Hello,
If you are pondering about the fact that maybe you have to be a certain type of person in order to make this business work for you, then I would suggest that you read the following piece about myself.
Hopefully, it will illustrate that no one is born to be a property professional. As far as I know they don’t teach these skills at schools, colleges or even universities. The only way you are going learn them is by taking action yourself.
You can teach yourself the hard way – as I had to – by making costly and time consuming mistakes.
On the other hand you can invest in yourself for less than £500. (which you can offset against tax of your first profits that you make)
However, please read this broad profile of myself – and maybe you can relate to some of the things that I talk about.
By making the decision to come on board the ‘Fast profits from BMV/Singing Pig’ one-day workshop you are going to learn how to copy and put into practice the business model that I have used myself for some time now
Everything that you are taught by me is completely 100% legal. You will develop skills and learn knowledge that will help you to find and identify opportunities (the marketing) and, more importantly, to capitalise on them (negotiation/persuasion)
How do I know all of this?
I know because, I have taught myself the skills through trial and error over the last ten years or so. In fact, I have been actually, unbeknown to me, learning these skills over the course of my working life, not really knowing that eventually –now - they would all come together one day to serve me well in this niche business sector. Probably more importantly than this fact – I have taught numerous other people, possibly like yourself, to do exactly the same thing too.
You may think that having therefore trained all these people then I have created lots of competition for you – all before you have even started in this business!
Let me clarify matters.
The number of people, who I have trained previously, is, on one hand a reasonable number, but on the other hand it is a drop in the ocean when you consider the number of opportunities out there.
There are around 23 million houses in the UK currently.
We only need collectively the tiniest fraction of those to have owners who HAVE to sell their properties below market value for this model to offer you potentially vast wealth gains
Surely that’s enough for everyone to go around!
I also have to state that not all of the people whom I have passed my valuable information on to have done much with it.
That’s right…some people can’t be bothered to put their new knowledge to work for them!
There are a number who have let apathy get in the way of their plans and who couldn’t, to be blunt, be bothered to make a go if things.
This happens in lots of situations in life. My favourite analogy though is with a business like Weight Watchers.
Two people, both lets say 3 stones overweight, sign up in January and want to lose, let’s say 3 stones each.
The following December, one person has lost maybe 4 stones, and the other has gained an extra 1 stone.
So now – one person is 5 stones heavier than their friend – yet they both weighed the same at the start of the year!
They both received the same valuable information and support about losing weight.
It’s just that one of them had a better ATTITUDE.
Only today I was talking to one of my students, and I told him that he had a great attitude, and that would ensure that he didn’t fail. He is driven and focussed and is displaying the main general trait…he has the right attitude. I was just the same so I recognise the traits. I also easily recognise the traits of those who aren’t going to utilise the information that they buy too!
In any evern, regardless of how many competitors you have (and there will not be anywhere may as you think) what is really important is how good you are compared to them.
As you will read shortly, when I came into this business and researched the competition, I quickly realised that they were mainly business ‘dinosaurs’. They had poor marketing, negotiation and people skills. I couldn’t believe my luck that I had stumbled in such an unprofessional niche market!
Just because someone has been in business say 20 years, it doeasnt mean they will be better or more successful than a switched on, focussed, professional new starter.
If you do come into this business, the it may surprise you to know that you will not be in the property business.
You will be in the marketing business!
Marketing will drive you forward, and get you where you plan to go!
Please read on…..
So how did this all start for me?
Well, quite simply, like many people in the past, I ‘stumbled’ into the world of property – and in particular the world of buying residential property at massive discounts with positive cash flow too.
Nowadays, property investment is, for many, a defined career choice. It is something that people decide to ‘get into’ and have a plan to do so. This has probably been driven by the massive attention given to property in the media over the last 5 years or more. Everyday we see property related programmes on TV, and numerous articles in the printed media too.
