In this week’s podcast, I busted the myth that you have no time to be a property investor and give you tips on how you can use your time wisely and still become an awesome property investor.
Do you want the Property Investment Expansion Success Formula {FLOWCHART}: https://ncrealestate.co.uk/flowchart
Follow me on Instagram/Twitter: @natashaccollins
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Transcript:
Hello, welcome to the NC podcast. My name is Natasha Collins. And I am the founder of NC real estate which includes its members Club, a place for landlords and property investors to come and build a profitable property portfolio that completely aligns with their financial and lifestyle goals.
[00:00:39] Now if you don’t know where to get started with property investment or how your property investment growth strategy looks, I have something that you need to have. You need to have it. You need to download it. Print it out frame it and stick it on the wall behind your desk. That’s what you need to do with it.
[00:00:57] This is the property investment expansion success formula and it’s in a flow chart form one page. So it’s not Hefty reading. It’s just one page of flowchart and you need to have it so to get hold of it and it’s completely free head to ncrealestate.co.uk/flowchart. That’s ncrealestate.co.uk/flowchart , type in your name and your email address and I will send you the flowchart.
[00:01:31] So then you can use it to know. Oh, okay. Well if I’m here on my property investment strategy and here’s a small hint. There’s a start here place on the flowchart. So make sure that you start there you can follow all of the steps all the way through the property investment strategy and go background and start again.
[00:01:52] That is your road map. So if you do not have it yet ncrealestate.co.uk/flowchart I’ll send it to you go get it go get it right now. So how have you been this week? I am just back from Toronto. I went to a conference that are a business conference where I met the most amazing people.
[00:02:19] It was all about members clubs and how you can build them. Engage with your community how you can make sure that it’s a really good place to be what technology there is out in the Market at the moment and how that is changing which I’m very excited about and also how that I can make sure that I am tailor-making my content for the individual needs of my members, which was fabulous and very very interesting.
[00:02:48] But as I said the best part about it was the women that I met up there. Oh, wow. Just knowing that there’s other people around the world. This wasn’t just Canada. This was the US. This was Australia Europe Africa South America everywhere having that group of people that I can turn to and ask questions is.
[00:03:12] As you know, I’m property professional that is what I do and I have a lot of people in the property industry who when I struggle myself I can go and ask the question to but in business, I’ve been slightly lacking in that purely because it’s hard to find out where you are. I’ve talked before about having imposter syndrome.
[00:03:32] And I really feel like I have that in terms of being a surveyor who has a members Club because it’s a different model from what other surveyors and their firms are it’s not a bad model. In fact, it’s an extremely awesome model. But again, I need to talk about the business side of the things with.
[00:03:54] People who run similar style businesses and now I’ve got that Circle which has been phenomenal. We’ve already since coming back on Monday. We’ve already had a group Zoom chat where people dialing in from all different corners of the world. I can’t tell you how excited I am and how much it’s fired me up.
[00:04:16] So what I want to show is you is that you need to be finding your community and those people around you who can support you whether that’s people who mental you and they’re paid to do that. That’s fine. I have mentors who I pay to or people who are in the similar situation that you’re in who you can work on things together.
[00:04:35] However, you decide to do it. I really recommend that you start. Identifying those people who you can surround yourself with because I’ve now seen it. It’s open my eyes to the fact that I can move forward quicker faster and feeling far more confident. If I’ve got people surrounding me who are just there doing the same thing and there to lift me up the way that I’m there to lift them up too.
[00:05:03] So I had a great time. I did put out a post beforehand that I was so nervous about going I. I get nervous because I’m not the sort of person who likes huge amounts of people in one space for long periods of time and the conference went on from 9 a.m. In the morning to 9 p.m. At night. It was long long days and for me, I really struggle with that.
[00:05:25] So I was glad that when I got there I gave myself the time to absorb everything but in the evening, I’d go back to my hotel room and. Chill out was on Cal. I just love the bed and go. I just need to sleep for the rest of the night. So on Monday, I had the day off to decompress from the conference and stay in Toronto.
[00:05:48] And I had a Wonder around I got the boat out to the islands and had a Wonder around the beach and then. Went around downtown Toronto as well as beautiful. I would love to go back up there. Right? I really would small little side note for anybody who doesn’t realize this. I did not realize this when I got to the airport when I got to JFK on.
[00:06:12] Thursday morning 5 a.m. They stop me from getting on the flight because I didn’t have a Canadian visa. So if I have no idea when British people needed a Canadian visa from but apparently we now do so, if you’re thinking of traveling to Canada, make sure you get your ETA I. Got in contact with the Canadian embassy in the UK because it’s five hours ahead and said I’m going to Canada.
