[00:00:00] Hey, I'm Andy and you're listening to the HMO podcast. Over 10 years ago, I set myself the challenge of building my own property portfolio. And what began as a short term investment plan soon became a long term commitment to change the way young people live together. I've now built several successful businesses.
[00:00:20] I've raised millions of pounds of investment and I've managed thousands of tenants. Join me and some very special guests to discover their tips, tricks, and hacks. The ups and the downs, the best practice and everything else you need to know to start scale and systemize your very own HMO portfolio now.
[00:00:39] I think it's about time for a business update. The last thing that I want is you guys thinking that I'm only here talking the talk. So today I'm going to lift the bonnet on my business. I'm going to take you behind the scenes. I'm going to give you a peek behind the curtain of my business. Of my business and hopefully show you that I'm not just talking to talk.
[00:00:55] I'm actually out there walking the walk. It's been a busy old five or six weeks since my last update. It's been quite a bit happening today. I'm going to share all of that with you, the good stuff, the bad stuff, and everything in between. So if you want to know what has been going on. Make sure you stick around, please sit back, relax, and enjoy today's episode of the HMO podcast.
[00:01:17] Hey guys, it's Andy here. We're going to be getting back to the podcast in just a moment, but before we do, I want to tell you very quickly about the HMO roadmap. Now, if you're serious about replacing your income, or perhaps you've already got a HMO portfolio that you want to scale up, then the HMO roadmap really is your one stop shop.
[00:01:33] Inside the roadmap, you'll find a full 60 lesson course delivered by me, teaching you how to find more deals, how to fund more deals and raise private finance, how to refurbish great properties, how to fill them with great tenants that stay for longer and how to manage your properties and tenants for the future.
[00:01:48] We've also got guest workshops added every single month. We've got new videos added every single week about all sorts of topics. We've got downloadable resources, cheat sheets, and swipe files to help you. We've got case studies from guests and community members who are doing incredible projects that you can learn from.
[00:02:03] And we've also built an application just for you that allows you to appraise and evaluate your deals, stack them side by side and track the key metrics that are most important to you. To find out more, head to thehmoroadmap.co.uk now. And come and join our incredible community of HMO property investors.
[00:02:24] Okay. Welcome back. So today I'm going to give you a business update. It's about time I brought you up to speed and told you what has been happening in my business over the last five or six weeks. And it has been a busy five or six weeks. Got quite a bit to share with you today. A full disclosure, I'm pretty jet lagged.
[00:02:43] You may have seen, if you follow me on social media, that I was away in New York with Gemma last week. We had the most incredible week. Gemma had us walking a marathon every single day, doing all sorts of things. So I am exhausted and a little bit jet lagged. And this is honestly one of my first orders of business back in my office today.
[00:03:02] I've got to be honest, the reason it is one of the first things I'm doing when I'm back and it is Tuesday, and you're listening to this on Wednesday. It's because I have let it slip a little bit on the podcast. Normally, I like to be four to six weeks ahead on my schedule, just in case I ever get unwell or anything comes from the left field and drags me off, and I don't have the time to sort of plan and record my episodes of the podcast.
[00:03:25] Well, I've let it slip, and that is a consequence of me being a little bit too busy recently and pretty much just doing things as and when I need to, as opposed to in advance, which is when I really like to get things done. So, um, that's me holding my hands up today. I've got to do better and it puts me under a lot of pressure.
[00:03:42] Fortunately, I was planning to do a business update for you this week anyway. And these ones just kind of sort of roll off the top of my head because it's all so fresh. But there has been quite a bit of stuff going on this month. So. What I'm going to do today is I'm going to share all that with you, the good stuff, bad stuff, and everything in between, as usual.
[00:04:01] But before we get into today's episode, guys, if you are, if you've just joined us on the podcast, if you're new to the podcast, first of all, I want to say welcome and thank you. And if you're a long term listener, then thank you for coming back week in, week out. I do appreciate every second of your time that you give me, and it's great to have you here.
[00:04:18] If you're enjoying the show, if you're finding it useful, valuable in any way, enjoyable, even entertaining, if you've got 30 seconds to spare to leave a really quick review, I would appreciate it so much. We're getting some great guests onto the podcast. I've got some really special guests lined up for you over the coming weeks, and your reviews really do help continue to encourage those sorts of people to come onto the show and share their stories and journeys and experience.
