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KATE DAY 🏠Hands On Property Investor

@kate_clearstream

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📈 Growing a property portfolio
🏢 Office to large HMO underway
🎥 Ex advertising film producer
💷 Working with private finance

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🐾 Here’s hoping you can teach an old dog new tricks!

🐢 Late to the party but, inspired by so many people, not least @catsettleproperty @powell_design_studio and @altstproperty , I am taking the plunge.

⌨️ If you’re a landlord or property developer, I’d love to know what was the first thing you set up an AI assistant to do? And what would you do differently in hindsight?

🤦‍♀️ Don’t worry - I won’t suddenly become an AI guru! by @kate_clearstream

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7 days ago

The jobs you put off

🕰️ The large conversion project is Isle of Wight has taken a lot of our time in the past 18 months and we suddenly realised that many of the jobs closer to home have been on the back burner for too long.

📈 With the cost of labour going sky high in the past couple of years, every quote we had from contractors to trim a high hedge at one of our HMOs was unaffordable so the job kept being put off.

💪 Last week we finally teamed up with our wonderful garden maintenance man and, as an ace team of 3, we tackled the monster hedge. Exhausting work and I may or may not have had a little nap that afternoon.

☀️ But look at the lovely sun shining pouring in to the communal lounge/diner where previously there would have been dark shadows. Good job we got the rug washed this week too!! 🫧🧽 by @kate_clearstream

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15 days ago

We are full!! Our big beautiful building, a commercial to residential conversion in Newport, Isle of Wight, is now a fully tenanted HMO (House in Multiple Occupation).

When you take on an HMO project you hope that the rooms will be let in good time. But it’s always a nerve-wracking time bringing a new house to market. Will everyone love it as much as you do? Anxious moments when it’s 6-7 rooms at once but when it’s 13 rooms finished to a standard not seen before in the area, it’s even more of a testing time. But having welcomed our first housemate in mid June, we have taken the final holding deposit and phewee it’s a relief!

The conversion rate from viewings has been phenomenal - applicants come to see the HMO and most sign up right away. One guy was close to tears as he walked around. The hardest thing for the early viewings was which room to take with so many favourites to choose from.

Another first for us was the provision of two studio rooms, both over 20 sq metres. Given the excitement at viewings, it wasn’t surprising that these were quickly snapped up.

Of course a new HMO should always be easy to let - it will never look that good again. But it’s still a huge relief to get all the rooms away.

Thanks should go to our investors and JV partners for believing in us and our vision for this huge building, our build team who made a beautiful building, the design team at @_roost_ who guided and supported us, and our wonderful local lettings team at Merriebank Lettings who filled the rooms for us.

Now I think we have a summer to enjoy! 😎 taken in Newport, Isle of Wight by @kate_clearstream

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2 months ago

by @kate_clearstream

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3 months ago

Just love looking back at how it started and how it’s going. Mega HMO loading! by @kate_clearstream

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4 months ago

A Tale of 2 Doors

One of the final acts of our year + long conversion of a huge commercial building into a 13 bed HMO has been to replace the front door.

We desperately wanted to keep the original door but when we took the patch up panels off the base of the door and the sides, we realised that they were rotten through and no longer viable to provide a secure entry to the building. And the glass was clearly not original and was pretty awful too.

So started a lengthy process of trying to source a reasonably priced new door set.

First stop was get a quote to replicate the door and side panels with wood - a fabricate and fit price of over £3000 plus VAT. This was a good price but beyond our budget and we were also concerned about durability and, as that face of the building gets a lot of sun, stability.

The next obvious alternative was a composite door and sidelights. There are masses of options on the market but it was so hard to find the right one, within our budget. We were very keen to keep the green but found that we could source a door in whatever colour we wanted (at a cost!) but not the side panels as they were not made by the same fabricators. Weird.

So in the end we had to compromise and settle for trusty old anthracite. But at least we managed to preserve the arch over the door set and the wonderful gold lettering (that reflects the sunlight into the road).