In my experience, the vast majority of newcomers pay the business the biggest disservice possible. They simply decide to get into the industry with little or no preparation or real thought.
If they were for instance setting up a business, let’s say a retail shop, which may make them possibly £40,000 per year (probably less), then I am certain they would treat it seriously and research it thoroughly before starting. Then they would commence with the graft required to set it up and make it work properly.
All that - for probably just a’ living wage’.
However, for some strange reason, I find that most people who decide to get into this incredibly lucrative industry simply ‘dive in’ and think that they can make a fortune from it ‘off the cuff’.
This is, in my mind, incredibly naïve – bordering on insanity.
In boom times – when prices are rising, their naivety can be compensated for by the market covering up their mistakes. They can make money just by paying full market price, and whilst I consider paying anywhere near full market price as stupid (at any stage of the property market cycle), it is true that money can be made by fools in a rising market.
Their naivety ‘gets them’ in the end though……
Their problems begin – and many are finding this now – as a result of the global financial meltdown – when prices start to fall – as they always doing in property price cycles.
Many amateurs have fled the industry, either by choice or by necessity recently because of this phenomenon. This is great news for professionals – as it gets rid of the amateurs who often ‘muddied the waters’ previously.
Should you decide to come on board the one-day workshop, then you will have chosen to invest already – in your property education. An investment means just that – it is not money spent – it is money invested for a financial return.
When I bought my first investment property I committed the cardinal sin.
This was when I realised I needed to educate myself…quickly.
I paid full market value for it!
At least it had decent monthly positive cash flow – but nowadays I want both – an equity gain on day one and positive monthly cashflow…oh, and no money down either!
I had yet to become savvy and realise that the most important factor in buying a property (or anything come to that) along with the need for positive monthly cash flow – is to always buy low – each and every single time!
You make your money when you buy!
This is a well know saying with property professionals. Most of the
amateurs buy at full market vale – then wait, and wait and wait…..and hope too.
I don’t do that – I buy well below market value. I still wait – but I have already been compensated at the beginning for waiting by buying so cheaply.
I already have a profit – and will take a second profit over time – as prices rise. Prices of houses do not rise in a consistent fashion – as in being proved now in the current window of time.
However, they do rise – over time.
The dynamics in the UK point firmly towards a consistent rise in property prices over the coming years – and beyond
Look at the facts….
· UK population growing by around 350,000 each year.
· The government admitting we need to build 250,000 new houses every year to ensure a housing crisis is averted.
· The Housing Federation have recently indicated that only 100,000 properties maximum will be built in the UK in 2008 – as scared builders cease constructing until things improve
· In 2007 only 165,000 houses were built at a time when the construction industry was working flat out!
· The undeniable existence of a property owning culture among British people. People like to own their own home – it makes them feel good.
Supply will not keep up with demand – even if the population remains static at today’s levels
Often, when someone asks me what I do for a living, I tell them that I collect houses.
Why?
Because, that is exactly what I do.
I collect houses for future exploitation. Because I totally believe, that the housing situation in this crowded island on which we live is going to get much worse very quickly – based on the facts that my research uncovers – then that is my motivation to do what I do.
I can afford to be patient about this
Why?
Because I have the following
· Houses that I bought BMV – which have equity in them from day one. Usually with none of my own money utilised either
· A monthly positive cashflow after mortgage and other expenses are paid for.
· Therefore a healthy cash surplus in order to fund unexpected repairs and void periods
· A commodity that is going to be more scarce as time progresses – and therefore more valuable to me
Hopefully, you can see why someone like me is totally relaxed about investing in property for the long-term.
We professionals have a different slant on things than the ones painted by the media.
Traditionally over the last 60 years property has tended to double in price every 10 years. That equates to an average of around 7% compounding each year.
It isn’t a linear consistent growth, there can be falls, as now, but over time, patience rewards the patient. When there are falls this is when they professionals get greedy
As the famous investor Warren Buffett said…..
