Arden Hanley is a property investor, business owner, consultant and trainer. Having experience across multiple property investment strategies and related businesses such as lettings management, sourcing and property consultancy. A landlord and business owner for 20 years, trainer, mentor and coach to the property industry for 12 years, member of the Property Educators Accreditation scheme and a CPD trainer, Arden has not only extensive experience in the industry, but also a track record of using that experience to train others to achieve their property goals.

Buy To Let & Social Housing 

With previous buy-to-let experience in Australia, Arden was immediately drawn to this as a primary strategy. Today, Arden has an extensive buy to let portfolio in the UK that he has built in Northampton, Nottingham and Hull. He has a range of houses for family lets, rented to both working tenants and within the social housing sector, and flats serving the young professional market. Arden says, “I think buy to let is the foundation of any successful property portfolio and this part of my portfolio was what allowed me to first achieve financial freedom. I think every investor needs to learn the fundamentals of buy to let, even if they ultimately choose to focus on other strategies within their portfolio because there are so many simple but important lessons to learn around being a good landlord and managing tenants effectively that you get from understanding this core strategy.” 

HMO & Rent To Rent                        

HMO was a natural progression from initial Buy to Let purchases to “increase my cash flow and take advantage of market conditions in my target area at that time being Nottingham.” With an extensive HMO portfolio, his preference are a larger number of smaller HMOs i.e. 4-6 tenants rather than a smaller number of large HMOs, although he has experience of both. How can an investor make this strategy work for them? “I believe HMO provides an excellent income stream and if done correctly can be a very stable income stream as well. I think the key to a successful HMO is setting it up correctly from the outset to make it as attractive and user friendly for tenants, and identify potential cost centres or savings before tenants go in and empowering my lettings agents to put together the right tenant mix to create a harmonious environment.” 

Distressed Property & Adding Value 

Every property that Arden has purchased has been distressed to some degree, as he says “I believe this is the one true route to make money out of property.” He has applied the lessons he has learnt on smaller projects as he has moved on to larger more complex investment properties. It’s also given him the opportunity to work with distressed sellers which he regards as a core skill in a property investor’s arsenal. As Arden says, “With a distressed seller, you are a solution provider trying to create a win/win situation where you can offer a route for the seller to sell the property that removes their financial burden, while at the same time offering an opportunity for you as an investor to make a fair profit.” 

Commercial to Residential & Development                        

As his confidence has grown, so has Arden’s willingness to commit to more complicated projects and he has successfully adopted commercial to residential conversions as a strategy since 2013 primarily working with either disused retail or office space which is in abundance in the UK. It’s not hard to see the appeal, as Arden says, “I find that there is a huge opportunity for value uplift in this strategy as the closer you get to effectively a shell, the more opportunities you have to make money.’                    

Portfolios                   

There are a number of options for approaching the acquisition of a portfolio, whether it’s title splitting a block of flats, via a freehold/leasehold strategy, organising a share buyout of a property company, or structuring a staggered sale to maximise buyer and seller value and tax savings. Arden has experience dealing with the simple acquisition of a portfolio to the complex and sometimes challenging world of dealing with portfolios in trouble, direct to owners, via agents, liquidators or administrators.                    

Complimentary businesses and deal structuring 

Having an interest in a lettings agency, experience running a sourcing business/property consultancy for 7 years and working with multiple business partners has taught Arden the value of building business clusters to support each other and working with business partners and private investors to make business happen. ‘Property deals can come together from your own resources, time and effort, but as your ambitions grow and the opportunities get bigger, it’s important to think about how private finance and joint ventures can create profit for you and your partners. I’d rather have a cut of something than the whole of nothing.’ 

Chris Cormack is a property investor and business owner with a vast experience working with people to develop their property investments and business growth. Helping people to succeed has been a large part of his business focus over the last 16 years as a mentor, trainer and coach. His understanding of the industry through building his own portfolio across a range of strategies enables him to work with clients around their goals so they achieve whichever outcome they are looking for. Chris is recognised within the property industry and is member of the Property Educators Accreditation scheme and is CPD certified.

From a standing start in November 2004 Chris built his property business across various strategies within the property industry. Property had a great appeal for 5 reasons:

1. Being his own boss 

2. Recurring monthly income 

3. Large lump sums of income

4. Long term capital growth

5. Opportunity to help others benefit from the same reasons 1-4.

Buy To Let & Social Housing 

Chris believes "Buy To Lets are the foundation to any successful property portfolio because it's the quickest way to generate income while you learn the initial fundamentals of the business. Demand is high across the country for BTL which other strategies don't necessarily have. Within our portfolio we have a wide mix of tenants including families, couples, singles as well as fixed term guaranteed social housing contracts." Understanding the industry and our responsibilities is paramount and gives us the necessary grounding to progress income across other strategies. A number of his properties have been used as serviced accommodation through a commercial contract. These have resulted in guaranteed income, ensuring a hands off pain free outcome.

HMO 

Chris continues "For larger income, having HMOs brings considerable changes to your monthly bank account which was our natural progression. A major learning moving into HMOs was all the necessary fire requirements and additional management needs. These of course add costs which are not present with your BTL's. Having this knowledge prior to committing to this strategy is important along with a deep understanding of who will be your tenant market. Generally this is less flexibility so more targeted research initially is imperative to achieve your successful outcome.

Adding value & Flips

Lump sums of income is an area Chris has targeted when buying properties, modernising them and selling them. A key component to achieve these returns is looking to see where true value can be added, increasing value is paramount here. His view on this is that while it generates substantial income it also gives the opportunity to allow faster growth within his portfolio. Having addition capital to invest gives a wider deal choice and opportunities to structure deals. "Having greater tools while in front of a motivated seller allows you the facility to be more creative especially if you can offer a solution to their current situation."

Structuring solutions 

Over the years he has been able to structure deals which has helped the seller which in turn helped him dramatically reduce initial capital to acquire the property. "The key is to focusing on them, the seller and come to a win, win scenario." Achieving this has added numerous properties to the portfolio. 

With a deal seeing what is really there gives Chris an edge. Where most people see a single outcome in a deal Chris likes to look for multiple outcomes across strategies. As his experience has developed the confidence has taken him into larger projects which can deliver multiple opportunities. Understanding the finance and tax implication can give additional advantages. Having bought a portfolio with land created multiple flip opportunities which resulted in the land cost him nothing, free land. Having free land gave him further choices around planning. Sell with planning or build out and sell with a decision based on whichever gives the greater return for time/money invested.

Mentorship, coaching and training

Chris has been mentoring property investors since 2007. He himself had the benefit of a mentor and fully understands how it accelerates your portfolio growth, "money well spent" and that's from a Scotsman....! "It was a privilege to be asked and was something I had wanted to do, so I enthusiastically jumped at the chance." Being able to pass on market experience, as well as working with people to develop the best strategy for them is extremely rewarding. Sometimes it's the smallest thing that creates the biggest impact and it does not matter if you are new or have some experience in property, accessing another person's experience is a springboard to a new set of outcomes, for the better.