In this testimonial, Nisha and Jas, co‑founders of Castlewood Homes – a 15‑year‑old property investment business focused on HMOs and buy‑to‑lets in Medway, Kent – describe how they transformed their sourcing and deal‑management process using the Propertyfilter platform. Initially they sourced properties manually via Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket, often duplicating effort, lacking a shared log, and struggling to track market history, leading to slow scaling (one deal every 18 months). After adopting Propertyfilter they gained a visual, card‑based pipeline that centralised listings, enabled real‑time collaboration, and provided data‑rich tools such as comparables, pricing history graphs, EPC data, and automated letter campaigns. This allowed them to filter, analyse, and follow up on multiple deals simultaneously – at times handling 5‑7 deals in parallel – and to automate outreach, reducing manual workload by roughly 75 %. They cite concrete outcomes: a property originally listed at £350k secured for £250k, and a systematic follow‑up process that turned a year‑long stalled deal into a profitable purchase. The speakers also share practical advice for newcomers, emphasizing hands‑on use of tutorials, early systemisation, and disciplined pipeline management. Overall, the video showcases Propertyfilter as a catalyst for scaling property investment through visual workflow, data‑driven analysis, and automation.
Chapters
We were very slow in the beginning of our property journey, so we were like doing one property like every 18 months. But when we started using Propertyfilter, we kind of like scaled it up from doing like one every 18 months to doing like 3 to 5 in one go. So we've got 3 on at the moment, but last year we had about 5, 6, 7 on the go at the same time. I'm Nisha and our business is Castlewood Homes. We've got a property investment business that does HMOs and buy-to-lets. We've been investing for about 15 years.
Our main operation area is in Medway Kent, so that's North Kent, just outside London. We don't live local, so it is remote investing. We've also built up a team of around 12 to 15.
We were both using things like Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket, but we were both like looking at the same thing but not at the same time. So when we come to discuss, oh, I've already seen that deal, or I've looked at that and that's no good, and I'm like, well, I'm already looking at it now, it was doubling up a lot of work. So we had no log of the properties we were looking at. We weren't really keeping the log of whether, how long they'd been on the market, whether we'd actually contact the agent. It was just kind of looking and seeing where it goes.
And I think for me it was, I signed up to a lot of the sort of alerts, Zoopla alerts and Rightmove alerts, and you would get the emails like daily or whenever you set it for, and you'll scroll and you'll notice properties that you've seen before, but you're not sure if it's been like reduced or what's changed. You're lost. There's no information. You can't go, you can't go back to anything to see sort of like what the history was. Wasn't it a lot of energy wasted?
Yeah, a lot of unnecessary arguments over which property worked and what didn't, and had we seen it or had we not. So I think it, it was definitely at the beginning when we were trying to scale, it was very hard to scale because there was no system in place. And even with spreadsheets, it's like, well, what data do you collect? How do you see it? How do you filter down? And it just becomes like endless columns, endless lists of things that don't really make sense.
Like using Property Filter, because it had clear pipeline, it showed like one property could be advertised in places, and it just brought that all together.
I think we were just desperate for a system, and we saw that this could be a real opportunity of us having, like, not wasting our time and being able to actually systemize a process that wasn't working. But, and I also, I think one of the things that kind of led me towards Property Filter was that it's very visual, and I'm a very visual person. So I like being able to see properties, I like being able to see the pipeline, I like to be able to actually visually see each, like, card.
We just started basically using it almost almost like daily at the beginning to just filter through the properties. And once we had a chunk, it was like, okay, we need to view X of these now. And we offered on sort of everyone that we viewed, and then any offers that were rejected, we just set the follow-up on. So it created that real structure to say either of us can go at the sort of initial stage and just trawl through sort of what's come on the market and sort of filter that out. And then I tend to do the deal analysis and sort of looking at sort of local comparables and things like that. And then Nisha will jump on and do the viewing. So we kind of like It's almost like passing the baton back and forth.