‘When the masses are greedy be frightened, but when the masses are frightened – be greedy!’
See for yourself…
According to the Nationwide Building Society’s UK house price analysis since 1952, a property worth £1,900 in 1952 was worth £189,000 in 2007!
So let’s look at an example of a house I buy today for say £100,000 that is really worth £145,000.
That represents a discount of around 30%. It is not a remarkable discount by any means – I have negotiated prices much keener than this! Don’t worry – remember you are, if you come on board going to be taught how to do this very soon!
Let’s look at the figures…..
Assume the property increase in value only 5% on average each year (not the typical 7% over time)…lets be cautious here…for ten years
In ten years time it would be worth around £225,000!
That means that my total gain would be £125,000!
It would have been ‘only’ a gain of £80,000 had I paid full market value for it. However my negotiated discount of £45,000 is very much an added bonus!
I will have also rented out the house at a profit during that time – making a monthly profit from day one – and raised the rent by around 3 - 5% annually too – whilst finance costs (mortgages) would have remained static - as I would have fixed my rates.
A rent of say £700 per month with finance costs of £500 per month initially – would change over time as follows….
End of year 10 the rent would be around £1100 per month with a 5% compound growth – with borrowing costs the same – if I chose to fix my rates – which is obviously a sensible thing to do!
However…back to how I got started
Forgive me. I digress….
Remember, I paid full market value for my very first property?
Big mistake!
However, to be fair to me that property is now worth over double the price I paid for it – even by paying full market value!
At the time I owned a very successful distribution company, which, whilst it provided well for me and my family, it was very demanding - and was very old fashioned, in my opinion, in as much as it required lots of hard work and attention, and did not give me what I really wanted – namely an income and a wealth building opportunity where I could work smart - and not hard – in the old fashioned accepted way!
Prior to this I was employed, albeit in a secure, well-paid job. I eventually, like many people; I began to yearn to be my own boss, ideally with financial freedom also.
This was to basically, ‘sack my boss’, and then increase my wealth – without doing too much hard work!
So initially, I leapt from the Rat Race of employment into, what turned out to be, the Rat Race of self-employment – which can be, and is for many the worst of the 2 situations. For many self-employed people working in traditional businesses (manufacturing, retail etc) they find themselves with none of the benefits of employment (security, no financial commitment, the ability to change jobs at will), yet have the drawbacks of running their own business (sales worries, cash issues, staff problems etc)
It took me 2 steps to get from employment to ‘working smart’ in this business niche…..
My first deal that I stumbled upon was the spark that started everything….and from that point onwards I was obsessive about exploiting that fact to my advantage, and at the same time – finding a buyer for my distribution business – as I now knew where my real future lay!
I had seen the light!
Ironically, it took me 18 months to find a buyer for my business – that was because I was searching for a good offer for it! I eventually sold it for around 50% more than what I considered to be a fair price! However, I now think back and see that it would probably have been more lucrative for me, long-term, if I had let the business go at a knock down price quickly. This would have allowed me to focus fully on property over a year earlier than I eventually did!
I became fascinated by the notion of buying bargain property… and waiting.
Whilst waiting the 18 months for my sale to conclude, I started to cobble together the beginnings of what became the business model that I use today… my ‘system’.
I researched the concept of ‘hunting’ for bargain properties with positive cash flow, to the ‘nth’ degree and knew that it was where my future lay.
Many doubting Thomases (friends and acquaintances) told me, in a caring way, that I was crazy. However, they didn’t have the benefit of my incredibly thorough research that I had carried out for months previously.
It’s funny, but no one tells me it was a crazy decision these days.
These doubting Thomases still go to work each day and still have a boss to answer to – but they were intent on giving me their worldly pearls of wisdom all those years ago.
At the time, I figured that why should I take financial advice, albeit well meaning, from people who hadn’t displayed a great track record in that area in their lives to date?
Basically…if you buy property (and wait)…it tends to go up in value!
