Adaero Property

This week saw in the one year anniversary with Progressive VIP for Chris and I (we posted some topline results a couple of days ago).  It’s been a very reflective week in terms of looking at the ground we have covered, the things we’ve learned, the actions taken and people we’ve connected with. It was great to read Kenneth’s post earlier and congratulate him on an awesome VIP year. We have such a phenomenal VIP community and we are now really getting into how we can support and work with our fellow VIPs – both exciting and powerful to be in this journey with you all.

It has also been a natural reflection point as we find ourselves at the end of Q1. Nine more months to make this your best year yet! What went well for you in the last three months? What lessons can you draw out? What will you be focusing on and measuring in Q2? One of the short Darren Daily videos I watched in the last week reminded me of a concept I learned years ago – that to have more and achieve more we first have to become more.

A key question we can ask ourselves as we enter Q2 is this –

“Who do I need to be, to do what I have to do, to achieve the results I want?”

Sound strange? Well, if you are serious about having your best year yet in your property business, what you need to do is so much more clear when you see things through the lens of who you need to be.

This is becoming a big focus for Chris and I and we are defining our own flavour of behaviours, habits and characteristics that will help us become who we need to be, in order to achieve the results we want.

Here are two nuggets on this topic to leave you with that I noted down from the Q&A we had at VIP with Derek and Ray (thank you both for that):

Nugget #1 – In working through your day and striving to scale your business, regularly ask yourself, “Who can I get to do this?”

Nugget #2 – As above, and in decision making scenarios, ask yourself. “Would Rob/your chosen mentor do this?”

It would be great if you feel compelled to keep this thread going and share any other habits/behaviours/characteristics as they relate to “WHO YOU NEED TO BE”.

I jumped back into my daily work routine this week after returning from a fun filled and memory rich ski holiday with my kids and extended family. I love holidays but I do also love getting into the productive zone of a working week and prioritising growth activities.

This week had Chris and I back in the proverbial saddle doing SA set up and we are definitely feeling ready to find the best way to hand this stuff over and outsource. Here are some pics of our latest unit in East Lothian taking shape.

Delighted to say that we confirmed our first booking for our Glenrothes unit via airbnb and that first booking is close to covering the month’s rent for a five night stay! I’ve also started researching and contacting companies in Glenrothes direct to explore opportunities to serve them. Any other angles to serve business travellers in this area are welcome.

On the drive up to Glenrothes I was listening to an interview with Tim Ferriss. It was about accelerated learning and it really got me thinking. Tim Ferriss has repeatedly broken the accepted norm for his speed of skill acquisition, and by doing this has greatly accelerated the speed of achieving big results. His approach begins with the quality of questions he asks (both of himself and of his mentors). Things like if there are 10 steps to this thing, how could you get me to almost the same end result in eight steps, or six? Or, what if I did the steps in a different order? He continually pushes boundaries to find how to get the 80% of results from 20% of his efforts.

Why do I mention this? Well, it got me thinking about how we can apply this thinking to accelerating our own results as property investors.

What are some of the best questions you have asked that have led to accelerating your results?

This week’s little summary highlights why a ‘done for you service’ from the likes of Fusion is so valuable. Over the course of last weekend and spread over this week Chris and I put more hours than we care to tot up into preparing a 2 bed flat in Glenrothes for the SA market.

Yes, we are early stage in our SA business and we are “bootstrapping where we can” hence doing the full set up ourselves. A huge thanks to my awesome wife Emma who sourced all the items online (3 sets of brand new curtains for under £75!). This week we actually took a hybrid approach and employed one of Chris’ labourers for the day – a great move and big thanks to Yogi for a full day’s shift. From receiving deliveries of hotel beds at 2 sites on a Sunday morning to packing haulage vans on ‘Date Night’, and ironing valances, we know these are things that don’t and can’t scale if we want to grow our business.

So, our lessons:

• if we want to phase ourselves out of hands on set up but still have direct input, take a hybrid approach and employ a labourer
• ultimately aim to shift gear to fully outsource the set up as soon as possible so we can focus on the marketing and monetising of the unit. And then of course further acquisition.

As a totally different side note, I have a great book recommendation that has had me engrossed in my personal development this week. The book is called,  “The Code of An Extraordinary Mind” by Vishen Lakhiani of Mind Valley fame.

Have a great weekend

I’ve got some great notes collecting in my notebook from recent presentations/talks I’ve been at so this week I thought I’d share them.

Up first..

10 TIPS ON GETTING R2R SA DEALS (courtesy of Scott Weir)

Thanks again to Scott for the talk you gave at Edinburgh PPN a couple of weeks ago and sharing great insights from your experience.

Clearly, for all the juicy details you had to be there, but for those who couldn’t here’s a quick summary of Scott’s top tips to set you on the right track.

