Has your property investment got a PG rating? 🍿 #personalguarantee Doesn’t that sound reassuring in this game! ⚔️🤕 Not too much drama 🙈🦵 No gratuitous scenes 💪🌏 You have the power to decide whether it’s suitable Except a Personal Guarantee is far more complex. It does NOT guarantee you will regain your capital, no matter what the intentions. 👉 Tough reminder time: ✅ Read the small print ✅ Ask yourself why a PG has become your reassuring exit strategy for this deal. Has

What super power would I have if I could choose? 🎁 The ability to choose exactly when to be able to sleep! 😴😂 (and how long!) When I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) post my time on the trading floor, all I COULD do was sleep 😩 CFS demanded 20 HOURS of sleep from me per day, every day, for a period of about 18 months. People don’t believe me when I say that. 20 hours. Sounds glorious to some! But when it’s not a choice, it’s frustrating and worrying. Especially since in

It doesn’t make sense to some fellow investors why I’m risk-averse. Or ‘so cautious.’ ‘There are limits’ they say. ‘At some point you’ve just got to for it and let the chips fall where they may.’ Or ‘When does Helen actually do a deal?’ 🤔😂 It’s only when I share the true WHY - complete with details and context and, if I trust the person, the names involved, then they go ‘Ohhhhhh...' 'Sh*t....now I get it!’ 😂😩 Because this is the reality of those two particular bad investm

What money beliefs did you inherit from your parents? 😬😂 Many of us happily swear by the things we learnt about money growing up: ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees’ (work hard to get it) ‘Respect money and you’ll always have enough’ And so on. Some of us (me!) needed to change one or two (urgently and drastically!) so that we actually engage with money in healthy ways. And stand a chance to make some! ‘Money is the root of all evil’ (sounds dramatic and doubtful to have this, bu

‘What do you love most about being a woman?’ Asked someone a couple of weeks ago on International Women’s Day. I sent them a list! Divided into two categories though...those which are no surprise to me (have felt them all along, many women will have shared the same) and those which grew unexpectedly with age and experience 😯💫 like: 🚺🚹 Having the ability to be in a feminine or more masculine energy as I need (and when it’s appropriate). For me personally, my masculine ener

HUGE congratulations to Paul Heming and Liam Curley of Own The Build podcast, on their 5️0th Epsiode 🥳🙌🏽👏🏽 In this milestone episode, I join the chaps to discuss how I got into property investing and my experience transferring from finance to real estate. We also discuss how developers should best manage investor relationships and why it is critical to a project going well - as well as to getting repeat investment! I was introduced to them by my fellow #propertysistersuk

🍄Don’t treat your investors like M-U-S-H-R-O-O-M-S! 🍄 Yes, mushrooms! The ones with big heads that like to be fed and then kept in the dark… That is NOT your investors! 😣 I don’t know if it’s sometimes the profile of a property developer. They are fast starters, high risk-takers, and are brilliant at spotting opportunities. But…what then? Leave everyone who’s supported this project hanging? If you put yourself in your investors’ shoes, how would it feel to put your faith -

One of my favourite subjects, sleep 😴 I know it's only Wednesday 😂 but in this industry, any night of the week could be sleepless. [My new film Sleepless in Real Estate is out soon, watch this space 👀🎬, we just need a convincing male lead 😅 anyone?] 1. Build costs 2021... with the pandemic, Brexit and sustainability concerns, build costs can start as one price and arrive as another. Cue timber 'shortages' eg simply unaffordable. How do you plan for that? 2. Planning. Pos

Let's just get real 👀 Who is responsible for your investment? 💷 Hard question in #property. Isn't it the developer, whose job it is to make a return on it? You give them the money, and then they make it grow? 💎 I'm sorry to say it but, NO. We investors make a choice to invest our money into a project, and accept the outcome of that investment. That's all on us. Our money = our responsibility. 🔍 If we did or didn't do our due diligence 🤨 If we went against instinct 🤩 If

I look at each investment in terms of where they sit in my portfolio. This will always determine at the end of the day whether I invest. It's not just the deal. If I’m feeling exposed already in a certain area, it's highly likely I won’t want to put a new one in there that increases RISK in that area. Like equity, for example. But let's not get into where those are at right now in my world 🙈 Just like Deborah Meaden (😏) we get to know the kind of deals she might go for, bas