[00:04:42] And also it helps spread the message about all the great stuff that you guys out there in our community and what we are doing collectively in the HMO industry for the better in the PRS. So if you've got 30 seconds to spare to leave a quick review, I would be so, so grateful. So what have I got for you today?
[00:04:58] Well, a few things. I'm going to give you an update across the board from a development perspective. I'm going to tell you where I'm at with the HMO business, specifically a new hire that I've made, new team member. I'm going to talk to you about the most recent offer I've put in on the property that was this week and some other bits and pieces, so what sort of a month, five, six weeks has it been?
[00:05:18] Well, if I'm honest, I feel like it's been a pretty good five or six weeks. It hasn't been the best from a financial point of view. If I'm honest, it's been quite a lot in terms of costs. In fact, that's an understatement. There has been so much from a cost point of view. We've done a few new things, including an event for the first time.
[00:05:36] We've done some big, big loans with the banks, and there's a lot of costs to that. All the legal stuff, all the surveys, the valuations, all of that stuff. So it's been quite an expensive five or six weeks, I would say. But on the whole, good in that we've made a lot of progress. We've got over some big hurdles.
[00:05:51] And I think the picture just looks a little bit clearer for the next couple of quarters, which was something that I just needed to do. There was a lot of stuff that was just making a little bit tricky to plan and project. And we need to get some big tasks out of the way. And the last five or six weeks I've meant I've spent a lot of time really doing a lot of that stuff rather than focusing on the income generating activities, which is generally what I like to be doing.
[00:06:16] But so is the way in business. Sometimes you've got to do that. You've got to take a step back to take a couple of steps forwards. And I'm pretty sure we are about to take some giant steps forwards, which I'm very, very excited about. So specifically what has been going on? Well, let me, first of all, talk to you about what I've been doing the last week.
[00:06:32] We've been in New York. We've had the most incredible time. We've been to the top of the rock and taking on all of the views of Manhattan. We've been eating some incredible food. We've been seeing friends. We stayed in some fantastic accommodation. We stayed literally just on Central Park, as close as you can practically get.
[00:06:48] It was absolutely incredible. And if I'm honest, we really did sort of let our hair down. We enjoyed, we spent a little bit of money and we really took it in. We really embraced being in New York, Gemma and I. Gem made this incredible itinerary. It was so much fun. And we're exhausted because we've covered so much of New York.
[00:07:05] There's so much. If you've ever been, you'll know there's just so much to do, but I really feel like we made the most of it. And I just wanted to mention this quickly, not to sort of brag or in any way, make you feel jealous about the week that you may or may not have had, but more so just to reflect on how much value I place on those sorts of trips.
[00:07:24] Traveling and doing these nice things is really, really important to me. And for a while, I think that I got a little bit distracted in building the businesses just to reinvest in the businesses. And actually, it's really only the last three, four years that I said to myself, no, I've got to stop and enjoy more of this.
[00:07:42] And that actually does mean taking some money out of the business and spending it, doing nice things. Obviously last year we went on our incredible super moon. Across the sort of the West Coast of America and Central America. And it was absolutely incredible. And yes, it was an expensive trip and we really took advantage of that opportunity.
[00:08:01] And New York, it was similar. I'm really, really grateful to not only be able to afford to do that and the business and the work that Gemma and I do collectively as a team. Obviously pays for that, but also to be able to afford the time to go and do it. It's really important that when you're building a business, and this is something that I often say, it's one of the key differences, in fact, between being self-employed or having a well-paid job and having a business, you've got to be able to step away and go and do things and your business should just be able to run and continue as normal.
[00:08:30] And that's definitely the case. Literally now I can go away and I don't really need to look at any emails. Everything can wait till I come back. All the people can handle stuff if it's urgent. And that means we can just make the absolute most of these sorts of trips. And we really, really did. So hugely grateful for the opportunity and the ability to go away and do the trips like the one that we've just done.
[00:08:51] But it is definitely the by-product of an intentional plan. I wanted to build my businesses. I wanted to make myself. free of the sort of shackles that building a business often can make for you in terms of dragging you into the business. So freeing up that time, the systems, the operations, the processes, the team, all of that good stuff.
