🛋️ Interior DESIGN made EASY with Suzanne Elsey

Welcome everyone to the Dealfinder Corner. And sorry for the quick start me messing around with the tech. We are all good now. So this is your weekly property talk show brought to you by propsfilter, hosted by myself, Guillaume Black, your favorite Frenchman, the CEO and co founder at Property Filter. As you know, the UK's number one platform to find deals. And we are on a mission to empower our property investors to find another thousand deals this year thanks to the Property Filter blueprint. And really the purpose with this Dealfinder Corner is to give you more and the best of the available resources, people in my network that I know by inviting expert guests who will share with you the latest and most current strategies, tactics and secrets about what actually works right now in terms of finding and making deals and the reality of systemizing and running a high performance business in property. So it really is my immense pleasure to introduce you to my very good friend Susan Elsey today. So on today's Dealfinder Corner. So Suzanne's got a wealth of experience with well over 30 years of experience in interior design, space planning and property development, you know, so she's in the arena with you doing deals as well. She specializes in creating design led solutions to all developments and for ourselves and our clients to boost profitability. You know, it's very much, very much, very much a really cool solution to double, triple your margins on your project. So she's experienced on all things to do from refurbishment, conversions, she helps reduce voids, increase the rental income you can get, the rates you can get for your night stays and everything, you know, like your rental and everything. And all of this is only a very, very simple way. So she's got a very, very systematic approach to projects. She's PIN mastermind, top performer and top performer, the property entrepreneur community, which I'm part of as well. And this is where we met. And she also mentors designers and tradespeople to help them get into property and run more profitable projects as well. So in this session she'll be sharing practical strategies and world class case studies showing you exactly how small design changes, kind of big financial results and all things you can take away and implement for yourself. So very much looking forward to this. So we're going to cover knowledge about how internal layouts can be changed and whether you can maximize profit, proven concepts she's used for sale for clients that you can replicate to maximize profit and examples of small changes that will have those large impacts. And I'm very much looking forward to have a small time with Suzanne for the Q and A so again, very much looking forward to hearing more about Suzanne talks today. So please give a massive props filter virtual welcome to Ms. Susan Else. Thank you.

Oh hi everyone. Thank you so much for a great introduction. Thank you. Got to live up to the hype now I shall just share my screen.

I'm so glad the screen share works. You know the tech is a bit iffy sometimes. Let you carry on. Thanks so much.

That's okay. I can't see anybody at all or the chat or anything. So I'm just going to move through the presentation and obviously if there's anything that isn't working, if you can just shout and I can then either go back or correct something. So you now know who I am. I'm Suzanne Elsey and I have had over 30 years of experience in interior design and I started furnishing interiors back in 2009 which is when I set up on my own. I've been working with high end residential clients, developers small and large like Lindenhomes and Hyde, new homes, a hotel. But mostly I really like helping investors and developers because I know you can actually achieve much more in the way of profit. I started my own development company with my main contractor Craig back in 2019 and that was because of Brexit and the amount of clients coming through had sort of dried off or they were postponing. So we felt that we needed to do something a bit different. So we use investors money to buy land or dilapidated buildings, creating high returns for the investors and then because the trades that were around us saw what we were doing and they typically all have an interest in property and getting into it for themselves, but time poor or haven't got the pot of money. We also teach trades how to get their business ready to run alongside their property business and to get into property themselves. We started that about 18 months ago. I'm also trustee for First Aid for All which is a training provider for pupils in year 5 and 6 at school school to teach them life saving skills. And they are one of the chosen charities for Get Up Give Back which Gilliam and myself are doing as part of Property Entrepreneur to raise lots of money to teach skills this year. And as mentioned, I was on Mastermind, one of the finalists of mastermind 31 and property entrepreneur program. So that's a little bit about me and my background but what I'm going to do today is help you skip stress, save time and see more profit and I'm going to try and make interior design easy for you. So there are five roles within Interior Design. And if you haven't got a professional in place to do any number of these, these are going to fall on to you. And some of them are quite time consuming. There's lots of decisions to be made and if you're