Last time I shared what the main 5 residential property investing strategies are so you can see which one is best for your current situation and what you enjoy. Click here to read that now.
If you know what strategy you want to use, the next step is establishing your team! Whilst you are investing for yourself, the reality is you can’t do it alone. You need what I call a Power Team. This is a team of different experts who help you at different stages of your investing journey.
Whilst each journey is different, the general path goes something like this:
A perfect investment property is found (ideally at discount)
A Mortgage is arranged (a mortgage is not compulsory to investing, but it does allow people with less money to invest)
An offer is placed and hopefully accepted
The purchase is completed
The property is then renovated to a letting standard
And finally, let out.
For each of those stages, you need one or more different experts from different fields to ensure it all goes smoothly. If you’re a first time investor and have only ever bought a house for you to live in, some of the power team I’m going to cover may seem obvious. Others however you may not have considered using or even needing.
The key is to not only make sure you use each of these, but also ensure you find only the best to work with you. You deserve to get the best results, you’ve worked hard to save up to invest. So don’t cut corners now by missing any of these people out, or accepting anything less than the best.
The Power Team
Before anything else begins, you need two of your team in place — An accountant, and a financial advisor. These will help you not only with your first investment, but your entire portfolio for the rest of your life.
Now we can start the process — first stop, sourcing property. You could argue that you could source a property yourself — but in truth, this takes so much time! Plus, the key with investing is making the most you can — so you need to source discounted properties. This makes the process even harder and longer.
So you need to find an experienced, reputable property sourcer — one who has experience in sourcing not only property, but discounted property.
Now that your sourcer has found a great property, you need to ensure it will make a good investment — so you need help from one or more independent valuers. Again, you want someone who has worked with investors before, and have a great reputation. And by using more than one, you can make doubably sure you’re getting a good deal.
Next stop, getting a mortgage and making the purchase. For this, you need an amazing mortgage broker — and you guessed it, one that specialises in arranging mortgages for investment properties.
Before the purchase can be completed, you need to bring in a world class solicitor to oversee the process. And yes, one that works with investors already!
I keep repeating this, but there is a really good reason why. It’s one thing to use each of these power teams for any other purpose, but to ensure you get the best results and are not let down, you need to work with those who have experience serving other investors like yourself.
So you’ve not completed on your investment property — well done! But the need for power teams doesn’t end there.
Next up, you need help from 16 different key trades people. Each of these will help you to renovate your property. Ideally, you would buy a property that needs little of any renovating. However if you’re focussing on buying a discounted property (you absolutely should, by the way) then your purchase will need some work.
But that’s fine! the cost needed to renovate to a letting standard will be a small portion compared to what you saved on the discount.
Now your property is ready to let — if you would rather be hands on, you would find tenants and manage them yourself. If that is not your idea of a good time, you need to find a great lettings agency with a reputation for finding and keeping long term tenants that pay on time and don’t cause much fuss.
There’s one last member you need on your power team — and that’s an odd job person! Over the length of a tenancy, your property will exprience some wear and tear so you need an odd job person in place and at hand to come and fix any issues at short notice.
So there you have it — they are your power team;
Accountant
Financial Advisor
Property Sourcer
Independent Valuers X 2
Mortgage Broker
Solicitor
16 Key Trades People
Lettings Agency
Odd Job Person
But that doesn’t end todays post. It’s one thing to understand who you need, it’s another thing to find them.
Where can you find your Power Team?
I’ll say it one last time, you need to find the best for your power team — so don’t choose whoever is local or you already know about, or who comes up first on Google.
So how do you find the best? Here’s a few ideas that I’ve used to fine power teams for myself and my clients;
- Linkedin — so many professionals on there!
- Friends — people hang around with people who have similar beliefs, goals etc so the chances are you’re friends with other investors. Find out who they use!
- Portfolio building companies — in the UK I own a leading portfolio building company, The Insight Group. There are many others in the world, all of whom have their own power teams you can tap into.
- Education companies — likewise with companies that specialise in educating investors. Insight Education is my own educating company, and there are again dozens if not hundreds around the world that can teach you as well as refer other power teams to you.
- Networking meetings — Networking gatherings take place most days in every major city in the UK & US. Join in, meet some new faces and find people for your power team!
- Forums — there are so many forums where people share ideas, experiences and you get it — recommend their own power teams to people!
I hope today’s post has been helpful as you embark on your investing journey, or even if you’re well on your way.
Stay tuned for a future blog where I’m going to share what you need to ask anybody from this list to work with you. You deserve to work with the best, and I’ll show you how!
Author: Aran Curry