[00:06:37] I’m in the u.s. I’ve got a flight booked the flights leaving in an hour and a half, please. Can I get my ETA and it’s very similar to. An ester that you need to get into the u.s. So thank goodness. Thank goodness. I got that. That was that’s been one of my worst fears going to an airport not having a Visa for the right country, but I’ve been in and out of Canada a couple of times.
[00:07:00] I don’t think I’ve had. A visa to travel into Canada. So I was not expecting it. I am always expecting to get stopped on the way back into the u.s. Because I’m on a B2. Visa rather than a permanent working one and I do often get stopped. You know, why are you going there? What are you doing?
[00:07:23] Where’s your husband? What’s he doing? So I was not expecting it 5:00 a.m. On Thursday morning to get stopped because I didn’t have the right Canadian visa. If you are thinking well Natasha, I’ve known about that for ages note to myself. I need to start checking more visa requirements. I just really not.
[00:07:43] Thought about it. So Delta. Stop me from getting on the flight until I had a Visa. Anyway, it was sorted pretty quickly. It had to pay an admin fee to the Embassy and it was all good in the end that I thought. I think if that’s a touch travel tip that I can give you always check the Visas because apparently they change okay this week.
[00:08:04] I have had two people come to me and say they would love to get involved with. Investing in property, but they don’t have the time and that’s two separate people on two separate occasions actually within the last 24 hours, which is. Interesting. It’s interesting. It’s an interesting stance to take so they want to be involved with my three Community, but they don’t have the time to be.
[00:08:36] To invest in property or they haven’t had the time so far. So today I wanted to go through with you some of the strategies that you can Implement. If you are two were thinking I just don’t have the time for it. I would love to be a property good billionaire like Donald Trump if you if that’s your aspirations.
[00:08:56] I think you’re listening to the wrong forecast bag if you want to if you’ve decided that you are going to. It’s a property Investments. What you want is going to be the assets that you grow and you this is you you’re all in but you’re in the back of your mind you’re thinking but Natasha, I just don’t have the time.
[00:09:18] Let’s discuss this. So I want to take you back to a time where? Really had a problem with time really really had a problem of time and if you’ve not heard this story before I want to tell you about the time that I got diagnosed with burnouts, and then we’ll work forward. So throwback to 2016 probably for about March 2016 onwards I had started to.
[00:09:56] I feel overwhelmed now the previous three years to this. My life consisted of the following wake up at six in the gym for 6:30 at my desk at work with a coffee and whatever. I was having for breakfast by 8:00 a.m. I would then work from 8 a.m. Through to 6 p.m. I would then either run home or walk home.
[00:10:23] It was three miles to get in my extra exercise. I would then. Have a bowl of cereal like scarf down cereal to be back at my desk at home to 7:30 where I’d be working through my masters and making sure that I was writing revision notes my a PC which is my assessment of professional competence to become a surveyor.
[00:10:47] That was my day three years. I did that for and. I didn’t give myself a day off. So even at weekends, I was still getting up at 6 a.m. And I was going for a run or I was doing something I was working out at home. It was crazy. And then what I’d also do at weekends is I would. In the evenings because I had to have a social life.
[00:11:15] I’d go out and inevitably have a bit too much to drink not sleep it off properly. Just make my force myself out of bed. And make myself go again. I lost so much weight. It was Unreal now. You might think that’s a really good thing. It’s not a good thing. It’s not good thing. I was tiny tiny. Tiny tiny.
[00:11:39] I looked on well if I look back at photos from that time lock. Gosh, I look I think give myself a shake and be like have time off but I my fear was that I was running out of time running out of time to get qualified as a surveyor running out of time to do my Master’s running out of time to figure out what career I wanted to do.
[00:12:05] And the reason I felt like I was running out of time is because I didn’t have any time for anything else. I wasn’t giving myself permission for anything else. I was doing diligently what I thought I should be doing in order to pass the things that I wanted to get so that I could eventually give myself time to do the next thing which would mean.
[00:12:26] Okay just work hard Natasha work hardens her you’ve not putting enough. So you need to sit at your desk for another hour work hard work hard work hard. What was I actually doing looking back on it now? I can’t. Actually remember what I was doing. In fact for me is quite it was it was quite an obsessive behavior and I do suffer with obsessive thoughts and obsessive anxiety.
[00:12:52] Not at the moment. Thank goodness. I’m a pretty much okay, but during that time rather than having obsessive thoughts. Well, this could be an obsessive thought my obsession was that. If I did not run my day like that my life would collapse that was it. That was all I knew I had to get my Master’s I had to get my APC I had to be the best in the property industry and I had to show my worth and the only way I would do that is by overworking overcompensating in the gym.
