Mark My Words

Mark interviews controversial politician and broadcaster Nigel Farage in this episode. They discuss Nigel's experience as a commodities trader in the City, his views on investing, and the future of the stock market. Nigel provides an inside look at his political career, explaining how he stood alone in advocating for Brexit and used social media to make his voice heard. He shares his thoughts on the Conservative party, challenges with the benefits system, immigration, China, and more. Nigel also opens up about dealing with stress and negativity as a public figure. With his signature bluntness, humour, and charm, he engages in lively debate on controversial issues.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Nigel was a commodities trader in metals before entering politics. He still invests but prefers long-term positions in solid, dividend-paying companies.
• He credits his trading experience and sense of humour for helping him survive the stresses of politics and public scrutiny.
• Nigel believes he could become Prime Minister under a proportional representation voting system.
• He remains a staunch defender of Brexit despite domestic implementation problems.
• Nigel thinks China invading Taiwan in 2023 is over 60% likely and could be devastating for supply chains.
• He feels education should return to teaching critical thinking skills instead of moral relativism.

BEST MOMENTS  

"Be true to yourself. Because if you're not happy, you'll never be happy."

 "On the world stage, Brexit has been a big success. Domestically it's been terrible."

"You can't be friends with both. You have to make a decision." (On siding with Saudi Arabia over Iran)

"Nothing in our history was ever easy. There were always problems at every juncture."

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

https://www.youtube.com/user/progressiveproperty https://www.progressiveproperty.co.uk/the-progressive-co-founders/

ABOUT THE HOST

Mark has bought, sold or has managed around 1,000 property units for himself, Rob, his family and his investors since 2003. He is a system and spreadsheet geek and has developed a complex, confidential deal analyser system of buying residential, commercial and multi-let properties.

CONTACT METHOD

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhomer1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markprogressive

Twitter: https://twitter.com/markprogressive

‘Brought to you by Progressive Media’: https://progressivemedia.uk/

Mark Homer interviews Adrian from Prefect Controls about their intelligent heating control system for HMOs and student accommodation. Adrian explains how Prefect's room-by-room controls help property managers like Mark reduce energy waste from tenants who crank the heat up and open windows! With energy prices skyrocketing, he expects Prefect will reduce his bills 20-30%. Tune in to hear how Mark and Adrian implemented Prefect across Mark's properties and the tenant experience so far.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Prefect is designed for rooms, unlike smart home systems made for houses. Central control and data is key.
• Tenants cranking heat and opening windows wastes energy. Prefect stops this.
• Prefect monitors temperature, occupancy, noise and more in each room.
• Data helps identify issues like banned space heaters quickly.
• With remote access, managers don't need to enter rooms to check occupancy.
• The payback period depends on energy savings, but Mark expects 20-30% lower bills.

BEST MOMENTS

"The thermostat gets put right up to maximum, which might be 30 degrees, and then the temperature is often regulated by opening the window."

"We can see if the range goes much higher. We've got tenants where the rooms are going to 28, 29. In fact, we found one where he was consistently 37 degrees."

"You know, we, we set the parameters or you guys set the parameters according to your sort of normal temperature range."

"I was expecting, um, a saving on our energy bills of maybe 20 to 30 per cent."

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

https://www.youtube.com/user/progressiveproperty https://www.progressiveproperty.co.uk/the-progressive-co-founders/

ABOUT THE HOST

Mark has bought, sold or has managed around 1,000 property units for himself, Rob, his family and his investors since 2003. He is a system and spreadsheet geek and has developed a complex, confidential deal analyser system of buying residential, commercial and multi-let properties.