If you find someone to pay the mortgage and some more each month too (the tenant)..then fabulous!
So rather then wait (procrastinate) …and then buy a property one day …..I bought a property THEN waited.
Then curiosity got a hold of me…..
I soon started to ask myself ‘what if I could buy these houses for less than they were actually worth?’
Like buying £10 notes for £9
In other words, if I bought a £100,000 house for £90,000, then I had just made myself the easiest £10,000 I would ever make! I figured that with the 2 million or so houses sold each year, surely a tiny percentage of the sellers would be desperate.
So desperate that they could not wait the typical 4 months that it took (then) to sell via an Estate Agent. Its taking much, much longer to sell presently.
I then thought, ‘what if I could find, say, just 4 people per year near where I live who would take such a discount in exchange for a fast professional sale in order to solve a problem in their life’
Then I thought, why accept a 10% discount? Why not hunt so extensively and deeply that I get to cherry pick situations where they will be so desperate to sell (for whatever reason – there are dozens of reasons) that I could find discounts of 25% plus?
At say £25,000 discount each on average – then with only 4 small deals I would increase my personal wealth by £100,000 – just by being persistent and finding these people! And, if the rent covered the mortgage – AND put a healthy amount of cash in my pocket each month too – then how could I lose?
Surely there must be 4 people, or more near where I live who fit this criteria?
And near where you live now!
In fact I would put money on that!
I researched the market, and discovered that some people were buying houses this way already – but in a very unprofessional, hap-hazard way that really wasn’t a sustainable business model as far as I was concerned – I decided that it could most certainly be improved upon.
So that’s what I did.
I started my trial and error marketing system that flushed desperate sellers ‘out of the woodwork’ – and got them speaking to me.
I ‘got inside their head’ and discovered their problems…..
Then I became a problem solver……
And, whilst most people refused to accept my low offers - I bought a good number of houses at bargain prices!
I simply then played the ‘numbers game’.
I achieved my target of 4 heavily discounted properties with 4 months! All because of the effectiveness of both my marketing skills, my listening skills, my problem solving skills and my negotiation skills.
I then went on to refine and improve my new system over time through my experiences (and the, more than, odd mistake being corrected ‘here and there’), until it served me as it does today.
Another opportunity…….
I then went on to develop my message to appeal to people who needed to sell their homes, usually, for financial reasons, but didn’t want to leave the house that they lived in and loved. This was the start of my ‘Sale and rent Back’ business. I had negotiated a deal on a heavily discounted house – with a guaranteed tenant who paid my mortgage AND MORE from day one!
I soon ‘got greedy’ and instead of buying properties for around 80% of their true market value, I consistently decreased my offers.
Nowadays I very rarely pay more than 65% of a properties true value. I’m very careful, and not desperate to buy a house at any more than this. It must have a high discount and good positive monthly cash flow – otherwise I am not interested
I have taken the ‘you make your money when you buy’ concept to an extreme, and I can assure you that with the right approach, to the right people, at the right time combined with the right skills, then you too can achieve these results simply by copying what I do.
To date I have concluded over 100 heavily discounted ‘Below market Value’ (BMV), cash positive deals using this tried and tested simple system. Some I have sold, (‘flipped’) to make an instant profit, some I have passed on to other investors – maybe because the opportunity was out of my geographic area (I insist on having the properties that I own close to me geographically – it makes for an easy life long term that way!). The remainder I have kept for my own portfolio.
I also, very conservatively, estimate that my students have bought well over 500 houses between them also in the last 4 years - since I have been coaching people in this way.
Whilst it’s now obvious to me that I had all the necessary skills to make the concept work, I am fully aware that these skills don’t require you to be a genius, or a business mastermind. I just ‘worked backwards; from where I wanted to be. I made plenty mistakes – some quite costly, but I rectified and learned from them.
I can now offer you the opportunity to do the same thing – but without the costly mistakes that I made – and paid for!
