In this interview, Andy Potter, a 37‑year‑old former corporate marketer from Solihull, explains how he left a 15‑year corporate marketing career after burnout to become a property investor in the North‑East of England. He focuses on BRRR‑to‑SA (Buy‑Renovate‑Rent‑Sell‑to‑Asset) and flip strategies, emphasizing that finding great deals is the cornerstone of success. Andy credits the Propertyfilter platform and its vibrant community for providing the tools, data, and support that make deal sourcing, due‑diligence, and project management fast and efficient. He walks through a concrete flip in Sedgefield (bought £197,500, total cost £245k, projected resale £325‑350k, ~£75k profit) and describes how deals are shared via a 300‑person WhatsApp group, allowing rapid verification and acquisition. Andy outlines his goal‑setting framework—breaking down long‑term income targets into annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly objectives, and using Propertyfilter’s project‑management features to track offers and viewings. He also shares performance metrics of his BRRR‑to‑SA properties (95% occupancy) and highlights key platform functionalities such as price‑per‑square‑meter comps, motivated‑seller filters, and community support, which together form a “holy trinity” for both newcomers and experienced investors.
Chapters
Going from working in kind of big corporate businesses with loads of people around you to doing this on my own has really felt quite lonely at points. Essentially, as Guillaume always says, you know, what you got to do is get good at finding great deals. Find great deals and everything comes downstream of that. I'm Andy Potter. I am 37 years old, based in Solihull. I'm investing up in the northeast of England, typically focusing on BRRR to SA and flips for cash flow. I got into property in January 2025 after a long stint, 15-year career in corporate marketing. I had enough, wanted to get out, uh, went sort of hating my existence and just feeling stressed and burnt out all the time. I've got the kind of the double-edged sword of replacing income and building long-term wealth for myself through property. So I've been trying to do both simultaneously, but I'm an extrovert and I get my energy from other people. And so community is everything to me. It means such a lot to celebrate the wins with, share successes, ask questions when you're not sure. A massive thing that Propertyfilter has done for me is give me that kind of sense of community. You know, aside from the platform itself, it's been great to have a network of people where you can go. And I'm just obsessed with the ability to be able to get on and look at comps within a, you know, 10% square meter variance in a quarter of a mile in the last 12 months. The amount of time that Propertyfilter saves people on the daily, the efficiencies are just off the scale. I'm doing a flip up in the Northeast, which is a 4-bed semi-detached house in a place called Sedgefield, which is in Stockton-on-Tees. It was on the market for £225,000, but the sourcer secured the property at £197,500. Essentially all of the costs on this are £245k. It should resell anywhere between £325,000 £350,000. So even if you went at £325,000 after agent's fees, after refurb, after damp, it should be £75K profit. And those deals weren't just coming to me, they were going out to a WhatsApp group with like 300 people. I was at the laptop, the deal came through, I quickly checked out the numbers and verified them myself and called them up and paid the sourcing fee and, and it was off. And I think you've got to be quick, you've got to move. But again, to the previous point about efficiencies, Propertyfilter is there to enable you to do that stuff really, really, really, really, really quick. And to be able to jump on those opportunities, whether you're finding them yourself or you're getting them from a sourcer. I'm a visual person, but I'm also a process person. I'm kind of quite left brain, right brain. That project management tool is really, really, really helpful. I have really clear weekly goals. I want to view an offer on 5 properties a week. If I want, you know, 14K a month by December 2027, that is 14 houses. That means that by December 2026, I need 7. By June 26, I need 3.5. Let's say 4, you can then work out, right, how many viewings does that mean that I need to do a week? How much money do I need to raise? Layer back from your big goals down into, right, annual goals, quarterly goals, monthly goals, weekly goals. And that's been the thing for me that's really helped. When my BRR essay went live, posted that into the community and got lots of lovely messages. And that stuff's really important because it's lonely otherwise, you know, you're doing it all on your own. So to be able to share those wins, but also support other people when they, you know, have questions or they're celebrating their wins. It's a lovely kind of cyclical place to be, I suppose. So since August last year, I purchased a BRRR to SA up in the Northeast, which was essentially an all money out deal. It's been about 95% occupancy since it's been booked out, which is great. I completed on a property on Monday, which was yesterday or the day before, my second investment property, another BRRR to SA up in the Northeast. And then on Friday of this week, I'm completing on my third project, which is a flip. So getting the keys for that and completing on a fourth next month on the 23rd of March. But they wouldn't have happened had I not been able to sit on Propertyfilter and do all of the due diligence and really, again, like I say, understand and learn about the area, use the project management tool, lean on the community to ask questions. I, from, uh, there's two that spring to mind. The first is price per square meter. And if you can see that something is, you know, below market value or below postcode average, it helps to me to understand before I even kind of go into it, right, this is currently at 20% below. And so You know, functions like sale and rent, I think is a great one. You know, we should always be buying from motivated sellers. Being able to get straight to people who are motivated. The clarity of your goals, the knowledge to kind of, you know, to get yourself there, of which there is loads within Propertyfilter. And then the community, I think is the holy trinity. If you're getting started or you're more experienced and you haven't used Propertyfilter, you definitely should, you definitely should be. It's a really wonderful and supportive and pretty vibrant community of people. Get involved with it and use it to your advantage.
