[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. I've raised millions of pounds of investment and I've managed thousands of tenants. Join me and some very special guests to discover the tips, tricks, and hacks, the ups and the downs, the best practice and everything else you need to know. To start, scale and systemise your very own HMO portfolio.
[00:00:40] In today's episode, I'm going to answer the question. Do I need an architect for my HMO project? This is a question that I get asked a lot. And the answer is a little different depending on who we are, how much experience we have, the type of project, but hopefully today, what I'm going to do is through a four or five step process, help you understand exactly what an architect can help you with.
[00:00:59] And that way you can make a much better and more informed decision about whether or not you choose to instruct an architect to help you. So if you've got a project on the horizon, maybe one underway already, today's episode is definitely one that you want to stick around for. So please sit back, relax, and enjoy today's episode of the HMO podcast.
[00:01:20] 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 an HMO portfolio that you want to scale up, then the HMO roadmap really is your one stop shop.
[00:01:36] 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. We've also got guest workshops added every single month.
[00:01:54] 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. And we've also built an application just for you.
[00:02:09] 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 the hmoroadmap.co.uk now, and come and join our incredible community of HMO property investors.
[00:02:30] Okay welcome back. So today I'm going to answer the question. Do I need an architect for my next HMO project? This is a question that I'm asked regularly. It's a question that I see flying around the community. Regularly. And I think there are a couple of reasons for this. The first reason is because we don't all know exactly what architects do.
[00:02:49] Architects have quite an eclectic skillset. And when it comes to HMOs, I don't think we often see or understand just how much value architects can offer. And I think it's also because we don't always know exactly what the process of buying something and maybe trying to. Get planning permission and then develop it out actually consists of, there's all sorts of steps and things to think about from planning technicalities to building regs and sort of measurements and all of that technical stuff.
[00:03:19] And I think because these two elements exist and we don't necessarily know as much as we should about either of them, we're often asking the question, do I need an architect, should I, shouldn't I? And I think many of us make the decision. About whether or not to use an architect based on money and the cost and the finance, and certainly some of the services that we choose to use when it comes to instructing an architect.
[00:03:42] So what I'm hoping to do in today's episode is make it a bit clearer for you to help you understand exactly what architects can do, exactly what is potentially involved in any project that you're about to undertake that might need planning permission, that might need various elements of development.
[00:03:57] And hopefully by the end of today's episode, you've just got a much better understanding about. What value you could get from an architect, whether or not it would be right for you. And that way you won't wander into the trap or misfortune of trying to do too much yourself, which is one of the things that I've seen a number of perhaps more so new investors do.
[00:04:17] And they end up getting in a bit of a tangle because some of this is quite complicated stuff. And sometimes actually. I've seen, and I am guilty of this myself, drawing out floor plans ourselves. Sure, we might be able to squeeze six beds out of a thousand square feet, but is it the optimum? Is it actually going to offer the best living solutions, the best standards?
[00:04:35] And on so many occasions, I've seen good architects come in. Tear it up, redesign it and get the same or more units, but actually have a much better flow when it comes to accuracy. So important as well. So there's a whole host of reasons that we're going to cover in today's episode. Now, before we get into it, just a quick reminder.
[00:04:55] If you head over to thehmoroadmap.co.uk you'll find that we've got a tab, a navigation bar for services and under that we've got a few property services that you can take advantage of. One of them is our broker service, Ellie. She offers expert finance solutions, bridge lending, for long term, sort of term lending for HMOs.
[00:05:14] So you can access that, but you'll also find our service. Amongst others for our architectural and interior design. And that's Andrew and Mary. They've been on the show more than once. Great people. They do a lot of work for me and members of our community. They're HMO investors themselves. So they really understand this stuff.
[00:05:30] So if you listen to today's episode and you actually decide that, yeah, you know what, I'm probably going to need an architect, that'd be really useful here. So please do go and check them out. Now we're going to do this in five steps. I'm going to talk to you about the key bits and pieces that architects can help with.
[00:05:45] And hopefully this just really simplifies everything for you because of course not every project is the same and we've all got different experiences and different budgets. So you can kind of pick and choose, but if you want the whole shebang, then you can go and get it. And certainly Andrew and Mary will be able to help you with all of this.
