Here’s Who You Need In Your HMO Power Team!

In this episode, we’re going to talk about your HMO Power Team. I’ll explain why it’s so important to have a strong team for successful HMO property investing and list 20 key people you should have on your team.

Think of building a successful property business like putting together a great symphony. You shouldn’t play every instrument yourself; instead, you should be the conductor. It’s crucial to have the right people—skilled and experienced professionals—helping you reach your goals. We’ll cover all this and more in today’s episode.

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Transcript

Andy Graham (00:02.67)
Hey, I'm Andy and you're listening to the HMO Podcast. Over 10 years ago, I set myself the challenge of building my own property portfolio. And what began as a short -term investment plan soon became a long -term commitment to change the way young people live together. I've now built several successful businesses. I've raised millions of pounds of investment and I've managed thousands of tenants. Join me and some very special guests to discover the tips, tricks and hacks, the ups and the downs, the best practice and everything else you need to know to start, scale and systemise your very own HMO portfolio now.

Andy Graham (00:40.652)
In today's episode, we are going to be talking about your HMO Power Team. I'm going to share the exact lineup that I think you need in your team if you want to win at this sport called HMO Property Investing. Look, the truth is building a successful property business is a little bit like creating a great symphony, but you shouldn't be the musician. You should be the conductor of this orchestra. And that is why it is so important to make sure you have the right people in your orchestra, the right musicians, skilled and experienced people who can help you achieve the results that you have set out to. So in today's episode, we're to get into all of this and a whole lot more. So without further ado, please sit back, relax and enjoy today's episode of the HMO Podcast.

Hey guys, it's Andy here. We're going be getting back to the podcast in just a moment, but before we do, I want to tell you very quickly about the HMO roadmap. Now, if you're serious about replacing your income, or perhaps you've already got a HMO portfolio that you want to scale up, then the HMO roadmap really is your one-stop shop. Inside the roadmap, you'll find a full 60 lesson course delivered by me, teaching you how to find more deals, how to fund more deals and raise private finance, how to refurbish great properties, how to fill them with great tenants that stay for longer, and how to manage your properties and tenants for the future.

We've also got guest workshops added every single month. We've got new videos added every single week about all sorts of topics. We've got downloadable resources, cheat sheets and swipe files to help you. We've got case studies from guests and community members who are doing incredible projects that you can learn from. And we've also built an application just for you, that allows you to appraise and evaluate your deals, stack them side by side and track the key metrics that are most important to you. To find out more, head to theHMOroadmap.co.uk now and come and join our incredible community of HMO property investors.


Andy Graham (02:37.464)
Okay, welcome back. So today we're going to be talking about your HMO power team, a term I'm sure you're not unfamiliar with. But before we get into today's episode, I want you to very quickly tot -op who you've got in your power team, or if you're just starting out, who you think should be in your power team. Because I can always guarantee I have a few more people on my list today than you might have on your list currently.

Now, don't worry, this isn't a competition, but what I want to do today is open your eyes to the number of people out there that are skilled and experienced and have the ability to help you achieve so much more than you might be currently able to do. Now, some of these are inevitably going to be pretty obvious people and services that you're already very familiar with and aware of. But I'm pretty sure that some of this stuff you may have heard of, but haven't actually thought seriously about just how valuable it could be to your business. Not just in terms of perhaps saving time, but actually in terms of potentially saving money, avoiding huge mistakes, reducing risks significantly and a whole lot more. And today's episode isn't actually just about the beginning of the journey or the acquisition part of the process, which I think when we're talking about power teams, that's often what we tend to marry it up with the idea of having a power team around you to help you buy HMOs.

Actually having a power team around you should, yes, in part, help you be able to buy HMOs effectively, but also then help you to run a really profitable and successful HMO property business into the long-term as well. Because trust me, you are not going to be able to do that on your own. If you intend to do it all on your own, then I certainly hope that one of your objectives is not to have time and freedom and flexibility, because if you try to do everything yourself, you're just not going to have that.

It's really important that we use these other people, these other skills and experiences and other services. So when you toted it up, how many people did you have in your power team? How many people did you think should be in your power team? Well, today I'm going to share 20 different people, 20 different services that I think you should have in your power team. This isn't an exhaustive list, but I think this is the kind of the core.