[00:13:28] You know, why wouldn’t I have been able to do my Master’s work full time? Training to be a surveyor and still be able to work out twice a day every day. It was a stupid if you’re listening to this and thinking it’s a good idea. It’s not a good idea. Can I tell you one thing that happened because of it?
[00:13:50] One thing and I’m not embarrassed to admit this this is what one thing out of many things. I had precancerous cells in my cervix because I was too stressed. I had to go into a doctor’s surgery and have that removed. And do you know what I told myself after I did that and Tess you can’t give up.
[00:14:08] Don’t go home. Don’t go back to bed. I went straight back to my work desk. I lay there and I cried because I couldn’t work. So I know all too much how it feels to have not have enough time and have that pressure on you when you feel like I can’t do anything else. I can’t do anything else. I can’t let it in.
[00:14:30] I can’t change my life because I’ve got these dreams. I can’t let go of. Flash Forward to 2016. But this point I’ll finish my Master’s. I’d become a chartered surveyor. My life was actually pretty calm but what I’d never done is given myself time off. And I to compensate for the fact that I didn’t have the additional things going on.
[00:14:55] I would work so hard and if I didn’t have to be at work anymore, I’d be like right. I’m going out for the night. Come on, girl, like honestly was not giving myself any time off to think about what was next because I had hit that success that I thought was success and I didn’t know how to move my goal.
[00:15:16] I didn’t know how to move my goal and then one morning I had I’d woken up and I’d said to Chris Chris. I can’t move. I can’t move. I don’t know how to move. He looked at me. It’s like what is going on? And I’d said to him. I just can’t go into work today. He said he’s never taken a sick day ever I said, but I can’t move Chris.
[00:15:43] I don’t know how to move out of this bed. So he text my boss and he said and Tasha’s ill I don’t know if she can’t move she can’t come in today and. A couple of hours later. So it that afternoon actually. Layoffs Nate I had another appointment to go and have a check-up to make sure that the removal of my cells had was okay and it not come back.
[00:16:13] So I dragged myself to the doctor’s office because I knew he knew that I had to make sure that that was gone. I had to make sure that that was gone. Drag myself that it took me ages to walk that I’m a quick Walker. I am a quick walk up. I couldn’t walk properly. I had to keep sitting down. I was in my sweat.
[00:16:33] I was looking terrible. I had gray bags under my eyes. My skin was gray and saggy and I got in there and I had had the screening and the nurse went what is wrong with you and I said, I can’t move. I can’t move on my body is so heavy as she said say that she went and got the GP and the GP was like come into my office very gently moved me into her office where I sat there and cried and cried and cried and cried and I said to her my failing what’s happening.
[00:17:09] Am I failing? She said no, ho you’re not failing. She said you’re not very well and. She said to me Natasha. Can you go home and go back to bed? And I said I need to go into work and she’s you’re not going to work going to bed. I’m telling you for your own health. You’re going home and going to bed.
[00:17:31] And then you are coming back to see me tomorrow morning, and I’m going to run blood tests. And then we’re going to have a conversation a serious conversation. so the next morning, I went back to the doctors and. She said to me she said she ran Bloods and she said you’ll find she said you’re burnt out you’ll burn out.
[00:17:54] You have two choices one. I signed you up on stress leave for the next couple of months to you hand in your notice. I was like, oh no, you know what I did. I went back to work that afternoon. I went back to work and I sat there and I thought about it. Do I actually want to be here anymore? No. I don’t so I handed in my notice but as part of handing in my notice.
[00:18:21] I started taking the time to actually think about what I was doing. Now. Let’s go back to the fact that that this whole story came from the fact that I don’t I believed I didn’t have any time to do anything extra you believe you don’t have any time to invest in property. Take a step back for a second.
[00:18:41] I. Realize that and then that I just overcompensate for everything. I do I seriously do if I think that I’ve got nothing on my plate. I’ll fill my time. Now. It might not be the same for you. It might be that you actually you honestly your hike well, I’m just stretched I go from one to the next and next thing the next thing but then let me ask you this.
[00:19:09] How long do you spend on social media a day? How long do you spend scrolling? How long do you spend watching Netflix or you come home after work and you just lie on the sofa for 10 minutes, or maybe you I don’t know maybe after dinner in the evening you go to the pub for an hour, or maybe you know, you feel your time.
[00:19:31] Have you feel your time? And I realized that I’d been filling my time with overworked and one thing I really wanted to do more than anything was start my own business and make sure that I was successful in my own right not working for anybody else and the only way that I was going to be able to do that was if I made the time for it, which was why I handed in my notice because I had to find the time to do it, but I also had to find the time to recover that was really important.
