Honest Property Investment with Natasha Collins

On the 27th of July 2021, I did an awesome webinar on how to search and buy your next investment property.

I’m not sure if you were able to attend it, but even if you were there is some *really life-changing* info in it.

So what I’ve done is recorded an abridged version of the webinar because I think you need the goodness that is included in these slides.

Essentially, these are your key takeaways...Don't skip out on this.

I've put in the work, can I expect the same standard from you?

I'm pretty sure you have 25 minutes to invest in yourself. I purposely made it short enough for you to be able to listen to...and importantly digest the info.

So, notebooks at the ready...

Natasha

I guarantee that if you are struggling to find the right property the reason will be one or all of the following:

If any of the above is true, then you must circle back and do the work.

Today on the podcast I’ve invited Danielle Bell to come and talk to me about how to find the right property… it’s far simpler than you think!

We also go through other myths in the industry and why the simplest strategies are the best strategies!

This is a throwback pod originally aired in 2020- but I feel that it’s as relevant as ever. I’d love to hear what you think- send me a line or two after you’ve listened to it.

Remember, keeping it simple and staying consistent is how you will create the most success.

Natasha

In this week’s podcast, I do a throwback to an incredibly popular interview with Adam Vickers. We chat about how he’s built his property portfolio in Reading and his property business across the rest of the UK through using JV’s and investors. This is jam-packed full of tips and tricks, it’s one not to miss!

Have you watched my "Crossing over to Commercial" mini-course? You're going to love it! It's an hour-long and covers all the basics, PLUS I included a Commercial Deal Analysis (you'll receive that in an email once you sign up). Sign up here: https://ncrealestate.co.uk/crossingovertocommercial 

If you want to continue the conversation, head over to the Property Investment Mastery Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/propertyinvestmentmastery/

Read my blog at: https://ncrealestate.co.ukplus don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter whilst you’re there!

If you want to find out more about Adam: www.adamvickers.co.uk

GET ACCESS TO CROSSING OVER TO COMMERCIAL BY CLICKING HERE

If you’re not here for Pregnancy content, you can skip this weeks newsletter/pod.But let me tell you it’s been my most requested podcast and so here it is, warts and all.

Currently I’m on Maternity leave. Team NCRE have me covered and are still running the ship because I have the best team of Surveyors and  Property experts so service was never going to slip.

But I may have got ahead of myself. I originally recorded this pod on the 28th Jan, thinking that I had a planned C Section a few weeks later so was feeling pretty together after just handing everything over to my interim MD and then planning for a 2 week crossover period… well I ended up having a real living baby in my arms 4.5 hours after I finished recording. 

One of my good friends and mentors once said to me ‘there’s a reason pregnancy is 9 months… its so you can get everything ready and in your case that means your business too!’

And so I had two choices, stop NCRE during maternity and pick up any pieces after (because I just didn’t have the capacity to keep it running) or spend time putting in place the right team and make it better than its ever been… knowing full well that it would be hard (and it was, I have never been so unwell in my life).

But the decisions I’ve made over the last 8 months have allowed me to have some sort of Mat Leave (yes I know whats going on in my business I haven’t disappeared completely, we have targets and deadlines!) which means I get to be Mum to Harry and Get to know him AND I’m not trying to give my best advice whilst my new Mum brain is swirling around because no one wants that (and seriously my team are just as good if not better!)

With that, I’ll leave you to listen to this Pod! 

Natasha

Have you started my free mini-course Crossing Over to Commercial? 

It’s prompting a lot of questions, which I’m more than happy to answer… here’s a biggie:

‘You say only search in one location, but I can’t find any BMV deals there, so can I expand my search?’

No 👏 no 👏 no

Mainly because… BMV (below market value)  just isn’t a thing in commercial property (I don’t believe it is in resi, but we just don’t have time to go through that right now).

Commercial properties are priced based on risk and its investment value… as well as what the seller wants to sell for.

SPOILER ALERT a commercial property that can immediately be increased in value isn’t going to jump out and punch you in the face whilst you’re scrolling RightMove.

You have to delve deeper into the deal than that.

To increase the value of a commercial property, you either have to decrease the risk of the deal by making sure the rent is secured and will be coming in for a long period of time OR you have to increase the rent.

Therefore, you have to analyse a deal and see where you can do that. It can take hours… when we do that for clients it can take days to get a deal right and to see where the value add comes from.

It’s not about expanding your location, it’s about looking at every single deal that is going on in that area and exploring the possibilities. Yes it takes time, but yes that’s where you find your deal!

In todays podcast I’m going to go through exactly how to do this, find a commercial property that you can add value to.

