We purchased this 1930s built semi-detached property in St Helens. It was for sale with an Estate Agent, but it wasn’t selling because it was in a very poor state of repair. Decoratively every room was a complete mess. The vendors were divorcing and wanted to move on with their lives and so just weren’t in a position to wait and wait for someone to come along and buy it at full market price.

This was therefore a text book example straight off the Four Day Intensive of one of the circumstances that can provide property investors with an opportunity for a substantial profit. They obviously wanted and needed a quick sale, but because the house was in such a very poor state it wasn’t appealing enough to sell to an owner occupier. This was therefore an ideal property for an investor to step in and either refurbish it so that it would appeal to an owner occupier, or to do a cheaper buy to let refurb and rent the property out. Once this property had been identified, it was then just a case of putting more of the learnings into practice to provide these motivated sellers with a solution that worked for them and ethically give them the opportunity to move on with their lives.

Everything about the property was tired. The kitchen was an extremely dated late 1980s style.

Once the appliances had been taken out it really started to show its age. Clearly this kitchen was not going to sell this or any other house!

Exposed pipework ran right through the house as can be seen here in the dining room. It had been boxed in in a very amateur DIY fashion.Clearly this is one dining room that was not going to be hosting dinner parties any time soon!

The bathroom was very small. It didn’t have a shower and unbelievably it didn’t even have a radiator! Hard to imagine such a poor standard of bathroom actually being used in 2014! It was like something from a bygone age.

Well that is all very interesting I hear you say…… but what has that got to do with being on the Glenn Armstrong Partnership Programme?

Well, despite having trained as a Quantity Surveyor and being an award winning student in construction management and technology, I didn’t actually have any hands on experience of property investment. I did not therefore have the skills or experience necessary undertake this project on my own. Well, not without learning the hard way i.e. by making mistakes and you don’t have to be a Q.S. to work out how expensive doing it that way could be when buying and selling a house!

The benefits to me of working with Glenn on this project were immense.

Glenn has bought and sold literally 100s and 100s of houses in his property career and being the extremely intelligent and resourceful man that he is, it is safe to assume that he has learnt a trick or two (hundred) along the way!

There are quite a few skills that you need to have fully mastered in order to be able to buy and sell properties safely and profitably, without getting burnt and without losing your shirt on the first deal such as:

• Sourcing property deals
• Valuing properties
• Pricing refurbishments
• Refurbishing to the correct spec for:                   

                                                          Buy to let

                                                         Sell to owner occupier

If you don’t have these individual skill sets, then buying and selling property safely and profitably is going to be a skill that you just don’t possess! Fortunately all of the above are what you learn to do week in and week out on the partnership programme, it is really just a case of turning up, getting stuck in and doing the work.

Glenn has got such an in depth knowledge of property investment that there are very few people who can’t learn from him. One thing is for certain, you know if he is putting his money into a deal with you, you can be pretty much 100% positive that it is going to work out very well for you.

 The Finished Product

The numbers:

•  Bought for £65k
• £12k spent on the refurb
• Sold for £120k

Job done - money in the bank – looking forward to project number 2!

Thanks Glenn for all the help and support along the way and from helping me on my journey to becoming a property investment professional!

Graham Porter