Andy Graham (04:49.568)
of this team that you will need. So we're not going to labor each one of these. I don't think we need to. We're going to kind of be whizzing through them. So if you haven't already got yourself one, go and grab a pen and a paper because you might need to take some notes today. So in no particular order, this is not an order of importance by any means, but I have tried to arrange it in perhaps order of the process from sort of acquisition right through to ongoing management. If you can imagine, I'm going to start with.

Agents and property sources. Now I don't personally use anybody to source my deals for me, although I've got a really good network of agents who do typically pick up the phone and call me when something good, something that they think will be interesting to me has become available. And that's incredibly important. So actually agent slash property sourcer. It's not actually just one individual. It could be a number of individuals in your power team here, but that skill set is incredibly important.

It's really tough trying to do all of this on your own. The chances are you're just not going to be able to maintain enough attention across the entire market at any point in time to make sure that you don't miss anything. And of course, a lot of stuff does move off the open market. And this is where these people can be really good. Now, property sources, you've got to be really careful with this. Please don't rush to Facebook and Instagram and make a hasty decision to work with a property sourcer, it's important that these people actually have skills and have experiences and have the right credibility and can actually help you.

But the right people, the right relationships, the right skill sets, the right knowledge and experience really can enhance the pace at which you can buy stuff. It can help you access deals that you may potentially otherwise have missed or not been able to get access to. So I would definitely spend some time working on this if you haven't already done it. These people should be able to navigate the local market for you and identify local opportunities align with your goals and objectives.

So if you get this right, you do it in the right way and you approach it, paying somebody like this a few quid, if that's what it is, an agent won't necessarily need that depends on the type of agent, a property sourcer, a professional sourcer, a property would do. But again, you should be factoring all of this into the deal that it really can enhance your deal flow. So that's the first one. Number two then, your mortgage broker. We have Ellie on the show regularly because Ellie is an expert when it comes to all things HMO mortgages.

Andy Graham (07:09.726)
Now mortgages is a huge topic. There's a huge number of banks and lenders out there in the market. And there's a huge number of different types of products with subspecialties and all sorts of things going on. So having a broker who really understands HMOs is imperative for a number of reasons. If you haven't listened to any episodes of myself and earlier watched any of Ellie's masterclasses in the HMO roadmap, make sure you go and spend some time doing that to really understand.

But Ellie and people like Ellie, specialist brokers in the HMO sector, they understand things like how the lenders operate, these specialist lenders, how commercial valuations work, what the rates are at any particular point and how that might be different to perhaps sort of other products and standard buy to let stuff out there in the market. Specialist brokers also have special relationships with specialist lenders and that can actually get you access. Certainly is the case with Ellie to discounted rates.

So you might be able to get rates half a point cheaper than a broker who doesn't have a partnership with those lenders. There are very few lenders who have those sorts of relationships with the brokers, but it's really, really important. So make sure you are using a specialist. This specialist broker, somebody like Ellie, can save you not only lots and lots of money, potentially going down the rabbit hole and finding you've ended up with the wrong product or a lender who at the end of the day isn't going to lend, they'll give you the terms that you want but somebody who can just save you loads and loads of time.

Somebody who can go straight to the most appropriate lender rather than just canvassing the whole market, have you filling in loads and loads of application forms. Somebody who understands that the nuances of your deal and the nuances of lender's requirements, it's so incredibly important. Loan to value ratios, loan to gross development ratios, loan to costs, affordability, experience. All of these things have a bearing on whether or not a lender is going to lend.

And making sure that you are working with a broker who can cut through all of this for you will save you so much time and so much money. So for me, absolute no brainer to have a specialist broker like Ellie in your power team. Number three, a good solicitor. This is a tough one to find. Solicitors, good solicitors, I think are really few and far between. And I think it's often just because they are so busy. How often if you've been buying property, do you just feel like...

Andy Graham (09:31.126)
Your deal is just on a huge pile on their desk and that the solicitor is going to get to it when they get to it. What you want is a solicitor who understands the importance of speed for you because in my opinion, that's where a huge amount of the risk is. I don't want to lose the deal. I don't want the market to change in that time. I don't want bill costs or inflation to go up. I don't want this to be a global pandemic. All these things. And I know I'm exaggerating now slightly, but it's very, very important that you get things done as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

And a good solicitor is really, really important. I think a solicitor who communicates really well is so incredibly important. I've seen it so many times. It's happened to me myself. The wrong solicitor has meant I've lost the deal. Communications are broken down between us and the seller. And it's been really, really difficult. It's imperative that you have a good solicitor who understands exactly what you need and does it and is able to communicate really, really well. But that is tough and you are in all likelihood going to have to potentially kiss a few frogs.