trying to run a business as well or a job on the side, it can cause a little bit of overwhelm. So the first one is space planning. By getting this right in the beginning, it means that, firstly, the property can be more lucrative, but secondly, it can be more appealing and you're not then also changing things later on when you think, well, I actually don't like that there, maybe we can move it. So doing this at the very beginning saves you a lot of stress and time and money. Next becomes the scheme. So how that room or property is going to transform. So it's not just paint colours, it's floorings, it's the doors you're using, the skirtings. It's absolutely everything that makes up the scheme. Then you have the procurement, which is sourcing the items that are going to be used, then project management, which is where it all comes together. And somebody is in operations overseeing everything to make sure, within the budget that it's put into the schedule, that it's ordered on time and it's delivered correctly. There's no damages, it's where it needs to be for when the trades people start. It's also managing the trades as well. So it's a very big role that goes from the very beginning to the very end. And then there's the styling and staging. Now, some properties you will potentially leave empty, such as a buy to let. However, by styling it and staging it, whether virtually or in reality, that really does help the end user imagine the space. And I'm going to show you a few case studies on all of these. Going through the first one is making your layouts more lucrative. This is something I've always done with all of my clients, is not just go in and look at the, the room or the property and say, oh, let's just do this as a design. I always look at that on how can I maximize the space? How can I make the user journey through the property flow better? So the easiest way for me to show you this is to show you a case study. So this is walnuts. This was one of my developments from the year before last and hopefully you can see that for some reason it's just dropped off the bottom of the screen. This was a four bedroom detached house, or the plans for it anyway, because this was a piece of land with planning permission. This wasn't actually built at that point in time. And these were the architect drawings that had been approved for planning. We bought it with the planning. So we had no input on these drawings initially. And there were a few things I didn't particularly like on this. So at the bottom here you can actually see. I don't know if you can see my cursor, but the front door is at the very bottom and it opens into a really tiny lobby which in a big house like that, the last thing you want to do is walk into somewhere so enclosed. It opens out onto a very big hallway which is lovely, very spacious. Feels quite grand. Having left a very small enclosed space, you then on the right have the lounge which has double doors from the hallway and into the room across the back which was the kitchen and dining area. And then on the bottom left you have the study with a little downstairs toilet. Now, as I said, I didn't like the way the front door was. I also don't like on this how the lounge was very long and thin and the two double doors actually create a pathway. So it means all your furniture is tucked into the bottom 2/3 of that room and the top section is just a pathway through the study is quite large. We don't need storage as such anymore. Everything's cloud based and it was a little bit oversized. And there was obviously a downstairs toilet. There was no utility room or the services that needed to come into this property were quite big. So things like the cylinder, the underfloor heating manifold, the fuse board, all of those things have to go somewhere. And the space in the kitchen wasn't going to be big enough for a family home, but to also house those items neatly. So I'm going to show you this plays hopefully this plays shout out. If it's not, I'm going to show you with the moving walls what I did, I actually brought the wall out to make the lounge a better size so it wasn't so long and thin. And I took a small piece of that lounge to put it into the kitchen dining area. I then moved, took out the double doors and moved the door down towards the front door. This allows for really good seating area. And just so that the front door wasn't obstructed, I took a small corner out of the living room so that the door tucks in really nicely. By doing that, as you walk into the lounge, you can actually place a good amount of furniture in there. Because this is a family home, it's if, let's say You've got two children, two adults and you've got visitors. You need a decent amount of seating area in that space. Because I'd moved the wall over, I took the study wall back and I brought the downstairs toilet wall forward and then split the space into two so that I've got the study which is still a 1.8 meter desk size or width, plus a utility room as well for the boiler, cylinder manifold, etc. And I moved the downstairs toilet under the stairs. So the hall itself has become more practical used space rather than just open space that's not really being used. It's still actually a really good sized hallway compared to some. And then as you walk into the room across the back, I've moved the kitchen so that it tucks into into the space I took from the living room. It's now got space for the dining table between