5 tips for approaching letting agents:

1.     Approach the right type of agent
2.     Try to always speak to the owner direct
3.     Offer Letting Agents the right incentives
4.     Ensure the deal is WIN-WIN-WIN
5.     Ask the letting agent for tenant find only properties

5 tips for approaching Landlords

1.     Find the Landlords pain or pleasure point
2.     Keep it very simple when pitching
3.     Make the deal irresistible
4.     Be 100% open and honest with them
5.     Consider looking for something different (i.e. things that aren’t renting might be good for SA)

For more on how Scott and his SA management company might be able to help you find R2R deals in the West of Scotland, you can look them up on http://www.pillowpartners.co.uk/ info@pillowpartners.co.uk

TIPS FROM RICHARD’S TALK AT VIP

The next set of tips are courtesy of Richard McGuire, thanks for sharing your experience and this week’s Scottish VIP

Here are a few nuggets I scribbled quickly whilst listening:

• Be open and honest with landlords.
• Don’t underestimate or misjudge anyone i.e. any landlord you speak to might just have a whole portfolio of properties they are willing to work with you on once the trust is there
• Treat each property like a competition i.e. challenge yourself to think, “how could I do better on the next one?” Then take the required action.
• DO invite landlords and agents back to the property once you have set it up for guests, this will get more buy in and likely lead to more properties.
• In terms to graduating up to blocks of flats, seek out private developers by simply walking the streets and starting conversations and/or look at your local planning portal for approved new build blocks. Remember, it makes new apartments more saleable to investors if they come with a guaranteed let.

Why not share some more great tips on SA for others here too.

This week’s update revolves around this message as it played a key theme on Wednesday, and continues to, as Chris and I take action on our 2017 goals.

I was on the 6.09am train from Dunbar (near Edinburgh) to Peterborough on Wednesday morning heading down to the ‘Train the Trainer’ session. My morning routine includes watching Darren Hardy’s daily coaching video and Wednesday’s message carried the title above.

I’ll share some of the take-aways I noted in my journal from Darren’s message:

“To have what others don’t, you got to do what others won’t”

Five things you can do today that will get you uncomfortable and moving towards your goals:

1. Do what you resist – in other words the tasks you know will move the ball forwards but you’ve been procrastinating
2. Push past ‘hard’ – in other words there is no growth in getting to the wall, growth and glory comes after the wall
3. Go for failure – like the analogy of lifting weights, push for the edge of your capability
4. Suck it up- success is hard but take comfort in that as it eliminates others along the way
5. Supersize your goals, in other words set goals above and beyond what you are comfortable with

It was serendipitous how our brilliant Progressive trainer, Toni wove in the same message about getting uncomfortable in the opening section of our TTT day (thank you Toni Gagan for brilliant delivery of the day). It was great pushing beyond our comfort zones in a supportive environment and I’m confident that everyone benefited from the stretch. I got uncomfortable on a few practice exercises and took that further by committing to the full ESR training.

I’ll borrow Darren Hardy’s words to close,

“Success is a comfort awarded to those who are willing to do what is uncomfortable – so get comfortable feeling uncomfortable”.

This Friday saw the culmination of several weeks work playing cupid. Working backwards from the client’s real need for accommodation with Chris we sourced a property fit for purpose and this week brought them together to check-in for their first stay. Very fitting that our efforts as matchmaker came to a conclusion in the same week as Valentine’s Day.

It chimes in on a week where my kids are off school for half term whilst I choose to continue working. However I have been able to successfully mix passion and profession this week as I’ve had my eight year old son cheerfully accompany me on a property viewing, and my wife help me kit out the new SA ready for guests.

I found some good sources for furnishing SA’s and thought they might be helpful to share:

https://www.hotelcontractbeds.co.uk/zip-and-link-beds For economical zip and link bed & head board sets (they are easy to put together and look the part)

http://shop.sueryder.org/home-furniture/furniture/bedside-lamp-tables/grey-tall-bedside-unit-with-grey-wicker.html For White Company style bedside tables at lower price but the added benefit of supporting the Sue Ryder Foundation.

These bedside tables are great – my brilliant wife had been helping Chris and I kit out this new SA and just happened to select these for use. So fitting that it also happens to be one of the main charities supported by Progressive.

Enjoy the weekend fellow investors.

Well February has kicked off with gusto. In amongst a week that saw Chris and I viewing a decent commercial conversion opportunity and progressing a couple of potential R2R for SA deals, the highlight was the SA Summit on Wednesday.

I’ll start with saying a massive thank you and congrats to Jason and Lee for thinking up and putting together such a great event. And of course to all the speakers who shared their experience and great insights.

Here are my 6 learns and tips for you all (amongst many) from each of the day’s speakers.