Regards
Greg Jackson
If you are pondering about the fact that maybe you have to be a certain type of person in order to make this business work for you, then I would suggest that you read the following piece about myself.
Hopefully, it will illustrate that no one is born to be a property professional. As far as I know they don’t teach these skills at schools, colleges or even universities. The only way you are going learn them is by taking action yourself.
You can teach yourself the hard way – as I had to – by making costly and time consuming mistakes.
On the other hand you can invest in yourself for less than £500. (which you can offset against tax of your first profits that you make)
However, please read this broad profile of myself – and maybe you can relate to some of the things that I talk about.
By making the decision to come on board the ‘Fast profits from BMV/Singing Pig’ one-day workshop you are going to learn how to copy and put into practice the business model that I have used myself for some time now
Everything that you are taught by me is completely 100% legal. You will develop skills and learn knowledge that will help you to find and identify opportunities (the marketing) and, more importantly, to capitalise on them (negotiation/persuasion)
How do I know all of this?
I know because, I have taught myself the skills through trial and error over the last ten years or so. In fact, I have been actually, unbeknown to me, learning these skills over the course of my working life, not really knowing that eventually –now - they would all come together one day to serve me well in this niche business sector. Probably more importantly than this fact – I have taught numerous other people, possibly like yourself, to do exactly the same thing too.
You may think that having therefore trained all these people then I have created lots of competition for you – all before you have even started in this business!
Let me clarify matters.
The number of people, who I have trained previously, is, on one hand a reasonable number, but on the other hand it is a drop in the ocean when you consider the number of opportunities out there.
There are around 23 million houses in the UK currently.
We only need collectively the tiniest fraction of those to have owners who HAVE to sell their properties below market value for this model to offer you potentially vast wealth gains
Surely that’s enough for everyone to go around!
I also have to state that not all of the people whom I have passed my valuable information on to have done much with it.
That’s right…some people can’t be bothered to put their new knowledge to work for them!
There are a number who have let apathy get in the way of their plans and who couldn’t, to be blunt, be bothered to make a go if things.
This happens in lots of situations in life. My favourite analogy though is with a business like Weight Watchers.
Two people, both lets say 3 stones overweight, sign up in January and want to lose, let’s say 3 stones each.
The following December, one person has lost maybe 4 stones, and the other has gained an extra 1 stone.
So now – one person is 5 stones heavier than their friend – yet they both weighed the same at the start of the year!
They both received the same valuable information and support about losing weight.
It’s just that one of them had a better ATTITUDE.
Only today I was talking to one of my students, and I told him that he had a great attitude, and that would ensure that he didn’t fail. He is driven and focussed and is displaying the main general trait…he has the right attitude. I was just the same so I recognise the traits. I also easily recognise the traits of those who aren’t going to utilise the information that they buy too!
In any evern, regardless of how many competitors you have (and there will not be anywhere may as you think) what is really important is how good you are compared to them.
As you will read shortly, when I came into this business and researched the competition, I quickly realised that they were mainly business ‘dinosaurs’. They had poor marketing, negotiation and people skills. I couldn’t believe my luck that I had stumbled in such an unprofessional niche market!
Just because someone has been in business say 20 years, it doeasnt mean they will be better or more successful than a switched on, focussed, professional new starter.
If you do come into this business, the it may surprise you to know that you will not be in the property business.
You will be in the marketing business!
Marketing will drive you forward, and get you where you plan to go!
Please read on…..
So how did this all start for me?
Well, quite simply, like many people in the past, I ‘stumbled’ into the world of property – and in particular the world of buying residential property at massive discounts with positive cash flow too.
Nowadays, property investment is, for many, a defined career choice. It is something that people decide to ‘get into’ and have a plan to do so. This has probably been driven by the massive attention given to property in the media over the last 5 years or more. Everyday we see property related programmes on TV, and numerous articles in the printed media too.