the peninsula and the bi fold doors and you've gained another seating area on the left hand side. So it's a proper open plan family space. So those are the changes I made downstairs and hopefully you can see how that's added more benefit to the property with the utility room and the added seating area which is ideal for a family. The upstairs. Oops, sorry, started playing again. There we go. The upstairs is four bedroom. It's got a bathroom and an ensuite. So looking at the plans most people will go oh, that's okay, that's actually really good. There are a few issues with this and one of my the biggest pain point people tell me is lack of storage. Doesn't matter, the age of the property, lack of storage is a huge problem. So I always look for the storage solutions in every property I review. So with this one, the master bedroom with its ensuite has two windows at the very bottom of the screen and the bed was supposed to be being put next to the ensuite which caused the problem straight away with the door opening onto the bed. And also by coming into the room you'd have a wardrobe just past the doorway, but it would block the window and once the bed is in there, you've actually got quite a lot of wasted space at the end of the bed. The bathroom was actually quite narrow and again this is a family room so you've got to think about how people are going to use that space. So anyone with young children that might be bathing them, sometimes you need to lay them down on a changing mat, for example, or you're kneeling down next to the bath to keep an eye on them and therefore there was not enough space to actually do that. The rooms themselves are actually quite a good size. The second bedroom, which is the one on the bottom left, that has a slight issue in that the door, even if you swapped the position of the door to be hinged on the other side, that would then still hit the bedside tables. So that was a little bit on the small side, however, still a good size. So this is what I did. Hopefully, that's playing. I actually moved the wall across so that it was in line with the stairs. So as you came up the landing, you had a nice area still, but it gained the space into the bedrooms themselves. This allowed in bedroom two, for the door to actually open into that space, so it didn't impact the footprint of the room at all, leaving much more space to walk around the bed. You also gained this space in the master bedroom, and by putting a partition wall up and moving the bed forward, I was able to move the ensuite to behind the bed and create a wall walk in wardrobe. The wall didn't come right down to the front of the house because of the window. So by leaving that gap and having it open, you've been able to move the wall across to where you wouldn't have been able to before. I wanted the landing to still be a good size, so I pushed the other wall back, which made the bedrooms fractionally smaller, but because they were a good size, that didn't actually matter too much. The bathroom has gained that extra space it needed. So bedroom three, by doing the wall movement, it's actually created a nice little niche area where you can put the wardrobes, which means, again, you've got really good storage and it hasn't impacted the main area of the bedroom. And bedroom four is pretty pretty much the same, just fractionally smaller. So, again, these are the changes that were quite easy to make on here. The master bedroom now has more of a sense of being a boutique hotel suite, for example. So when you're selling a property, anything that you can do to make it feel more luxurious instead of standard really does enhance the appeal to the end user. And this was the result. This is the outside of one of the properties. There were two on this particular piece of land. The expected GDV initially, before the build started, based on the planning drawings, was 485,000 per property. We actually achieved £585,000 per property, which is obviously a difference of £100,000, which is brilliant. And the good thing about this is this is an extra 21% above what you would have got if you'd just done the original build. So for not very much extra at all because obviously the walls were being built anyway. So a few extra utility room, units, etc, things like that, you've actually added this extra value that you weren't expecting. If you want to see how that looks, you can actually scan the QR code, it will take you to YouTube and you can take the tour inside the properties. So I'll leave that just for a second in case anyone wants to take the tour. Obviously not right now because there's more to come, but when you're having time a bit later on, maybe with a cup of tea, you can have a little tour around and see what the change is. I'll talk you through all the changes. So on to Southlands. Now this, you're probably thinking, well that's okay, it's a four bedroom house, you can make that better. But actually it works on one bedroom flats as well. So this was a commercial building that was being turned into four residential flats. Flat 1 and 2 are the ones I'm going to show you. Just purely because that's a one bedroom and a two bedroom and these were both ground floor. So flat one was entered from the very front of the property. So you've got the commercial doorway and the commercial stairs going upstairs and they have put, I don't know if you can see my cursor, but they've put the front door here with the shower room right next