[00:09:09] It's working. And I'm really, really, really proud of it. And going on such an incredible trip just reinforces that, really does highlight that. So, um, if these sorts of things are on your vision board, you want to do more of these sorts of things. Remember, you've got to focus on putting those sorts of things.
[00:09:25] Systems, processes, teams in to your business. It's really, really important. So aside from spending a week swanning around New York and spending some money and eating far too much food, what has been going on over the last couple of months? Well, first thing to say, I suppose a nice segue from that is that we have brought a new team member into the business.
[00:09:46] So Alex has joined us. Alex is head of sales and marketing. I needed some help just to kind of run things from an operational point of view with regards to sales and marketing at the highest level, I was just finding it all a little bit too much now. My training and education business, that ecosystem, as you guys know, and that, by the way, includes the podcast and all of the planning and the scheduling and the editing and the recording and all that stuff.
[00:10:11] To date, it really has just been me and Yem, who I've talked about many times on the show. Yem is an absolute superwoman and has really just helped me build this business into what it is now. But this business is, as you guys know, still very much something I do on the side of my main interest, which is buying and developing assets.
[00:10:30] Always has been, and as far as I can tell, always will be. But as I've also shared on the episode, building cash flowing trading businesses, certainly ones that feed into your passions, mine is very much building and architecture and design and refurbishment, all of that stuff, is really, really smart. And it fits perfectly well for me, leverages all my skill and experience and contacts, you know, from the HMO world and feeds straight back into it.
[00:10:57] So it's not an absolute duplication of anything in any way. It very much just sort of folds into itself, but it was all getting a little bit too much because we have such a big community. Now, the podcast has grown so far beyond anything that I ever thought it would be with, you know, up to 10,000 of you listening every single month.
[00:11:14] With so many members to the roadmap, I think we're sort of heading towards 500 members now. It's a lot! And all of this needs servicing at the back end of the website and the development. We've got so many of you asking if we can bring new programs to the forefront. We've really been trying to shape how we can deliver new education around rent to rent, which is such an important topic for me, a really great business model I've talked about many times on the show, and we wanted to bring that to you guys, to the community.
[00:11:42] So finding ways and investing time and resource and. to think about that and actually trial things and learn from it has been a real priority of the last six months. But it's all got a little bit too much for me. Just simply managing the number of enquiries we're getting, people who want to join our programs and become members and work with me on a consultancy basis.
[00:12:01] It's great. And I'm by no means complaining at all. The absolute opposite, but I just needed some support. I needed some strategic, high level thinking, somebody to help organise, just kind of bring things into line and help us, help me really focus on the most important things. There's so much that I would like to do, but there's so much that we just simply can't do.
[00:12:21] Certainly not all at once. So it's great to have Alex on board already. She's had a huge impact helping me manage my diary a bit better, helping me with sort of the scheduling of my calls. Following or lots of strategy stuff. We're so, so excited. And we've got some really cool things to talk to you about over the coming weeks and months.
[00:12:40] So I won't go into that today, but just wanted to share with you that that's been a really key hire that I've made in the last month and one that I'm really, really excited about. I think it's going to give us loads more scope and it's certainly going to give me a lot more scope. Just takes me away from some of the stuff that I'm not very good at and maybe don't want to be doing.
[00:12:56] Doing as much of, and allows me to focus on the things that I really want to be doing. So super excited about that. And as always, it takes time and a commitment to make sure that you're bringing the right person in and bringing them into the right environment and so on and so forth. So there's loads more work to do.
[00:13:15] And I'm sure in time at one of our events or whatever it might be, you'll get the opportunity to meet Ali, but yeah, really, really excited about this hire and I think gives us so much more capacity. Now, one of the things that I've been talking to you about for months, literally 12 months is my intention to buy another HMO.
[00:13:34] And in fact, I would buy more than I'd buy two or three right now, if I found the right thing. And I'm just not finding the right thing, as I've said before, I'm not prepared to compromise on what or where I'm super, super specific on that. I want my portfolio to remain very, very consolidated. I've got my sort of key investment targets.
[00:13:53] It has to fit into that box and I'm not in a great rush. If it doesn't fit, I'm happy to wait. I will work to make sure that it does fit if I see the opportunity, but I just haven't really seen that opportunity. So anyway, after sitting around on my hands for so long, I decided to finally actually take some affirmative action.
