Property Power Team – Who You Need in it – Explained

Property is a peoples business and when creating the best property power team it is imperative that you get used to and good at dealing with people.

As a property developer or investor, you will need to have a group of people around you that you can lean on and trust. It will potentially take a while to get a good team around you, and you will be constantly be refining it until, hopefully, in the end you will have people around you who understand what your needs, wants and expectations are when it comes to property.

They will understand in some depth what deals you would jump at and what deals you wouldn’t look twice at. They will understand your need for speed on deals and will not dawdle around. This especially goes for solicitors and mortgage brokers who, unless they are used to dealing with serious investors, don’t always understand that buying an investment property is not like buying a residential home for yourself: sometimes you need the paperwork turned around a lot quicker than they are probably used to.

I have put a list of the potential members you might need in your property power team. The size of the power team varies from investor to investor, and the ones you use at any one time depends on the project you are working on at that time.

• Mentors
• Professional investors
• Sourcing agents/finders
• Mortgage broker
• Financial adviser (you can find an independent financial adviser at http://www.unbiased.co.uk.)
• Plumber
• Builder (for refurbishments or renovations) stagger payments to your builder if possible, perhaps 30% up front when the work has started, 30% when done, 40% on snagging. Some builders won’t accept staggered payments of this degree but if you use them again and again they will be more willing to do so. But to begin with you might have to be more flexible with your staggered payments.
• Electrician
• Gardener
• Valuer
• Tax specialist
• Solicitor/conveyancer (Avoid family solicitors and choose one that has expertise in property and understands that sometimes you are going to need to move things along very quickly.)
• Contractors
• Property lawyer
• Lettings and Sales agents
• Accountant - worth their weight in gold. It is worth the expense of having one if you are going to do property investing or developing seriously, because an accountant can save you a lot more money than he costs you by deducting expenses etc that he knows you can deduct but you aren’t aware of.
  
  He will also be up to date with all the latest tax allowances you can take, and, if you still have a full time job, he will make sure that this is taken into account in the right way as well. Just make sure your accountant is used to dealing with property investors. If you can?t find an accountant through personal recommendation, then try these two websites instead and talk to a few before making your choice www.acca.co.uk, www.icaew.co.uk ).
• Estage Agent

A successful property power team is a combination of a good local team in the main location you are investing, and a core response team that can work wherever the property is. If you are having difficulty finding some of these professionals who are used to dealing with property investors, a very good place to start is by asking other property investors themselves.

One thing you will learn about this property business very quickly is that most of the people involved who have made serious money are actually good people who don’t mind helping others, if only people would ask, network with other property professionals both online and off line to get recommendations. And also make sure you make full use of property investing forums.

There are probably more people you can think of to put in your property power team, but the list above will give you an idea of the sort of and potentially number of people you are going to have to have dealings with while doing property deals. This is why I say property is a people business and it would be highly advantageous to be good with people. If you are not naturally good with people, it might be a good idea to go on a course to improve your interaction with people, or at the very least read books like "How to Win Friends and Influence People" – by Dale Carnegie.

You need to have your power team set up before you buy the property, so that you are ready to move straight away. For buying your first few properties you might only need about four or five members on your power team, but as things progress this number will increase.

Treat your property power team well and in turn they should go the extra mile for you. However, don’t be afraid to change members of your power team if things aren’t working out - maybe you have a personality clash with them, or maybe they just don’t move things on as quickly as you would like. Whatever the reason, in the long run they will be costing you money, so if you are not confident or comfortable with them, do what you have to do to get confident or comfortable with them or get rid of them – simple as that.

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