door to that and you have to walk through the living room and round it to get to the bedroom. Now the first thing that I looked at, apart from not liking the setup was the fact that the bedroom you can just fit a bed in, there's no storage whatsoever and it just wasn't particularly appealing to think that someone in the middle of the night might need to move from the bedroom through the living room into basically the front door to go into the shower room and you've got a huge open plan space, but it is effectively a walk through. So this is how I changed that one. Hopefully that will start playing. I actually moved the entrance to the flat round and this is where when I contradicted myself because I added a small lobby into this property and the reason I did that is because in a one bedroom property and you walk into the main area, it feels quite small because it's effectively one room. However, by adding the lobby and you've got these separate doors to it, it feels like you have a choice. So it feels like it's much bigger. So I let me pause that for a second. There we go. So I created the lobby. In the lobby we've got a very small cupboard where the fuse board etc went under the stairs. I created the cupboard for the cylinder to go. The lounge had its own door and I can start again now. I created a very small toilet area, which you'll understand why in a second. And I moved the bedroom all the way down so that it was a really good size and you had some wardrobe side to side and created an ensemble suite by moving the kitchen across. That allows me to create the open plans living area and it's got its nice zoned areas. So you've got your kitchen, the dining and the living area and none of them are walkthroughs and they just work really well. Now the reason I added the downstairs toilet effectively in this is because a lot of people, if they have guests, they wouldn't want the guests walking through their bedroom to get into the ensuite. And so by having the extra toilet in there, any visitors don't then need to go into that bedroom. And there was space to do it. So it worked really well in the property. That's flat one, see if I can get flat two. There we go. So this is flat two. This was accessed from the back of the property from the car park and the door is right in the middle here on the left hand side and you walk straight into the living room. I try and avoid that where possible. We pay an absolute fortune now for energy to heat the properties. And so the last thing you want to do is have that disappearing out of the, out of the room and into the street. Secondly, privacy. You know, if there's someone that knocks on the door, you want to have a chat to them, but you don't really want to invite them in. You're standing there talking to them and potentially they can see into your property. And then the third reason not having a separate hallway on this particular one was the two bedrooms open onto the kitchen area. And therefore we would have had to have used a MIST system because of the fire regulations. And that's something to be very aware of whenever you're doing any properties at all is making sure if your bedrooms are coming onto the kitchen area. And consider that because it's quite a big cost for this particular flat, it was going to be just over 3,000 pounds, which is quite a lot out of your budget. I also didn't like the door from bathroom coming off of the the kitchen. Sometimes you can't avoid it. It has to be like that. The Same as the front door, not having a hallway, but if I can avoid it, I really do like to. The bathroom was very long and thin and not particularly easy to design and make it look nice. And then you have this huge cupboard here where you can't actually walk around the bed at all, which is really not very practical. So with this particular flat, I added in a hallway. That was the first thing I wanted to do. And I created the door into the open plan space by moving the bathroom into the middle, right, I was able to push the kitchen back. So the space I lost adding the hallway. I've gained it back by moving the bathroom. So again, you've got really nice zone spaces. You've got your kitchen, dining area and living area and it works really well in that space. And by moving the bathroom into that middle section, I was actually able to split the space into two. So you had an ensuite and a bathroom. So if you've got two different tenants, for example, they'd have their own facilities. And I've just moved the bedroom door back to allow for the bathroom door to go in. So effectively the back bedroom, which was bedroom two, has now become the master bedroom. And then the front bedroom, which was the master bedroom, I've moved the door over so that I could pinch a corner for the washing machine to go in. I have a real thing about washing machines in open plan spaces because they can be quite loud. So wherever possible I'll move them either out into a utility room or if there isn't space for one of those, into a cupboard where it is away from the living space. And by turning the bed, it maximizes the room as well. So hopefully you can see how that has helped because you've obviously added value by having an ensuite. You've got separate utility cupboard. All of these are quite good ticks when valuers are coming round. Hopefully I can click on. There we go. So this was done for a client and this was the testimonial that they left, which was wonderful and it was