Why Most HMO Investors Plateau (And How To Break Through)

Ever feel like you’re putting in the work but getting nowhere?

I see it happen all the time. Investors make great progress early on, build momentum, and then suddenly things slow down. Deals dry up, raising finance feels harder, distractions creep in, and before long, frustration and doubt start to take over.

In this episode, I break down exactly what a plateau really looks like, why it happens, and most importantly, what you need to do to break through it and start moving forward again.

🎯 What You’ll Learn

• The key signs that your property business has plateaued
• The most common reasons investors lose momentum
• Why being “busy” doesn’t always mean you’re making progress
• How lack of clarity, focus, and consistency can hold you back
• Practical steps to reset your strategy, priorities, and momentum
• How to rebuild belief, accountability, and drive to push through the next ceiling

If you’ve been feeling stuck, frustrated, or your results just aren’t matching your effort, this episode will help you identify what’s really going on and give you the tools to fix it.

💻 Resources & Mentions

• Join my Accelerator Programme: If you’d like my direct input on your current or next project, you can book a complimentary strategy call with me here.
• The HMO Roadmap: Feeling overwhelmed? Access 400+ tools, templates, and lessons to help you start, scale, and systemise your HMO business - all in one place. Join here.
• The HMO Community: Got questions or need support? Come and connect with 10,000+ investors inside our Free Facebook Group here.
• Social: Follow me on Instagram for daily HMO tips, advice, and behind-the-scenes updates here.

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 (00:40.814)

Have you ever felt like you're putting the effort in but not really getting anywhere? You're busy, you're working on the business, you're doing the viewings, you're speaking to agents, you're trying to move things forwards, but when you actually step back and look at the results, nothing has really changed. There are no new deals, there's no real growth, there's no momentum. Maybe you've started to notice a few other things as well. Does it feel harder to find or stack deals? Money feels harder to come by. Maybe you're distracted looking at other strategies or other locations, wondering if there's an easier way.

And at the same time perhaps you're feeling frustrated, maybe even a bit of resentment is creeping in. Well if any of that sounds familiar, today's episode is definitely for you. Because what you're experiencing is something that I see all the time, but more importantly it is something you can fix. In today's episode I'm going to show you how. Let's get into it.

Hey guys, it's Andy here. We're going to 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 (02:42.831)

Hey welcome back, so today I want to talk to you about something that I honestly see happen all the time and that is people getting started, make some really good progress initially, they build a bit of momentum but then at some point things just start to slow down, they stall and they get stuck and you might recognize this in yourself, maybe you've done a deal or two, maybe even a few more, maybe you felt like you had that bit of momentum behind you but if you're honest, for reasons that you're not totally sure of that momentum and those results have just started to disappear.

Things just aren't happening in the same way anymore. You're not doing the deals. You're not really sure what you feel frustrated if you're really honest. You might even be thinking about giving up. And the truth is this isn't just you. This is something that most investors will go through at some point and it can happen more than once. And I honestly do see this all the time.

People get going. made that really good progress with all of that energy and enthusiasm and then they just hit a point where things start to plateau. And that is exactly what we're talking about in today's episode. I want to help you understand what that actually looks like because sometimes it is difficult when you're inside all of that to know what's really going on. But most importantly, I want to help you understand what you need to do to get things moving again. So hopefully today's episode is a bit of reassurance but also, a bit of medicine to treat this problem. And trust me, if you follow my advice today, then you, like many of the people I know and have worked with, will be able to get through this ceiling, punch through it, and break through to go and do some really incredible things in your property business. 

Now, let's start by talking about what a plateau actually looks like. What does it actually feel like? Because it is more of a feeling, to be quite honest, and it's very difficult to pinpoint a single thing when this is happening to you. This is why it is often so difficult to recognize that this is what's going on and people end up getting extremely frustrated and honestly in many many cases just quitting altogether because they cannot work out why they're not making the progress and they eventually blame it on lots of different things which are ultimately the wrong reasons. First and foremost though it is fundamentally a lack of tangible progress so

Andy Graham (05:02.106)

If you just step back and look at the results that you haven't achieved, the number of deals that you've done, the amount of capital, finance that you've raised, the amount of income that you have generated or created. If that is fundamentally missing, then it's a good sign that your progress has plateaued irrespective of how many deals you've done before, whether you've done one, two, three, five, ten, and how long it's taken you to do them.

