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Becoming financially free is a dream shared by many people, and property investment can be a powerful tool to help achieve this goal.
In this blog, we'll explore several strategies you can use to build wealth through property and achieve financial freedom.
Many of these strategies require money so we will also detail how you can still achieve financial freedom if you currently have very little money to start investing.
Let’s start with the oldest and most traditional form of property investing…
Buy-to-Let
Buy-to-Let (BTL) is a popular property investment strategy in which you purchase a property specifically to rent it out. BTL properties can provide a steady stream of passive income and offer potential capital appreciation over the long term.
Capital growth over the long term is pretty much a certainty. If you look at historic data over a ten-year period of time, property almost always increases in value. This is what makes BTL the most popular method of investment even today with all these new strategies about!
To maximize your returns from a BTL property, it's important to carefully select a property in a desirable location with strong rental demand. You should also research the local market to understand the average rental prices, competition, and demand for properties like yours.
Having said all of this in the UK the private rental sector PRS has been steadily growing for years and demand almost always outweighs supply.
If you are offering a good quality property, the chances are you will find tenants very quickly.
Additionally, it's important to properly manage your BTL property to minimize expenses and maximize rental income. This can include finding reliable tenants, regularly maintaining the property, and keeping up with repairs and renovations as needed. BTL should never be a case of buy a property, find tenants and take the rental income and forget about it.
Quality properties and quality landlords are always going to be in demand.
Talking of financial freedom – many investors build a portfolio of BTL properties with the view of one day cashing in and that money then becomes their pension pot to enable them to become mortgage free on their own home OR to use that money to sustain their way of life without working.
Property Development
Property development can provide significant returns, but it also carries a much higher level of risk compared to other property investment strategies.
In this strategy, you purchase a property with the intention of renovating, refurbishing, or building new properties to sell or rent.
To be successful in property development, it's important to have a strong understanding of the local property market and what types of properties are in demand.
You should also have experience in construction, design, or project management, or work with a team of professionals who do.
Additionally, it's important to carefully budget and manage costs, as property development projects can be expensive and time-consuming. You should also be prepared to take a long-term view, as property development is often a slow-burn investment that can take several years to reach maturity. Depending on your chosen exit of course.
Many people now focus on the niche of Commercial to Residential as their strategy. Since planning laws were relaxed to make conversions of commercial property easier. This has led to many old commercial buildings in town centres being converted.
You will have no doubt noticed this where you live, old banks, shops, departments stores will have been converted into luxury apartments.
This strategy however has lots of moving parts and is almost a completely different beast when compared to something like standard residential property refurbishments.
Commercial to residential is very forgiving, and by that I mean you could have multiple exits…
Conversion then sell the units – Convert and sell some and keep some – Refinance and pull profit out of the project to enable you to do another project and build your pot of money.
You could even consider using the end units for SA (serviced accommodation) too.
Property Investment Funds
If you're interested in property investment but don't have the experience or resources to invest in individual properties, property investment funds can be a good option. In this strategy, you invest in a fund that pools money from multiple investors to purchase properties.
Property investment funds offer a lower level of risk compared to individual property investments, as the fund manager takes care of the day-to-day management of the properties.
However, it's important to research the fund and its management team, as well as its investment strategy, to ensure that it aligns with your investment goals.
Additionally, property investment funds often come with fees and charges, so it's important to understand these costs and how they impact your returns.
Commercial Properties
Commercial properties, such as office buildings, retail spaces, and industrial properties, can provide a stable source of passive income through rental payments from tenants.
Unlike residential properties, commercial properties typically have longer lease agreements and tenants who are more creditworthy, reducing the risk of vacancy.
To be successful in investing in commercial properties, it's important to understand the local market and the demand for commercial properties in the area. You should also be prepared to invest a significant amount of money upfront, as commercial properties are typically more expensive than residential properties.
Additionally, commercial properties often require professional property management, so it's important to factor in these costs when assessing the potential returns from a commercial property investment.
Property Flipping
Property flipping is a strategy in which you purchase a property, make improvements, and then sell it for a profit.