1. Matthew & Jason – a great end to end overview on setting up an SA units. TOP TIP aim to meet the kind of standards being set by ASAP (Association of Serviced Accommodation Providers) – i.e. use mattresses and curtains that are fire retardant. And don’t overlook using lighting that can create an ambience in the living room – makes a big difference.
2. Duncan – super inspiring talk about using houses as SA for contractors.TOP TIP – in looking for repeat bookings – if the name paying is different to the guest staying then it may be a company booking for contractors so contact them to ask they might need to stay longer or return in the future.
3. Paul – a brilliant talk on the business structure and mindset on which to build our SA business. TOP TIP – the real definition of a business – “a profitable enterprise that continuously improves without you”. That’s the way you want to build your SA business. Noted Paul, you’ve successfully shifted my perception, on to it 🙂
4. Chris Poulter – very inspiring talk on how his first SA project was a 29 bed hotel. TOP TIP– apply the entrepreneur’s question and mindset when considering a deal with a hotel/guest house vendor. The question to have in the back of your head and the approach to take is, “What’s the problem and what’s the solution we can make money from?”
5.  Emelia – I think everyone was inspired by Emelia’s quest for direct booking. TOP TIP– don’t sit back and let the OTA (booking.com, airbnb etc) do it all – that is not a business you are in control of (I confess Emelia and Sandra, we are culprit of this, but that will all change going forwards). In other words either learn how to do online marketing yourself or outsource it and take direct bookings via your own booking website.
6. Lee- aka “the entertainment” – wow what energy Lee has up on stage, and passion for this business of SA. TOP TIP – this is a hospitality business, not just a property investment strategy, therefore act as such. Really understand why guests are coming to your area and serve that audience. Using the example of a recent commercial conversion project, Lee showed how he reverse engineered the whole product to the end user of corporate guests. Now in operation, he offers free/reduced Sunday night stays with a Mon-Thu booking in addition to a laundry service for their shirts/suits etc and even an order and delivered supermarket shop.

It really was a great day and I’m sure all attendees are super grateful for the organisers, speakers and sponsors. As sweet finish to the the day I was one of a handful drawn from a hat to win a £250 voucher with Fusion Furniture solutions.

So, these are my top take-aways and for anyone interested in the other anecdotes and lessons that resonated with me, I have typed up my notes into a pdf doc and would be happy to share. Just shoot me an email to tsen@adaeroproperty.com and I’ll reply within 48 hours with notes attached.

For further advice and specialist help I would encourage those interested to follow up with each of the speakers regarding their specialist areas.

Have a great weekend all.

Quick update on the growth goal. We’re still in conversations about the potential to accommodate some contractors and viewed a local farm cottage for potential R2R.

The aim for January was to secure two new R2R for SA units, we have one about to undergo a light refurb so still chasing down the second

Also viewed a small commercial conversion opportunity in Edinburgh city centre and continue to carry out due diligence on a couple of other opportunities.

Overall a productive week had with plenty of new information to contemplate and take action on.

With the end of the month comes our VIP meet and it was a great session. Thanks Aniko for a brilliant 1:1.

This VIP took on a digital marketing theme and we had 2 excellent guest speakers introducing us to some key insights. Daniel from http://www.brandpromise.uk  got us thinking about our brand as it relates to our property business and I look forward to completing his free workbook. If you look at a brand as an asset, a good brand frequently achieves in excess of 400% ROI in terms of investment in and revenue back.

Jack Porter-Smith from http://wsipaidsearch.com walked us through an intro to the four key components of digital marketing:

1. Strategy
2. Implementation
3. Measurement
4. Optimisation

It’s mind boggling to see how paid search can be used to bring potential guests to your SA units or indeed attract JV’s to work with you.

I also found myself on Paul O’Mahony’s excellent social media webinar this Wednesday where the key take-away was, “Never use social media to sell, use it to build your list”.

Going into a new year we can fall into the trap of consuming so much information designed to help us, that it can actually overwhelm us. I was reminded of this important lesson this week and to be conscious to avoid it – i.e. consuming a lot of good info but never stopping long enough to act on it.

Quite often we don’t need more information, lack of implementation is the problem. So, the key is to be intentional about selecting one or two things at a time that will help, act on them, then review and adjust. Act, review and improve. Then repeat. This is how winning habits are created that compound throughout the year.

What have you learned recently that you will be implementing?

Week two of the year kicked off with a bang, here’s a quick summary.

Chris and I spent Monday manically sourcing SA options for a potential opportunity to accommodate a group of contractors in our local area.

I then had two days in Sheffield for my monthly meeting with the Development Discovery mentors Alan, Pauline and Aidan. Big thanks to guest speaker, Accountant Phil Dawson, who gave us a sobering summary of all the tax implications for landlords. Did you know that in a year’s time all landlords will be required to submit a quarterly return to HMRC outlining all rents and costs for each property? Read more here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/484668/making-tax-digital.pdf

We have a site secured to develop 11 luxury apartments in Devon and are in discussions with a potential JV investor for funding, fingers crossed.

Thanks to Mike and Jamie for having us at the Derby PPN this week where Pauline and Alan gave an overview of targeted commercial development. Great to meet some fellow investors and really enjoyed hearing George Gannon’s impressive journey using the commercial conversion strategy.

The week finished off with viewing commercial conversion and SA opportunities in Fife and then the Scottish Borders.

P.S.

I mentioned previously that systemisation is a key part of our 2017 theme, with that in mind, I’m reading Michael Gerbers latest book called Beyond the E Myth http://www.beyondemyth.com/