[00:19:59] You can’t just go from burnout one day to change your life and think. Here I am. No, it doesn’t happen like that. I’m actually I got counseling from Lion Heart. I think if you remember a couple of months ago, I had purita on or a couple weeks ago. Maybe I had praetor on who is from Lionheart.
[00:20:19] Lionheart really have helped me over the years. They counseled me through when I failed my a PC for the first time they counseled me through when I had no idea how I was going to get through burner. And we came up with the solution that I could do anything in 25 minutes. It may seem crazy. But if I could carve out 25 minutes myself just to do the project that I wanted to work or more than anything because that was what was going to make me feel satisfied and successful.
[00:20:55] I was going to be able to build on that from that 25 minutes. I remember the day sat in the Brompton oratory. If anybody seen the beautiful Church down in Kensington, I used to go and sit in the cherry blossoms was lovely and I’d have my counseling sessions on the phone because no one else could hear me.
[00:21:14] And she would always say to me in 24, you’ve got 25 minutes to talk to me and then we’re going to work on this for 25 minutes and that’s what I would do and then that 25 minutes started creeping into my life. 25 minutes to do X Y and Z. So everything that I would do I could get done in 25 minutes.
[00:21:33] I brought back the exercise to 25 minutes at a time just high intensity high intensity interval workouts. I could do that 25 minutes and I could then I had permission to stop because I achieve that goal. 25 minutes to work on my business. That would be a Blog that would be a post on Facebook. That would be setting up a Facebook ad for example, and then I could have 25 minutes to work on my property portfolio because.
[00:22:04] Let me tell you as well as doing everything I have just told you I did I had a property Investment Portfolio at the same time. I’ve never know. I can’t thinking back. I don’t know how I fit that into my day. I can’t remember. I cannot remember but I did because I was running it and. so so 20 and 25 minutes a day.
[00:22:26] I managed to start getting my life back on track. I managed to stop breaking things down even as far as I would go to the shops for 25 minutes and just to 25 minutes of shopping and then go home and sit down and this might sound crazy and you might be saying to me Natasha, but I have a full-time job.
[00:22:47] I have children. I have other priorities that need me. So let’s think about this for a second. What could I was thinking to myself if you can find 25 minutes for you? Then I can give you ideas of what you can do to build your property Investment Portfolio in 25 minutes a day because I firmly believe that you can do it and hey if you want to do what I do, sometimes I pick my laptop up I go to the pub.
[00:23:12] I log in to their Wi-Fi and have a glass of wine whilst I’m doing it. So if the only time you got available is when your Saturday your local fantastic you do that. So the first thing I want you to do is I want you to schedule in your 25 minutes whenever that looks like even if you have to get out 25 minutes earlier when you’re doing it in your pajamas in the morning set your coffee machine to come on for the time that you wake up who can resist the smell of coffee in the morning.
[00:23:40] So make sure you’ve got that scheduled in. number two. You can use a really simple deal analysis that you don’t even have to pull out a spreadsheet for and I’m going to tell you how to do it. The first thing is if you’re investing in your local area or whatever area you are investing in get your right move up out and just do it on your phone.
[00:24:05] I told you you can do it from anywhere start searching through properties that you might want to buy you. Would you have an idea? Anyways, I know I don’t know what I want to do. You have an idea have a think when you were when you thought you wanted to get into property investment. What did it what did that look like?
[00:24:23] What did the property you want to buy look like? Yeah, exactly start looking for those so whether the Huts are to bed by to let whether that’s a commercial property with us a service department. Whatever that looks like for you start there. Then I want you to work out whether that property would work.
[00:24:41] So search through right move for that property that you’ve got in your brain, then once you’ve got that property right down the purchase price so say it’s 300,000 fantastic. You’ve got 300,000 written down then what I want you to do is using the right move app again, because that is the most useful tool.
[00:25:00] I’m not I’m not sponsored by right but I should be right move. Hammy, anyway side out and so you now are looking at the rental value for that property. So again search in the area search for the number of beds such for that property characteristic. How much is the rental income going to be and if you’re doing a service accommodation search Arab Air B&B so that you know what it’s going to be that then with that rental income.
[00:25:29] I want you to work out what 30% of that is. So 30% of that rental income is going to be your nap profit or at least it should be your net profit if it’s anything less than that. I don’t think the deal is worth doing but just for argument’s sake workout 30 percent of that times the 30 times that net profit that you’ve got.
