Week 1: Introduction
Not sure how to start this but I am not submitting a formal paper for examination so I guess I can relax a little. It’s 1st January 2020 and one is attempting to document this property journey. I’m no expert and this is my 1st ever blogpost, so be nice...
A little history on myself; an extensive career of 15 years across many industry sectors from Retail, Recruitment, Corporate and Social Housing to name a few. Not that this is of any concern but, as you can see no property experience other than passion and the willingness to learn. I am a grafter, with fire in my belly and an aptitude to explore new horizons, I thought I will give this whole property thing a shot. The world is your oyster, what better time to start than the present. Its a new year and a fresh decade. But I will have to rewind a few months in 2019 to tell you how I got here. My memory is not great hence some discrepancies in the time-line. Middle of last year (actually my whole life) I was in dire need of some excess funds. My regular job was just not cutting it.
From nosing around I came across a book called “Rich dad Poor Dad” written by an author named Robert Kiyosaki (very intelligent man). Somehow he got into my head and got me thinking...I knew there had to be more than the regular 9-5, (in my case a shift pattern between 8-8). This is when I was introduced to investing in its current form, I always assumed it was for those useless bankers! This set up a series of chain reactions. I started reading more got out and about and ended up in one of those dreadful forex seminars (I know your grinning cause I saw you there too lol) along with multi-level marketing, (the absolute worst). I couldn’t get out fast enough and swiftly decided it wasn’t for me. Not ashamed to say I didn’t excel in either. I’m saying this to iterate that success is not always linear rather, a series of small processes. Which nicely brings me onto the next part, bearing in mind I’m still moving forward as I am more aware of what I don’t like.
Conception I think......
Some time later I was sat in the conference room in the Radisson Blu Hotel listening to a presentation on property development in Dubai. I liked the first part ‘property’ but not the latter as in ‘Dubai’ (not my thing). Tightly clenched onto my plastic I wasn’t running to the back of the hall to swipe my card...don’t you just hate it when people do that?? So getting closer I’m now in the NEC Birmingham (forgot the name of the hotel) at a Samuel Leeds event. Even more cringe to follow they lost me in the first half hour when they were trying to make the audience sing and breakdance (I kid you not). For those of you who don’t know who this fella is; he’s big in the property world and a very talented entrepreneur with innovative video content but his seminars, wow...I’d rather not say! Something along the lines of ‘if you have nothing good to say, then I’d rather zip it’.
However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom and I did part with some knowledge. Fast forward a little more, oh yes National Landlords Exhibition at the Aston Villa Football club (yes I support Villa if you were wondering). I was given a book called Property Magic by Simon Zutshi. I’m one of those annoying people who collect all the goodies which I don’t need and hoard them, don’t ask me why. But, this particular book I happen to read and must I say, it was impressive. Why not get into properties?? it’s fascinating! Always liked the idea of working for myself and have the freedom & flexibility.
9 Months in....
So here I am, no formal qualifications in the subject matter, no construction, engineering or arty background just some events here and there and lots of reading around and I wasn’t in any hurry to pay 10 odd thousand pounds for some of these courses. I am a self-made millionaire of knowledge and currency to follow. At the moment I am nowhere nearer my goal of becoming a self-proclaimed Property Entrepreneur but an expert ‘wonderer’ by default! I have wondered in and out of the property arena in the last several months and have finally made some peace with myself. I have decided to give it a go and see what lies ahead in the greater scheme of things. From the numerous events I have attended I know I don’t fancy being a Landlord nor do I have any desire to get my hands dirty and work on one of those mammoth property projects shown on TV like ‘Homes Under a Hammer’.
I am working on building a portfolio style business where I can earn multiple streams of income through regular rentals, join forces with other like-minded individuals to work on ad-hoc projects and capital appreciation when the value goes up. I have chosen some preferred methods better known as strategies and will share this in due course. The aim of this diary is not to teach but to document my journey in a view to inspire whoever wants to be inspired and to evaluate how far I’ve come i.e, the good, the bad and the ugly. In doing so, I will use the analogy of a baby as this is how I see this business, a baby and it is very vulnerable as most infants are in the 1st year of birth. The actual point of conception is unknown cause it wasn’t one of those light bulb moments but the past 9 months has been a slow and painful journey.
The Birth....
My next blogpost will be about the birth and how Opulent (my business) was born! I will try to be accurate as some of these tasks have already been completed at the time of writing. It’s going to be a narrative outlining all the steps I will be taking in the next 12 months to reach my desired goal of 10 X rentals @ £500 each monthly on a Rent-to-Rent basis. Sorry for the jargon, these terminologies will be explained as we go on. I have to clarify I am not a financial professional, I am not giving any advice but a snapshot of my experience. So please go ahead and do your own due diligence.
Up until this point I have just given you snippets of how and why I decided to get into property. Apologies if it was a bore but I promise you the next few weeks will be much more exciting as I will write an entry every week from 1st of Jan right through to the end in week 52, (the grand finale). I am not focusing on the last stop but will, nevertheless enjoy the road trip. I am in no competition with anyone else but myself. I strive to be a better person today than I was yesterday. So stay tuned to see if I have reached my goal or (perhaps not) who know’s, only time shall reveal... Either way I am still a winner because I have attempted and would’ve grown as a person, can you say the same?