9️⃣ MASSIVE MISTAKES WE MADE IN INVESTING [Pt. 1] Number 4 is so important... 🎓 There's no pre-qualifications to enter property. 🤷‍♂️ We all make mistakes... 👨‍🏫 Learning from them is what matters... If you're a first-time landlord, trust me, you'll probably make more mistakes than wins at first. Our first few investments were a rollercoaster of stress, emotion and bad decisions. Here are Our Biggest Lessons: Number 1️⃣: Thinking Property was Easy. 🙃🏡 We thought all we had to do was find a house, buy, slap some Dulux paint on the inside and rent it out. Our first renovation budget was scribbled on a post-it note. It was a BTL, and we underestimated the cost by half. I was so eager to get started that we ignored reality and overspent. It took several months to rent out and was under market rent as we were desperate to stop our voids. ⚠️ Don't guess. Know your numbers. Use a calculator and keep abreast of what average renovations cost. Anything else is akin to gambling. Number 2️⃣: Not Buying for Cashflow 💷💰 Turnover is vanity, Profit is sanity but Cashflow is king. We didn't learn this early on. We made purchases that didn't cashflow sufficiently every month, stunting our growth. We took one-off opportunities to purchase development land and back in our childhood village but lack the funds to build. Thus, it returns us next to nothing. ⚠️ Never buy just for capital appreciation. If it doesn't put money in you back pocket every month, don't do it! Number 3️⃣: Cutting Costs on Renovations and DIY🛠 Because I got the budget wrong, I tried to cut corners. The result? More problems. We also tried to doing DIY and it took too long and wasn't of the best quality. Your time is too precious to do DIY. ⚠️ It doesn't have to be luxury, but it does need to be desirable. If you want great tenants, invest in quality. Number 4️⃣: Buying Cheap in Cheap Areas 🏚👀 At first, we were snobby about locations. Then, I went too far the other way and bought cheap without due diligence. A bad property in a bad area isn't an asset, it's a liability. Rental demand and rental yields were low. It only took one call out for a plumber to wipe out our net monthly income. ⚠️ Location will make or break your investment. If people dont want to live there because it's not safe/attractive/good transport links - they won't! Moreover, small margins (£100 profit pcm) are easily wiped out by an issue arising/repair bill. We've spent 5️⃣+ years building our small portfolio and carving out a life with supplementary income. The mistakes we made we're still trying to fix. That's why we set up our sourcing business and property community. The majority will make the same mistakes, but work with us and you'll be in: ✨️ the minority... ✨️ the few... ✨️ the VIP Join Derbyshire and Yorkshire's most exclusive property club We SOURCE 🎯 We SUPPORT🤝 We MANAGE 🏡 We CONNECT ❤️ DM the word VIP What mistakes have you made? Let us know below. #btl #landlords #property

Posted by James Lovell-Smith at 2025-03-15 17:03:47 UTC