If those results have dropped off and it's just not happening, then that is very good indication that you are in this position. Your results have plateaued and we need to do something about it. Now, often, and I've worked with a lot of people over the last 20 years, and I've seen a lot of people build incredible businesses. I've seen a lot of people get really great results early on, I've seen a lot of people plateau, stall, and then fall out of love with the idea of investing in property because it just feels too hard and they quit. 

But what is almost always visible is a degree of frustration and it's this lack of results, this lack of progress, tangible material benefits that are coming from the effort that is being put into trying to build the business. So if you are feeling frustrated or even resentment towards what you're doing, then that again is a very good indication that we need to do something different right now. 

Now, a lot of people If they're experiencing this will feel very, very busy and often this will be one of the excuses that they use. We're all pretty good at convincing ourselves that we're busy and because we're busy, we should be getting results. But if we're not moving forward, there's got to be a reason why we're either just not doing the right thing. So we're not deploying our efforts in the right thing or we're deploying our efforts in the wrong areas. So we're doing the right thing, but just not in the right areas. So if you feel that combination of being very busy and you are putting the time in, but you're feeling very frustrated and maybe even resenting things. And fundamentally the results are not coming. These are all good indicators that we need to change something. 

Now deals inevitably will seem very hard to come by. You'll be stacking stuff and just won't be able to make it work. You will be finding it very difficult to raise the money. And of course that's related to your ability to stack deals. You're probably finding that you are distracted. Now that distraction

Andy Graham (07:24.487)

Might come in the variety of different things, but often, and this is almost the first thing that I see when people are experiencing this, you'll be distracted by looking at properties in a different location or properties in the same location, but that do a different thing. So maybe as opposed to HMOs, there'll be commercial to residential opportunities, or maybe there'll be essay or something entirely different still. So just be honest, are you feeling distracted? Are you looking at other things? Are you spending some of this time noting that you're feeling busy, just looking at other things. 

Are you scrolling right move aimlessly, just looking at deals in lots and lots of locations? Well, if you are, then again, this is definitely a good signal that we need to do something different. Now, this is a spectrum and it can be very difficult to recognize that this is going on. Usually, in my experience, people recognize it much later on in the process. Once they've been sort of feeling frustrated, for several months, maybe even longer. 

But ultimately, some people can end up starting to think about just giving up entirely, blaming it on the market, blaming it on too much competition, blaming it on all sorts of things. But the reality is, and I'm just going to be candid about this, I've also worked with lots of people who've achieved incredible things in the same circumstances with the same or fewer resources than I suspect you have and...

We have to ask ourselves, why are they able to do it? If we've all got access to the same stuff in terms of deals, financial resources, time. And what I mean by that is we've all got the same 24 hours in a day. We've all got access to the same people in the world that we could theoretically tap into. Yes, some of us might know certain people. Of course. Yes, some of us work busy jobs. Yes, some of us have got family lives. Yes, I get all of that. But the point I am making is fundamentally

The opportunities are all there for us to make this happen. It is our responsibility and our job to tap into them. Okay. Now we might, depending on our circumstances, need to do very different things. That's the same for all of us. That's our story. That's our journey. But ultimately we see people do it. So we know fundamentally that we can do this as well. And excuses are just that. They are just excuses. Okay. Now let's talk about the real.

Andy Graham (09:49.331)

reasons Investors Plateau because that's what the plateau actually looks like that's what it feels like if you're in that space now there's quite a bit of stuff in here and it might be One or two things it might be a combination of a few or more of these sorts of things But usually when I'm working with people and they're experiencing this it boils down to some of the stuff that I'm about to share with you now. 

