say to me Mark, well, you're up north, it's easier up north, house prices are cheaper and everything.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: There's deals everywhere.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Okay, I help people in London get deals, I help people in the Midlands get deals.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: I help people up north get deals.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: I think you can basically say that there are deals to be had everywhere.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: You just need to make sure that you know what you're looking for and you know what you want to buy, if you're buying it, if you're doing rent to rent, if you're getting creative you want to do purchase, lease options and all of those sorts of things.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Know the sorts of properties that you need to be laser focused on.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Know the tenants or the clients that you want to be serving, and also know that that is something that is in line with your vision that we spoke about very, very early on.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: So, obviously, learn how to research your investment area.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean?
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: What is going on in that area?
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Is it a growth area?
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Is it in decline?
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Has it been static for ages?
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: But are the government or the local council is going to be putting some money back into it, doing the area up?
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: It could be a great time to get in there, get some real good bargains because, predominantly, when they do start making the area better, house prices will go up.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: So make sure it's a good location, there's good transport links, good bus routes, train links and all of those sorts of things as well, and make sure that it is right for you.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: So at number four, we have not carrying out due diligence.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Before acquiring any property, some people will go to an estate agent They'll even go to a deal sourcer who's potentially a new deal sourcer, and they'll show them a deal.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: They'll tell them all the bells and whistles that they can do with this property.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: They'll take their word for it without actually doing their own due diligence on those deals.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: You've got to make sure that you know how to stack a deal.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: If you don't know how to stack a deal, then you could end up in a lot of problems.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: So you need to be aware of this is how we stack a deal, this is how we do business and go from there, because if you don't, then you could be in trouble.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: So when we're talking about due diligence, you have to look at the market.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: So if you're looking at buying properties, what's the value of those properties in good condition and in poor condition?
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean?
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Speak to Rick's valuers.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Are there any surveys done?
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Are there any recently sold properties as well?
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: When you're talking to agents, what was the last properties that you sold?
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Did you sell any HMOs?
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Did you sell any of these?
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: What were they going for?
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: What was the market like?
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Really, get an understanding.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: If you're looking at doing rent to rent deals, of course, as well what's the market like there?
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Loads of people will say it's saturated, but that doesn't really tell you anything.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: It could be saturated with a load of rubbish.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: In the areas where I am, there is a big saturation on HMOs, but it's on very, very poor HMOs.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: So if you put together a package of a good HMO, you've got people lining up, queuing up out the door to come and live in your properties.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: So understand what the market's doing, what the market's been doing over the last six months as well, and all you have to do is talk to agents.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: You can talk to letting agents, talk to estate agents.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Go to networking events as well.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Talk to other landlords.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: You don't really have to tell them what you're doing unless you want to, which is always a good thing to do anyway but see what they're doing.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: What are their struggles at the moment, what are their pain points?
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Because where there is adversity, there is opportunity in anything that we're doing, but you have to be the property professional for your area.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: So make sure that you're on your right.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Moves.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Your zooplas.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: You're looking at all your different house prices and things.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: You're looking at your property filters as well.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: And there's other things that you can look at.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Obviously, be checking out the likes of spare room, our property, all of those sort of things as well.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Mouse price is another great one.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Open rent I absolutely love, particularly if you're looking at rent to rent deals.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Because you can go down open rent and the parts that are grayed out on open rent you'll see that they have already been let.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: So you can actually see what the going rate is not the rate that people have at the top, but what the going rate is what these rooms or properties have actually gone for, because it still shows you what they were, but it just blanked out a little bit.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: So that's a really good top tip for you to go down and have a look at that.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: All right, but make sure that you can do your due diligence in all of your areas.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: You know that your prices are right and you can go in with confidence.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: And again, it's another thing that I work with people myself.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: I get them to send me their deals over just so I can check over their numbers to make sure that they look like they're stacking up and things, because there's nothing worse than doing all of this, looking at your numbers, and then you're not 100% sure.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: You start questioning yourself.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: You start questioning yourself, you start messing with the numbers.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Never play with the numbers.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: The numbers are the numbers.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: If the deal doesn't work, the deal doesn't work.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: But do have people around you that have been there and done that that you can turn around and say I can't get this deal to stack.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Mark, can you have a little look at it?