And one of the really frustrating things with solicitors is that sometimes, depending on the lender that you're going to go with, sometimes they need to be on a particular panel and your preferred solicitor may not be on that panel. So anyway, do what you can, but if you find a good solicitor, hold onto them and never let them go ever. Hold onto them for dear life, because they'll save you so much time and so much money and so much heartache. And trust me, when you know you've got a good solicitor, it makes

It gives you so much confidence when you're putting your offers in, you're giving your solicitors details and bam, they're off, they're getting the job done for you. Number four then, you need a good insurance broker. As soon as you exchange, normally you're taking on the insurable risks. So you need a good insurance broker. Now, if you're investing in HMOs, you need an insurance broker who really understands HMO products. You also need an insurer or a broker who understands

The type of project that you're going to be doing and the fact that for a period of time, it may be vacant or undergoing a certain number of works. There's lots of different types of products out there in the market. You need a broker who really understands this. And also you need a broker who's prepared to go and put the time into getting you the very best price that you can. And equally as important when it comes up to renewals, you'll find when you expand your portfolio, when you grow your portfolio, you've got a good size portfolio. You've got a lot of insurance renewals happening every single year and it can get very, very expensive.

Andy Graham (11:51.412)
Yesterday, I just approved a policy for about two and a half grand on a block of flats that I own. And that is the sort of thing where you want to know and you want to have the trust and faith in your broker. They're going out to the market. They're getting you the very best prices. They're exploring things. They're coming back with the best possible policy options that they can do. I've used brokers and insurers before that have not done that. And actually they've been very lazy and the prices have become very, very expensive.

And ultimately it took me having to go to a number of other people to test them out for them to then come back with different prices to realize. So don't be complacent with this, but do spend the time, invest that time and effort into finding yourself a really good insurance broker. Somebody who really understands what you need, how you operate. Again, you want someone quick, someone who can go to the market, get back to you quickly, makes it really simple, clear and easy. You don't want to be filling out loads of forms, doing loads of paperwork before they come back with anything. You want someone who completely understands what you need.

Number five, you need a good accountant. Now, what you don't need is a really expensive accountant. That's not what I mean. Just because an accountant is more expensive or has a swanky office or a nice sign on the door doesn't necessarily mean they're the right accountant or even a good accountant. Actually, what I often like is smaller firms and I like a very personalized service because accounting isn't just about counting the beans. It's actually about understanding your business objectives.

If your accountant understands your business objectives, they can help in the decision-making process. When you're buying properties, when you're refinancing things, how you track and record information, how you tax plan and how you make things as efficient as possible. You also want an accountant who really understands property and things like VAT. If you're doing HMO conversions, if you're buying a residential property and converting it to a HMO, actually you'll qualify for 5% VAT.

You need to serve the appropriate notices to your contractors and so on and so forth. You need accountants who understand this sort of stuff. Ideally you want accountants who are prepared and willing to use accounting systems that you're comfortable and familiar with. For example, Xero. If you're a user of Xero, if you like Xero, I think it's fantastic. I use it across about 12 of my businesses. I like an accountant who understands Xero and wants to use it. And it can do all sorts of the fancy stuff in Xero that I can't necessarily do as I lay.

Andy Graham (14:12.738)
So there's a lot of stuff to think about that. shouldn't be that expensive. And like, think just as sort of a broad brush, like somewhat like accounting for a pretty standard SPV with a few properties in a couple of grand a year, no more to do all your sort of management and then filing at the end of the year, probably more than you need. You don't certainly not need spending lots more than that. So get yourself a really good accountant. Don't settle for an accountant who's lazy, who's last minute. That drives me mad. You want an accountant who's on top of stuff, reminding you well in advance who's diligent, who's saving you money.