Now first and foremost the lack of a clear strategy and a defined plan and an end goal is one of the biggest reasons that people ultimately drift and then find that their results plateau. There's just a lack of focus. Okay. They're not prioritizing their efforts on a single objective. And what that means is that they typically spread themselves a little bit too thin. They're not quite sure what they're actually trying to achieve. And of course it becomes very difficult to assess the performance of a

theoretical deal against the objective of your business. Why are you doing this? What are you actually trying to achieve? Does that deal look good? Well, if you don't know what your objective is, then how could you possibly answer that question? A good deal to you and I may be very different things, but it is important that I know what a good deal is to me and you know what a good deal is to you. Nobody else can really answer that for us. So if you don't have a super clear strategy and a defined end goal and by that, mean, for me, 40 million, and this was a goal I said at some point, it was a 10 year goal. 

I'm well on the way to this now, but it was 40 million and I wanted a combination of income generating assets, but also capital storage. And that is my development projects. I wanted consolidation. So my HMOs, I don't really expand beyond where I already invest. I'm not looking to take on more operational stress, let's say for lack of a better word, but also to build my commercial to residential business. I want that consolidation of assets. I want blocks of flats so it's easy to manage and easy to dispose of in the future. 

But I can't be too rigid on where I buy them because there just aren't enough opportunities if I commit to saying, I'm just going to do it right here where I live. It just wouldn't be possible to get the results. But in a nutshell, that's kind of my strategy. So everything I look at really boils down to that. And I have very clear investment parameters.

Andy Graham (12:11.285)

Return on capital employed, net cashflow per month, per room, gross yields, net yields, all of that stuff. And it either works or it doesn't work. And if I stack a deal and it doesn't work, I just adjust the metrics going in. either purchase price or what I could potentially spend on the project to get it to either the standard or the spec that I need. And if I can engineer it, great, I'll go for it. But if I can't or they, won't take my offer of reduced price then I move on, I go to the next thing. 

But we also have to be honest about whether or not our strategy and our objective and goals and our expectations are realistic in the market. If we've set super high expectations, let's just say for argument's sake, 50% return on capital employed on prime located HMOs, but we don't want to spend more than let's say 400,000 because we haven't got the funds to do it or we don't want to go through planning, whatever these other things might be, then we're going to find it increasingly difficult to find those opportunities. 

If we soften our expectations a little bit, maybe we're happy to spend a bit more or leave a bit more capital in the deal or accept slightly lower performance because it's a better location. All of a sudden you can make your deals work, but you have to be really honest. And this is where I think working with someone who perhaps has more experience of you, who understands the market, and market cycles and expectations of what is achievable. 

I think that that person can help guide you on whether or not your expectations are going to marry up with the market. If they're not, something has to change. I think you need to move your market and you need to take those expectations somewhere else. But you have to then consider whether or not that meets your goal or your objective. Do you want to travel or do you want to do this on your doorstep? Or of course you can change your expectations of the performance. You can soften that performance and stick to a particular location and try and make it work. 

But if you hold out for the best of everything and it's just physically not possible, then you are wasting your time. You're literally barking up the wrong tree. And of course you start to get frustrated and you start to resent the fact that you're putting all this effort in, but nothing is apparently working. So that is the kind of the first big thing. No clear strategy, no defined end goal, no

Andy Graham (14:34.827)

obvious ultimate objective. Now, another reason that I find a lot of people plateauing after making some initial progress is once they've got a few deals going on, they've done a refurb or two or three, maybe they've got some tenants that they're self managing. There's a lot more going on now than there was previously. And at the same time, they're still trying to find and analyze the next deal and raise more capital and do all of this stuff.

But they get sucked into doing everything and there's no leverage. There are no systems. There's no automation. And that makes it very, very difficult because of course it starts to suck their time and it starts to suck their energy. And we're all, I'm sure guilty of doing this and experiencing it at some point, but how many of us sit down first thing in the morning, we look at our inbox and we deal with the easy things as opposed to, I mean, how many people listening right now wake up first thing in the morning when they're working on their property business and think what's the most important thing that I need to do to take me from where I am today to where I want to be tomorrow, the end of the month or next quarter. 