Comparables is one of the top things that I'm looking at, and it makes it so easy to have a look at a house and then I'm like, oh, I don't really know what it's worth. And agents overinflate prices. So if I'm looking at a deal and I'm thinking, oh, that agent's just trying to sell it to me, I can actually do my research very quickly and be like, actually, it's not worth that, and move on pretty quickly from it.
For me, I'm like a data-hungry person, so anything with graphs, charts, the sort of like graph history graph and the pricing graph really helps me initially. Then I delve deeper in terms of the sort of EPC and the price per square foot. And then the sort of the— if we've got the address all filled out, then it's the sort of last sold price as well. So all this stuff sort of helps us analyze where we need to pitch the offer, how low we can go really on the asking, from the asking price.
And I did a test on it a little while ago and I ended up getting about 3 or 4 phone calls from about 10, I think 10, 12 addresses. So I thought that was actually like really good in terms of targeting like anything that was either withdrawn or 90-day plus. And what I like about Propertyfilter is that You send out the letters and I don't have to worry about it from first letter to the second letter to the fourth letter. 2 to 3 times a week is more than enough, whereas before we were going on Rightmove, Zoopla like every day and you're seeing the same stuff and you're seeing the same things. It's so quick to filter through your deals, it's quick to have a look at and analysing them, it's quick to have a look at comparables, it's quick to pick up the phone and ring up the agent and use the comments box to tell you where you're at with things.
That I think it's just saved us around 75% of our time and also our energy as well. Because, you know, like when you're sort of scrolling on Rightmove and you're sort of bouncing from website to website, that takes time, but also energy. And that energy, it does drain you and it might stop you from doing other bits. So by sort of narrowing that timeframe and that sort of expense of energy, you're kind of like, it improves your business overall.
Yeah. So we had one deal that we were looking at and it probably took about over a year to get it across the line, but we originally viewed it and the vendor kept saying no to our offers. So we were like, okay, fine, don't worry. So we kept it in our follow-up. And then about a year later, he came back and was like, well, actually, yeah, now I'm kind of desperate to sell. Because he had about 3 sales fall through. We were still there in the background. We kept following up with the agent. And then in the end, we actually got it less than what we offered in the first place. It was a 2, 3-bed, sorry, 3-bed conversion. And it was probably one of our best deals because we did the follow-up. And it was so easy to see on Propertyfilter that, oh, we've got to ring up and make sure.
And I think for us, that graph over the time that showed like I think originally it was on for £350,000. Yeah. And we secured it for £250,000 in the end. So it was a good deal. Yeah. And on the same, I think like a property two doors away was on the market for, I think sold for £425,000. So it just shows you sort of like the graph shows you, you know, how motivated the seller is as well as like history in terms of if it's sold a number of times and then come back on, like something's not right there.
So we've had quite a few follow-ups as well. So like it definitely helps because I think putting in a file and then forgetting about it, you do forget about it. But in property filter, you're always looking at your pipeline, you're always looking at, okay, what's with the agent, what's with that offer, I need to chase that up. So it actually almost forms itself into a little business. I think systemize early, like properly, like understand like what areas you're looking at and really niche your areas you're searching for properly and use your pipeline and, you know, be true to your pipeline. Like if you've got a follow-up with a deal, make sure you follow up with it. If you've got viewings to book, you know, book them in. If you've got offers to send out, send them in. And just moving that to the next step and, you know, and being true to that process, you will see results.
That taking action when you're sort of like joining in fast, get your tutorials done, like get really familiar with the sort of each aspect of the application and implement it at the same time.
So don't just watch all the tutorials and then go back and like, you know, do one tutorial. Like with the letter campaigns, it was do the tutorial, do it as I go along. I think it's for anyone from like newbies to experienced people. So I think if you're looking to get into property or you're experienced and want to expand, you need a base, you need a sourcing base, and I think Propertyfilter is perfect for that.
Anyone who wants to scale their business in terms of property business to, to find more deals can use Propertyfilter.
