Below Market Value Properties, Two Deals Worth Talking About

Below Market Value Properties

Episode Four of the Podcast is Now Live

Good morning

Episode four of the Property Auctions Podcast has been published and is available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible, YouTube and Amazon Music. It's only 15 minutes long and you can download it for the car or even the bath (just remember not to drop your phone).

I would strongly commend this one to you. It goes back to the fundamentals, why some people consistently make money at property auctions, and why others make catastrophic decisions that can take years to unravel.

The core principle is this: successful auction investors are relentless about limiting their risk. And you can only limit risk through knowledge and experience. I spend just as much time discussing with my mentees why they shouldn't buy a property as why they should.

Knowing when to walk away is one of the top three skills in this business. It comes from applying proper due diligence, and then having the discipline to act on what that due diligence tells you.

I'm Speaking at the Property Investor Show This Weekend

This is one of the themes I'll be covering at the Property Investor Show, which takes place at ExCeL London on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th of April.

It is the biggest and best property show in the country. I've been exhibiting there for over twenty years, in fact, I was on the show floor only months after leaving the army.

I don't think I've seen a seminar and panel line-up as strong as this one. Every speaker is a serious expert in their field, and I'd encourage you to come along if you can.

We'll be on Stand 10. Claire and I will be there, along with our asset manager Paul, and Sarah joining us on the Saturday. Friends of ours are exhibiting too, and we're genuinely looking forward to it.

My session will cover not just auctions, but how we identify and acquire distressed assets more broadly, which brings me neatly to the next section.

Below Market Value Properties - Two Recent Deals Worth Knowing About

A couple of weeks ago we completed on a property purchased for £20,000, currently rented at £6,600 per annum. A comparable property is now in the conveyancing process at £65,000. Not a bad return on knowing what to look for and how to fix it, and illustrates the benefits of buying below market value properties.

By the time of the Property Investor Show, we should also have completed on a second property, purchased for £10,000. It's significantly under the market rent and has a low EPC rating, but once resolved the yield will speak for itself. It’s tenanted and the tenant has been resident for years and pays the rent on time, albeit well below the market.

I've had to include completion statements in my book for deals like these because, frankly, the numbers sound unbelievable without them.

But they are real. What they require is the skill and experience to find them, and the knowledge to resolve whatever issues created the opportunity in the first place.

We look for problem properties. We resolve the problems. That's where the uplift comes from.