And let's say that's raising private finance for a lot of people access to capital is how many people wake up first thing and do something about that actually create some unique content, actually plan and calendarize some networking, organize an event. How many people actually do that?

Most people go to their inbox and they deal with the easy to do admin, ticking the boxes off and they do it day after day after day, week after week, month after month. Now, ultimately that stuff has to be done. It has to be done by somebody, but it doesn't necessarily have to be done by you. Or is there a better way of doing it? Can it be automated? So this is another reason why so many people start to struggle because they're just not able to put their time and efforts into the things that they really should be prioritizing because there's just quite simply more stuff to do after they've got a first few deals under their belt. 

The next real reason why investors tend to plateau is because they are inconsistent. So they are on the business and off the business. And as a result, that momentum is very difficult to generate. And you can see that and observe it in lots of different areas. It might be your relationships with certain people. It might be how well you follow up deals and actually

Andy Graham (16:56.795)

Pursue opportunities. It might be how often you are looking and analyzing deals on the market. It might be how often you are on social media, trying to build your authority and credibility to help you raise finance, whatever it is, but that inconsistency is a big problem. If you're just not doing things in a repeatable and measurable fashion, you are almost certainly going to struggle to get the results that you want. Another reason.

Investors tend to plateau is because the market moves, but they don't adapt. They refuse to adapt. Over the last five years, I mean, since pre-COVID, the market has changed so much in so many ways. Values, rental confidence, interest rates, mortgage availability. There's just so much stuff that has changed. But as investors, we can be quite stubborn and that stubbornness often means that we're just looking at the same page, the deal stack or the analysis tool.

And we just aren't able to get the results. We need to adapt to the market. Okay. That is something that as an inexperienced investor, who's maybe only done a few deals, can find it difficult to recognize. But if you've been doing this for 10, 15, 20 years, like I have, you start to learn that yes, your expectations have to change as the market around you changes as well. Investors also stop prioritizing some of the core stuff and there's a reason for this. 

So we've talked about trying to do everything ourselves without leverage, without systems, without people, without automation. We've talked about inconsistency, but fundamentally deprioritizing core areas of activity is one of the biggest mistakes I see a lot of fairly inexperienced investors making. So let me give you an example of this. Somebody might have inherited a little bit of money. Maybe they've got one or 200,000 pounds. They go and invest that really well. They do some deals. Things are going quite well, then inevitably they've got some additional cash flow coming through. 

That cash flow enhances their life as it should do, but all of a sudden they feel a little bit more comfortable. Things feel a little bit better. They take their foot off the gas a little bit and all of a sudden they're just not as hungry. Some people, they haven't received an inheritance, so they've maybe saved up a bit of money and they've gone out and worked really hard to raise the rest, maybe borrowed it from a family member or a friend and they've done that first deal and worked really hard to make it happen.

Andy Graham (19:20.611)

off a few deals. And again, the same thing happens. They get a bit of cashflow up and running. It enhances their life. It gives them a bit of additional comfort. And all of sudden they take their foot off the gas. They get a bit lazy. They get bit slack in prioritizing those efforts, going to raise private finance or going to find more deals, build that pipeline of deals, whatever it might be.

Related to this, they also stop putting themselves in the right environment. So I see this regularly. A lot of investors come to me, super enthusiastic, really motivated. They're going to regular network events. They're meeting people, they're rubbing shoulders, they're getting in the right rooms with people. But then of course, because they get busy and because their life gets a little bit more comfortable after the first few deals have happened, they stop putting themselves in those environments. And that then has a knock on effect.

Makes it increasingly difficult to raise finance and find opportunities. And then finally, the last really key mistake that I see so many people making is that when they've done the first few deals, they think that they have cracked it. They know everything there is to know about investing in HMOs or in real estate. And whereas when they first started, they recognized without the experience and the knowledge, getting some advice from either a mentor, coach something like that would enhance their abilities and accelerate the results that they could get. And that tends to happen in most cases and they get better results, but then they get them first few deals under their belt and the markets moved on a little bit. Their circumstances have changed a little bit. Their knowledge and experience has improved somewhat, but to get to that next step, there's a whole load of stuff that they don't know yet.