In my experience, the vast majority of newcomers pay the business the biggest disservice possible. They simply decide to get into the industry with little or no preparation or real thought.
If they were for instance setting up a business, let’s say a retail shop, which may make them possibly £40,000 per year (probably less), then I am certain they would treat it seriously and research it thoroughly before starting. Then they would commence with the graft required to set it up and make it work properly.
All that - for probably just a’ living wage’.
However, for some strange reason, I find that most people who decide to get into this incredibly lucrative industry simply ‘dive in’ and think that they can make a fortune from it ‘off the cuff’.
This is, in my mind, incredibly naïve – bordering on insanity.
In boom times – when prices are rising, their naivety can be compensated for by the market covering up their mistakes. They can make money just by paying full market price, and whilst I consider paying anywhere near full market price as stupid (at any stage of the property market cycle), it is true that money can be made by fools in a rising market.
Their naivety ‘gets them’ in the end though……
Their problems begin – and many are finding this now – as a result of the global financial meltdown – when prices start to fall – as they always doing in property price cycles.
Many amateurs have fled the industry, either by choice or by necessity recently because of this phenomenon. This is great news for professionals – as it gets rid of the amateurs who often ‘muddied the waters’ previously.
Should you decide to come on board the one-day workshop, then you will have chosen to invest already – in your property education. An investment means just that – it is not money spent – it is money invested for a financial return.
When I bought my first investment property I committed the cardinal sin.
This was when I realised I needed to educate myself…quickly.
I paid full market value for it!
At least it had decent monthly positive cash flow – but nowadays I want both – an equity gain on day one and positive monthly cashflow…oh, and no money down either!
I had yet to become savvy and realise that the most important factor in buying a property (or anything come to that) along with the need for positive monthly cash flow – is to always buy low – each and every single time!
You make your money when you buy!
This is a well know saying with property professionals. Most of the
amateurs buy at full market vale – then wait, and wait and wait…..and hope too.
I don’t do that – I buy well below market value. I still wait – but I have already been compensated at the beginning for waiting by buying so cheaply.
I already have a profit – and will take a second profit over time – as prices rise. Prices of houses do not rise in a consistent fashion – as in being proved now in the current window of time.
However, they do rise – over time.
The dynamics in the UK point firmly towards a consistent rise in property prices over the coming years – and beyond
Look at the facts….
· UK population growing by around 350,000 each year.
· The government admitting we need to build 250,000 new houses every year to ensure a housing crisis is averted.
· The Housing Federation have recently indicated that only 100,000 properties maximum will be built in the UK in 2008 – as scared builders cease constructing until things improve
· In 2007 only 165,000 houses were built at a time when the construction industry was working flat out!
· The undeniable existence of a property owning culture among British people. People like to own their own home – it makes them feel good.
Supply will not keep up with demand – even if the population remains static at today’s levels
Often, when someone asks me what I do for a living, I tell them that I collect houses.
Why?
Because, that is exactly what I do.
I collect houses for future exploitation. Because I totally believe, that the housing situation in this crowded island on which we live is going to get much worse very quickly – based on the facts that my research uncovers – then that is my motivation to do what I do.
I can afford to be patient about this
Why?
Because I have the following
· Houses that I bought BMV – which have equity in them from day one. Usually with none of my own money utilised either
· A monthly positive cashflow after mortgage and other expenses are paid for.
· Therefore a healthy cash surplus in order to fund unexpected repairs and void periods
· A commodity that is going to be more scarce as time progresses – and therefore more valuable to me
Hopefully, you can see why someone like me is totally relaxed about investing in property for the long-term.
We professionals have a different slant on things than the ones painted by the media.
Traditionally over the last 60 years property has tended to double in price every 10 years. That equates to an average of around 7% compounding each year.
It isn’t a linear consistent growth, there can be falls, as now, but over time, patience rewards the patient. When there are falls this is when they professionals get greedy
As the famous investor Warren Buffett said…..
‘When the masses are greedy be frightened, but when the masses are frightened – be greedy!’