[00:14:12] And actually, because this just hadn't been coming up, because the market hadn't been coming up with the goods for me from an HMO point of view, I decided to actually do something else. And this week while I was away in New York, this was practically the only thing that I did do property related. Put an offer in on a property, which is actually for what will be our new home, but we've been thinking about moving a little bit further north and a bit closer to our sort of support network.
[00:14:41] And we've seen something and it's fantastic. And all of a sudden just happened. It's exactly what we're looking for in terms of location, development scope, and I've put the offer in. So it's too early to say whether or not we've got it. I genuinely don't know. I think I'm probably going to have to revise my offer this week as well.
[00:14:59] My gut feeling is I'm certainly not the only party interested. I know that there's been open viewings. There's been a lot of people there. I actually sent my dad to view it for me. Thanks dad. So it's a big commitment because what this means is actually a lot of my time and effort and energy over the next six months, if we, fingers crossed, get it accepted, is going to be focused on that.
[00:15:18] And also selling our current home, which over the years, we've put a lot of effort into making and turning it into what it is now. So we'll be sad to leave, but very excited to move on, but it'll definitely be a big, big project. So hopefully I can tell you about that in time, fingers crossed. We do ultimately get an offer accepted, but I'm certainly not going to hold my breath.
[00:15:39] I know the market's a little bit unusual at the minute, but this is the type of project that is still going to be very, very, very competitive from owner, occupiers, developers. And even people with other sort of potential interests in that kind of property as well. So let's wait and see, but that is where I'm currently thinking about deploying some of my funds, which I've been sort of just sitting on ready to invest in HMOs.
[00:16:02] I'm not by any means putting the idea of going and buying some more HMOs down, but what I'm probably doing is saying, if I get this accepted, I'm probably just going to focus on that for six to nine months and then pick up my intentions to buy another HMO. So cross your fingers for me and Gemma. Let's see where we get.
[00:16:19] Okay. Development wise then it has been super busy the last five, six weeks. So we've got three sites on at the minute and everything else is sort of up and running and fully tented now, which is great. The sites that we've got on, just as a quick reminder, we've got Albion Place. We're developing out phase one, about 24 units there.
[00:16:39] Phase two of that scheme will be another 13. So taking it to well over 30 odd units, like 37 ish, something like that. We're well underway on the development. It's going really, really well. Mark, the business partner, doing an incredible job of managing that project. We've got some fantastic contractors on that project.
[00:16:55] And we're very, very excited, but the last couple of months have really been quite heavily dominated alongside getting the development off the ground with the financing of it. We had to move from our original sort of purchase option, how we originally bought the building and then got started with the development.
[00:17:10] We had some funds to do that, but it's a big project. Um, a big, big contract to build it out. So we need to bring the development finance in which we had been arranging with the bank. We actually did this with Shawbrooke. We've got a great relationship with Shawbrooke. It just took a long time to get us there and a lot of work.
[00:17:28] And I learned a lot through this process as well. I've managed a lot of sort of conveyancing exercises, but this was a biggie because there's just extra layers of due diligence that I didn't even know existed. And understandably, we were borrowing a huge amount of money and the day one loan was really big as well.
[00:17:44] So there's just all these additional layers and it's taken an awful lot of time for us, but we've waded our way through it. And yeah, a couple of weeks ago, we completed on that, that development finance package with bank and we're really excited because that takes us right through to completion now. So yeah, that was a big admin exercise that me and Mike and Mark had to, had to manage.
[00:18:04] And that takes a lot of time. And I know when we often talk about property, we love this idea, don't we? Making it as passive as possible. giving ourselves as much time back as possible. And that is the objective. But when you're building a business, when you're scaling and growing, you can't simply just outsource all this stuff.
[00:18:22] You can't outsource all this due diligence to a PA or a secretary. The bank needs to speak to us directly, me directly. They need a lot of information that other people can't prepare. Only me or my business partners as the directors, as the developers can do that. So. There's so much involved and it really has taken hours and hours and hours and hours every single week.
[00:18:44] But finally we've done it and we've got over that hurdle and we're really excited now because that's behind us and we can just focus on actually developing that project. Keep an eye out on socials because we're going to share as much as we possibly can, giving you as many updates as possible on the project.
