Property + Technology = Proptech

Hi Arsh,  

I am new to property investment and I am really not an ‘admin person.’ I have had some really sticky moments where I have also lost deals and subsequently money, due to poor paperwork. What do you use on a daily basis to keep your admin minimal and are these things out there that will make things easier for me?  

You’re in for a treat, you are talking to a man who is meticulous about being organised! I am a firm believer in tidy house, tidy mind theory so I ensure whatever I do is filed, ordered and structured so I am able to get what I need to with very little effort.  

 This month, I am sharing my bag of Property Investment tricks with you. This is my collections of tools and tricks I have unintentionally gathered over the years and these are my go to instruments in my daily grind as a Property Investor and Trader. As many of you may know, as well as Investing, I am also a property Educator and run the Elite Property Tribe. This is mentoring programme that has flourished into a strong community of like-minded individuals who are coached by myself on how to source, package and sell deals. Many of the tools I recommend to my EPT members are things that I use myself and find essential on daily basis.  

- Dropbox 

You can pretty much guarantee that if you have ever worked with me or I have needed to send you something, it would have been with a Dropbox link. I find this an essential tool for landlords and investors who will have a number of files they may need to get access to quickly and even on the move because it is cloud based. This is the best way to store, retried and get your documents. I also find Dropbox a fantastic tool to store photos of property. For every property I visit, I take approx. 20-30 photos and instantly upload them using the Dropbox app, which then allows me to delete them off my phone to avoid using up too much storage. These photos are then available for me to use or refer back to anytime.   

Key tip – always remember to label the folders with the property which will make them easy to find later.  

If you are starting out, you will want to make sure you write everything down and keep records. If you are calling Landlords/investors and need to do call backs, it will take a lot of mental bandwidth to remember when and who to call. Dropbox allows you to create documents / spreadsheet and allows you to share them with people who can also work on them at the same time.  I use this feature with my VAs (Virtual Assistants) and keeps us all in the loop as to where we all are in the process.  

Get to know spreadsheets well and if you are a bit rusty, learn what you don’t know with YouTube.   

On a day to day basis, I use Dropbox to store receipts for items I purchase in HMOs / projects. The aim is to go paperless and by taking a photo and storing them, it also will mean that you do nit have to worry about going through a huge list of receipts. If you name the receipt, it would be easy to find using the search feature. I have found this extremely useful.  

When I am wearing my Landlord hat, I use Dropbox to communicate with my cleaners in my HMOs. Every week, I ask my cleaners who visit my HMOs to take pictures and upload to Dropbox creating a folder stating the date and time of the visit.   

This allows me access to view the condition of the properties at any point and use this as a point of reference. The cleaners have also been versed to take photos of anything that has been damaged or whether anything is stored in communal spaces which could be a fire hazard.  

These are the documents I use all the time and need access to, therefore Dropbox is brilliant for that as well as backing up and syncing with my computer automatically so I never have to remember to do it myself. Dropbox also can sync your photos from your phone so if the worst ever happens and you lose your phone, you have a handy back up of your precious moments.   

- Rightmove 

It is the bread and butter of property searching and allows you to do your homework with ease. Rightmove is the go to place for being able to compare properties and be able to do your research well. For many investors, it’s the first port of call to find out about the local area, what is currently available, how much they are going for, which will give you an indicator of the figures you should be working with.  Not only that, Rightmove also has a handy Stories and Advice section which offers support to Landlords on topics such as rental yields, expanding portfolios and so on. The EPT mentees I have who work abroad often use Rightmove as a means of viewing similar properties so they can get a better scope of the area when they are speaking to Investors about the property.  

- SpareRoom 

Very similar to Rightmove, Spareroom allows you to make comparisons to other properties within the area.   

- Basecamp 

Now, my wife who has recently delved into my world of work or ‘OMC’ (organised manic chaos) finds Basecamp essential to understand the numerous projects I am juggling, usually simultaneously. For those of you that may not be aware of Basecamp, it is an online mini CRM system. Although it is not as well known as some of it’s competitors, it is the ideal way to record to do lists, project time lines, create message boards which allows you to communicate people you may be working on joint ventures with. It isn’t particularly complicated and because it is mobile friendly, I will often jot down an idea, thought stream or anything else that pops into my head throughout the day. But what especially like about it is that all my notes, files and information are all in one place.  

- Property Hawk 

This is an excellent platform that helped me a lot as a landlord. It provides guidance and key documents that are free for landlords who sign up. It saves you lots of time and money by being able to a host of essential information for landlords including:  

- Landlord Forms  

- Landlord software 

- Gas safety certificates 

- Landlord forums 

- Advice and guidance 

You could say this is the Landlord’s Bible as it has guidance on everything from Boiler cover to spotting a cannabis factory. If you are a landlord looking for guidance or in need of some information, this is the place to go.  

-  Property Investors APP 

It is pretty fair to say I am a huge gadget and tech geek. With my life being as busy as it is, there is nothing more brilliant than coming across a website or app that makes life simpler for people in property. That’s where the Property Investor App comes in. It is the place to go to find well sourced, packaged and appraised deals ready to go. The highly professional app has all the vital information about the deals, galleries, maps, message feature and the ability to reserve property deals direct from the app. It can be downloaded from the google play store and Apple Store now and does an incredible job of being efficient and up to date.  

-Facebook 

You would be forgiven for thinking Facebook is simply a social media platform where you can check in on your Great Aunt and watch cat videos, it is so much more than that. Facebook has evolved to a place where there are numerous networking opportunities as well as hosting property groups and events. If you are new to property and would like to get to know more about a particular style of investing, you can bet there is a Facebook group crammed with people who have a wealth of knowledge.  

Have you discovered Facebook marketplace? I know many Investors who have sourced furniture and household items for their property from there and have done it on a tight budget. It is worth taking a look if you want to buy or sell items quickly near you.   

 Another way I use Facebook is for the Buy/sell/swap groups within an area. There are a number of these around where people will do just that, buy and sell items but you can always ask for recommendations for people who do particular jobs for you. Do proceed with caution to check quality of work and never share personal information publically on FB. You will find some gems on those groups, for instance, my distaste for a certain Swedish furniture company is well known and when my wife wanted a rather large project completing, I put a message out on a local group asking for someone who could build flat pack. The guy who contacted me works for this company and thoroughly enjoys building their products in his spare time. The guy was excellent and was real value for money, which meant I got my weekend back and a happy wife, win-win.    

Bonus Tip: Did you know you can get whatsapp on your desktop computer? This means you don’t have to switch between typing on your phone to working on your computer when you are interacting with people. You can download the app to your desktop or use the web messenger service.  

So I hope that has helped you with your admin duty issue. In order to do well at anything in the property world you need to have your mental organisation in check as well as your paperwork.  

Here are some of the things I would advise to help you on a weekly basis.  

• Start Monday with a positive mind-set. 
• Give yourself 3 targets you want to achieve by the end of the week- do not procrastinate, make excuses or give up when you come across obstacles.  
• Make yourself accountable. Have someone you have to check in with and report back to on your progress towards your goals.  
• Friday reflection. Think of 3 things that went well that week, 2 things you are grateful for and 1 thing you want to work on.   

If you still have a question which you would like answered in next months article, please feel free to email me : [email protected] and I’ll aim to answer as many as I can over the following months.  

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