WHY WE WERE OK WITH PAYING £1500 TO ARRIVE AT A ‘NO DEAL’ DECISION
During this last week of mastermind sessions I was hosting, the topic of decision making came up as a frequent theme – decision making in relation to which property strategy, which deal, what to focus on and similar such decisions.
All of those conversations reminded me of the various deals that Chris and I have analysed and made decisions on whether to proceed or not. One such deal and decision I thought worth sharing was an expensive one to arrive at – it cost us £1500 to arrive at a ‘no deal’ decision, but you know what, we were totally OK about it.
I’ve recorded an overview video to provide some context and rationale to the decision making since Chris and I learned a lot from the exercise and thought others may learn from a quick peek behind the scenes too.
What this video covers:
-quick bit of context to a mixed use development of 27 flats and over 400SQM of retail space
-our estimated figures vs the cost plan figures from a Quantity Surveyor
-a quick look at what’s inside a paid for preliminary cost plan
-why were totally OK with spending £1500 to arrive at the decision to walk away
I’ve mentioned on several occasions that I’m a firm believer of the maxim that your success is 80% mindset and only 20% mechanics. There will be many occasions where missing out on a potential deal to a higher bidder, or having to walk away after weeks of analysis will leave you feeling downhearted. The antidote to that however is being clear on your deal criteria, and of course more deals in the pipeline to look at.
Here’s a link to my previous post on the importance of deal flow if you missed it
What tough property decisions are see-sawing in your head at the moment?
THE BENEFITS OF ‘BOARD’ MEETINGS IN THE MOUNTAINS
Over the past week I’ve had the opportunity to experience the amazing mountains of St Anton and create rich memories with my best and oldest buddies.
This week long trip has only possible thanks to a handful of key things:
⁃ My loving and supportive wife looking after our 3 wonderful boys
⁃ Our brilliant team in the form of business partner Chris and Ops Manager Louise running the show at home
⁃ The property assets we have and a property trading business (in SA), all of which generates a healthy slice of financial and time freedom.
Week’s like this, out of your business, are not only special, fun and sacred, but subconsciously they are incredibly beneficial to your productivity. If that sounds counterintuitive, please bear with me because it’s an important concept for everyone to take on in their own context.
I’ve previously written about the 4 pillars of productivity ie the 4 key ingredients behind taking action and completing projects- those 4 keys are:
#1 – SPECIFICITY
#2 – MEASUREMENT
#3 – DEADLINES
#4 – ACCOUNTABILITY
If you haven’t seen that post and would like to read up on it, here’s a link:
http://adaeroproperty.com/week-49-the-four-pillars-of-productivity/
SO WHY IS HAVING A FUN PACKED WEEK OUT OF THE BUSINESS GOOD FOR PRODUCTIVITY?
The aptly termed ‘Board’ meeting in the mountains with important people in my life brings with it so many great benefits, even beyond the fun experiences on the snow, laughs and memories made. Here’s what I mean:
* Disconnected time away from the business actually makes you hungry to get back into producing mode and working at being the highest leverage version of yourself in moving your business forward. I can honestly say I’m hungry to get back to business this week, and hopefully progress some exciting opportunities – a) with a commercial property and b) with some prospect contractor SA bookings.
*Having let the proverbial ‘inner child’ out to play I can happily put the head down and focus on the hard work for another period of time without feeling frustrated or exposing myself to higher risk of procrastination had I not taken any time out.
*Changing up my environment and routine for a week has removed me from the day to day blinkers and made way for some creative thinking thanks to inspiring sights, new conversations, ideas and perspectives- for example it reconnects me to a big goal Chris and I have to build a spectacular ski chalet where we can host mastermind retreats and gift holidays to causes that are close to our hearts – eg a place where families dealing with cancer can come away to create wonderful memories.
*I’ve continued to feed the virtuous cycle – ie when we spend money on experiences with close friends/family it not only creates wonderful memories but it inspires us at a different level to continue to produce results and create a life we are proud of.
*Absence makes the heart grow fonder – with a bit of time away from my beautiful wife and kids I miss them more as each day passes but that only serves to appreciate them even more, and I return home more loving and patient.
So, whilst it’s not a definitive list, there’s 5 major benefits I wanted to share from having ‘board’ meetings in the mountains.
I know the mountains will not be for everyone, but replace that with whatever lights you up. In striving to start and grow our property businesses we can at times be our own worst enemies, pushing so hard, thinking we have to optimise every waking hour, but over time that’s not actually serving us.
So, in conclusion, I’d encourage you all to be intentional about scheduling time for PLAY, even better, share here what fun you have planned for the months ahead.
LIVE COMMERCIAL PROPERTY DUE DILIGENCE
This week Chris and I wanted to bring to life some of the due diligence and analysis process that forms part of our approach to commercial property investing.
This opportunity we have captured has come about because we stuck to those principles I shared in last week’s post. If you missed it you can catch up by clicking here
With that said, this video provides a nice follow up to last weeks post and helps bring to life some of things I referenced, for those interested. I outlined in that post the approach we are taking to our commercial property investing ie following our D.I.C.E model that I’ve written about in my book.
Whilst there are plenty of vacant commercial properties for sale that we could go and view and try to figure out what to do with, we have instead chosen to invest our energies in first finding the end customer, and then go out to help create a solution for them. Yes it takes a good deal of leg work to originate an opportunity and then to try and line everything up, but the end result we are striving for creates a much sweeter investment.
Here we are following a walk round with our trusty plumber and electrician who were helping us gauge how easy/hard it would be to split and upgrade the services. [If this is of interest then worth also looking out for the videos and photos Chris will be sharing as he’ll give you an insight to what his expert builder’s eye picks up].
Certainly feeling excited about this one but a lot of leg work still to do.