[00:06:01] So I'm going to start with the biggie, which is planning now. Many of us, certainly if you're a long term listener of the show, we should be aware of the main planning restrictions when it comes to HMOs. And that is primarily Article 4 directions and the restriction that stops us converting any old property into a house under permitted development.
[00:06:21] Now, there are still some areas of the country where that Or an article 4 direction doesn't exist, and that's great where that is the case, but in most sort of small townships, small, big cities, article four directions are very much in the force where I'm based. It's been here for sort of coming on 15 years.
[00:06:38] So very established in some areas of the country and in a separate episode that you can go back and find on the podcast, I've discussed the pros and cons of article four directions. It's actually not all that bad as much as it might seem like that. If you're just getting started, however, there are more planning considerations.
[00:06:54] There are things like sui generis. If you want, for example, to create HMO with seven or more bedrooms, you're going to need planning permission for that, which is not permitted, irrespective of any article four directions. And then if you really get into the nitty gritty of planning permission. When it boils down to it, a lot of it is about technicalities.
[00:07:13] So within an article four direction, it's really important to understand things such as sandwich hink. It's important to understand things such as the local council's policies. It's important to understand where precedents have been set. It's important to understand thresholds, upper and lower threshold.
[00:07:32] density limits. This is basically the council's guidance or limit as to what point they say yes or no, if you want to add another HMO to an area that already has a concentration of HMOs. And this is quite complicated stuff beyond that. Let's say there's a property within an article four direction and you wanted to add a dormer to it, or you wanted to do something.
[00:07:53] Some of those permitted development rights or sort of not even necessarily permitted development rights. Some sort of development considerations can be heavily restricted because of other things going on in that area. It's not your job as a property investor, as a HMO investor to understand all of that stuff.
[00:08:11] And it's okay to actually say and accept, look, I don't really know what I'm talking about here. I don't really know what I should even be looking at. Can you help me? And that's one of the great things that architects can help you with. Now, it's not just architects, actually. Sometimes you might need a good planning consultant as well.
[00:08:29] A good architect who has a lot of experience doing this sort of thing will immediately know what sort of things you should be looking out for. They'll know the intricacies of permitted development rights, and they are very intricate. I mean, literally the dimensions, the heights. What angle something is off a property, what's happening next door, what distance a potential extension will be from a boundary, all of this stuff.
[00:08:54] And then there's the way that all of these things interact with each other. It's really quite complicated. I am certainly not a planning expert. I rely on lots of other people to help guide me and what I actually decide to do when it comes to anything surrounding planning. So look, what I'm saying here is.
[00:09:10] Good architects, and maybe with the assistance of a good planning consultant, can really help you navigate this minefield of planning, policy issues, and constraints. Now, what that doesn't mean is that they can work miracles if there is an article four direction and the density threshold is, let's say, That's a 20 percent minimum 80 percent top and let's say there's 50 percent on the street already and you want to add another one, you're going to find it very difficult to get the planning permission.
[00:09:38] So you've also got to use some good old common sense. However, it's really important to understand the intricacies of planning policy, or at least have someone on your team who really does. Unfortunately, I've seen a lot of people make some really big mistakes. They've bought properties. They've made too many assumptions about the planning about what they'll be able to get, how easy it will be to get it, and ultimately they found it really, really, really difficult.
[00:10:05] If you want to know just how difficult it can be when it comes to planning, go back and give the episode I did recently with Johnny Stockwell a listen. We really talked about some of the major issues Johnny's had in the area where he invests, where there is a recently introduced article four direction, but a very difficult council.
[00:10:22] Johnny has managed to continue navigating his way through it, but that has been with the essential assistance of experts that have helped him basically kind of work his way through it. And even though the council really should have just accepted or acknowledged a number of things that Johnny applied for.
[00:10:39] It still made it very difficult. So it's important to also understand or even go in to this with an assumption that look, the council's not there to help you. The council is a gatekeeper and some councils are better than others. Some are utterly horrendous. So the more informed you are, or the better skilled your team is handling these sorts of things, understanding the technicalities, being able to navigate this planning minefield.