And they make the decision to stop working or stop taking that advice or working with someone who can take them to that next step. Cause they just aren't simply aware that there is this whole next level, the ceiling to punch through. So they put down maybe their mentorship, their guidance, their support network, whatever it is, and they try to do it independently. And then inevitably alongside some of these other real reasons that I've just explained, the progress starts to flatten out. They plateau, they get stuck, they get frustrated, they start to resent it. And then they.

Andy Graham (21:38.203)

consider quitting investing in property altogether. Now there is also a very real problem alongside these kind of physical elements that there's just something else that happens and it's real but it's hidden. It's the stuff that most people don't like to admit. So in addition to the reasons I've just given you there are a few more. First and foremost it is that comfort and complacency. I'm just going to be really honest about this. Most of us we come into the market, the space, the idea of investing in properties with a primary objective of being able to leave our job, replace our income to leave our job. 

And if we're fortunate enough to be able to do that, we're perhaps not putting the time and effort into our job anymore. And we've got some of that time back, but because we stopped working, we just replaced that income with what's coming from the property business. And then we're not really able to enhance things much further beyond that point. We don't all of a sudden have the resources to allow us to do that. We might have a little bit more time, but we don't necessarily have any more funds.

We got much more experience and that comfort and complacency can be very, very, very dangerous. The other reason is this lifestyle creep. I mentioned it very briefly, but lifestyle creep is a very real thing. How many people have you seen or do you know that got into property investing, they've done one or two apparently good deals and then they've got a new car and they've probably got a car on finance and maybe a slightly bigger mortgage, that lifestyle creeps, they go on some more holidays, they're flying business class all of a sudden. 

There's nothing wrong with that, but just be aware that that lifestyle creep takes away from what you can put into your property business, okay? From a material perspective, time and money. And then alongside that, you just lose the urgency because life does feel a little bit better. We're spending more time and we're putting more effort, more resource into these other things when...

Previously, it was all going into our property business. Very few people after doing the first few deals are getting up at five and going to bed at midnight just doing that work around the edge because they feel like they have no other choice. Once that comfort and complacency creeps in, once that lifestyle starts to just creep a little bit, they lose that urgency. So just be aware, be honest with yourself. Is there an element of that going on for you? Okay.

Andy Graham (24:00.229)

Now let's move on and talk about how we can actually break through this. How do we break this cycle? How do we punch through this ceiling? Now that we've recognized that it's there and that it exists. How do we get through it? Well the first thing is that we have to get super clear on what we're doing. What are we building? What is the objective? What is the mission? What are the goals? You have to set yourself some accountability. It is so important and this is one of the things that drops off. 

So before you do anything else, get your pad, get your pen out and write it all down. What is the point? Why are we doing all of this? We used to be hungry for it. What has changed? Has anything changed? What do we want from life? What are the tangible things that we want to see from this? Do we want to be able to put the kids through private school? Do we want to be able to care for our parents as they get older? Do we want to have a Lamborghini? know, whatever it is, get clear on the mission, get clear on the objectives and the sort of business that you're building, but get granular. Okay. 

You need to really understand strategically speaking, how the effort that we are prepared to put in is going to be deployed to get us there. So what type of deals, what is the performance of those deals? How many deals, what resources do we need that we don't currently have? Are we going to have to put in place to make all of this happen? Finance, network, opportunities, knowledge, experience these sorts of things, other people in your team, consultants, professionals, whoever it might be, whatever it might be, you need to get super clear on what all of this looks like and how you're actually going to build your business. 

Now that in itself is and can be quite an overwhelming task. This is one of the things that I do with all of my clients at the beginning of my work with them. And it's something that we get down on paper once we're really clear in it, when we've got that strategy nailed and it becomes the anchor.

And it doesn't mean it can never change. We can pull up that anchor, we can change it. We can move the boat, we can drop it again in a different place. That's fine. But we talk about it and we plan it and we understand why we're doing it. But if that isn't there, we are just drifting. And that, like I've said, is one of the reasons you will eventually just plateau. You also need to reset your priorities. So you need to fundamentally look at your diary, look at your calendar.