CONTACT METHOD

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhomer1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markprogressive

Twitter: https://twitter.com/markprogressive

‘Brought to you by Progressive Media’: https://progressivemedia.uk/

This episode is a recording of Mark’s recent talk at the Underground Empire Builders Event. Mark draws on 20 years of experience and 1000+ deals, sharing the mindsets and models essential for business success. He gives his philosophies on real estate investing, scaling companies, productive habits, calculated risks, and leveraging assets.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Find a profitable business model aligned with your passions - it drives you through tough times. Surround yourself with successful people to get ideas, not direct copies.
• Start now, test, and pivot - don't over-research. Your business will change; the market will shape it. Take action, make mistakes, learn, and improve.
• Systemise everything, measure with data, and manage time carefully. Spend it on income-generating tasks; this grows your business, and delegate what doesn't.
• Diversify income streams and assets. Property, trading, and investments balance each other when challenges like Brexit hit. Diversification survives dislocations.

BEST MOMENTS  

"I think the first thing I'd do as Prime Minister is take the whole tax system, put it in the bin, and reduce taxes."

"Once you find your model, it's all about implementation. You need clear, definable goals and milestones to ensure you're executing correctly."

"Don't go into developments early - learn by buying smaller ones first. There's less to go wrong and you gain experience for bigger projects."

"This isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. Buy properties now - even if cash flow is lower, you're purchasing for the long-term."

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

https://www.youtube.com/user/progressiveproperty https://www.progressiveproperty.co.uk/the-progressive-co-founders/

ABOUT THE HOST

Mark has bought, sold or has managed around 1,000 property units for himself, Rob, his family and his investors since 2003. He is a system and spreadsheet geek and has developed a complex, confidential deal analyser system of buying residential, commercial and multi-let properties.

CONTACT METHOD

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhomer1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markprogressive

Twitter: https://twitter.com/markprogressive

‘Brought to you by Progressive Media’: https://progressivemedia.uk/

Mark Homer joins Nigel to talk about one of the ways he sees us dealing with the housing crisis, redevelopment of retail and other commercial units into residential use. They discuss the barriers to general development and the new legislation coming into place soon.

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

• The government hasn’t been getting anywhere near its target for building houses, largely down to local planning and democracy.
• Over the years it’s become more difficult to convert commercial property into residential but there is some new regulation being discussed that could change this.
• You don’t get the same objections and difficulties when trying to develop housing in a city centre -vs.- rural communities.

BEST MOMENTS  

‘Everywhere the government turns it finds it more and more difficult to meet these housing targets’

‘I was the first person in Peterborough to take an office building and turn it into apartments’

‘It makes sense to live in city centres now and if we do a new kind of shopping with emerge’

‘So many builders are saying that the current green targets, are making it harder and harder’

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

https://www.youtube.com/user/progressiveproperty https://www.progressiveproperty.co.uk/the-progressive-co-founders/

ABOUT THE HOST

Mark has bought, sold or has managed around 1,000 property units for himself, Rob, his family and his investors since 2003. He is a system and spreadsheet geek and has developed a complex, confidential deal analyser system of buying residential, commercial and multi-let properties.

CONTACT METHOD

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhomer1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markprogressive

Twitter: https://twitter.com/markprogressive

‘Brought to you by Progressive Media’: https://progressivemedia.uk/

Mark and Rob do a Q&A with the audience and answer questions about books, entrepreneurship, what they are up to across their property businesses and the people they currently look to for inspiration. They also talk about how they are managing the current economic crisis and their thoughts on AI.

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

• Your brain has a capacity, you can fill it with too much with things that aren’t relevant or good for you. Mark is selective about what he consumes, especially regarding books and other media.
• When people kept telling Mark he would fail, he simply bought houses and didn’t tell anyone until he succeeded.
• Don’t let the negative people around you hold you back, they are trying to keep you in the place they are at.
• Progressive’s costs have gone up significantly, like most property investors. Mark is going through all of their portfolios to see where he can make savings.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger and John De Martini are two of Rob’s current inspirational people!
• There will be a lot to come out of AI that will be worthwhile, Mark believes in the wait and watch strategy, to see the benefits through the early adopters.
• A centralised digital currency is something Rob and Mark agree is bad for the people, it gives the government far too much control.