[00:11:06] The easier you're going to find it, the less money you're going to spend trying to work your way through it. And the low, the risk, which is really, really important here. And actually planning and the risks associated with planning is one of the biggies. If you are buying a property that is ultimately going to need planning permission, whether it's because it's in an article four direction, because you want to add extra rooms or you want to make some changes that are not permitted, it's really, really important.
[00:11:31] So. When it comes to architects, and certainly Andrew and Mary really good with this sort of stuff, they can help you understand those key issues, the things that you should really be aware of from the outset, and they can help you construct a project, they can help you develop something, either both internally and from the street, Is going to be less contentious.
[00:11:51] That's going to hopefully be easier for the council to approve. Um, so that's a really, really big one. Please don't just wander into a planning application thinking that you can just do this yourself. Theoretically you can, but there's an awful lot involved. And at the end of today's episode, in my fifth step, I'm going to talk to you a little bit more about some of the specific values that architects can offer when it comes to managing various parts of your applications.
[00:12:18] So there we go. Number one, understanding planning policy. If you're not an expert, which you shouldn't feel bad about if you're not, because your job is to invest and find good deals and focus from the top with a bird's eye view, make sure you've got a good architect on your team. They'll really help you streamline your efforts and hopefully save you money.
[00:12:38] So number two, then the second thing I want to talk to you about today is the importance of optimising floor plans and space. I touched on this very briefly in my previous point, but look, a lot of us are probably familiar with using free tools like magic planner to actually redesign floor plans ourselves.
[00:12:56] And that's great. And sometimes that can give us a pretty good. But rough indication of what we can get in that property. However, that is a fraction of what floor plan and space optimization actually looks like. So let me give you some examples, depending on where your waste outflows are and where your water in flow and outflows are.
[00:13:16] It might heavily influence where you put bathrooms or en suites. And actually that decision where you put them could heavily influence what your actual budget or ultimate cost of redevelopment is. You can save thousands and thousands of pounds if you're just really smart about where you place certain things.
[00:13:33] If you can stack bathrooms above and below one another in a property, it's going to make it much easier, much cheaper. But if you've got them scattered all around the house and you're trying to run saniflows out and you're trying to cut through solid concrete floors to get your waste out, it's going to become very, very expensive.
[00:13:49] A good architect, when they're looking and designing your floor plan and the space and optimizing things, they'll also be looking at that and thinking, Thinking about that. And they'll be mindful of what your actual budget is and your time constraints, and trying to actually reduce the workload and also the other risks associated with whatever it is you ultimately decide you're going to go ahead and try and develop out.
[00:14:08] So really, really important from that point of view. One of the other key things is actually just optimizing the space. Yes, you and I might be able to get six rooms in on a spreadsheet. I've actually seen people do floor plans on spreadsheets or some sort of free tool. But is it the best way to get those six rooms in?
[00:14:25] Is the staircase in the best way? Probably not if you're not an expert at this sort of stuff. So architects, they'll help you do this. They'll make sure that you're getting the absolute best use of that space. Not just maximizing the number of units, but actually getting the best flow. The best sort of functionality to that whole space, which is really, really important.
[00:14:47] Just the way or area or space in which you orientate an ensuite in a bedroom can have a huge impact on how that tenant enjoys or is able to enjoy living in that bedroom. I've seen some really weird and obscure things designed over the years, and I'm sure you have if you've done lots of property viewings.
[00:15:03] But good architects like Andrew and Mary. They'll really understand what your tenant wants and needs from that property because, of course, you've got to think long term as well. You want to design something that not just kind of is there and ticks a box en suite. You want tenants to have a room that they also really enjoy being in, that en suite has got to work with the rest of that space, that kitchen.
[00:15:22] And the breakfast bar, whatever it might be, has to really work with the rest of that communal living space. One of the things I think a lot of new investors are quite guilty of is doing this bit themselves and being a little bit too optimistic on how much space things actually take up. So a good example would be how much space sofas for six people actually take up in a communal area.
