Expat Property Story

#108  To be a successful UK Property Investor you need to be buying in areas with good employment prospects, expected population growth and solid infrastructure. Preston ticks all those boxes.  Local employers include British Aerospace, Amazon and Lancashire County Council  not to mentionthe development of the Cyber Warfare Centre bringing 5,000 new jobs to the area, Preston is booming. But decidi...

#107   Picture the scene. You’re in the Maldives having a no news no shoes holiday. It’s funded by your UK property portfolio that took you years to put together despite what they told you on the expensive property course containing information that was available for free on podcasts like this one. But how do you get there? This week’s show is a seven-step guide to getting started as an expat UK P...

#106   You probably have a day job at the same time as trying to build a UK Property Portfolio.   You’re probably time poor.   The idea of having to allocate any of your precious time to working out what, let alone HOW to delegate tasks may lead to feelings of overwhelm. You don’t know where to start.   Dr. Steve Day, host of Systemize Your Success Podcast, was in a similar state when he moved to...

#105 Due diligence… Often talked about. Rarely explained! This is the second instalment of a two-part special on due diligence with a primary focus on Companies House, featuring long-time friend of the pod, Sean the Property Tax Accountant . Last week, Sean identified five types of due diligence: are commercial, operational, reputational, financial, and legal. This week, we use this knowledge to l...

#104   You’re thinking of working with someone in the UK. Maybe you hear them speaking on a UK property podcast like this one. Maybe you met them at a UK property meetup. Maybe you read about them in a UK property magazine.    Either way, you want to do your due diligence on them. You’ve checked them out on every page of Google. You’ve listened to them on every podcast you could find. You’ve spoke...

#103 Sam Cooke is a dedicated entrepreneur with a passion for helping individuals start their own businesses.   Sam owns and runs Blue Bricks Magazine and also We Are Property Marketing an agency which does what it says on the tin!   In this episode you will learn the importance of marketing and branding when scaling a property business.  We’ll also get some handy hints on Search Engine Optimizati...

Part 2 of our special feature on Risk. If you’re going to be successful in building a UK property portfolio, you’re going to need to have a certain appetite for risk.  In Season One of my property podcast,  at the end of each interview, I asked my amazing guests one simple question: 'What does the word RISK mean to you?' These are MUST LISTEN episodes for building a UK Property portfolio...

If you’re going to be successful in building a UK property portfolio, you’re going to need to have a certain appetite for risk. In Season One of my property podcast,  at the end of each interview, I asked my amazing guests one simple question: 'What does the word RISK mean to you?' I withheld their answers for this two-part special on a topic you MUST understand if you are serious about...

#100   To celebrate our 100th episode, I reflect on the story so far and offer a compilation of ten of my favourite clips from the first 99 episodes that collectively sum up the story so far.   If you want to learn about investing in UK property, this episode condenses the lessons learned from all my amazing guests so far.   And there’s a nostalgic nod to past features such as Monopoly Challenge,...

#99   With prohibitive legislation on the horizon for Serviced Accommodation, Aparthotels as a business model is attracting the attention of those in the know.   Carly Houston has more experience than most in this field, having opened her first Aparthotel with her business partner in Brighton in 2017. They have since added a second.   In this episode, you will get top tips on how to plan and look...

#98 Valter Pontes came from humble beginnings on a fairly remote island off the coast of Africa to being written about in Forbes magazine. He attributes all his success to reading books. Lots of them!   Valter started his UK property portfolio by dropping out of university and using his student loan to sign up for a year long education course. On the course, he learned to source property for other...

#98   Finding a UK Property deals that stack has become more difficult with higher interest rates.   Buying at a discount is the holy grail of building a UK property portfolio. But how?   Getting in front of a vendor before the competition is key.   One way to achieve this is by running a Direct to Vendor Mail Campaign.    But is this possible as an expat or remote investor?   In this episode, Lou...

