One week ago, I honestly wasn’t sure how I was going to make this property deal happen.
Today, I’ve just submitted my offer to purchase a 4-bedroom house in Brixham, Devon with amazing sea views and huge potential. Why am I sharing this? Because only seven days ago, I still needed to raise approximately £280,000 to fund the purchase, refurbishment, and associated costs. I had spoken to just about everyone I could think of about investing with me and earning a better return than leaving their money sitting in the bank… but nothing was happening. After speaking with Nick and Jamie and going through the numbers together, they both agreed it was a strong deal and gave me some simple advice: “Just make it happen.” So that’s exactly what I decided to do. The property needs a full refurbishment, but I could see the potential immediately. My preferred strategy at the moment is likely to refurbish and refinance as a licensed HMO, although I’m also exploring other exit strategies including social housing and a flip. The biggest challenge wasn’t the property… It was believing I could raise the money. Initially, the best finance option I could secure was 75% of the purchase price plus the refurbishment costs, which still left a significant shortfall. But I kept going.Kept asking questions. Kept speaking to people. Kept looking for solutions. And today, I was offered 90% of the purchase price and 100% of the refurbishment funding. In the end, I only needed to put in £17,000 of my own money to move forward with the offer. Whether the vendor accepts my offer or not almost feels secondary now because the biggest win for me this week was proving to myself that things can change very quickly when you fully commit and refuse to give up. One week ago I was doubting myself, struggling to raise finance, and wondering whether I'm capable of doing this deal… Don’t quit too early. Sometimes you are only one conversation, one introduction, or one week away from things changing completely. A huge thank you to Nick and Jamie for the encouragement and belief. Jeff Drew