BEST MOMENTS  

‘I quite enjoy getting more from less’

‘We just need to make sure we really continue that momentum as this time of year things can go really slow’

‘Entrepreneurship is a stoic thing and good for progress’

‘I choose to focus on the upside of it [AI], not just the downside and all the doom’

‘Anything that gives them [The Government] more control I don’t like’

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

https://www.youtube.com/user/progressiveproperty https://www.progressiveproperty.co.uk/the-progressive-co-founders/

ABOUT THE HOST

Mark has bought, sold or has managed around 1,000 property units for himself, Rob, his family and his investors since 2003. He is a system and spreadsheet geek and has developed a complex, confidential deal analyser system of buying residential, commercial and multi-let properties.

CONTACT METHOD

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhomer1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markprogressive

Twitter: https://twitter.com/markprogressive

‘Brought to you by Progressive Media’: https://progressivemedia.uk/

Mark Homer goes joins GB news to answer the question, is Britain full? Mark shares his own experiences of the property market and volume in his current city of Peterborough and also how he sees the current crisis ending.

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

• We simply aren’t meeting the house-building target needed to match migration. With planning regulations as they are this won’t be changing any time soon.
• The housing crisis will continue to get worse until the breaking point where the government will have to relax planning regulations, build more social housing and reduce taxation for housing landlords.

BEST MOMENTS  

‘Are we building enough to accommodate the people we are allowing in?’

‘It’s going to keep on getting worse until there are some major changes made to the planning systems’

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

https://www.youtube.com/user/progressiveproperty https://www.progressiveproperty.co.uk/the-progressive-co-founders/

ABOUT THE HOST

Mark has bought, sold or has managed around 1,000 property units for himself, Rob, his family and his investors since 2003. He is a system and spreadsheet geek and has developed a complex, confidential deal analyser system of buying residential, commercial and multi-let properties.

CONTACT METHOD

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhomer1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markprogressive

Twitter: https://twitter.com/markprogressive

‘Brought to you by Progressive Media’: https://progressivemedia.uk/

Ex-MP Simon Danczuk joins Mark to share his many political views and in-depth knowledge of the system and the people of the UK. He talks about his days as an MP including exposing the Rochdale grooming gang and Cyril Smith, about his business background, immigration, the private rent sector and housing and the lack of leadership in parliament.

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

• At just age 15, Simon knew he wanted to become an MP and eventually became a counsellor at 27.
• Simon formed his own business and stepped down from being a counsellor. But once he hit 40 he decided to get into politics again and became an MP for Rochdale in 2010.
• Some of Simon’s experience from being a counsellor, allowed him to win clients for his agency because he understood a lot of the context and detail.
• You can’t have a flexible labour force if you don’t have enough rentals and housing for people to easily move.
• What politics has been lacking is strategy and vision which we are seeing the real impact of now.
• There’s a big economic event every ten years but the issue at the moment is that the media is particularly good at fear-mongering which has a large impact on the collective feeling of the country.
• There are 23 million working-age people in the UK that are economically inactive. We need to really incentivise these people to start working.

BEST MOMENTS  

‘I get a lot of satisfaction from solving people's problems and coming up with solutions”

“People still like to buy their home but rental is still crucial”

“Rents have doubled since 2016 because they have reduced the amount of rental properties”

“Surely you can incentivise people to go back to work”

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

https://www.youtube.com/user/progressiveproperty https://www.progressiveproperty.co.uk/the-progressive-co-founders/

ABOUT THE HOST

Mark has bought, sold or has managed around 1,000 property units for himself, Rob, his family and his investors since 2003. He is a system and spreadsheet geek and has developed a complex, confidential deal analyser system of buying residential, commercial and multi-let properties.