[00:15:42] You've got to be really quite savvy about how you create a good sized, open plan kitchen and diner with enough seating to satisfy your HMO license and things like that. So please don't assume that because you can get it on some sort of free tool, that that is the best way to do it. It could be so much better on many occasions if you just use the experts.
[00:16:06] And also, remember that dimensions and the actual measurements and the accuracy of those measurements is really, really important. Perhaps less so at this stage. A few centimetres here and there might not make a huge difference, but actually a few centimetres here and there when it comes to actually developing and getting on site and moving walls or deciding where things go, it can actually be really, really major.
[00:16:31] Um, we've made this mistake ourselves where we've overlooked things where. Some things have been out by a matter of sort of 300 mil, 400 mil. And it's kind of knocked the kitchen completely out of sync. We've lost units and all sorts of things. And it's really frustrating when that happens. And of course that then becomes a bit of an issue with, with your contractor.
[00:16:51] You might end up having to pay extras or do things in a slightly different way, and that's just not ideal. So the more accurate your measurements are and the dimensions and the more accurate floor plans and your optimization studies are. The easier the ongoing steps are going to be for everybody, um, your builder, but not least yourself as well.
[00:17:09] So really have a good think about that. Optimizing floor plans and space. And by the way, this is one of the things that I've talked about on the show so many times that if you get right, if you nail this bit, you will really squeeze out so much more profit from your property. You know, you could easily get an extra five or 10 percent out of your property.
[00:17:28] Just because you've got a slightly better format, a better sort of way of navigating the property, a better way of being able to enjoy the property than perhaps something that you might've come up with yourself. So really do give that a good think before you go and decide to do anything yourself. Okay.
[00:17:44] Moving on to the third thing I want to talk about in today's episode, which is budgeting and costing. This is a really tough one, and it's so difficult for new investors. And I completely sympathize because I remember how difficult it is when you're trying to cost out a project. And if you haven't got the experience, it's pretty much like just finger in the air.
[00:18:05] How much is this going to cost? And you're sort of at the mercy of whatever your builders or contractors come back with. And if they smell the fear, if they get any whiff whatsoever, that you don't have the experience. The likelihood is they're probably going to try and pull the wool over your eyes.
[00:18:21] People still try and do it to me. They're going to try and do it to you as well. So having someone on your team who can help with budgeting and costing is going to be so valuable. Imagine if it costs an extra one or 2000 quid to have someone just help you budget. Something or build a, you know, an accurate schedule, um, that really kind of made it very difficult for contractors to overprice anything.
[00:18:45] It made it very transparent. Well, if that costs a couple of grand and the alternative was a few contractors throwing an extra 10 grand on top of your projects, which actually, if you're doing a big project, he's only still going to be a small percentage of that large project cost. Um, it's going to be an absolute no brainer, isn't it?
[00:19:04] Um. Think about whether or not you actually have the skill or experience or even confidence to build or create an accurate schedule of works. Even if you're prepared to do it, if there's anything that you miss, anything that's not on that schedule that then you find out does need doing, it's likely that your builder, your contractor has not been factored in and they've probably given you a fixed price.
[00:19:25] They're going to add that on as an extra. And that's where you really get stung. That's where a lot of people make big mistakes and ultimately. Run over budget and over time. It's because these things are not factored in accurately. And builders make a lot of money on extras. We all know that it's just part and parcel of the game.
[00:19:41] Now it should be fair and it's reasonable to expect that there are going to be some extras, but if you've lost or left out a lot of the detail from your schedule and your builder saying, well, look, it wasn't in there and I didn't know, or I hadn't assumed that you needed it. It's going to come back and bite you in the bum.
[00:19:58] So it really is worthwhile spending some time getting some support and assistance with your budgeting and costing. I think you'll find that hugely beneficial. And again, it's just going to reduce your risk significantly. Especially if you've got things like structural changes that are going to be needed, things that can really cost quite a lot of money.
[00:20:18] If you haven't got the experience of having done these things before, then it's going to be really worthwhile getting that extra bit of a support and assistance. And again, good architects, they'll be able to help you with this element. Taking that a little step further, they can actually help you with things like the tender, actually tendering your job out to builders.