Number six then you need a good architect. So once you've bought your property or you're buying your property, you really need to understand exactly what you can do with the floor plan. That's one of the best ways to determine what it's going to be worth at the end, both in terms of capital value and rental value. But putting the floor plan on a scrap paper and sketching a few ideas out. Very rarely are you going to be able to come up with the very best options. You might be able to come up with some options. You might be able to see how you might be able to turn a five bed into a six bed or so on and so forth. But can you see the optimum floor space, the optimum floor plan? Are you using it to the very best of its ability? Are you thinking about structure and functionality? But a good architect will be doing all of that for you. And a good architect will be able to give you some feasibility options.

Maybe option A, B and C and help you understand even at the early viability stages, what your deal could be worth, what it might even cost you to do that type of refurbishment type of project. So obviously at the HMO roadmap, we are partners with the lovely Andrew & Mary who joined me on the podcast a number of times. I've done loads of master classes for us inside the HMO roadmap. I've worked with for a long time, they've done my own projects, they do a lot of our community projects. They are fantastic. And it's because they do all of that, but it's also because they themselves invest in HMOs.

And I think that that subspecialty and really understanding the nuances of HMOs is so important when you are thinking about selecting an architect. A lot of architects like to design and that is great. And I'm a huge fan of good design, but you also want an architect who's commercially minded, who thinks with their investor hat on as well, because it's no good just designing the fanciest, best looking scheme in the world if actually that

Andy Graham (16:32.596)
is unviable. You need that good combination of aesthetics and functionality and practicality and economy. So make sure you've got a good architect on your side like Andrew and Mary, because they will help you maximise the profitability of all of your schemes. There's no doubt about it. Okay. Number sevn, I think a good interior designer on your team is an absolute no brainer. Now, this is one of the things that a lot of people, a lot of investors like to do themselves, but a lot of investors are not really the best interior designers, myself included. If I go back and look at some of my early stuff, it's shocking. I mean, how I even got to where I am now with some of that stuff. It was awful primary colors. Just, I think we might have painted a house purple inside once, it so bad. But honestly, a good interior designer can help you design a palette. Again, economically, something that looks fluid can pull a concept together that elevates your products and that can result in from a profitability point of view, rental sort of uplift substantially more than you are likely to pay for a service like that in the first instance.

And one of the cool things you can do is you can actually rinse and repeat. You can have a palette that you refer to regularly. Maybe you have a core kind of palette, different colors that you use as part of your brand. And then you can rinse and repeat that maybe with a few sort of tweaks here and there, depending on the project.

But for me, a good interior designer is absolutely critical if you really want to maximise the financial performance of your scheme. And again, I think it just helps on the valuation as well. If everything looks cohesive, professionally planned, right down to the furniture. Andrew and Mary, by the way, architects at the HMO roadmap, they have an interior design service as well. But whomever it is, make sure that they've got the skills and experience to do this for you, but also to bring something in on the right price. That's one of the really important things. A lot of interior designers, if you went to the open market, wouldn't necessarily have that commercial hat that you need for this.

Number eight then, I think that this is probably one very few people listening today have on their list and their power team, a good planning consultant. What is a planning consultant? I think we may have covered this on the show before, but a planning consultant is an expert who understands planning policy. Now, when you apply for planning permission, let's say you want to turn a

Andy Graham (19:01.144)
property into a residential property into a HMO. And there's an article 4 direction, so you've got to apply for full planning or you want to go from six bed to sui generis, seven bed or eight bed, something like that. Or maybe you want to extend the property beyond outside of the parameters of permitted development, whatever it is, you're going to need full planning. And depending on the scheme and how contentious it may or may not be, there could be a real value in having a planning consultant on your side. Now we would never ever, ever in a million years think about submitting one of our large commercial to residential schemes without having a planning consultant heavily involved in the project.

They understand everything from heritage to local policy to presence that had been set. They'll look at what's been successful, unsuccessful, what's gone to appeal. They will have to word things. They will know how to overcome technical objections and doing that at the front end when you apply is absolutely how you want to approach a planning scheme. If there's anything at all contentious about it. Not doing it.

And I've seen so many people doing this, making the mistake of maybe writing a planning statement yourself, maybe not getting the right consultants in to kill a lot of the arguments or the pushback that you might get from the council or local objectors. If you wait and then you get a rejection or it goes to appeal, you're have to do it further down the line. It's all going to take ages. You might lose the deal. There's a lot of risk in there. This for me, paying a good planning consultant is absolutely critical.