[00:25:50] So basically it’s your gross rental income per month less 70% which gives you the final 30 percent times that by 12 which gives you the annual net income. Man, I want you to divide that by the price that you paid for the property that gives you your net yield. If your net yield is less than 3% It’s not worth it.
[00:26:14] So you move on to the next one, but it took me like two minutes to explain that for you you could sit. At a par because it a bar and you can do that scroll even whilst you’re waiting for friends to arrive. If you’re a passenger in a car do it was to you’re traveling if you’re on a train and it was to a traveling if you’re on a plane do it while still traveling if you’re commuting do it whilst you’re commuting.
[00:26:37] This is such a simple tool but in 25 minutes, you can get through five Dill analysis.
[00:26:45] Keep it simple as well. When you’re looking at property investment, I simply want you to think about what property you should buy and where you’re getting the money from two things. Yes, you’ll have a strategy. Yes, you’ll have a goal. But if we break it back so that you don’t get overwhelmed in 25 minutes.
[00:27:03] You can think about where you’re getting the property from and where you’re getting the money from and let me tell you getting the property is far harder than finding the money. So if you can find a good deal fabulous. Let me tell you this in all honesty if this is the thing that you want to do that’s going to completely light you up.
[00:27:26] You will do it. If property investment is your thing and I get it I get that it’s so overwhelming to know what to do next. But I’ve just given you a couple of really easy tools that you can just sit and do in your own time. People don’t even have to know you’re doing it. So if you’ve got people who are judgy of you, they’re saying oh well probably is really expensive the barriers to entry are higher.
[00:27:49] You can just hide it just do it for yourself. But if you really want to do it. You have to carve out that 25 minutes and if you build on your 25 minutes every single day, I mean hold up. Here’s what you can do. You could do 20 minutes. And then you could do five minutes of writing down what you achieved in the last 20 minutes.
[00:28:11] And if you didn’t find any properties that work, that’s okay because guess what in the market that we’re in right now. You need to be analyzing 20 30 40 50 properties before you find a good one. So if you can only add allies 405 and 20 minutes, well, it’s going to take you a whole week to. Find a property that works but that’s okay because you’re getting the practice in and you’re learning what works and what doesn’t and if you find it find it a property number one fantastic as well.
[00:28:40] Just keep being consistent 25 minutes every single day will get you closer to your goals. And the other thing that I want you to do is. I want you to talk about property investment every day to somebody new or somebody who you know, just start the conversation keep the conversation going. Keep it going.
[00:28:58] Keep it going keep it going because that is where you’re going to find Opportunities. I talk to proper to people about property all the time. I never know where the conversation is going to lead. But hey, it gets me people who want to talk to me about it who want to understand the UK property Market who want to invest in me who want to work with me?
[00:29:19] I’m not I’ve been building over years and years and years and years. I’ve been in this industry 10 years and September 10 years. It is September 10 years. So don’t judge where somebody else’s because of this is your day one. That’s fine day one is great because it leads to day-to-day two leads to day 3 and before you know it you keep consistent.
[00:29:40] You’ll there Ten Years Later. So what I really urge you to do is just give yourself that 25 minutes. And as I said you can do it anyway, but looking back to the end of 2016 that 25 minutes a day. 25 minutes building my business slowly my business became my absolute priority and I’d work on it for longer and longer and longer before I felt confident that I had something that I could build and run with and it was that 25 minutes of time that absolutely changed things around and I still use this rule today now, of course, you know.
[00:30:22] My business is my main priority. I also lecture but if I’m feeling overwhelmed and like I can’t do something or I have to focus on something. I give myself 25 minutes and I push the stop watch on my phone. I turn everything off and I just do that task. Chances Are by the end of the 25 minutes it’s job done and I can move on to the next thing.
[00:30:45] So I challenge you as a result of this podcast. I want you to pick up the 25 minute Rule and give yourself 25 minutes of time. Just try it today today as a challenge to you today find the 25 minutes and get going. And then tomorrow morning find the next 25 minutes because that is how you are going to start building your property investment.
[00:31:09] Journey. Trust me. It’s really really worth it. You will so enjoy the trip the challenge of building this but you have to start if you don’t start you’re never going to get there. So today take that leap start building because it’s the small things which add up. Okay. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast.
[00:31:32] Hope you’ve enjoyed my stories as well. And I hope it’s I hope sharing gives you some confidence that you can overcome whatever it is that you’re trying to do as well. Remember you want that property investment success formula. That’s that flowchart to head on over to ncrealestate.co.uk/flowchart.
[00:31:55] Give me your name and your email and I will send that through to you. Thank you for listening with me today. I cannot wait to catch up with you again soon.