[00:18:56] It's really exciting. Like I said, it is going well and yeah, I'll be sharing those updates as we go, but we'll keep up to speed on that project. Our other project that's live at the minute is our site in Norwich. That's the old forge, 10 units across about six and a half thousand square feet. This is our timber frame build.
[00:19:14] And what's been really, really cool over the last five weeks since I last recorded a business update is that we have pretty much gone from having our foundations and maybe sort of block down to basically roof level in five or six weeks. It's really so exciting to see. And now don't get me wrong. It hasn't been without its challenges.
[00:19:34] Mike is heading this project on the ground from a management point of view. And it's a really challenging project because all this timber frame stuff is built offsite and any inevitable sort of bits and pieces that aren't quite as they should be, either because we overlooked it or it wasn't quite designed right, or it's just not been quite built right.
[00:19:52] They've all got to be managed in real time. And the trouble with building something offsite, while you can erect it really, really quickly, if you need to amend it, it's a bit more tricky. So quick example, some bits with one or two windows and some of the roof and things. They're not quite as the plans needed them to be.
[00:20:09] So we've had to think on our feet and make some changes. So that's had to be managed. There's a lot of moving parts to a building site like this. And I'm sure Mike will say, and Mike, who's doing an incredible job of managing it, it's keeping him very, very, very busy. I was down there a few weeks ago for a site meeting, and it really is great to see the progress, but.
[00:20:26] We're pretty much sort of roof on, dorms going in, and then we're sort of already first fixing downstairs on the ground floor through the flat. So really excited. I would say we're probably about 50 percent of the way through the project. So I think we've really broken the back of it. Once we're watertight, I mean, we're getting things like windows ordered now, once we're watertight, we're getting clothes.
[00:20:44] It's a case of just sort of getting everything internally done, really, which we're looking forward to now, especially as the weather changes as well, it just gets a little bit easier on site. So that's progressing well, but don't get me wrong. It's been a challenging site and it's taking an awful lot from our team, but it's going to look incredible.
[00:21:02] I think it's going to be the best looking thing that we've developed to date yet. So super excited about that. Our other site is our site in Sheffield, the old sawmill. This is the one that we had to review after getting some feedback from Historic England. We're up against the listed building. We knew it was going to be contentious what we did immediately adjacent to the listed building.
[00:21:21] Anyway, they came back. They didn't like the sort of the additional floor that we proposed on top of the existing building. And they wanted to see What we were going to do with the adjacent land, basically, they want us to keep the existing building more or less as it was, happy for it to be converted, and they wanted us to actually go and develop the rest of the land to almost reinstate the grid as it once would have appeared.
[00:21:43] And we've got all these maps and cool images from like the fifties and before showing us exactly what it was like. So we went back, we reviewed it. We've given our scheme back to Historic England. As I sit here and record this today, I'm waiting. any minute now for the feedback from Historic England.
[00:21:59] We're expecting it to be positive. At that point, we can then take it and go into full planning with it, and it should be much less contentious. We should have that big important box ticked with Sheffield City Council, and hopefully we're really dotting i's and crossing t's. Look, it's never done till it's done, is it?
[00:22:15] As anyone in this game will know. But that is why we've done it this way. This should really help streamline the process through planning. Now, if it all goes well, we'd like to be sort of starting the development round early October. I think that that's probably realistic at that point. So we'll wait and see, but the scheme currently looks in its format at the minute.
[00:22:37] Like 18 units across the site, six of them in the existing, the rest of them are in the new build. So there's quite a bit of new build components. There's a bit more than we actually like, but it's going to be a really attractive scheme. We've got this really sort of creative idea of reinstating the original building.
[00:22:53] as it perhaps once would have appeared with what was originally an old timber store on the edge, and we're going to use some different materials to help sort of differentiate. And then we've got this new scheme that is obviously going to be a modern build, but also we're going to nod back to the original heritage of the site.
[00:23:10] And it is, like I said, it's kind of wrapped around by listed buildings as well. So we've got to think of sort of Cool ways to sort of make that design really stand out. We've got some good spaces. We're not far enough down the line in terms of design yet. We've more or less just got kind of the massing model nailed at the minute.