When it comes to HMOs and especially Article 4 directions, we all know that this is extremely contentious, very difficult to get residential conversions to HMO through in areas of Article 4 direction. You really need to understand the nuances, the minutiae of local policy. And sometimes that is not publicly available. So if as a HMO investor, you're doing these sorts of projects, I would highly recommend you use a planning consultant who is specialised in HMOs. Yes, they do exist. There's very few of them. At the end of today's show, I'll give you bit more information about this service as well as some of the others and where you can find it. Cause we do have a partner at the HMO roadmap. He has helped so many of my clients in cities like Liverpool and Nottingham and Derby and Manchester up and down the country because he understands more than anybody I know, article four directions and what you need to do to get applications approved.

Andy Graham (21:24.142)
So make sure you've got a planning consultant on your list. Number nine, builders and contractors. Of course, we need a good builder, good contractor who can take care of the project for us. I'll talk about general builder or main contractor here. This is a tough one. Most people have to kiss a few frogs before they find the right one. Again, like your solicitor, if you find a good builder, good contractor, hold onto them for dear life. Treat them well. Never let them go because that person, that individual will be so important to your business.

Number 10, similar related, but not exactly the same. You need a good electrician every so often you're going to need to do a CRS as you renew certificates on your property. Inevitably there are going to be some electrical issues in your property. A builder is not necessarily a person who's going to be able to do this. You're going to need an electrician when there's an issue with the fuse board or the wifi. Maybe you've got like a mesh system, like these people. And sometimes you need them at fairly short notice.

Which is why I like to make sure I've got a good electrician in my power team. Same for number 11, which is a gas engineer. Obviously you need your gas certificate every year and you need someone who would be able to come at fairly short notice if you had a bit of an emergency. And number 12, a good decorator because I think as a HMO investor, you'll find that periodically, literally every year you're going in, you're touching stuff up. Now I have got somebody else on this list who could do a little bit of everything, but slightly different because sometimes you need a professional to do a professional decorating job.

So moving on then, number 13. This is a tricky one, but if you can get a value in your power team, somebody you can call up, refer to for advice, get desktop valuations on deals before you even buy them, or maybe before you finish your refurb, get somebody to come out. Yes, you're going to need to pay this person like you are any of these people on this list. But that person, if they understand the local market, if they understand the lenders and how HMOs are valued commercially, they can give you so much more confidence in a project. They can help you avoid making huge mistakes, take huge risks. They can help manage your expectations. So incredibly important.

Now I'm not saying you can have a value on payroll and someone who's just going to come and do every single valuation and give you the value that you want. Values are independent. And that's not the case. But somebody who understands you and your business and your product and your market, who can help give you as much information and advice and steer as possible, that is

Andy Graham (23:49.294)
perfectly fine and perfectly acceptable. Moving on then, number 14, you need a good fire risk assessor in your power team. A lot of people, a lot of investors will do fire risk assessments themselves, but actually if you look at the legislation, you need to be a competent individual. If you haven't done any specialist training, you are very unlikely in the court of law to be considered competent. So make sure you get a fire risk assessor out to come and do this. We've got a fantastic partnership.

at the HMO roadmap with a Firerisk assessor. understand HMOs. They know this stuff inside out. They are again, commercially orientated. So they're mindful because trust me, if you go local on this, you can get Fire risk assessors who will just give you all the gold standard stuff, which could cost you an absolute fortune. I've had Fire risk assessors who've come and told me I need to put automatic opening vents in, change all my fire doors, upgrade all sorts of things. And it's been absolute nonsense. And another Fire risk assessor who better understood the legislation and the types of property that we have and how risks are managed has actually been able to save us huge amounts in terms of money and work and labor to do stuff. But you do need these things. It's part of your HMO license requirements. So make sure you do have a good Fire risk assessor in your team.

Number 15. I think maybe not at the very beginning of your property business, but as you grow, as you build on things, you're going to need a virtual assistant, someone in your team to help do a lot of this administrative work, someone to pick up lots of the stuff that you just simply don't have the time or energy or capacity to actually do. They can take all sorts of tasks on administrative tasks, bookkeeping tasks, communication, and tenancy progressions, tenant communication, all sorts of stuff. I'm not going to go into in much more detail than that today, but if you've been thinking about bringing somebody into your team and want to find a cost efficient way to do this.