I’m going to start by celebrating the fact that after 3 valuations I finally got a valuation for my remortgage that is what I wanted it to be… the RIGHT VALUE!

I had to get to that figure mainly because I had my second charge mortgage relying on it and quite frankly, anything less and I was going to be out of pocket, which I’m not doing.

To keep you in suspense, I’ll give you the names of the lenders and valuers in my pod ;)

All I can say is, if you know the Comps state your property should be higher, keep pushing for it!

Next Topic… Asset Management 101.

When was the last time you ACTUALLY looked at the stats for your property portfolio?

I mean really and truly compared them to see what’s working and what’s not.

As an Asset Manager that’s the very first thing I do, I look at the figures, as they don’t lie. They give a true picture of how the portfolio is performing.

From there I can make changes.

If you want details on how to use it and what to measure, you are going to need to follow along with this weeks podcast.

I challenge you to get this done! Let me know is there anything that surprised you about your portfolio? Will you be making changes as a result?

Also don’t forget you can still pick up my Crossing Over to Commercial mini-course just CLICK HERE

You can sign up to Crossing Over to Commercial HERE

First things first, I need to get a public announcement out there to ask… please, commercial agents, stop with the Catfishing! I just can’t…

What do I mean?! Pricing property deals way too low so that you get eyeballs or bids and then being shocked when I call up and give you an offer at the market price and you saying ‘No that’s way too low!’.

Errm yass… so why bother listing at that price… grrrr!

The problem being that I have to look into it because I couldn’t possibly tell my clients I overlooked it, in case it’s actually correct and I’ve found myself a unicorn.

**Rant over**

Second point I want to cover today is ITZA’s. I’m noticing a lot of commercial property investors ignoring this because they just don’t understand.

NOTE: You cannot ignore this if you want to be successful here!! This is about valuing retail rents! I'll explain in the podcast...

It may sound obvious that you MUST be good at decision making in order to be a property investor…

But it truly shocks me the number of investors who say to me ‘is this a good deal, would you buy it?’

Because that’s not the question you should be asking. That’s asking me to judge a deal based on decisions I’d make for my own portfolio… that’s not your portfolio and your goals.

I know for a fact that clients of mine and friends definitely wouldn’t buy the same things that I buy and that’s brilliant because I’m not led by what they do.

Instead the question you should be asking is: ‘I've found this deal, my goals are X, Y and Z, does it hit those goals?’

But before asking that, you have to make an important decision. What is it you’d actually like to achieve?!

Yield / Purchase Price… any other stat you’re measuring by.

That way, when it comes to purchasing property the next decisions become easier:

Choosing the right location

Identifying if a deal really works for you, or deciding to let it go

Knowing what finance option works best

Want to a dig a little deeper into how to think about these decisions and a step by step guide into how to buy your next commercial property; Listen to this weeks podcast.

And now I have something even more special for you a freebie unlike any other freebie before it… Crossing Over To Commercial, my mini-course on everything you need to know before delving into the world fo commercial property. It will take you 60 mins to complete, but once you have, you’ll be more clued up as to how to make these decisions!!

Now it's time to focus and I want you to listen closely because there are some tripping hazards in 2022, that if you don’t concentrate on, will slow your property investment success this year.

The biggest tripping hazard… F👏I👏N👏A👏N👏C👏E (Finance)

Firstly, if you need an affirmation, use ‘There will always be finance for my property’... I firmly believe that.

However, it’s taking longer than ever to find a product that suits that you’re aiming for. This is across the board for both residential and commercial.

The reason being is that lenders want to do due diligence, but also don’t want to get sucked into the hype bubble from last year, where there was a lot of overpaying for properties.

So, you are going to have to stay resilient when it comes to finding finance. You are going to get a lot of NOs and you are going to come across a lot of products where you think WT eff is this?!

Ultimately you will get the finance you need but it could take 3-6 months (or sometimes longer). The investors that will succeed this year will build relationships with lenders and be able to present why a deal works to a lender so that they can get the best rates and loan to value.

Those who will fall flat in the mud, won’t prepare and won’t spend the valuable time needed to get this right.

I delve into this in more detail on my Podcast and share some things I’ve learnt recently in regards to refinancing property (Oh and some super exciting news!)

After last weeks podcast about the 10 business mistakes I’ve made, it also got me thinking about the biggest risks I’ve taken to get to where I am right now.

Success doesn’t happen through luck or coincidence, it happens because you keep putting yourself out there again and again and again until something sticks… here’s a summary of the risks I have taken which have made me laugh and cry, I go into the learnings in detail on this week's podcast.

And just like that… it’s the end of 2021. Thank you so much for being part of my community this year and supporting me.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I’ll see you in 2022.