By Raj Sharma.
The Birmingham Partners in Property meeting for May 2023 kicked off with the usual 10 second introduction round. This is where members tell us who they are, what they do in property and how they can help the room.
Our main speakers for the day were two amazing ladies doing equally amazing things in their property businesses.
First up was Victoria Miller of Orenda-Luxe – a luxury serviced accommodation business. Vicky was in full time employment in social care only 18 months ago and had already built a single let and HMO portfolio with her husband Antony. But she decided to become a full time investor and has since created some stunning, high end luxury serviced apartments and has achieved superb valuations on these properties through improvements and uplift in income generated.
Key takeaways from this inspiring presentation was to de-risk your investment by doing full due diligence before you purchase, have multiple exits and research your area!
Next up was our PIP sponsor from The Mortgage Consultancy, Peter Vandervennin. The great feature of Peter’s presentations are that they’re not simply an update of the latest rates, but Peter shares strategies that others are using at the moment to get the best returns in the current climate.
There was also news of a new lender entering the arena that aims to capture a large share of the market with their lending criteria that will appeal to many. Keep tuned in for further news on this!
There was a short presentation from Dave McGourlay from Serco, who are tasked with the enormous job of housing asylum seekers under a government contract. They are offering landlords long term leases (just under 7 years) and are after HMOs as well as family unit properties. Dave can very quickly assess from the postcode of a property if it will be suitable and can be contacted for any further information.
Our last presenter of the day was our very own PIP Manchester host, Alicia Barlow.
Alicia trained as a Chartered Accountant and worked for several years helping SMEs with their financial management. This was perfect grounding for her analytical approach to property investing and has delivered numerous buy, refurbish and refinance projects in her home town of Bolton.
Lately, Alicia’s property strategy has been to acquire commercial property through the acquisition of asset backed trading businesses. She explained the process and the team you need to carry out the due diligence during the buying process. The end result is not only more property to add to the portfolio for long term growth, but also trading income for cash flow now.
This concluded the morning session – just in time for lunch – after which we had the afternoon session of round tables which all of our presenters hosted to answer further questions.
Another superb day of networking!