We’ve all seen the TV program ‘Homes Under the Hammer’ haven’t we? Some of you might remember the old program ‘Property Ladder’ with Sarah Beeny that was on Channel 4 back in the early noughties too. (I much preferred this one!)
You essentially buy a wreck of a property and add value by doing it up and making it habitable.
Then your exit is to sell and take the profit or rent it out and generate monthly rental income (if the market is not favourable at the time).
This strategy can be lucrative, but it also carries a higher level of risk compared to other property investment strategies.
You need to get your numbers right with this one, so when analysing properties you need to make sure that you can add enough value so you generate a profit!
To be successful in property flipping, it's important to have a strong understanding of the local property market and what the end values could potentially be based on recently sold similar properties.
Flipping is very common but it undoubtedly suits a rising market much more than a falling market for obvious reasons!
With each flip you could be pulling out sizeable chunks of money and this can enable you to build that pot of money and also cherry pick which ones you keep hold of and rent out and which ones to sell on. Again it always pays to have more than one exit with any investment.
B.R.R.R. (Buy Refurbish, Refinance, Rent)
This strategy is the same as flipping however… the idea is we recycle the money you used as the deposit to buy the property.
Typically B.R.R.R. starts with you buying the property with either cash or using whats called a bridging loan. You can usually lend anywhere between 70% to 85% LTV. The remaining would be your capital.
A bridging loan is short term finance that you can use to bridge the purchase and then when you have added the value and refurbished the property you would refinance the property and get a traditional mortgage for its higher value. At this point you pay off that bridging loan and hopefully pull out the money you put into the project.
You are then left with a property you can rent out and generate income. If you pulled out all of your own money on the refinance well…. You have no money in the property and you are getting an infinite return on investment!
The benefit of doing this means you can act fast, buy fast and use less of your own money in the deal.
Bridging finance is often used to grow a portfolio quicker than you would as a buy to let investor.
We have people on our mentorship program doing this very successfully - in fact we have one of our own on Homes Under the Hammer in todays episode!
A lovely lady from Wales called Rhian!
OK So what about if you have no money to start with?
How can you become financially free?
It’s the holy grail isn’t it?
But it’s possible to get started in property with very little money and experience.
So if you are any of the following:
You have no experience in property
No money to invest in property at the moment
No knowledge of property or on the strategies above
Your starting point needs to be about building cashflow and generating an income from property (without buying property or investing.)
Your starting point should be: Property Sourcing
Doing this can generate you a fee of £3,000 to £5,000 for every property you trade.
If you scale that up you could soon have a pot of money that allows you to invest yourself. It opens doors and you also learn how to analyse properties and crunch the numbers and see where the value is… which is a useful skill set when it comes down to you investing for yourself!
Source one deal per month you could generate £36,000 to £60,000 in fees.
The earning potential allows you to build that pot of money, that then leads you onto other the next level of cash building property strategies such as:
Rent to Rent (generating monthly cashflow from properties you don’t own)
Lease options (same as above but you negotiate the option to buy in the future)
Rent to Rent SA (changing the usage of a property to SA and generating higher profits)
Assisted Sales (same as flipping but you don’t buy, you assist the owner with a refurb and sale and split the profits)
All the above strategies don’t require you to buy a property.
Yes... the above cash-flowing strategies are all about control of the property, not ownership.
This is how you can scale your cashflow, build a pot of money and… open the doors to investing yourself.
Financial freedom is a buzz-word that many associate with one strategy, but you need a game-plan, a roadmap on how to execute it!
Hopefully, you can see how to get started and how building that small pot of money really does open up other paths you can take.
This can then grow your wealth, add to your assets and build cashflow that takes you towards financial freedom.
Financial freedom = generating enough money passively from investments that pay all your bills you have each month and allow you to live the lifestyle you desire. It’s a different amount depending on your own personal circumstances.
Imagine being able to quit your day job and you can still pay all your bills and live the same if not better! That’s financial freedom.
If you want to check out our free training or you wish to work with us these are the links.
Free Training Workshop - get the full sourcing process for free
One to One Lifetime Mentorship Program - the only lifetime mentorship program in the UK
I hope you enjoyed this blog and found it useful, till next time...
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