#96   Wendy Whittaker-Large has been investing in UK property since 1996 so she is no stranger to the challenges of building a UK property portfolio.    She has developed a five-step process to buying HMOs:   ·      Finding ·      Funding ·      Finishing ·      Filling ·      Future-Proofing   In this episode, Wendy shares some of her insider tips and tricks that she hasn’t even told listeners of...

#95  Are you looking for alternative business models to run alongside or instead of UK Property portfolio?  Maybe you have a particular skillset that would enable you to buy businesses remotely in the same way you buy property?  When Alicia Barlow found that buy to let deals in the North-West had become less attractive in the Post Covid boom, she started looking at acquiring businesses to suppleme...

#94 This is one of my favourite episodes!  Saam Lowni has bucket loads of experience in property as an estate agent, investor, landlord, developer, YouTuber, lender and broker. Saam has a long history in property, dating back to his childhood in Durham during the 1980s, where his parents would buy houses in coal mining villages for 2-3K, refurbish them, and sell them for 4-5K.  He soon convinced h...

# 93 Do you need to systemize your UK property business? Michael Gerber, author of  one of my favourite UK property investment books, The Emyth Revisited, encourages entrepreneurs to aim at creating a business that is system dependent rather than people dependent. Latoya McDonald is  a property systemization expert who writes for YOur Property Network magazine, and is host of the podcast Outsourci...

#92 Are you looking to get into HMOs as an expat? On this episode of Expat Property Story,  Andy Graham , host of The HMO Podcast shares his expertise on houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs). He  emphasises the importance of detailed research in UK property investment and discusses different factors such as yield, tenant type, and location before delving into the complexities of investing in Articl...

#91   No amazing guests this week because I thought you might like to hear about mine and my wife's experience of buying property here in Hong Kong   This episode explores some of the questionable tactics developers and sales agents use to get prospective property purchasers to put their hands in their pockets, including lotteries, lucky draws and luxury amenities.   After several failed atte...

#90 On this episode of Expat Property Story, we dive into the world of specialist finance in development projects.  Our guest, Steve Hand , shares his valuable insights as a seasoned mortgage industry expert with 23 years of experience.    We discuss various topics such as commercial valuations, investment diversity, and finding the right lender for your project.    We also look at the pros and co...

#89 Adam Lawrence has an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and has also been involved in more than 500 property deals in the last decade. You could call him a Propernomist!   On this episode of Expat Property Story, we discuss the importance of population growth forecasts and due diligence when investing in property.    Adam also shares his ‘crumb style approach’ to t...

#88 Mike Hanning is a Hong Kong Kong based expat who has so far invested in his hometown of Edinburgh in Scotland, which has been called the Mecca of Serviced Accommodation. So you would think that this short-term business model would be the equivalent of the Chance Card in Monopoly which says Advance to Go. Collect £200. However, it’s not that straightforward as Mike reveals in this must-listen e...

#87 As an expat / remote investor investing in UK property, one of your biggest challenges is finding a UK property sourcer you can trust. This week’s guest is Dean Pike, a Hong Kong based expat, who found this out to his cost after finding himself fleeced by a sourcer on Facebook. Determined that this should not happen to others, he set up PropSourcer , a platform for connecting UK property inves...

#86 This episode shines a light on how your property business could look in the future.  Jackie Tomes explains how she bought a £1.8 million block of flats with none of her own money. Alongside her business partner and husband, Dave, she argues properties in this price bracket have less competition as the numbers are too scary for smaller investors and too small for pension funds. During the inter...

#85 Jackie Tomes and her husband, Dave have accumulated a wealth of UK property experience through building their £15 Million portfolio in and around Thanet in the South-East of England. After briefly falling victim to Shiny Penny Syndrome, they refocused their energy on adopting a business model consisting of acquiring and managing blocks of flats.  By systemising, refining and adapting this mode...

#84 It’s a schoolboy error… a missed penalty in the last minute of the World Cup Final in which I didn’t even hit the target, but blazed the ball high over the bar and nearly killed a pigeon. Are you fed up with the Property Glory Stories? Would you like to hear about the bad stuff? Come on down for a dose of reality. This episode aims at brutal honesty and is different to any other property podca...