CONTACT METHOD

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhomer1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markprogressive

Twitter: https://twitter.com/markprogressive

‘Brought to you by Progressive Media’: https://progressivemedia.uk/

Mark talks to Nigel Farage on GB news about the difficulties of rent and housing in his local town of Peterborough, demonstrating a microcosm of what is happening across the country. Mark outlines the need for changes in regulation to drastically disrupt the current supply issues the UK is facing in housing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

• Rents have almost doubled since 2016, a lot of this is population pressure as well as landlords exiting the sector due to the Section 21 regulation
• Peterborough is the cheapest place within 75 miles of London and that is one of the causes of the drastic population increase
• Changes to planning need to happen to make it easier to build houses
• The government needs to create incentives for landlords, this creates choice, promotes quality and keeps prices down

BEST MOMENTS  

‘The property here is exploding, where is everybody going to live, what’s it going to cost them and what’s the government doing about it’

‘The supply of rental properties is contracting as more and more people come in the country wanting to rent’

‘Those rental increases here in Peterborough are shocking’

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

https://www.youtube.com/user/progressiveproperty https://www.progressiveproperty.co.uk/the-progressive-co-founders/

ABOUT THE HOST

Mark has bought, sold or has managed around 1,000 property units for himself, Rob, his family and his investors since 2003. He is a system and spreadsheet geek and has developed a complex, confidential deal analyser system of buying residential, commercial and multi-let properties.

CONTACT METHOD

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhomer1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markprogressive

Twitter: https://twitter.com/markprogressive

‘Brought to you by Progressive Media’: https://progressivemedia.uk/

CLASH OF THE TITANS - Go To moorevleeds.com to find out more

FREE DOWNLOAD How YOU Can Make A FORTUNE From Buy-To-Let

https://bit.ly/BTLReport-POD

The renters' reform bill was entered into parliament in May 2023, in this episode Kev, Mark and Kieran discuss their thoughts, including the upsides and downsides as well as how landlords and developers can make it work for them.

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

• The new bill will get rid of section 21, which is a 2-month eviction notice that can be served without grounds.
• The announcement of this bill is accelerating the mass exodus of landlords.
• It’s important to read into the bill yourself and not just look at headlines and rumours.
• There will always be tenants and therefore opportunities for landlords to make money but it might mean an increase in rent for many.
• Whilst changes by government are often called reforms, Kieran believes there are a whole host of things in the past that have made things worse for both tenants and landlords including epc criteria and the inability to offset interest.
• If legitimate landlords are having to charge more because of new legislation then those who can’t afford rent will instead look to rogue landlords.
• The bill talks about changes to allowing pets but it actually may put landlords in a better position as it states that insurance by the tenant will need to be bought to cover damage.
• It’s not just landlords that ask tenants to leave, tenants often want to leave after shorts amount of time too.
• Ultimately cost will be going up for both landlords and tenants as a result of this bill.

BEST MOMENTS  

“None of this is set in stone there are potentially things that could be changed”

“There are laws in this country that protect tenants”

“Landlords will just have to get better at using the section 8”

“A buy to let landlord will only be there if they can make money”

“All of this stuff can be used as an opportunity”

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

https://www.youtube.com/user/progressiveproperty https://www.progressiveproperty.co.uk/the-progressive-co-founders/

ABOUT THE HOST

Mark has bought, sold or has managed around 1,000 property units for himself, Rob, his family and his investors since 2003. He is a system and spreadsheet geek and has developed a complex, confidential deal analyser system of buying residential, commercial and multi-let properties.

CONTACT METHOD

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhomer1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markprogressive

Twitter: https://twitter.com/markprogressive

‘Brought to you by Progressive Media’: https://progressivemedia.uk/

CLASH OF THE TITANS - Go To moorevleeds.com to find out more

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

https://www.youtube.com/user/progressiveproperty https://www.progressiveproperty.co.uk/the-progressive-co-founders/

ABOUT THE HOST

Mark has bought, sold or has managed around 1,000 property units for himself, Rob, his family and his investors since 2003. He is a system and spreadsheet geek and has developed a complex, confidential deal analyser system of buying residential, commercial and multi-let properties.

CONTACT METHOD

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhomer1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markprogressive

Twitter: https://twitter.com/markprogressive

‘Brought to you by Progressive Media’: https://progressivemedia.uk/