Are you really minimising risk? Property Investors and Developers wear different glasses when it comes to this… 👓😂 PLUS you don’t know what we see on a day-to-day basis 📥👀 To you, this may be a great return, but as investors we are seeing maybe 10 of these types deals a day 💻📊📑 I am ALWAYS thinking, what is going to give me the LOWEST RISK as well as the highest return? This is why it’s so important not to look at deals in ISOLATION. Come to think of it, very few prope

Would you like a headache today? 🤯 How about a migraine?! No thank you! 💯 I’ve been talking recently about saying ‘no’ to certain investments, and picking through some of the real Why?s. One of those reasons is a little voice I hear inside which says, watch out! This one sounds like a HEADACHE 😕 Headaches are a common part of the property, I think we can all agree. But migraines… those are lurking in special places in the proposal. We don’t want to admit that they are ther

Wow what a completely awesome day at the Landlords Investing Show in Old Billingsgate! 📸🎥🎙 I had LOADS of fun and thank you everyone who organised, presented (thx Elizabeth Warburton) and made our LIVE Property Elevator session possible. And well done to the pitchers Chris, Omer Mehmet and Jackie. It is NOT easy doing these pitches on the show, let alone LIVE as it was yesterday 🎦 🗯 Key quotes overheard from the angels 🗯 'Options, options, OPTIONS. I love a deal which g

A project with a big heart, a PURPOSE, really makes us sit up and listen. It channels our concentration and makes us really try to find a solution to help make it happen. As an Angel Investor, it’s not all returns, we focus on USE and VALUE. In Episode 3 of this series of Property Elevator we had a presentation by a young man looking to buy a property and develop a new childcare home with our help. With no development experience, you could tell he was nervous, but his idea wa

‘You say no to EVERYTHING!’ said @JohnHoward to me while we were filming Property Elevator 😅 Recently I’ve been talking about my particular approach to risk, and why some ‘decent-looking’ deals still don’t make me bite 🍔 In summary, here’s why: The downside is not worth the extra few percent projected return. Well, there’s more: ➡️ They don’t have a proper EXIT strategy. No viable plan B. Or C. ➡️ There’s major risk they haven’t analysed. ➡️ They’ve overblown the potential,

What questions would you have for another developer’s pitch? 🗯 I’m thinking along the lines of ‘have you thought of connecting with a building partner with experience in multi-use development?' As opposed to ’What on earth are you thinking with that strategy?’ Although sometimes that needs to be asked! 😂 Would you be comfortable doing that with another developer or investor? I say, get comfortable! 😌 We can all support each other by (helpfully!) pointing out what others ca

I think I shall claim this quote! I find myself saying it almost weekly at the moment to developers. Here’s the scenario: They’ll present a project, which by (almost) all appearances is a ‘decent’ project. It’s a ‘decent’ project with a ‘decent’ return. But then we look PROPERLY at the potential headaches. Or I do. And that ‘decent’… isn’t even a ‘decent’ anymore 😐 And then there’s my question. Why go to all that effort, when not only are the returns not extraordinary, but t

Nobody has 12 hats. Or nobody wears them all at the same time! In property we’re expected to wear a few different ones. As an investor, I’m wearing a few myself: 🤝 JV Partner 💱 Trader 💃 Networker ⚖️ Economist 🤓 Risk Assessor 😅 Therapist…! But when you’re just piling the responsibility onto yourself to cover every role and base in a project, you’re going to get into deep water. You may SOUND like a force to be reckoned with, but an experienced investor (the type you want)

How do you feel when someone says to you, 'What's your story?' 😬 Do you try to rack your brain for the best parts to show your success in life? 💪💪💪 Or do you reach for the humour? 🤪 Or do you just start from the beginning? I’m currently refining (articulating/splurging/rewriting/cringing/rewriting) my story for an upcoming speaking engagement [#watchthisspace SUPER excited about this one 🤩] I decided to take more risks… And now it’s so tempting to just OMIT here and the

What does OPM stand for? ‘Other people’s money.’ OPM. #realestate As catchy as this phrase is in real estate, can I just say I hate it. 😠 To me, this phrase does, and always has, conveniently removed a CLEAR BOUNDARY that absolutely needs to be there. It’s about respecting the seriousness of the undertaking, and having an intention to respect all parties, and their money. It’s also about mindset. OPM, especially when presented as a shiny strategy, dilutes the responsibility