a really great project to work on with them. So I'll let you have a read. I won't read it out. Hopefully that's okay. So I'm going to give you some examples because it doesn't have to be major layout changes, but small layout changes make a huge difference. This was a property. It was actually a basement, open plan kitchen and dining area. As you can see, it's really cluttered. It wasn't a really good use of space at all because when I was there the clients, which were a family, there were four of them. The husband was prepping the food, as you can see on the counter, and the wife was offering to make me a cup of tea. The children were making their packed lunches or one wasn't getting a drink. And all four of them were in that small little galley space by the sink and the fridge freezer. None of the space on the other side of the island was being used at all. And they were finding the kitchen really restrictive. They'd seen three kitchen companies, none of which changed the layout at all, and they were really unhappy knowing it was basically going to be the same again. So I gave them three options. Most of the changes were due to cost as to how much they wanted to spend. So they initially said, well, send us your ideas and then we'll work out what we feel is the right one for us and how much we want to spend on it. So I did three concepts and they picked their favorite, which then gets created in a 3D model. So you can really get a sense of what that's going to be like from bird's eye view from different angles, 3D, 2D and some elevations. So it gives you a really good overview of what to expect. So with the changes, the one that we went for is this one. So as you come downstairs into the basement, you had the corridor with the toilet at the end and you had a utility space and storage on the. What is the left hand side of the screen with the wall then and the door into the kitchen diner. So by removing the wall, we were actually able to create a more open plan space. I've just realised something's gone wrong there. Anyway, I moved the kitchen to the other end, which went into the bay window. The windows were actually made a little bit smaller, smaller to get the worktop underneath it. And that was created with a peninsula so that they had the bar stools and the dining room table with bifold doors looking out onto their garden. And the storage and utility space was just created so that you could walk through the utility room into the toilet. So it wasn't going straight from the kitchen into the toilet itself. So they are thrilled with it. They sent me. Oh, this. That's why that was the before. Why is that not working? Anyway, they sent me a few pictures when the builders had finished. And that is the transformation that has occurred. And again, the changes can be even smaller, but can make a huge difference. So this one is showing you a hallway in a flat. Now, as you walked in the front door and looked left you could see straight down into the master bedroom and had the wardrobes facing you, so it wasn't a particularly appealing view. And I changed it so that the doorway was moved so that you actually didn't see all the way down and. And you walked down the hallway and then turned right into the room. Now, the reason I did that was because before, when you were in that bedroom and you can see the wardrobe on the left, which is one you could see from the hallway, you had wardrobes either side of the bed and the bed in between, which can feel a little bit enclosing. So because I moved the door, I actually took space out of this room, which is what most people wouldn't necessarily think to do. But by taking that corner, I was able to turn the door so that it opened the other way and create the space for the storage and the wardrobes to go into that niche. And it's a really good way of creating a designated area for storage that doesn't impact the actual rest of the room. So that transformed his flat, made it much more appealing than. Gave him even more storage than he had before. Same property. This was his living room before and he has a really horrible, pokey little kitchen, which was like a galley kitchen beside it. And we took out the wall and made that open plan so that he could have a really spacious room for entertaining, which is what his focus was going to be. He wanted a really good socialising space. The other thing you can do is knock a wall down so that you can open the kitchen up so that it gets lots of natural light sometimes. Some apartments, they put the kitchen in a place where there's no light, because you can turn the light on and Cook, etc. But actually having it flooded with natural light makes a really big difference, as you can see in the picture. Next one is staircases. This was a conversion. It was flats that were over a restaurant and this particular one went over two floors and they had installed the stairs, cutting the really lovely traditional window in half, as you can see there. The other thing you can't quite see in the picture is as you walked into the space, you could almost trip over the bottom step because it actually jutted out past the door slightly. So it wasn't particularly practical by changing the staircase over. It just brushes past the bottom of the window. But the window now is more accessible. It's flooding it with more light and we were able to. To make it safer by moving the stairs away from the doorway. So then moving into the design