[00:20:36] They can, with that detailed schedule of works, they can put that tender together, they can actually put that out, they can manage the tenders, they could be involved in helping you select the builder. And negotiating with builders, which again, going to help reduce that cost. It's going to help reduce that risk, which is so important, particularly if you're at the earliest stage of your property investment career.
[00:20:56] So I would highly recommend that you do seriously consider getting some support when it comes to budgeting and costing and ultimately tendering out and managing your builders. Number four then, the next step, understanding building control. This is, I think, one of the most boring elements about what we do.
[00:21:14] I absolutely hate it. It's so dry. I hate nothing more than getting an email back from someone quoting some boring building regs reference. But the reality is we just need to do it. And truth be told, there's actually a lot more to building regs than we... Probably let ourselves believe, um, for example, like installation of fans, bathrooms.
[00:21:35] These things need building control sign off. A lot of people don't get that done, but certainly if you're doing structural works, if you're creating new habitable rooms, you're converting garages, going into lofts, you're absolutely going to need building control. Now. It's pretty easy to actually instruct building control.
[00:21:52] You can do it through the council. I generally choose not to. I like to do it through private building control companies who are approved by the council. But that doesn't necessarily make it any easier to get the job done. They're there to basically sign off the works. And if you've got a good inspector, they'll usually be quite happy to help you understand what they actually need.
[00:22:10] Um, they're certainly not going to be there on site with you every day. Some don't even want to come and do pre commencement inspections. I always like to get a pre commencement inspection, particularly if I'm doing something big. But look, it's very technical. You need to know what a roof construction might need to look like.
[00:22:25] There's warm and cold sort of structures, insulation, materials that you need to use, membranes and all that stuff. And it does get very, very technical. Now, depending on the scope of your project will really determine how complicated this is, as you can imagine. For my bigger projects, the big projects that we do where we're developing flats and converting old buildings, there's a huge amount and we go through full sets of what are called regularized sort of plans.
[00:22:50] And if you imagine it's the circulatory system, it's sort of the nervous system of the building and we have to be able to demonstrate everything that we're doing right down to kind of the sound insulation and the fire separation and all of that stuff. The smaller the project, the less cumbersome that is.
[00:23:06] But even on a small project, you are definitely going to have elements to do. Now let's just for a second, assume you knew what you were supposed to do, that you needed this sort of insulation. You needed handrails at this height. You needed to use these sorts of materials. There are some more complications when it comes to HMOs and particularly when you throw into the mix, the change of use.
[00:23:29] So. Let me try and simplify this because this can get a little bit complicated. If you are going to make some changes to an existing HMO, you're not triggering a change of use. And that generally doesn't require as much from building control. But if you simultaneously trigger a change of use, say you go from C3, which is a normal dwelling house, to C4, a HMO, if you're doing some changes that are going to naturally require building control, let's say you've got some structural works, That additional change of use that you've triggered can also trigger a whole new raft of additional elements that building control can hypothetically or theoretically insist on.
[00:24:10] Now, this is a sore spot for me because. What I often like to do is try and separate the two. I try and get the works done before triggering the use. So from my point of view, I can buy a house that's just C3, a normal residential dwelling. I can make a whole number of changes and I don't need to tell anybody that it's going to be a HMO because actually I could very well decide that I don't want to use it as a HMO.
[00:24:33] So I just get building control in, sign off the things that I need. Afterwards, I could then decide to turn it into a HMO so long as it's permitted. And that's. No different to just buying a property off the shelf that I wasn't going to necessarily have to do anything with. Let's say I just bought an existing HMO.
[00:24:51] I don't need to do anything. I don't need to change or upgrade anything. And it's pretty straightforward. But when you combine the two, it can get really quite complicated. And unless you're working with an architect who really understands this, you can trip up and quite catastrophically. So let me give you an example.
[00:25:08] I saw somebody recently, they had come up with a scheme to convert a good building, good property into about, I think it was six self contained units. And they were sort of flatlet type of units, if you like, because they were triggering a change of use simultaneously. It triggered according to this building control officer.