[00:23:27] So once we get this nod from Historic England, we can go into full planning with the conventual design over the next couple of weeks. That is what we'll be focusing on getting that design absolutely nailed. And yeah, if you keep an eye out on social media, we'll be sharing more of that as well, fingers crossed.
[00:23:40] So that's where we're at from a development point of view. Perspective, just alongside the development things, the buildings that we have developed, they're all up and running and tenanted, and it's created a big body of work from utility management right through to tenant management. And naturally we're developers, but we need to be better at the operational side of things as well.
[00:23:58] So we've also been focusing on that. It's been keeping us really busy getting systems and processes, bringing some support and outsourcing some other bits. Really kind of just improving our operational efficiency, which has been a really big body of work as well. And again, looking back at the last six weeks, that's been a big piece.
[00:24:15] That's been taking up a lot of our time, but the objective is that step that we've had to take back will allow us to take a couple of steps forwards now and continue focusing on the actual developments as opposed to management of the assets and things like that. And look, the reason I labor this point is because by the time we finish these three projects, I've just given you an update on, that'll be about a hundred flats and that's in addition to what I already own and my business partners already own and we want to keep everything.
[00:24:42] So operationally, it's really, really important that we get that bit right as well as the actual developments. Okay, from an HMO perspective then, so all of my HMOs are up and running, fully tenanted, and there's been pretty much no issues whatsoever. That is how it should be. They should run like clockwork, and mine absolutely do, but it's May.
[00:25:03] It's sort of early to mid May now, and all my tenants, all my student tenants move out on the 23rd of June, and that is of course the changeover period. Now, they're all tenanted from the 1st of July, so I have a week to change my properties over again, and to them for a week, get in, move the tenants out, clean up, do some sort of repair and remediation work, anything that's needed.
[00:25:22] And then the new tenants will typically move in on the 1st of July after that deep clean. Um, that plan is all in motion now. And it's not just that there's things like checking processes need to start being planned, setting up standing orders and things like that all need to be planned, getting the right information to tenants, keys, auditing, all of that jazz.
[00:25:41] So that body work is now in motion. Fortunately, I've done it many, many times. So we've got a pretty slick operation, but there's no doubt it still takes a certain amount of time. And while there's lots of great things about the student cycle, one of them being that a lot of the management is consolidated when it comes to actually doing it, it can make for quite a busy period.
[00:26:00] So the more efficient that we can be when we do it, the better. But that's what's happening at the minute. So I'll really be focusing on that over the next four weeks and making sure that everything is in place. Alongside this, I've decided to actually refurbish one of the smaller HMOs. It's just a four bed, but it's about time.
[00:26:15] I think that we go in and do some work. I'm probably going to spend about 20, 25,000 on it. So it's still a relatively light refurb, but it's going to be sort of stripping all the wallpaper back that I originally didn't do. There's going to be some modifications to the floor plan. We're going to be changing the bathrooms, updating all of the furniture throughout.
[00:26:34] So there's a bit of work on that particular property. It's too much to do in a week. Probably could be done in a week, but with everything else, it's just unrealistic for me and my team anyway. So what we have done on this particular property is arranged with the tenants, the new incoming tenants. That from the 1st of July through to the 1st of September, they will pay half rent.
[00:26:54] We will use that period of time to actually do the refurbishment. They will move in and get effectively a brand new property on the 1st of September. And that works for them because they're actually planning to go home for the summer as well. This has all been planned well in advance. In fact, it was planned and agreed before they signed up for this new lease.
[00:27:11] Tenancy, which starts on the 1st of July, technically, so they were fully aware on board with the idea and that will all kick in then as well. So we've got a little bit longer than a week, got actually eight weeks to do that sort of refurb. But when you're managing student properties, this is one of the good things that the student cycle allows you to do, but it can be quite a big body of work and some of my older HMOs now they are getting to that point in their life cycle where I've got to go in and do some periodic improvements.
[00:27:39] Some need a bit more than others. I've got some that will over the next few years need more than 25 grand spending on them. And I may actually combine that with some extension to add some rooms and things like that. But it's all part and parcel. You've got to do it. But it is one of the great things about the student model is that you can build that sort of eight week period in to do a refurb like this, whereas with professional HMOs, it's really tricky.