area. People seem to get confused between mood boards and concept boards. So I thought I would just briefly explain the difference. So a mood board is very much a vision of the way the scheme is going to look. So. So things like the colour, the texture, the type of look you're going for, for example, is it luxurious, is it industrial, is it contemporary, is it traditional, arts and crafts? You name it, Whatever terminology you want to put against it, this brings the vision together. What it doesn't do is show you where you're sourcing those on items from and give you the detail, effectively the shopping list. So mood boards are great for getting an overall feel of what you want to achieve, but if you want something that is more specific, then you need to go for a concept board. So this is where you know exactly which items you're buying, you know where you're buying them from, you know their price, their sizing. Any information about those properties that you need needs to be as part of the concept board. And that can come in different sort of presentation styles. For example, you might have more of a grid style, you might have something that's a little bit like a mood board, but with a bit more information. You might have a separate document as a spreadsheet, for example, and that can come in lots of different ways. So when people are saying that you'll get a mood board, are they actually going to give you effectively the shopping list with it? So that's something that you need to question, because they could be two different things, leaving you to go and do the sourcing and procurement of the items you want, just with something to refer to, rather than it being the items that you're going to actually need to order. So just to give you a few examples of different projects, this was a penthouse. The owner of this, the developer, called me in because it wasn't selling and he had staged it, so this was his staging beforehand. So corner sofa, coffee table, rug, feature light and stuff, some sheer curtains with a few little accessories with the cushions, a little throw and the bits on the table. But he was finding that people just weren't buying. So by changing it all up, we made it look more luxurious. Richer tones of colour and some warmer tones as well. A lot more in the way of accessories to make it so feel more homely and a more dramatic light. And again, this is the same property. So this was the kitchen dining area. So you've got a couple of bar stools that look like they've come from a bar and chairs that don't match. You've got different lights in the Same area that don't match. And it just looks very basic the way it's been staged. So by matching the light that we had up in the lounge area and having two complementary lights over the bar stool area that tie in and are the same shape, etcetera, you get a more cohesive flow by staging the dining room table. That adds that sense of entertainment, luxury, socialising that people subconsciously really love to see. It's almost like they're arriving for dinner and they want that to be the. The property they aspire to. So this was the master bedroom beforehand. Again, you've got a mishmash of lighting, so you've got very grand glass light in the middle as a chandelier, and then you've got your shades either side over the really lovely bedside table. So we changed that so that the lights were all matching and they were complementary to the colour scheme. And basically it made it feel much lighter. With the feature wallpaper, you've got a really lovely reflection and metallic look to it, which really softened the room as well. This was the spare bedroom. This had an odd sloping ceiling which made it feel like it was coming in on you a little bit, and quite dark colours. Again, three different types of light in this room. Wall lights, centre light and two lamps on the bedside tables. But it was very dark and felt quite oppressive when you walked in here and it felt quite spoiled. So by putting a feature, wallpaper and mirrors on the slope, it made it more interesting to look at. So suddenly, instead of feeling like it's coming in on you, it actually feels like it's not coming in on you so much. So that's made the room feel bigger. We kept the bed and the bedside tables and just changed the ceiling lights because he'd already had provisions for them to come from the ceiling, but he hadn't used them, he just put lamps on the tables. So we actually put fittings there and made use of those and everything then matched. It all flowed really nicely. But the main thing on this one was that it just feels much bigger as a room, so it made it more appealing. And this was the pub conversion. This is one that I did as a joint venture with the landlord. And this was transformed as a pub into five flats. So this that you're looking at here was the main bar and where the column in the middle, where the fireplace used to be in the middle here, that's where the flats were split in half. So the side you're looking at in the forefront, which has got the bar stools up to that chimney breast, the. This became this. So this now is a two bedroom apartment and this was staged to sell all of the apartments. And as you can see, the space it created and the light that it brought into the space transforms it. So what you'll see quite often when you're scrolling through rightmove, or when your end user is scrolling through rightmove, you'll see pictures like this. So it's a