[00:25:26] A lot of additional stuff including fire separation, sound separation. These are the sorts of things that we typically tend to associate with the creation of new flats and new dwellings. This then, as you can imagine, significantly changed the costs and the budgets for this project. And this wasn't factored in, it wasn't factored into this person's original calculations when they bought the property.
[00:25:48] All of a sudden, the economics are quite different. The timelines are quite different, and all of a sudden, the whole project. And the viability of that project is called into question. You need a good architect on your side who knows this sort of stuff, who can give you the foresight, who can caution you of the risk, who can help you do the dance around these sorts of issues.
[00:26:07] Because if you know what some of these things are, there are some ways of. Avoiding some of them legally, of course, but there are, look, a lot of people, unfortunately, just not out to help you. They want to throw the book at you. They want gold standard. And actually that's not always the way that it needs to be.
[00:26:22] I'll give you several examples. I can't tell you how many times that I've been told that, well, it's a new HMO. So you need. A grade A LD2 fire system, which is basically a paneled system interlinked with smoke alarms in each bedroom. That is not what you need for most HMOs, but a lot of people misinterpret, a lot of experts misinterpret the guidance.
[00:26:43] And I've seen a lot of people, unfortunately, pay thousands and thousands of pounds to get these sorts of things done that they actually didn't need. And in my opinion, actually, it isn't favorable because those sorts of systems and things are. They're cumbersome, they're difficult to manage, and a mains wired interlink system does the job perfectly fine.
[00:27:02] Now, that's just one small example, a little bit different when it comes to sound insulation, fire separation, all of those bits and pieces, but you get the gist. Look, don't... wonder into to the trap, if you can avoid things, obviously try and do that. Keep your costs down. Make sure that obviously things are safe and you've achieved the minimum standards at the very least, but you don't have to go OTT because somebody doesn't completely understand.
[00:27:27] And if you're not the expert, which we've said already today, you don't have to be. It's not your job to be, don't feel guilty about not being the expert. Get out, get that support. Find somebody like Andrew and Mary who can help. Walk you through that process, how cover your back, reduce your costs, reduce your risks, and you'll find the whole process a lot easier to digest.
[00:27:47] I promise. So that's building control assigned. Then the last thing that I want to talk to you about today is slightly more broader, but I just want to touch on some of the value that architectural services can provide to you. Look, scaled plans, so important, not just for submission of planning, but also to be able to give to your builders and to be able to put your electrics on there and things like that.
[00:28:11] And you can ultimately use those floor plans to advertise your property with and things like that. You might find a whole raft of other reasons. We recently applied for an award and having those plans and things like that was really helpful in explaining the process that we went through the project and so on and so forth.
[00:28:25] HMO licenses, they often want these sorts of things as well. Now, of course you can get floor plans done afterwards, but you can get them done by an architect. And if you're going to get it done anyway, may as well get it done at the front end. Management of tender packs. I've already talked about this.
[00:28:38] This is a huge one. It's like your schedule of works, but take a little bit further. It's what you actually prepare to then send out to builders. A really time consuming exercise if you don't know how really easy as you can imagine to miss all sorts of things off these if you don't know what you're doing so again something that architects can really help with project management the actual delivery of the project overseeing.
[00:29:00] The signup of works, overseeing a contractor, not necessarily being a site foreman. That's slightly different being the project manager on site, slightly different, but being a project manager, overseeing the contract, overseeing sign off and payments, overseeing certification and things like that. Really important for our bigger projects.
[00:29:20] It's imperative, but. If you're a newbie, you don't have a huge amount of experience, even on smaller projects, it's so, so important. And if you didn't listen to the episode yet, go back and have a look at the episode I did with Dean Atkins. Dean is a professional project manager. That's what his company does.
[00:29:37] And he talked a lot about just getting the paperwork right and managing contractors in the right way. If you're not experienced in doing this sort of stuff, you're going to find it tough to actually do it and figure it all out. Why not just get somebody in that can actually help you do it. You can get interior design services from good architects.
[00:29:54] A lot of architects are really interested in interior design as well, and they can help you with that element. Thinking about where your furniture goes, actually where the furniture comes from, the overall concept of the property, the really exciting stuff, the sexy stuff. Understandably, that might be something that you want to do yourself, but just a word of caution, if you're not good at that stuff, and I will admit that I am not, I am not very good.