We do have a partnership with Beam, Jane Scroggs, who's been on the show before. Jane runs a company that specialises in virtual assistants for property businesses. Again, you want a virtual assistant. You want someone in your team who understands your business model, has experience doing what you're already doing. That way you can reduce the amount of time that you have got to spend training somebody. You can reduce the risk that you're going to recruit somebody that isn't quite right. So for me, having a virtual assistant as part of building your team is an

Andy Graham (26:07.022)
absolutely essential part of building a successful business. Moving on, number 16 then, you need a good photographer and a good videographer. When you finish a project and it all looks fantastic, that is your opportunity to get the very best photographs and the very best video that you will ever be able to get of it. Because trust me, when tenants move in very quickly, that brand new shine wears off a little bit and you'll never ever be able to go in and get videos or photographs of the same quality.

So making sure you've got that individual, those skills in your power team so that you can maximise the value of the refurb that you're doing and how good it looks at the end of your projects is really, really important. Dylan at HMO Roadmap is our partner. He is a fantastic photographer and videographer. And actually someone like Dylan can come and not only just take pictures and a video of your property for the purpose of advertising to tenants, but also use it for the purpose of marketing your business. If you're looking to raise private finance. If you're looking to raise profile and authority, maybe enhance your network, demonstrate what you're capable of, to be able to recruit good talent. All of that stuff can be captured by a skilled photographer and videographer, but a pretty average and typical videographer and photographer won't necessarily be able to do it in a property. It's a real subspecialty. I've made the mistake before of getting fantastic photographers and videographers.

They just don't have experience doing this sort of property stuff. They don't have the right lenses. They don't have the right eye for detail. They don't have this sort of the experience of how to dress and stage or work with the dressing and staging in a property. You need somebody like Dylan who understands that and really knows how to make your property look as good as it possibly can. Right down to the details of making sure that the shower door hasn't got smear marks. That is so disappointing.

All your photos come back and then pictures of your bathroom come back and actually it just looks dirty even though it wasn't because your photographer just wasn't expecting that to be an issue. I am a real stickler for detail, but if I've spent 100, 150, 200,000 pounds on a refurb, I want it to look absolutely incredible right down to the last detail. So you need a really good photographer and videographer who understands that as well. Number 17 then moving on, you're going to need a really good property manager. Now.

Andy Graham (28:28.46)
You might want to self-manage it, that's fine. I suspect at some point in time though, you probably will want to find a property manager because you want to spend your time enjoying the benefits of your portfolio. So you don't want to be running around chasing tenants and doing maintenance stuff and collecting the rent and all of that. You want to be enjoying the benefits of having a portfolio. So at the right time for you, make sure you find a really good property manager. I could do a whole episode on, in fact, maybe I should do a whole episode on what a good property manager is. Having built and scaled an agency up, managed thousands of tenants, I've got a lot of experience in it and it is a tough gig. Trust me, it's a really tough gig and I promise you all the problems happen when you least expect them. As soon as you go on holiday, that's when the phone rings. But finding a good property manager who can...

Deliver the service that you want who understands your tenant demographic, who understands the importance of communication, urgency. When it comes to HMOs, it's very different to managing standard buy to let through other types of property. And just the way that the adverts on things like spare room are managed, it's so important those adverts are being dealt with every 30 minutes, no longer. Otherwise, leads go very, very cold. So having a good property manager in your power team is an absolute essential. Number 18 then.

You're going to need a good cleaner. Now I use cleaners for two things. One is regular sort of cleans, of fortnightly cleans in the HMOs. It's really important that we have a regular service in some of the properties just to keep on top of things. And also it gives that premium service quality, doesn’t it? To professional HMOs. Don't do it so much in the student HMOs, but I regularly need deep cleans in my student HMOs and professional HMOs. And

It's really important that you have a cleaner who understands not only what to expect, but also the very tight timelines that if you're a student landlord, you often have to work to. So for example, when we're doing student checkouts, talked about it loads on the show before, we usually have a week, we sort of the tenants move out, we then get in, we do inspections, we do bits of maintenance. We might need to replace some bits and pieces or do some decorating, whatever it might be. And then usually we'll be left with one or two days for some cleaning to happen.