See for yourself…
According to the Nationwide Building Society’s UK house price analysis since 1952, a property worth £1,900 in 1952 was worth £189,000 in 2007!
So let’s look at an example of a house I buy today for say £100,000 that is really worth £145,000.
That represents a discount of around 30%. It is not a remarkable discount by any means – I have negotiated prices much keener than this! Don’t worry – remember you are, if you come on board going to be taught how to do this very soon!
Let’s look at the figures…..
Assume the property increase in value only 5% on average each year (not the typical 7% over time)…lets be cautious here…for ten years
In ten years time it would be worth around £225,000!
That means that my total gain would be £125,000!
It would have been ‘only’ a gain of £80,000 had I paid full market value for it. However my negotiated discount of £45,000 is very much an added bonus!
I will have also rented out the house at a profit during that time – making a monthly profit from day one – and raised the rent by around 3 - 5% annually too – whilst finance costs (mortgages) would have remained static - as I would have fixed my rates.
A rent of say £700 per month with finance costs of £500 per month initially – would change over time as follows….
End of year 10 the rent would be around £1100 per month with a 5% compound growth – with borrowing costs the same – if I chose to fix my rates – which is obviously a sensible thing to do!
However…back to how I got started
Forgive me. I digress….
Remember, I paid full market value for my very first property?
Big mistake!
However, to be fair to me that property is now worth over double the price I paid for it – even by paying full market value!
At the time I owned a very successful distribution company, which, whilst it provided well for me and my family, it was very demanding - and was very old fashioned, in my opinion, in as much as it required lots of hard work and attention, and did not give me what I really wanted – namely an income and a wealth building opportunity where I could work smart - and not hard – in the old fashioned accepted way!
Prior to this I was employed, albeit in a secure, well-paid job. I eventually, like many people; I began to yearn to be my own boss, ideally with financial freedom also.
This was to basically, ‘sack my boss’, and then increase my wealth – without doing too much hard work!
So initially, I leapt from the Rat Race of employment into, what turned out to be, the Rat Race of self-employment – which can be, and is for many the worst of the 2 situations. For many self-employed people working in traditional businesses (manufacturing, retail etc) they find themselves with none of the benefits of employment (security, no financial commitment, the ability to change jobs at will), yet have the drawbacks of running their own business (sales worries, cash issues, staff problems etc)
It took me 2 steps to get from employment to ‘working smart’ in this business niche…..
My first deal that I stumbled upon was the spark that started everything….and from that point onwards I was obsessive about exploiting that fact to my advantage, and at the same time – finding a buyer for my distribution business – as I now knew where my real future lay!
I had seen the light!
Ironically, it took me 18 months to find a buyer for my business – that was because I was searching for a good offer for it! I eventually sold it for around 50% more than what I considered to be a fair price! However, I now think back and see that it would probably have been more lucrative for me, long-term, if I had let the business go at a knock down price quickly. This would have allowed me to focus fully on property over a year earlier than I eventually did!
I became fascinated by the notion of buying bargain property… and waiting.
Whilst waiting the 18 months for my sale to conclude, I started to cobble together the beginnings of what became the business model that I use today… my ‘system’.
I researched the concept of ‘hunting’ for bargain properties with positive cash flow, to the ‘nth’ degree and knew that it was where my future lay.
Many doubting Thomases (friends and acquaintances) told me, in a caring way, that I was crazy. However, they didn’t have the benefit of my incredibly thorough research that I had carried out for months previously.
It’s funny, but no one tells me it was a crazy decision these days.
These doubting Thomases still go to work each day and still have a boss to answer to – but they were intent on giving me their worldly pearls of wisdom all those years ago.
At the time, I figured that why should I take financial advice, albeit well meaning, from people who hadn’t displayed a great track record in that area in their lives to date?
Basically…if you buy property (and wait)…it tends to go up in value!