And actually we’re pretty pleased with the result!

What would you have done? by @kate_clearstream

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5 months ago

So close now…but why does finishing seem to take forever?
Loving the palette from @_roost_ by @kate_clearstream

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5 months ago

How it started and how it's going.

This is the view from what will become a wonderful communal kitchen into the communal lounge/diner in our house of multiple occupancy (HMO).

Previously it had stairs from the ground floor reception area (it was a hairdressing salon) which have been removed to separate out the retail unit.

Look at the lovely high ceilings and original Victorian coving. Of course, this is all covered up in subsequent pictures as the ceiling heights have dropped to allow for thousands of pounds worth of insulation material. As @propertyadam says in his recent fabulous article on acoustic regulations, "the government has decided that the only thing worse than a housing crisis is a tenant hearing a footstep" which I thought was a great way of putting it.

We're looking forward to seeing the final finished shots (as are @_roost_ ) but the work in progress shows the lengths that developers must go to on commercial to residential conversion projects. by @kate_clearstream

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8 months ago

Today’s site visit saw progress on the final decor schemes for our 13 room HMO. Such an exciting phase. Even the trades are coming round to it now. @_roost_ by @kate_clearstream

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8 months ago

🏠 Our Housemates all receive a digital welcome book when they move into our shared houses. It contains all the information they need to know such as reporting maintenance issues, handing in their notice, fire policies, general house rules, keeping on top of condensation, and end of tenancy cleaning expectations.

📧 Of course, most housemates forget about the Welcome Book and send me messages anyway but it’s still a useful guide.

📚 After our annual 2 day deep dive into all things HMO at the @platinumpropertypartners_ National Workshop, I realise that this book will need a drastic update due to the changes coming with the Renters Rights Act.

📋 It’s also a chance to update our internal procedures surrounding maintenance and fire policy compliance (thank you @aliceibbyhmo ) and start getting 100% to grips with all the features on the @cohohmosoftware lettings software.

⏱️ The key to maintaining standards in HMOs has always been your processes but in future this is not something that landlords can get away with doing half-heartedly. With an eye to possibly selling the portfolio at some in the medium to long term (stand by @richardnichollshmo ) the whole set-up has to be slick and effective.

💃 I must say, I feel rather energised by it all! by @kate_clearstream

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9 months ago

Can you track the skills you use today to where you picked them up along the way? What’s your story?

My first job was at IBM as a graduate. I knew nothing about computers and was hopeless at that side of the job. A pretty key part you’d think but looking back it made me realise that people skills and positivity and energy was something I had that could compensate for that and my role was to bring in the people that knew the techie stuff while I did the selling and managed the money.

Transferring those skills to the film industry was the progression. What did I now about directing, lighting, special effects and set design? Not much at first but I could bring the experts together, manage the money, sell the story and have SO much fun in the process.

And in property? The same. Bringing together skilled people (designers, architects, construction, planners and letting agents), getting their input, trying to mesh together a seemingly impossible set of demands and requirements, all to a budget. The difference is now the money side of things feels VERY personal!

So I might have 15 years of experience in property but I’ve got many more years of experience of the skills required. And years of fun along the way as evidenced by the laughter lines!! by @kate_clearstream

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a year ago

Sssshhhhh! 🤫🎧🔇🔕

Converting a commercial building to residential means insulating the heck out of everything, not just for energy insulation but sound insulation.

Thousands of pounds worth of hush panels piled up for laying on floors, double sound boarding all bedrooms and bathrooms from corridors and neighbouring rooms and then testing the whole shebang before carpets or flooring laid.

Not just pounds 💷, but pounds 🏋🏻 too. The knock on effect? Building brick piers with concrete footings to support additional steels in the basement to keep the building upright.

So that’s energy and sound sorted.

But don’t forget 🔥🧯🚒
That’s to cover another time or this post will go on for days! by @kate_clearstream

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a year ago