How to Invest in Property and make a lot of money from it.
If there is one thing that I’ve learned from my experience as a property developer, it’s that you can make some serious money if you invest in the right types of investment projects.
My First Property Investment
Building up to where one has a substantial portfolio of rental properties takes a lot of work and effort and one is bound to make a few mistakes along the way. I know `I have. Some have been minor mistakes and one or two major ‘flumps’ cost me a fortune.
When I first started out I was in my first year after graduating from University and things were quite tight, especially financially. I had left Uni’ with several thousand quid in debt and couldn’t really see much of a way to pay off the debts and have some spare cash, too. However, after saving every penny I could get my hands on for several years, I was finally in a place where I was ready to buy my first property.
Rather than looking at it as buying my first home, I decided to look at it as investing into my first business venture. I was still single so did mot need a ‘home’ as such, so off I went to the local auction house with my cheque book in my back pocket and a pen behind my ear. I had some idea of what I was able to spend and I also had a good idea of what I was looking to purchase. It had to be something that I could spend a few thousand quid on doing it up a bit with a view to either selling it again at a profit of renting it out with a decent yield.
Do Your Homework Properly
I had spent months researching the market and seeing what was out there and I knew there were several properties which I had already been out to view for a closer inspection so I was hoping to seal a deal at this auction house. I was not disappointed. I was glad to have been able to bid on one property that, thankfully, no one else seamed to want or be interested in. The bidding started at just £40,000 and I had won the bidding with my first offer of £41,000. I was ecstatic.
I knew that when I had spent some money on doing this property up to bring it into the modern times I could have a nice profit on it. I had to get it right, though. I had heard lots of horror stories about people buying property and finding out later that there were other more serious issues with it and it ends up costing them an arm and a leg just to put the place right so they can get some of their money back. That wasn’t going to happen to me. I couldn’t let that happen.
So, here I was with what was going to be my way out of debt and on my way to earning a half reasonable living. I didn’t have any doubts that this was going to be hard work and I knew that things that are worth having in life are worth working hard for. That same afternoon I went over to have another look at the place I had just bought and I began to work out what I was going to do with it.
What Needed Fixing?
The roof needed fixing. That was going to be a big job. In fact, the roof needed replacing completely. Of course I already knew that because I had seen the rot on some of the roof joists and there was broken tiles in several places, some of which were letting in water into the bathroom upstairs. I had a friend who was a joiner who was going to help me put the roof right. Hopefully, this way, it would not cost me all the money I had saved for the refurbishments to put the whole place right again.
Then, of course, there was the garden. The back garden was overgrown with weeds and foliage, which was just one big mess. I was going to tear the whole lot out and put a wooden patio and gravel the whole lot. There was going to be some nice new plants and trees planted to make the place look great.
The other things that needed to be done was the bathroom and kitchen both needed a full refurbishment with all new units and white kitchen goods and a new suite for the bathroom. Then there was the double-glazing. The current windows were single glass panels and must be at least 30 years old. I had to replace these with the modern double-glazing units that every property these days should have.
35 Years Later & Still Going Strong
Finally, there was the painting and decorating of the whole place and a couple of rooms needed a few walls re-plastering, where the wet had got in and dampened the walls. Then I was going to put central heating in, which would help to dry everything out again.
I had a time line of approximately 8-12 weeks in which I wanted to get everything completed by and the work went like a dream. My gang of tradesmen worked day and night around the clock and they overcame a few major issues along the way.
We completed the work in just 9 weeks and it cost me an extra £35,000. Altogether, the property cost me £41,000 and £7,000 in auction and agency fees. With the £35 on top for the work it came to £83,000. I sold that first property the following month for a staggering £149,500. That was an amazing £66,500 in profit. Not bad for 9 weeks work, altogether.
This was my first property deal and this was how I found out that I could continue to invest in this type of property and make some good return for my investment. Since then, of course, I have bought and sold dozens of properties and I have made a total of more than 1.5 million over the 25 years since I began and I have not finished yet.
I also own 15 rental properties that bring me in a monthly income of more than £10,000. I plan on continuing for as long as I possibly can and hope to be able to leave a decent inheritance for my children and grandchildren.
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