If you find someone to pay the mortgage and some more each month too (the tenant)..then fabulous!
So rather then wait (procrastinate) …and then buy a property one day …..I bought a property THEN waited.
Then curiosity got a hold of me…..
I soon started to ask myself ‘what if I could buy these houses for less than they were actually worth?’
Like buying £10 notes for £9
In other words, if I bought a £100,000 house for £90,000, then I had just made myself the easiest £10,000 I would ever make! I figured that with the 2 million or so houses sold each year, surely a tiny percentage of the sellers would be desperate.
So desperate that they could not wait the typical 4 months that it took (then) to sell via an Estate Agent. Its taking much, much longer to sell presently.
I then thought, ‘what if I could find, say, just 4 people per year near where I live who would take such a discount in exchange for a fast professional sale in order to solve a problem in their life’
Then I thought, why accept a 10% discount? Why not hunt so extensively and deeply that I get to cherry pick situations where they will be so desperate to sell (for whatever reason – there are dozens of reasons) that I could find discounts of 25% plus?
At say £25,000 discount each on average – then with only 4 small deals I would increase my personal wealth by £100,000 – just by being persistent and finding these people! And, if the rent covered the mortgage – AND put a healthy amount of cash in my pocket each month too – then how could I lose?
Surely there must be 4 people, or more near where I live who fit this criteria?
And near where you live now!
In fact I would put money on that!
I researched the market, and discovered that some people were buying houses this way already – but in a very unprofessional, hap-hazard way that really wasn’t a sustainable business model as far as I was concerned – I decided that it could most certainly be improved upon.
So that’s what I did.
I started my trial and error marketing system that flushed desperate sellers ‘out of the woodwork’ – and got them speaking to me.
I ‘got inside their head’ and discovered their problems…..
Then I became a problem solver……
And, whilst most people refused to accept my low offers - I bought a good number of houses at bargain prices!
I simply then played the ‘numbers game’.
I achieved my target of 4 heavily discounted properties with 4 months! All because of the effectiveness of both my marketing skills, my listening skills, my problem solving skills and my negotiation skills.
I then went on to refine and improve my new system over time through my experiences (and the, more than, odd mistake being corrected ‘here and there’), until it served me as it does today.
Another opportunity…….
I then went on to develop my message to appeal to people who needed to sell their homes, usually, for financial reasons, but didn’t want to leave the house that they lived in and loved. This was the start of my ‘Sale and rent Back’ business. I had negotiated a deal on a heavily discounted house – with a guaranteed tenant who paid my mortgage AND MORE from day one!
I soon ‘got greedy’ and instead of buying properties for around 80% of their true market value, I consistently decreased my offers.
Nowadays I very rarely pay more than 65% of a properties true value. I’m very careful, and not desperate to buy a house at any more than this. It must have a high discount and good positive monthly cash flow – otherwise I am not interested
I have taken the ‘you make your money when you buy’ concept to an extreme, and I can assure you that with the right approach, to the right people, at the right time combined with the right skills, then you too can achieve these results simply by copying what I do.
To date I have concluded over 100 heavily discounted ‘Below market Value’ (BMV), cash positive deals using this tried and tested simple system. Some I have sold, (‘flipped’) to make an instant profit, some I have passed on to other investors – maybe because the opportunity was out of my geographic area (I insist on having the properties that I own close to me geographically – it makes for an easy life long term that way!). The remainder I have kept for my own portfolio.
I also, very conservatively, estimate that my students have bought well over 500 houses between them also in the last 4 years - since I have been coaching people in this way.
Whilst it’s now obvious to me that I had all the necessary skills to make the concept work, I am fully aware that these skills don’t require you to be a genius, or a business mastermind. I just ‘worked backwards; from where I wanted to be. I made plenty mistakes – some quite costly, but I rectified and learned from them.
I can now offer you the opportunity to do the same thing – but without the costly mistakes that I made – and paid for!
Regards
Greg Jackson