new build, it's an empty shell and it looks very small, but by staging it and putting that furniture in, suddenly that same room feels more spacious. It's also more inviting and suddenly it's. And it stops them scrolling because they want to just have a look at the detail in there. So the first hardest thing to do when people are looking on rightmove is to get their attention. So by having it furnished, you're able to get their attention and then hopefully they'll book a visit. This was a hotel, very dated, got to be back to the 1980s, this one. So it was in dire need of a refurb. So I got involved with this one. It was quite a heritage building with a big emphasis on the grounds and they wanted it to have a little bit of a traditional feel, but also be feeling spacious. So we transformed it. I went for wallpaper that had lots of topiary in there. You can't really see the detail of the wallpaper in the photograph, but by bringing in the creams in the furniture instead of the dark browns, it's added lighting, you know, a lighter feel to that and more space. And by moving where the furniture was placed as well, that's really helped. So I'm going to give you some top tips and what you're trying to do for your end users, whether they are buying, renting, whether it's service accommodation or hmo, you need to create the lifestyle. It could be also assisted living, where you need to have lower units and walk in wet rooms, etc. So thinking about your end user first is key, and then designing your space to fit that purpose and then just making it more attractive so that they want to live there. So the first one is adding things like books and accessories, whether that's on coffee tables or bedside tables, window sills, console tables, the bed, etc. Adding those accessories in, it doesn't have to be lots of them, but just some well placed ones that actually makes a huge difference and sells the lifestyle. Basically adding some luxury to the bathroom. So whether that's, you know, a few soaps, whether that's folding your towels and placing them nicely. All of those things again give it almost like a little bit of a boutique hotel feel. Layering that adds a lot of interest. So from photographs and artwork through to candle holders and books and soaps, things that you can layer up actually create a lot of interest. So instead of being very one dimensional, suddenly it adds a lot more interest and gives you more texture. Setting the table, as you saw in the earlier photograph, actually really creates that sequence sense of living in the property. And again, a lot of people like to socialise with their friends and so by having table laid, it again adds to that sense of lifestyle that they aspire to. And then dressing the bed, most people think interior design is all about cushions and the paint colours and hopefully you can see it's not just about that. However, they do feature in when in the scheme, when dressing a room. Adding cushions to sofas and beds really does bring all the colour onto the bed and makes that a focal point. So hopefully that gives you a few good ideas and if not, then I can work by showing you how to do it, working with you to do it or doing it for you. So, so hopefully that gives you some ideas. And for Property Filter members, I have got a free Success Guide download which is talking to you about layouts and the questions to ask yourself about your property. You will need to speak to structural engineers, potentially an architect as well, before you make any changes whatsoever. Most are doable, sometimes they're not worth the cost, so sometimes you need to weigh that up as to whether it is worth it or not. But a lot of times you can actually add more value than it's going to cost you. So feel free to do that. Downloadable also for members, I am hosting complimentary calls. They're 30 minute calls where you can ask me any questions about your project or projects that you have, where I can just have a very cool quick overview and have a chat and answer any questions you have. So you can either download the Success guide or you can book a call on those two QR codes and obviously I'll give those to Gilliam so he can share those with you.

Suzanne, thank you so much, that was really amazing. Thank you. You know, with the calls and things. So who, at what stage is the ideal or best time to start a conversation with you? Do I have my offer accepted? Have I exchanged and at which stage of the project is the best time to get you involved?

Most people wait until they've completed on their purchase. However, if people want a bit of advice beforehand, obviously it's just cost before you own the property. And most people want spend as little money as possible before they actually own it, which is totally understandable. The sooner I can get involved the better because any advice about reviewing layouts, for example, can be discussed early. So before it goes out to be tendered to the builders or contractors. That's always good. So it could be that they've had plans drawn up from the architects and I can just review that sometimes. It could be you've got planning drawings already. Again, I can review those. It could be an existing property. I did a one bedroom flat just before Christmas and made that a two bedroom and all that needed was one wall removed and a door moved over. So sometimes the changes can be very, very quick and easy and not actually very costly. Very costly, yeah, yeah.