Andy Graham (26:26.345)

Where are you spending your time and efforts? What are you doing? What are you doing first? What are you doing next? What are you doing after that? What are you doing that you don't need to be doing? Set those priorities and make sure that you are deploying your efforts in the most valuable way that you possibly can. So if you that is raising private finance, make sure you're dealing with that first and foremost before anything else. You shouldn't be dealing with itty bitty tenant issues before dealing with your lack of finance that is fundamental to achieving your goal. 

And I'm sure a lot of people hearing that are probably thinking, yeah, it is, it's so obvious, isn't it? But it is also so hard to do. And I know it's really hard to do. As humans, we're just programmed sometimes to think differently. We have to train ourselves to do it in a different way. The other thing I want you to do is set yourself KPIs and track them. So once you've got all of this strategy and the objective nailed down and you've reset your focus and your priorities, set yourself some KPIs. 

So KPIs, what are they? Key performance indicators. I don't want to go into too much detail today, but I'm going to use the example of private finance again. What are you actually doing to raise private finance? Are you creating unique content and sharing it on LinkedIn? If so, how often? What is the KPI that you're setting yourself? Is it daily? Is it weekly? What is the result that you expect to achieve from that? And how are you going to measure that result? it?

Number of calls booked or is it number of inquiries received or is it number of coffee meetings or is it amount of finance raised over a period of time? Is it all of that stuff? But these are the sorts of KPIs that you should be setting and then tracking for all of these activities that you recognize you need to do in your business to get you to where you want to be, to punch through the ceiling and start getting the results that you want. I've already said it, but I'll say it again. Accountability. 

Some of us are better at holding ourselves to account than others. I find it quite easy. I don't need telling to get to my desk and start work. I don't procrastinate when I'm working. Actually, I find it more difficult to do the opposite, to get away. I have to really hold myself to account to go and do other things, get out my office, go and train, do my exercise. Cause I love that stuff, but I can get distracted just being at my desk in the zone. So if you have got some self accountability, great. If you haven't and you know you haven't.

Andy Graham (28:46.804)

do something about it. There are apps out there. Get yourself a mentor or a coach. Become part of a network or a community. Find somebody or people to hold you to account. But the fundamentals you should be focusing on, and I've talked about this across almost all the episodes I've ever done. So you should know, but it is raising private finance. It is doing deals. It's putting the operational infrastructure in place.

It's getting back in the right rooms. It's working with the right people. It's raising your standards. It's pushing yourself, getting better results and expecting that of yourself. And it is without any doubt at all, fully committing to the objective. You need to live and breathe this stuff. If you don't want to do it, that's fine. But sometimes what we say and what we do don't marry up. What you need to be honest about is whether or not what you're saying is actually what you want to do or is what you're doing.

What you actually want to do. Okay. If there's a discrepancy, sort it. Okay. You have to do what is required and it isn't easy. It can be tough. It ebbs and it flows. But you have to be really clear on this. You have to hold yourself to account and you have to fully, fully, fully commit. Now look, the reality of all of this is that plateauing is totally normal. As I said, a lot of people will experience it at some point and a lot of those people will experience it at different points as well. 

So they'll experience it multiple times at different stages of their property business. Usually after the first few properties, maybe the first three properties, often sort of around the 10 property figure and beyond there as well. So it is perfectly normal and at every stage or above every ceiling, there are other challenges that we have to get through or maybe the same challenges that we just have to address in a different way. 