[00:28:00] You've got to kind of empty the whole house and organise everyone to leave and then get the work done before you can kind of move anyone back in. It's just a lot trickier. So. I'm not saying one's better than the other. I'm just saying it's one of the reasons that I do like the student model. So those are the key updates.
[00:28:16] I think just stepping back a little bit, just looking a bit more holistically at the businesses in general, mentioned earlier on in the episode, a lot has happened and all of these things that I've been talking about today have required a lot of activity, lots of moving parts to all of this stuff. But there's been a lot of admin.
[00:28:31] I think that that has been the predominant feature of the last five or six weeks. And I think we've just got over that hurdle and by bringing Alex in, extending the team, that's really going to help as well. But what it has meant is that I wasn't able to focus as much income generating activities that have been.
[00:28:48] Additional expenses in the businesses and the portfolios, and that's just resulted in financial performance that hasn't been as good as we're used to. So that's something that I'm looking at improving on over the coming sort of quarter. I think sort of Q3 and Q4, I really want to see the work that we've been doing and driving efficiency and enhancing our capacity.
[00:29:09] I'm expecting that that will begin to translate into better financial performance. Even though there have been some additional costs in getting some of that stuff on board and obviously hiring people does cost what it costs, that should give us the ability to be better, to actually enhance revenue streams, maybe even bring in some additional revenue streams and things like that.
[00:29:28] I've got lots of ideas and actually now I'm really excited about the next couple of months because that is going to be my absolute core focus. Um, looking at making sure that operationally we're as efficient as we possibly can across the board, finding ways to maybe enhance our income, bring on some new revenue streams.
[00:29:44] And like I said, we've got some really cool ideas bubbling away, which I'm very excited to talk to you about in the near future. Look, just to wrap today's episode up and to also just give it some context. In February, I recorded an episode. I think the title of the episode was My Journey to 40 Million.
[00:29:59] That is, remember, my current objective. My sort of overarching target is a capital base of 40 million. And a lot of that is through the development projects. It's through the creation of, of new value. So even. buying our own new home and finding something that we can improve and enhance, create some new value.
[00:30:18] And all of that does sort of contribute to that plan, but making sure that the trading businesses, the real cash flowing assets, and that includes the HMOs as well, the revenue generating, the recurring income streams are performing exceptionally well as well. it is the performance of those that enable me the luxury of being able to sort of invest my time more so into the development business.
[00:30:39] So just kind of remember that when I explain this sort of thing, it's not that my attention has been entirely diverted to development projects. That is a big bulk. And my God, the risks and the involvement is very, very different. I'm learning a huge amount. I'm really enjoying it, but there's a lot involved, but without any shadow of a doubt.
[00:30:56] It's all the other stuff, it's the basics and doing the basics really, really well. Operation systems, processes, teams, they're really sort of sharpening the blade that enables me to do that sort of stuff as well. So that is why kind of it all features, I suppose, across a five or six week period in the way that I've described today.
[00:31:16] That is about it for today, guys. Thank you for tuning in. Look, if you're investing in HMOs and want to find some additional advice and guidance, first of all, go and join the HMO community. We have just tipped the 9,000 member mark, which is really, really incredible. It's a great resource. It's free, obviously.
[00:31:31] Just come and find the guidance and support and advice that you need. So many great people doing so many great things, and we're all there to give you as much advice and assistance as possible. And if you're experienced and you've got stuff that you can add, we want that too, as well. So come and bring your experience and come and bring your ideas as well.
[00:31:45] Of course, if you want to level things up, you need to head over to thehmoroadmap.co.uk, sign up, get yourself a membership, and go and enjoy everything that we've got to offer inside. It'll blow your mind. We've got hundreds of video lessons. We've got dozens and dozens of downloadable resources and templates that you can literally print, use.
[00:32:04] It'll save you so much time and so much money. We've got Loan agreements, we've got rent to rent contracts. You'll have to be on a premium subscription for that, but trust me, there's so much in there. If you're investing in HMOs, it really is an essential part of your toolkit. I wish it existed when I was just getting started.
[00:32:20] I'd have doubled, if not trebled or even quadrupled what I was able to achieve over the last 10 to 15 years. That's it guys. Thank you once again for tuning in. And of course, don't forget that I'll be right back here in the very same place next week. So please join me then for another installment of the HMO podcast.