Our Plan for Property in 2020
I often get asked by my investors and potential investors what my plans are for property. While we help our clients grow their wealth through property, we’re also active investors ourselves. This article outlines our plans for 2020.
When planning the year ahead, we need to consider our 18-month cash flow for the business. As I’m sure you can calculate, our plans for 2020 were formulated during the summer months of 2019. That means we’re now looking at plans for early to mid-2021 too! Outwith the services we provide to our investors, we strive to generate strong cash flow for the business both from regular monthly income from rental properties and also lump sums of cash from buy-to-sell projects.
This year we plan to grow our portfolio of buy-to-let properties. Ideally, this will be spread evenly across the four quarters of the year, but depending on the properties sourced off-market, there can be particularly busy spells throughout the year. We aim to buy properties at or below market value, to ensure we make money when we buy, protecting the investment should the market take a dip. If we needed to sell a property rather than to hold and rent, the equity gained on purchase is essential to allow flexibility in the sale price. We ensure our rental properties are in the top 25% of rental properties on the market in terms of standards of living, therefore every property we purchase we renovate to a high standard before moving tenants in. This ensures we have minimal gaps in tenancy and our tenants enjoy living in our properties.
We have a small number of buy-to-sell projects planned for this year. The type of properties we focus on renovating are older properties with period features, and these tend to be flats or houses within Edinburgh. We find the key to a successful buy-to-sell project is targeting the customer who is going to purchase the property once renovated. For example, if we decide to purchase a two-bedroom property in a popular area for young professionals and university students, the renovation is going to be quite different to renovating a 3 or 4 bedroom terraced home or large apartment that we plan to sell to a family. Always tailor your renovation to what your potential buyer wants. If you know your local area well, start looking through homes sold recently in the area that have achieved a sale price higher than expected. If you can identify any special touches that made the property so popular with buyers, you’ll do well in a renovation project.
We would love to hear from you if you are interested in investing in property. We offer a fixed return on investment for investors who want strong returns from property without owning property personally. We also enjoy working with investors in joint ventures.
If you would like more information about investing with us, please click the button below to book a call with me.