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Yes, of course I can, and I will look at the numbers and I'll say you're right, that deal doesn't stack, but have you thought of this, this and this that you could do with the property and then, all of a sudden, those numbers don't look quite as bad, do they?
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Well, I never thought of that.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Well, of course you didn't, because you don't know what you don't know.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: So make sure again, you can bounce these ideas off of people who have been there and done it.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Another mistake I see people make and this is particularly when buying properties is they buy for capital appreciation only.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: They buy for the capital growth.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: They think I've got to buy in an area where capital growth is going to be at its all-time maximum and they neglect month-on-month cash flow.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Capital growth is great, but we cannot guarantee it.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you want to make sure that you're holding property for the long term?
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you want to make sure that you're holding property for the long term, okay, but also that you're getting the month-on-month return that really suits your lifestyle and your strategy.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: You need to aim to buy property at a significant discount or be able to add value by purchasing it and refurbishing it or doing something to the property to really make serious money when you're buying.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: But I always say look at that as a bonus.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: If you can do that when you're buying a property, that is a bonus If it gives you the month-on-month cash flow from day one, that for me, is a real sweet deal.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Yes, we want to get our money back out so that we can buy more properties.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: So you do want to be looking money back out so that we can buy more properties.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: So you do want to be looking at how you can add value.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Can you go into the loft?
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Can you go into the cellar?
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Can you go out the back?
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: What can you do?
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: What have the neighbors done?
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Walk up and down the street looking for extra windows, extra extensions and things.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: You do want to be looking at that to get your money back out.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: But worst case scenario is you buy a property, you do all of this work and then you get down valued afterwards, for whatever reason, something's happened and the values have dropped.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: As long as it's cash flowing, you can sit on that very, very nicely.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: So you need to be focusing on cash flow each and every month before I would say anything else.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Everything else is what you want to be focusing on, but you want to be making sure that you've got the cashflow that you need when it comes down to it.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Another mistake I see people making all the time, and this is mistake number six.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: We're flying through these flying through.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: He's got one more for you after this.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: These people don't get started.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: They don't get started.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: A lot of the times I speak to people, I say to them you want to get a deal, don't you?
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: You want to get started, you want to get out there.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: I can't wait, can't wait.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: I just need to get that first deal over the line, mark, just need that first deal.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Once I get that first deal, it'll be plain sailing and they never do that first deal because a lot of the times they self-sabotage themselves.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: It's very, very interesting to see.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: I see it from the outside.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: We all have doubts, we all procrastinate, but what you have to ask yourself is when you're going to do a deal and a lot of people will say well, it's got to be a great deal, it's got to be the best deal ever, otherwise I'm not doing it, and that's a mistake as well.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Let me just tell you your first deal will probably not be your best deal.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: It probably won't be.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Maybe it will, but probably.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Chances are you'll do better deals as you gain more experience.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: But you don't want to just grab any deal as well and grab a real bad deal that costs you money, that doesn't work for you at all and in the end it demoralizes you and actually you don't want to do property investing anymore.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: You've got to just look for a good deal.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, a deal that stacks up, that is good.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: I always say a deal is not a deal unless it's a deal.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: You've got to look at the numbers, not mess about with the numbers.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: And if it's a good deal, just do the deal, get it over the line and get on with it.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: And, as I say, if you have somebody around you, if you have a coach, a mentor, if you're in a community where you can share the details of the deal, you don't have to tell them where it is, but you share the details of them.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Somebody else can look at those numbers and say, yeah, that's a good deal, go and do it.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: It's a deal I'd do.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean?