If you want to go from 10 properties to 50 properties, what you do when it comes to raising finance is very, very different. What you need to do from an operational perspective is very, very different from going from five to 10 properties. Does that make sense? You do need to refocus and reenergize. It is exhausting at times. It can be tiring. It isn't easy. And I get that and that's fine. But you do need to refocus. You do need to reenergize. So make sure that you're taking time

Andy Graham (31:06.912)

off and when you are off, you're off, but make sure when you're on it, you are on it. You need to rebuild that belief. Now, if you're struggling with that lack of belief at the minute, that self belief, you need to go and find it probably before anything else, before you even go and write down that plan and that strategy, go and get that self belief back. Get in the right room with some people, reenergize yourself. If you don't have it, it's going to be very, very, very difficult to do. And honestly, it's one of the patterns that I've seen over

The years I've worked with lots of people trying to build property businesses, those who've got that self belief, almost that confidence, in some cases almost arrogance, they do tend to do better. There's people who doubt themselves and second guess and worry and don't necessarily believe they can do it and need to see the results first. It can be difficult for those sorts of people. So you have to find that self belief, but ask yourself, if that person or somebody else can do it, why can't I? They're not a superhuman and trust me, they are not.

You need to be realistic with your expectations. Please, please, please make sure you are being realistic. It's very easy to get carried away trying to achieve the very best results you can from a deal because it looks great on paper. But in reality, the market is just not going to give you those sorts of opportunities. You are completely wasting your time. So you need to change your expectations or you need to go to a different market. You need to do the things that you don't want to do. 

There's a lot of stuff that is pretty rubbish in this game, stuff that I would much rather not do, but I have to do it. And often what I'll do is I'll just do that first because it's done and I can focus on the other stuff. You need to force it when it's needed. Sometimes you've got to push really, really hard to make things happen. And that's fine. Just be aware that that is the case. Nobody is saying that any of this should come easy to you. Don't expect it to come to you. You have to force it. You have to go to it. You need to put more effort in and you need to make better decisions to do that.

You need to be prepared, like I said, to commit, to focus, but you also need to have that knowledge and that experience or that guidance to be able to make better decisions. And at the end of the day, you just have to really want this guys. If you don't want this enough, it is going to be hard and you are going to get beaten to it by other people. But if you do want it, and what I mean by that is if you do want to change your life, if you do want to quit your job, retire your...

Andy Graham (33:31.538)

husband or your wife to care for your parents, to put your kids in the school that you want, to take your family on experiences every year and build great memories. If you want complete independence, if you want private healthcare, if you want all of this stuff or whatever it might be for you, you have to really, really, really want it because you are going to have to put the time in, you are going to have to put the work in and it isn't going to be easy at times. So.

There we go guys. I hope today's episode has been helpful. I'm sure I've got no doubt whatsoever that a lot of people listening today will be experiencing this right now. A lot of people will experience it at some point if they're not experiencing it now. And some people will have experienced it and hopefully got through it, but we'll probably experience it again at a different stage in their business. If you're listening and this does feel like you, you have been a bit stuck recently. 

Please don't ignore it. Just take this as a signal. Step back, be honest with yourself and figure out exactly what it is that needs to change. But go back through today's episode and listen to it and put those action points in place. As always, I hope it's been helpful. But if you have got any questions or anything that you want to add or find out more or just kind of check in with me on just heading over to the HMO community. That's our free group on Facebook. It is a great place to ask questions about this sort of stuff, about what you're doing, whether you could be doing it better, maybe to get a sense check on whatever it might be. 

Don't feel like you have to do any of this alone. If you do want to take things to a level above, head to thehmoroadmap.co.uk, take advantage of everything that our online platform has to offer, including all of the case studies. And trust me, if you read just a fraction of those case studies, you'll very quickly understand how many people have to deal with challenges and what they have to do to overcome them.

And sometimes that in itself can just be very, very comforting. But if you really want to take this to the next level and you want to accelerate your results, you want to do it as cost effectively as possible, i.e. you want to save tens of thousands of pounds potentially making the wrong mistake and you want to maximize the return of everything that you do invest, then head to the show notes. There's a link there and you can watch a video. You can find out a little bit more about what working with me directly

Andy Graham (35:45.952)

looks like. And if you want to book in a strategy call and it is free, you can do that. And I can tell you and give you my advice and I can talk to you about what working with me actually looks like. So if you're experiencing this and you want to go from maybe three to five or five to 10 or 10 to 50, then this is your calling. Hope today's episode has been helpful guys. Thank you as always for tuning in and 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.