Let's talk MONEY
It's been a while since we've published a nice fresh blog post, so here we are again! We've been running around like blue-arsed flies sorting out our family home renovation in Cheshire (check out @theovergrownhouse on Instagram) and kicking off two major HMOs in the North East, but finally the dust is settling (quite literally, builder's dust keeps descending weeks after they leave, where is it coming from??) and our focus is well and truly back on the main business at hand.
A few months back I extended an invitation to our Instagram and Facebook Following wanting to know what content people were really keen to get from us and we got some great engagement (thanks guys). The blog post below is a direct response to one of the suggestions (thanks @ckherdman!) so hopefully it's value-add (who wants to waste time creating content that doesn't add value?).
Here's our scenario: you've found a cracking deal, the numbers stack, the vendor is keen - where are you going to find the money??
SO, what ways have we financed our deals?
Let's start with a good old caveat - we are not financial advisors so we are not qualified to give financial advice - this blog post is just a share of some of the creative methods we have personally used to finance property purchases and refurbs. It's not an exhaustive list of our methods, but it should get your creative juices flowing!
1. Sell your liabilities to invest in assets
Until 2017 we believed what conventional wisdom had drilled into us since we were kids - owning is safer and better than leasing. There was also an underlying way of thinking that fancy car = success. Reading Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad was transformational - he breaks stuff into two categories, assets vs. liabilities. An asset puts money in your pocket every month, a liability takes money out of your pocket every month.
Now owning a car is definitely a liability - not only do you trap your capital in it on acquisition, but it loses a large portion of its value as soon as you become the new owner and with every mile you drive.
So we decided to ditch the car via AutoTrader and invest the money into an asset (i.e. a property with positive cashflow). We got 11,000 smackaroonies for the car. We will quite happily leave up to £10k in a buy-to-let, so £11k was a pretty neat figure for us. The money we released from the car a.k.a The Liability, is now wrapped up in an asset which will experience capital growth with the market and inflation, and we have a lifetime of income for us, and for our children.
During our lifetime we are able to use the cashflow from one Buy-to-let to cover the monthly cost of leasing a suitable car - WIN WIN.
2. Use other people's money
Now this is a scary one unless you know what you are doing. You can make stacks of money in property but you can also lose stacks of money - and quickly.
Contrary to how it can appear when you just look on the surface (i.e. social media) we have put hours, days, weeks and months of hard graft into learning how to buy property safely and smartly. We've gone to property education courses, we've had a coach for a lot of the time, we've walked the footpaths of the areas we invest in, we've used our own money, we've built relationships with agents and trades, and we've got a network of friends interested in the same model of building a portfolio.
Against this foundation of due diligence, we have been confident and successful working with Angel Investors - i.e. friends, family, social media contacts, ex-colleagues and business connections who have money sat in the bank, and who are willing to invest the money with us for an agreed period of time at an agreed rate of interest. Considering most people are ok with the bank giving them less than 1.5% interest (bear in mind inflation is at 2%, hello, has the world gone crazy??), the rate of return we offer is a big win for our investors.
It's a fantastic financing strategy when done correctly, but definitely do your research before entering into this kind of agreement!
3. Get pally with your council
Councils have a new build quota every year, and for the most part they don't meet the quota set out. This is where Empty Homes Grants come in.
According to the Guardian's research there are currently well over 200,000 empty, derelict, vacant properties in the UK, worth almost £50bn. When one of these empty properties is brought back into use through a renovation, even by a private investor, if the council is part of the process then this can be considered as a new unit in their quota.
We have been awarded £12k in the last 2 years towards our renovations - when you work on the basis that I mentioned above (up to £10k in a buy-to-let) then it's another win:win - the council meet their quota and we get a cashflowing property to add to our portfolio.
We were awarded £6k on a single renovation in 2018 - we worked out that roughly 6 hours of work with the council was needed to secure the grant - play that out, that's £1,000 per hour, not bad!
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There are other ways in which we've raised finance - we've used bridging finance, credit cards, refinancing, loans, sourcing, coaching etc. but hopefully the above gives you an insight into the creativity and out-of-the-box thinking you can bring to financing good deals!
Always happy to help - follow us on Instagram and drop us a DM or an email to info@capstonefox.com if you have any questions!
