by Dan Trivedi
11:02 AM, 27th October 2015, About 9 years ago 2
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For years I refused to do Joint Ventures, I didn’t want to share my deals, my knowledge or strategy. I thought I would be creating my own competition.
Business was going and growing well, but as my success compounded, so did my reach of people, agents & deals. Over time, with the benefit of establishing close working relationships with agents and a good reputation in the location I operate in, the deals presented to me became more specific to my direction. Thus, the conversion rate to deals we should move forward with got higher. However what held my growth back was ME!
Still being unwilling to share and unwilling to change my mindset meant I had to turn deals away ?
Those of you who know and now work with me will know how painful this was for me so I started a journey to look for ways to fund these deals before they started to dry up. The time came whereby what I could offer was a great return, direction and structure for a JV partner.
After completing a few personal JVs that worked well for both parties I decided to take what I was doing and brand it. At the time property sourcing was the hot topic. For me, sourcing and selling deals didn’t feel or fit right with what I wanted to achieve or offer.
I put a lot of thought into defining my core values and integrating them into my business and the mindset of my team:-
Having established these core values it seemed logical to create a brand which enriched these very points in one name.
Named after my 2 children, Grace Charles Property was born.
Our first JV as GCP was with a chap who also wanted knowledge. I’d met this chap at a networking event. We agreed to JV and as a result of sticking to our values the JV was a success and over achieved in terms of timings, rents & refinance.
The power of this JV has led to us now jointly owning a portfolio of five student lets with a combined rent of £10,438 pcm. One of these was a result of him taking what we do and finding his own investor to fund the deal. We have also JV’d on another property based business which we focus on the direct to vendor approach.
We talk weekly and have become friends off the back of it but what is equally important is that when things haven’t been smooth, when costs have over run or the unexpected has arisen we have dealt with the issues whilst retaining our values. As a result, problems come and then go because our energy is focused on growing what we have started to build and driving forward.
I presented these results at last weeks Norfolk Property Network event (NPN) and some of the individuals in the room came over to me and said how this inspired them to approach the right environment with the right mindset.
The reason I’ve posted this article is to explain that I truly believe that mindset and environment is key to success, if one isn’t correct change it! Together you then have the opportunity to create your own results, which often start from something as simple as a conversation.
Plant the Acorn, in the right place, in the right conditions and it will grow.
Hope this helps a few of you from the fantastic world of our property community
Passion + Belief = Results
Dan Trivedi
EDITORS NOTE
This is the second article in a series of Guest Articles posted by Dan Trevidi at the request of Mark Alexander, founder of Property118.com. To view other articles in this series please click here.
Dan is the CEO of Grace Charles property company Ltd
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Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118
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Sign Up11:23 AM, 27th October 2015, About 9 years ago
Last week I had the pleasure of presenting at a Property Networking meeting organised by Dan. There were around 40 attendees, I managed to speak to most of them.
There was a dynamic in the room I had not previously experienced in meetings of this nature. Around half of the people I spoke to had cash and a desire to invest but felt they did not have the knowledge or confidence to go it alone. Their reason for attending was to find JV partners. I was also able to have a very brief conversation with the JV partner that Dan has referenced in this article.
My own presentation was all about the new tax changes and associated solutions. I also spoke about selling properties with tenants in situ and the thought processes which led to the creation of the Property118 Portal to serve that purpose.
During that meeting I openly admitted that for a long while, whilst I was in the process of building my own portfolio, I had become a wealthy "property collector". My strategy was to hive away cash into property for long term growth without much regard for the maximisation of yield. My priority at that time was to sacrifice rental yield for an easier life.
At the meeting I learned that Dan owned a 4 bed detached house on the same street as I own a virtually identical property. I rent mine for £850 pcm to a family who have been there for 5 years. The property is worth circa £250,000 but I paid around half that price around 12 years ago.
On the other hand, Dan has made his property into a 5 bed student let by partitioning the lounge/dining-room to create another bedroom. His rents for £2,100 a month excluding bills!
I thought to myself at the time, and also told the audience; if I knew what I know now when I was hoarding cash and building my portfolio I would do a Joint Venture with Dan in a heartbeat.
As regular Property118 readers will know, my plans now, after 26 years being a landlord, are to emigrate to the sun and gradually sell up. However, if/when my long term tenant decides to vacate this particular property I may well consider entering a joint venture with Dan, assuming the timing and the deal we can strike is right of course. Previously I had considered this property would be one of the first I would sell due to the low yield and large amounts of equity that have built up.
Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? LOL
.
Neil Patterson
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Sign Up11:43 AM, 27th October 2015, About 9 years ago
The key to any investment is Due Diligence and Dan knows his area and market intimately.