The Property Unleashed Podcast

Remember Property Is Business, It's Never Personal.

• Mark Fitzgerald • Episode 306

Share episode

Send us a text

Mark Fitzgerald discusses the critical mindset shift needed for successful property investing: removing personal emotions from business decisions. Maintaining emotional detachment allows investors to make objective choices, negotiate effectively, and know when to walk away from deals that no longer serve their business interests.

• Emotional attachment to property deals often leads to poor decision-making
• Inexperienced investors commonly become "motivated buyers" who accept unfavorable terms
• Not all investments will be winners - learning from mistakes is essential
• For rent-to-rent businesses, being willing to invoke break clauses when deals become unprofitable
• All successful property deals should be win-win scenarios that benefit all parties involved
• Ethical considerations must remain at the forefront of all property transactions
• Setting up properly from the beginning helps avoid costly mistakes
• Many new investors get into trouble by acting without proper training or guidance

If you need help setting up your property business correctly, visit propertyunleashed.com for free tools and resources to ensure you're on the right track for success.


VALUABLE RESOURCES:


CONNECT WITH ME:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.fitzgerald.7921
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markfitzgeraldentrepreneur/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-fitzgerald-59200079/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgwQNC72nEJQ0tKkKERdQOQ
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@markfitzgeraldentrepreneur

http://www.thepropertyunleashed.com

Speaker 1:

Remember when property investing, it's not personal, it's just business. Hello, my name is Mark Fitzgerald. It's great to have you joining me here today. So when you're doing your property investing and getting out there whether you're using strategies like rent to rent, creative finance strategies, purchase, lease options or you're just looking at buying the properties remember one thing for sure it's not personal, it's just business.

Speaker 1:

Far too many people get caught up in getting emotionally attached to deals, which is very easy to do, of course, when you're putting money into potential opportunities, maybe you're looking at some planning, maybe you're getting some architects to draw some floor plans up, or you've got solicitors that are actually checking over documents for you, and that is a massive mistake. There's nothing personal about business and you need to make sure you maintain it that way. I struggled with this when I started out because I do take a lot of things personally. You know, if I put a good property together and I move people into it and potentially they're not always 100% happy, I used to take it personally. If somebody was a bit late with their rent payments, I would take it personally. It's nothing personal, it's just business. So make sure when you're looking at your property deals, make sure, when you're getting out there and you're evaluating it, you're looking at it with your investor hat on. You're not thinking about it as this is the be all and end all. I see a lot of people, when they're starting out in property as well, they struggle with this. They become what we call motivated buyers and it doesn't really help. So when I do a deal, I never take anything personally. If somebody's not happy about something, somebody wants to basically disagree with me about something. When it comes to negotiations, it's not personal, it's just business.

Speaker 1:

Have all my deals that I've done been amazing deals? No, not all of them. I've done some pretty mediocre deals and I have done a couple of bad deals as well, but it's about making sure that you learn from the mistakes that you make but equally, that you set yourself up with the right contracts in the right manner. The bad deals that I've happened to do and come across was because I was inexperienced back then and I did do some deals that I would never do now. Now, what I did with those deals was I handed them back, we issued the break clauses and we gave the properties back in a good condition as we took them on, and that's what you always want to be looking at doing. And, of course, if you're buying properties and you buy a lemon and stuff, yes, you might lose some money on it, but chances are you can repurpose it and you can do something with it if you have the skill set to be able to do that. Now, if deals don't work for me over the long term, that is where I would also give those deals back as well.

Speaker 1:

So I took on properties in 2019, before COVID. We managed to survive COVID, which many of us did many of us savvy investors did and then, of course, we had utilities prices going through the roof and all of a sudden, for my business, it made it quite difficult to make a good profit on the properties. Now I always try to go back, maybe renegotiate first, see if we can come to an agreement between us where we're both not having to take the major hit but of course, not everybody wants to play ball with us where we're both not having to take the major hit, but of course, not everybody wants to play ball with that. In this case, the owners of the property did not want to renegotiate anything with the rents and things, so I ended up issuing the break clause and I ended up giving the properties back. But I moved on and I got more properties in my property management, my rent to rent business, as I move forward.

Speaker 1:

You see, for me all deals have to be a win-win. So I want them to be a win for the landlords or vendors or even the tenants who are moving in, and I've got to be a win for me and my business. And I don't ever mind people making money. I want to make some money. I want other people to make money as well. It's not trying to take advantage of anybody. We never want to take advantage of anybody when it comes to property, because there are some very vulnerable people as you're going through and you're doing deals.

Speaker 1:

So you need to make sure that whatever you're doing, you're doing it for the right reasons. It's ethically right. You want to be able to sleep at night, but you also want to be out there to help when you are setting yourself up. You want to be setting yourself up from the get-go in the right manner and unfortunately, not everybody does that.

Speaker 1:

I have had people coming to me who have done deals and they're not particularly great deals. They've locked themselves in and they're paying too much rent or they're just in the bad area. And I say to them how have you got yourself into this position Now? Sometimes they've had bad coaching or area. And I say to them how have you got yourself into this position Now? Sometimes they've had bad coaching or training. Other times they haven't even had that. They've just listened to podcasts, read some books and think they can go out there and do it on their own.

Speaker 1:

It sounds like a great idea. Trust me, there's a lot of moving parts. Even if you're doing HMOs or serviced accommodation, just setting up a good property management company, a good rent to rent business if that's what you're doing and you need to make sure you're taking the right steps at the right time, or you can make a massive headache for yourself. And, yes, you can make money in this business, but as quickly as that you can lose money. So don't be one of those people. If you need any help and support with this, then do feel free to reach out to us. We've got help and support on the propertyunleashedcom website Free tools and resources lots of help there to make sure that you set yourself up for success, to make sure that you're on the right track. I hope you've enjoyed this episode and I look forward to you joining me very soon. Take care. Bye for now.