[00:30:16] I'm certainly not good enough. I do, and I've always got help and support on that element on things as well. And if you want to be competitive now, looking ahead, the next five to 10 years, you need to be really, really good. You need to have incredibly well designed properties. So it might be worth thinking about that.
[00:30:33] And of course, an interior design service just sort of piggybacks off everything that you've already done going through the planning process, floor plan, space studies, optimization, all that stuff. You've got plans, you've got dimensions, not that difficult to then overlay that with an interior design concept and you've got that continuity.
[00:30:49] So if you can find someone who can do the whole lot for you, that's really great. And very, very exciting. Can be really cost effective. And look, there's loads more as well. And I could go into the detail of every single [00:31:00] thing, but we don't have time for that on the podcast today, unfortunately. However, look, hopefully what I've been able to do today is highlight the key things that you need to be aware of, the key things that architects can help you with, and just help you understand that it's okay that.
[00:31:13] You're not an expert when it comes to this sort of stuff. And it's okay to reach out for help and support. And it's okay to factor the cost of getting this sort of support into your budget. And I would absolutely recommend that you do that. You'll find that you spend a lot less time trudging through mud.
[00:31:29] You'll probably find that you spend less money overall because you have much fewer headaches, much fewer problems. It can often just be false economy trying to do too much of this stuff yourself. So there we go. Architects, do I need an architect for my next HMO project? Look, if you're doing very minor changes, if you're not really doing much at all, probably not the greater the changes that you're making.
[00:31:50] If you've got changes of use as well, then I would say, yes, absolutely. You want to bring those people in and you'll just feel so much better about what you're doing. You'll have the confidence that you can move forwards and just get things right. And look, just something else to add to this. If you don't have a huge amount of experience, or if you're taking a particularly large loan from a bank, maybe a bridge, something like that, lenders are becoming increasingly interested in your experience or where you're getting your numbers and figures from and all of that stuff, who's supporting you.
[00:32:21] If you don't have that sort of stuff and you're new or it's a fairly big loan, you might find that some lenders are just a little bit too afraid of lending you the money, of course, using the right people and having things that you can present to them. You can show them, look, here's the feasibility study.
[00:32:36] Here is the tender pack and so on and so forth. If you've got all that stuff that you can give to them and then help you justify what you're proposing to do, you're going to find it easier to get the finance that you need from lenders. So there we go, guys. Do I need an architect for my next HMO project?
[00:32:50] Well, the answer is probably yes, if you're either changing the use or you're doing any sort of structural changes or want to change the floor plan or anything like that. Like I said, if you're going to speak to Andrew and Mary, just head over to thehmoroadmap.co.uk, head to the services tab, scroll down, you'll see that there's a page there for architectural and interior design services, drop them an inquiry.
[00:33:11] I couldn't recommend them more highly, like I said, they do a lot of my work. They do a lot of work for people in our community and their results speak for themselves. Of course, there's a lot more to investing in HMOs than just architects, but the good news is it's all waiting for you inside the HMO roadmap.
[00:33:27] So if you haven't already go and sign up as a member, check it out. Get your hands on all of that good stuff that we've got inside waiting for you. Over 60 case studies from the community. We've got dozens and dozens of downloadable resources that will help you immediately. Business plans, tenant documents, schedules of work, templates, you name it.
[00:33:45] It's there and it's waiting for you. Hundreds of hours of video content, walking you through step by step, how to actually build HMO property business and a whole lot more. And guys, if you've enjoyed today's episode, if you found it useful in any way whatsoever, can I ask you a huge favor? I know I ask you regularly, but it does help so much more than you could possibly know.
[00:34:05] If you could just hit that subscribe button, if you could just share this episode with somebody that you think might benefit from it. And if you could just leave a very quick review. Take no more than 30 seconds. You can leave a review on Spotify and on Apple Oodcasts. It would be hugely helpful. I'd appreciate it more than you could possibly know.
[00:34:22] And yeah, it helps us continue to spread the message and continue bringing great guests onto the show. That's it guys. Thank you so much for tuning in today. And 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.