Andy Graham (30:43.97)
And that's usually right at the very end of June for us. And you tend to get their keys on the 1st of July. That means our cleaners are really, really busy with those last few days of June. We have to figure out a calendar and a schedule with them. Sometimes we've to be a bit creative. They've got to double down. Sometimes they're doing two houses a day, two deep cleans a day. It's really, really tough work. But having those people, or that person in your power team who understands why that's important for your business, who can work with you, who's prepared to give you that sort of flexibility.

It's really, really, really important. And sometimes things just go wrong in properties and you just got to send cleaner over like toilets breaking off. I've that sort of stuff before and stuff coming up and we've had to get some stuff fixed and then I get a deep clean done. had a bit of a weird one recently, a bird managed to come down the chimney and then get stuck in some of the beams and on the ground floor, in fact, weirdly.

And actually they'd ended up living in there and then there's the feces and it was actually coming, it was finding its way through and onto sort of tenants or floor and sofas and things like that. And a messy job. And yes, we had to get, open it up and get rid of the bird and sort of repair it all. But then actually just left a lot of cleaning that needed sorting. And I wanted all this done fairly quickly for obvious reasons. A good cleaner on your power team is going to be able to do that sort of thing for you. And that really helps when it comes to customer service and keeping your tenants happy.

Number 19 then, so I said earlier when we were talking about electricians and gas engineers and decorators, was somebody who could do a little bit of everything. And for me, that is the handyman. A good handyman can do all those little jobs that nobody else really wants to do. Just go in and tighten up the door handle. Just go in and just tie the carpet back down. Just go in and just ease the cupboard doors, whatever it might be. A good handyman, but it's really tough. Again, it's one of those sort of services and people that you tend to have to kiss a few frogs before you find someone.

But again, if you do find someone good, hold onto them for dear life, treat them well, pay them well, look after them. There's a couple of ways that you can do it. You can pay them by the hour, can pay them on a retainer, but you need somebody who understands that things come up and if they can go at fairly short notice, that's going to be really helpful, really valuable for you and your business and your tenants are going to be really grateful. So trying to forge that sort of a relationship with someone, this is the person that can probably deal with 90% of the day -to -day issues in your portfolio and your HMOs. And trust me,

Andy Graham (33:02.83)
Without this individual, you aren't going to be running yourself ragged, trying to find people to do these crappy little jobs that they don't really want to do or don't have the time to do. And if they do, it's going to cost you an absolute fortune because they're skilled people and they should be doing other things. So find yourself a good handyman, spend the time meeting them, interviewing them, testing them and forge that relationship. So I think that was number 19. Wow. We're whizzing through. Finally then number 20. Any guesses what number 20 is?

Well, I think number 20 should be a good mentor. Depending on your objectives and your experience and where you are on your business journey, a mentor could be invaluable. It could be the most valuable thing that you, person in your power team, because the right person with the right experience can help you identify all of the issues that you have either got now or may have. They can help with assessing the viability of all your deals and helping you maximise the profitability and the performance of everything.

They can help with motivation and encouragement, accountability. They can help with confidence and so much more. I think we may have done episodes, an episode on mentorship before. If I haven't, maybe it's one I should do, but I could do a full episode on it if I haven't already, but having a good mentor is so incredibly valuable. I did a podcast some time ago and I talked about the most important decision I ever made and that for me was having good mentor. My mentor helped me take my ideas to reality. He built a business, scaled it all the way up, managed thousands of tenants, raised hundreds of thousands of pounds to build a management agency, raised millions of pounds for investment deals, sold a business and built a portfolio and a really successful business. And none of that would have been possible or achievable without my mentor. I just didn't have the know -how, I have the skill, the confidence, the experience and I didn't have the contacts, a good mentor should give you all of that and so much more. And look, I think in an industry like this where we are spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on every single deal, a mentor and the price you'll pay for a mentor is negligible in the grand scheme of things, especially when you consider how much good mentor could save you in time and money. The amount of cash that I've saved.

Andy Graham (35:24.174)
For example, just some of my clients on looking through refurb schedules and costs and tender prices that we've had back and actually shaving five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30,000 out of costs easily. And without the experience, sometimes people just simply wouldn't know that that's possible. They wouldn't know what a fair price is. How many people get stamp duty back knowing where they've overpaid for things. There's so many areas that you can save money with. And if a good mentor is there to help point this stuff out for you.

