Investors: The Importance of Selecting the Right HMO \u2018Experts\u2019

Here we bring you the story of our client, Anthony, who despite being on the other side of the world started his investment journey in the UK recently.

Unfortunately, upon his arrival in the UK in January of this year, he found that the refurbishments on his two latest acquisitions weren’t going to plan and he needed to intervene, move fast, and protect his investments without delay.

Here’s what happened and how we were able to help Anthony.

The background

Whilst still in his native Hong Kong, Anthony purchased two investment properties in Burnley, the first in August and the second in October, both via the same property sourcing agent.

After completion Anthony agreed that the sourcing agent could help with the refurbishment of the two properties to convert them into houses of multiple occupation (HMO’s).

Anthony became concerned that the refurbishments were taking longer than expected before his arrival in the UK a few months later. The delay however ended up being the tip of the iceberg as Anthony was even more dumfounded when he saw the standard of the works the sourcing agent had done.

The sourcing agent gave many excuses, such as the pandemic and personal circumstances but that didn’t help Anthony. He now needed to take things into his own hands, resolve the problems and find tenants.

Empty properties for this length of time can cause big problems for investors and Anthony needed to fill some rooms fast. Of course, before he could do this he had to rectify the problems and make the properties ready to move into.

By now his first property had been empty for 6 months. He needed help.

How Anthony found us

Of course, entering a new market, never mind in a new country, is hard enough, so it’s important to surround yourself with local experts and to have a reliable team around you as an investor. That being the case, Anthony got to work to find the support he needed.

After visiting his properties on numerous occasions and keeping an eye out around Burnley, Anthony soon noticed that E&M Property Solutions were managing a lot of properties similar to his, courtesy of our ‘to let’ signs.

Anthony decided to research us and find out all about us on our website. As we can help with refurbishments, advice, local knowledge, lettings and we’re specialists in HMO’s, we were an obvious fit for Anthony and he made contact with our team.

Moving forward with the projects

Understanding the urgency with which Anthony needed help our Managing Director, Tina got involved straight away.

Tina went to inspect the properties and saw first-hand the sub-standard refurbishment works and worse still, she noticed several instances of non-compliance with HMO regulations. We had plenty of work to do before we could consider marketing the properties to potential tenants.

We advised Anthony, gave him an action plan and a quotation for the work that we needed to do urgently.

With Anthony’s approval we got to work to quickly resolve the pressing issues and then found him his first two tenants without further delay.

Crucially with two rooms occupied Anthony was now breaking even every month giving us a bit more time to complete the works across the two properties and find him the perfect tenants to fill both properties.

Tina commented, “it’s always frustrating to see sub-standard work in our industry, especially when investors work hard to provide quality, affordable homes for those who need them. It was our pleasure to help Anthony turn this project around, fulfil his vision for these properties, and to get him some rent coming in quickly.”

What’s next

With the potentially catastrophic issues on cash flow resolved our attention turned to completing all the refurbishment works and filling the remaining rooms in the two properties.

We are just approaching a very busy time where we expect to see an influx of potential new tenants in the shape of new workers coming to the UK from overseas from April. These people represent the perfect tenants for Anthony and the properties should be ready in time for their arrival. We expect to achieve full occupancy for Anthony within the coming weeks.

From that point we will be able to help Anthony manage the tenancies and the properties as required with our bespoke property management service.

The key takeaways

This story goes to show that it’s always important to have proven experts around you as an investor, especially if you’re investing in an area far away.

In Anthony’s case the previous sourcing agent professed to be an HMO specialist but left Anthony facing potentially serious consequences of not complying with HMO regulations – which are more complex than what’s required for a traditional single let.

Once Anthony had found actual experts in HMO’s in the shape of our specialist team, he was able to move his projects forward at pace.

Anthony now owns another property in Manchester and he is looking forward to working with us on that safe in the knowledge that we’re a proven partner for him moving forward.

Anthony then hopes to continue building his portfolio in Burnley and across Lancashire with Tina and the E&M team by his side.

We look forward to working with Anthony as his property journey unfolds and we’re always on the lookout for both new and seasoned investors who we can help.

“As investors ourselves we know how important it is to be able to rely on good people to get projects completed quickly and to standard. That’s why we’ve created a one-stop shop service so we can help from beginning-to-end. We can find you your next investment property, carry out any refurbishment works, meet all necessary regulations, find you your perfect tenants and then manage your properties and the tenancies. It’s so pleasing to see our process work so effectively for Anthony in this case.”

Tina Etherington, managing director, E&M Property Solutions

Contact us

To talk to Tina or the team about your situation and to find out how we can help you, please call us on 01282 711560 or email lettings@eandmps.com.

“I feel very fortunate to have met Tina and the team at E&M Property Solutions, they without doubt played a pivotal role in helping me resolve a difficult situation and I very much look forward to working with them continuously moving forward as my trusted partner in property.”

Anthony, E&M client