Hey, I'm Matt. I've worked for several years in financial services & banking for one of the UK's largest banks in London and now work as a senior product manager in a global startup. On the side, I'm building a property development group utilising all my leadership, project management and financial experience. I'm helping share my knowledge of working in these roles mixed with the world of property.
Hey everyone! 👋
I'm in a flow of sending these emails out every few weeks, the last update was almost a month ago so a great point to get in touch with you all on the Buy-to-Let update! (YouTube Video)
We're definitley on the home stretch now with the project, it has been tiring, more expensive and taken a lot longer than expected but it's been a great learning curve with loads of video topics I want to cover over the next few months on my YouTube Channel on the research, planning, process and learnings for the future.
All the second fixes are well underway now, plumbing has been all finished up and the electrics are pretty much sorted and as I'm typing this today I've got the second to last major trade in replacing the windows and doors. The last major trade will be carpet fitting!
It's been a long few weeks grafting on getting the project ready to rent out, as I mentioned in the previous issue of the newsletter, this project scope has definitely increased. I found greater water damage, more damp problems so we took a lot more of the property back to brick than anticipated.
That being said, a back to brick project usually would cost £30k to put back together minimum and so far my total spend is about £17k including windows and doors on this (Which cost £3.5k).
I'm excited to get the property re-valued to see what it's worth. Either way I'll be holding onto it for 2 years then make a decision on how much I can refinance out but I'd expect in 2 years I'll be leaving less than £10k in the entire deal which is awesome, the first two years I'm expecting to make about 32% ROCE including rental profit, after the refinance, this will be 80%+ return on capital employed a year which is a great investment on my money as I can use the money pulled out to work hard on another project.
The bathroom is now fully painted, and tiled with second fixes pretty much finished! I just need to take out the toilet, lay the new floor then put the toilet in and the bathroom is the first fully completed room!
We had no heating for ages, so the house was freezing cold and heaters were costing a fortune so it was a race to get all the plumbing fixed and radiators back on the walls to get the house heated, nightmare to say the least!
I also fitted the kitchen base units and whilst the joiner was in hanging all the doors, I also got him to fit the worktop with me so we had a successful day. The electrics are also completed, I have a great electrician but he sent 2 apprentice's for the second fixes as it was meant to be simple but they've made a few mistakes with the wiring that now needs correcting so the main electrician is coming back to finish off the electric work.
I also decided to get myself a treat and get a DeWalt self laser level, it's completed changed my development life! having a laser level is so, so handy. It's been used for the bathroom, radiators, tiling, kitchen - you name it... it's handy! It's a great way to quickly and easily tell if something is level / plumb without having to measure.
The problem with this house being a 1950s council build is that nothing is straight, so measuring from floors and ceilings often means I'm just following the 'wonky' ceilings and floors in the house.
I bought my from ScrewFix for £169 but I actually found it cheaper on Amazon! Only £149 on there!
With being so busy on the house, I'm not filming twice a week at the moment but I do have another property tour to see everything in action so don't forget to check it out and if you're not already subscribed to the channel, definitely subscribe to stay up to date on latest progress.
As always - if you have any questions then feel free to hit reply, I'll always get back to anyone who takes the time to email in. Or if you want to see any specific YouTube videos covering the buy to let then I can happily pop those onto my list to create
I'll drop a pre-christmas update and then likely again just before the new year where I'm really hoping to get the project wrapped up!
Speak soon!
Matt
Hey, I'm Matt. I've worked for several years in financial services & banking for one of the UK's largest banks in London and now work as a senior product manager in a global startup. On the side, I'm building a property development group utilising all my leadership, project management and financial experience. I'm helping share my knowledge of working in these roles mixed with the world of property.
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