I never wanted to run a business again!

Well not a "proper" one at least... I have my investment properties largely in a limited company, which I guess, is a business. One that gives me a semi-passive, recurring income without requiring a heap of my time. Well having taken over an existing management portfolio has been everything but passive. Daniel and I have been working very hard to sort out the problems the previous managing agent had left behind for us - just a brief overview of some of the problems we've dealt with in the last few weeks:

• Tenants locked the WC door from the inside
• Dripping tap
• Radiator not working
• Broken washing machines
• Blocked shower drains (and the tenants kept on showering causing flooding and collapsed ceilings below 😱)
• No internet because the previous utility company had cut it off rather than waiting for us to switch it over.

So why the sudden change? Well there's opportunity. Daniel and I have been great working together on our WeSourceLondon.Properties brand and we've sourced a good half a dozen investment properties for clients over 2018. Our efforts didn't go unnoticed with plenty of investors contacting us to source for them too, so most of our business came from referrals and repeat business. Sourcing is however far from passive and even further from recurring. Management is a far less time intensive business for us (with the right team), so we decided to focus on that. With great success, we've been very luck finding this portfolio, and as the owner wanted to exit completely we've taken over his existing team and even his office. Once the teething issues are out the way and the properties are up to our high standards it should be a lot less time intensive.

This leads me right in to something that I did want to focus my time on - expansion. Standing still is the same as stepping backwards (because everyone else is moving forward of course). The best way to expand is together, so we set out to acquire further properties in Central London to manage on a short let basis. I'll dive in to this further in the next post as it requires some explaining, but in essence other investors are now able to hire us for property management for properties that we source for them, all packaged up, investors just sign on the dotted line and put the money in to the deal. The yields are great as we are letting the properties on a short let basis (both holiday letting and short letting in order to stay on the right side of the 90 day rule). More on this later.

If you'd like to know more in the interim by all means drop me a line. Also, if you are interested in more information on property letting and investments do head over to my youtube channel.

Second Sourced Property of the year - Exchanged! Video Tour for you to watch! 👀😎🏚➡️🏡

And here we go! Another property has been sourced by WeSourceLondon.Properties, my deal sourcing and packaging business. In this video I take you around the new project and show you what we're going to do.

If you are interested in seeing properties that I have sourced and negotiated a super purchase price on, be it on or off market, then sign up here. As always if you'd like to come and have a look at one of my projects just drop me a line and let's start the conversation. Or allow me to answer your questions in person at the next Clapham Property Meet!

So you have £50k. Here's 3 ways you can invest that in property! Video 11/30

So you have £50k? Great, let's get you started in property investing with these three ways. You don't necessarily need to have 6 figure sums to invest in property you know!

Jeroen Hoppe, ex-estate agent and professional property investor. 15 years experience in the London property market. Do you want to invest in property lucratively? You need to start the conversation now. Excellent deals sourced, portfolios built and monies invested wisely for market leading returns. I'm not a sayer, I'm a doer. See my other articles for regular updates on my own projects. Interested in investing with me? Now is the best time to start the conversation!

Where to find the best deals - in Clapham?

A lot of regular readers ask me where I source my property investments from. The truth is I'm something of an expert in finding deals "in plain sight..."

In plain sight? You mean through agents?

Yes, often times the properties that are the most attractive are the ones that have been sitting around for ages. The agent has lost interest, the owner disheartened about achieving the once "very realistic price" the agent pitched the asking price at. So then it's time to get to work...! Rightmove and Zoopla are your friend!

There are many other methods of finding great investments though, and a lot of good systems exist in order to have sellers calling you! Believe it or not there are people out there that make this a business (called sourcing). They could be property investors in their own right, like myself, who don't want to take a particular property because it doesn't fit their strategy (maybe capital gain vs cash flow, who knows) and they sell on the deal to a fellow investor for a fee. Once it's packaged up in a nice little box with a ribbon around it another investor could "buy" the deal from you and you've earned a sourcing/packaging fee.

Can I do this?

So if you are a starting investor and don't have any capital as yet, perhaps too little experience to invest 6 digit sums confidently, you want to be sourcing investment deals for others that are too busy to look around for bargains. Their time is money after all and they'd happily pay a few thousand pounds to bag a bargain. They, after all, do have 6 figure sums sitting there waiting to be invested. If it sits there it's not earning a good return so they'd happily pay you to kick start the returns.

Direct to Vendor?

A lot of the systems are indeed direct to vendor. You market to owners of properties for sale that could represent opportunities for investors. You could leaflet all day if you wanted but there are much cleverer systems than that...

So how do you start?

Well I'd love to give you an overview of how these systems work and help you source better investments. Be it for yourself or whether you want to become a professional sourcer, this event should give you an overview on the systems used by professional property investors to find themselves really good deals.

FREE, just register online!

Just before this month's Clapham Property Meet we're going to hold an interactive talk to discuss these methods (D2V and through agents) of deal sourcing. A talk not to miss if you want to get underway in property investment. If you want to make sure that you get a spot BOOK ON HERE.

We would love for you to stay and join us for the actual Clapham Property Meet also. David Clouter, investor of 30+ years experience will be doing a talk on Property Cycles. How to spot a downturn and make sure you're investing in the right property at the right time! BOOK YOUR TICKET FOR THAT EVENT HERE.