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: That's what I say to my guys.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: If it's a deal, I do.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: I turn around and say I do that deal all day long.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: That's how beauty that is.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: If you don't do it, I'm going to do it, so to speak, having a bit of a fun.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: But you've got to get started, you've got to get out there, you've got to get out of your own way.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: What you've got to make sure is that you don't give up, because you only fail if you give up.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: And if you are giving up and you are failing in that sense and looking for the next e-commerce or cryptos or stocks and shares because it seems a little bit easier, you're never going to live the life that you want.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: Because chances are you'll give up on everything that you're going for.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: So remember to take the first steps and remember it's never easy as well, but if you surround yourself or put yourself in the right environments with the right people, it's a whole lot easier.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: I get messages every week definitely maybe not every day, but every week from past students, from people that I've helped, people that I've worked with, telling me I've got a deal mark.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: I've got another deal mark.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: One of my students messaged me the other day.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: He's got 47 deals now.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: He's got purchase, lease option deals, rent to rent deals, built a very, very nice, successful business.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Another one just let me know that he's just signed his first two deals HMOs.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: He's getting stuck in with those.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: He goes in our private group as well and lets people know why.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Because these guys and girls never gave up.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: They never stopped.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: It may have slowed down, they may have got demoralized.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean?
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: It's very, very tricky and difficult out there, but they kept going, they kept pushing on and they took action and they did the deals and now they're starting to build their own property portfolios, which gives them more time.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Freedom gives them the opportunities then to start living the lives that they want to live.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, and the mistake number seven, which rolls on really, really well from not getting started, is trying to do everything yourself.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Now, I did this myself.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: This is why I know it's a mistake when you're starting out.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: You might not need to have virtual assistants, pas, all of those sort of things.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: I get that you want to keep costs down and you want to actually take all your profits, maybe reinvest them into next deals and things, but don't try and do everything yourself.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: I got to about six HMOs when I looked up and said to myself oof, I'm running around like a headless chicken.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: My leads, I'm not getting as many leads coming through now.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Because I'm too busy in the day to day, in the weeds, and that was when I started to get virtual assistants involved.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: I started to employ people to come and help me and I started to move along those lines.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Because you need to make sure that you are A putting the right systems in place, and when we say systems, you don't have to spend hundreds of pounds on CRM systems and all these fancy things.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: You just want systems that suit the level that you're at Now.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: If you're looking at growing something massive, then look at a system so that you potentially don't have to change later on.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: I understand and I get that, but spreadsheets, just getting somebody to do a few hours for you here and there, is so, so important and vital A for your property business, but B for you and your own mental health as well.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: I see a lot of people get burnt out when they're starting businesses, whether it's in property, whether it's in any other industry as well, because we get so caught up in doing the doing that we forget everything else.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: We forget why we're doing this.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: We forget the important things our families, our own health.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: We forget all of this because we get caught up in I need more.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: I need more and I want it quicker.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Make sure you enjoy the journey.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: The journey is the journey when you get to the end of your destination.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: When I hit 10 properties, did the world just show me loads of shooting stars and rainbows and unicorns and everything, and that was it.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Life's over, I'm happy, now I can just retire on a beach.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: No, not at all.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: In fact, nothing happened.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Nothing happened when I hit that target, other than, okay, I need a bigger target, okay.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: And then I started to push myself for like 250 properties and all of those sort of silly numbers that you can get caught up in and if that's you, great stuff.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: But for me it was just like hang on a minute, why am I doing this?
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: I was doing this and I did this to get out of my job, to get out of my day job, to have more time, freedom, to do the things that I like and spend the time I want with my family and things, to be able to travel, to be able to afford nice things and to just be able to enjoy life.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: And it doesn't need 250 properties to do that.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: It just needs a couple of handfuls of the right properties to give me the lifestyle that I want.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: And once I'd realized that and knew that for myself, I've been a very, very happy man.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Remember, less is sometimes more.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: When it comes to this, just five of the right properties could be all you need to go out there and live a really nice life.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: And that might just mean five vendors, five landlords, five agents.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Not even that, because some people have multiple properties.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: What do I mean by that?
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Well, a landlord might have three properties.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: So if you found two landlords one with two properties and one with three properties, that could be all that you need to give you what you want in life.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: It's that simple.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Break it down, keep it easy.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: But those are seven of the biggest mistakes and pretty much how to get around most of those as well.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Don't be afraid of investing in your own education.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: If you need any help and support with any of that, then please check out thepropertyunleashedcom, where we have free tools and resources there.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: You can also listen to the podcast there, or you can reach out to us if you need any help and support in your property investing journey.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining me today and I look forward to you joining me again very soon.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Take care and bye for now.