Not only is it saving loads of money, it's going to save you so much time. So for me, number 20, and probably the most important one, although let's be honest, you can't buy a property without a solicitor. I think everybody should have in their power team. So there we go guys. I think I did all right there, didn't I? 20, we're about 38, 40 minutes into the episode. So a quick whizz through then. Number one, agent property sources. Number two, mortgage broker. Number three, a solicitor. Number four, your insurance broker. Number five, accountant. Number six, architect number seven, interior design, number eight, planning consultant, nine, builder, main contractor, number 10, electrician, 11, gas engineer, 12, good decorator, number 13, valuer, number 14, fire risk assessor, number 15, virtual assistant, number 16, photographer, videographer, number 17, property manager, number 18, good cleaner, number 19, handyman, finally, number 20, a mentor. There we go. That is, I think, the dream team.

That is the power team, if you have all of these people in your power team, you are a force to be reckoned with. Now, like I said, you don't need to go out today and get every single one of these ready and pick up the phone and start calling them. You can work with these people and develop these relationships as and when you need, but at this stage, it's just really good to know that these people exist and these services are out there and can help you. Now, I'm sure the next question is, well, where do I find all these people now?

This kind of depends. Some of this stuff is local. So you've got to find it locally. Some of this is more kind of less location specific, but still needs to be very HMO specific. So I've mentioned a number of partnerships that we have today that as a member of our community and even more so as a member of the HMO roadmap, you can benefit from, you can even benefit from exclusive discounts if you are a member of the HMO roadmap. But if you want to actually access my power team and our partners who are all specialists,

Andy Graham (37:48.32)
Head to theHMOroadmap.co.uk. We've got a tab for services on the main navigation bar and you'll see the drop down there and everything will come up. So you can connect with Ellie, our mortgage broker. connect with Andrew and Mary, our architects. You can connect with our fire risk assessment specialist. You can connect with our insurance broker. Our planning consultant will be up there very shortly. All of our specialists and all of our partner services you can connect with directly.

We benefit because you guys come to our website and you use our services and we know that they are the best in the business at what they do. We trust them. I've used them myself. Our community members have used them. And for me, I just wish that this power team exists for me to tap into when I was just getting started. I found a lot of this stuff the hard way. I went through the wrong brokers. In fact, at one point I would do my own mortgage broking. I was literally calling up lenders and trying to do this stuff directly. When I first started out, I didn't actually know.

And I certainly didn't know that there were specialists in the HMO space. So, heading over to thehmoroadmap.co.uk and have a look at our partnership services guys. It's all there for you to take advantage of. And like I said, there are a number of exclusive discounts off the price and different services that you can access as a member of the HMO roadmap. I hope you have found today's episode useful. I'm pretty sure you have. think, like I said, if I'd had just been...

Getting started and had this sort of information at hand. I'd have been able to do so much more, so much more quickly. Remember, don't get stuck in the mindset that you should be doing all of this stuff yourself. You just can't, you shouldn't be, don't be the orchestra, be the conductor of your orchestra. You know, that's the only way you are going to write a great symphony. It's so important that you put yourself in that frame of mind. That's it for today's episode guys. Thank you so much for joining me.

If you haven't already come check out the HMO community. That is one of our free resources. We've got nearly, I think we may have over 10,000 members now. Investors up and down the country. In fact, from different parts of the world as well. All that and on hand to offer guidance, support, motivation, encouragement, give you the cold hard truth. No bullshit. Just a good community looking out for each other. A really great place to nurture your interests in HMO investing. Like me.

Andy Graham (40:04.43)
Your friends and family members are not doing this sort of stuff. It can be a lonely business, but there are 10,000 of us chatting away every single day, sharing ideas and support and guidance. You can come and take advantage of all of that. So check it out. It's the HMO community on Facebook. That's our free Facebook group. If you have enjoyed today's episode, please, please, please leave a quick review. If you're a long -term listener, thank you so much for turning up week in week out. But if you could leave a review and you haven't already.

It helps more than you could possibly know. If you're new to the show, you found us for the first time today. Hope you enjoyed it. But if you did, please leave us a quick review. It helps more than you could possibly know, especially if you think we are worthy of five stars. Helps continue to spread the message slowly, but surely we are changing the narrative around HMOs. And that is because of all the great work you guys out there in our community are doing for our industry. That's it guys. Thank you once again. Don't forget that I'll be right back here in the very same place next week. So please join me then for another installment of the HMO Podcast.