So get you involved quickly so that you can benefit from this design input and a lot of the. I was commenting as you went along and you know, I'm a bit of a geek of floor plans and layouts, you know, from the HMO conversion background, but I never would have had the vision you have with these flats. You know, the things you've done on the, on the two different flats. I was really impressed with that. So just to share, just to share inside the Property Filter community, guys. So we are official partners with Suzanne. So if you go into the community and on the left here where it says partners offers, this is where you get access to the call here with Suzanne. So if you click over here, so if I just sort of go a bit slowly. So I went to the partners offers here, over there and then here on the Furnishing and Interiors Limited, that's Susan's, you get the complimentary half an hour consultation and I believe then you've got different products where you work with people and you get a discount for being a Property Filter member. So it's very much worthwhile investing in all these aspects to maximize your profit. The rent, the exit of your projects very early on. And in the same way you would use a right solicitor, the right builder on your project, you want to surround yourself with the right professionals and very, very pleased that Suzanne managed to. We managed to get Suzanne on and we managed to get her to present a little bit some of the things today. So make really good use of this resource and really highly recommend you working with Susanne. I'm really impressed by all her work since I've seen her around within the property entrepreneur community and things like that. So, yeah, so you can go in your eyes closed, basically.

Thank you very much. Glad you like it.

There was a question from Abby. So Abby. So he was saying about the, you know, the flat conversions, do you need to get a freeholder consent? And I guess, you know, the elephant in the room is the utilities. And how does that work? You know, a lot of our members are actually finding more and more deals in London. You know, there is this myth that you can't do deals in, you know, in and around London, but actually more and more are doing, like, lease extensions, one to two bed flat conversions, and a lot of these properties actually in high value area. And then this is where you can even maximize even more the returns on a service like yours. And. And, you know, like some of the cases we've seen here. So can you comment a little bit on the flat situation?

Yeah, absolutely. That particular one was actually a freehold. And so the owner had the freehold and there were two floors of offices and that was all ripped out. And because it was all ripped out, the services were able to go through the four ceilings and through under the floors because there was a lot of insulation going in. The floors were raised effectively so that one didn't need consent. However, the other one that I showed you, where I knocked the wall through to make the living and kitchen open space, that was a leasehold flat. And you did have to get permission, as we had to go to the management company, we had to provide a structural engineer's report, we had to document the schedule of works, the time frame, basically all of the information for them to approve, which they did approve, and.

Explain the process there. Suzanne, is it. Is there like a statutory notice route or is it just you email the management company and they tell you what they need and every management company and every field will be different?

Yeah, they'll all be different. They'll all have their own criteria. So initially it was just getting in touch. So I asked the client to get in touch initially because he would obviously have to give me permission to talk to them anyway. And I just gave him a brief sort of overview of what the work was going to be, in some technical sort of jargon, if you like, so that they could see it was a little bit more, I suppose, professional in a way, rather than just the homeowner saying, I'm just gonna have some work done and having a little bit of detail behind it, what they were then able to have that initial contact. So he sent the email across to them to basically ask permission and to copy me in to say, you know, Suzanne is the project manager on this, she'll be liaising with you as well. So anything you particularly need or at any point, please obviously get in touch with both of us. And so that gave me permission to go back and forward with them, which was actually a very smooth process. They were actually very helpful as a management company. Not all are. So they sent me a form to fill in. It was a very straightforward form and as I say, I had to get a structural engineer's report and provide more detailed specification that they then approved in writing. So it was actually very straightforward. But I think they had quite a good process there. It was quite a large block of flats. I think they had probably 100, 150 flats on the development. So it wasn't a small, a small site. So some might be a bit more difficult than others. But as long as you're notifying them and you're communicating with them, then hopefully they will come back to you and give permission. If they come back to you and say no, that's obviously something slightly different and you'll need to sort of push the issue and maybe justify why the work needs doing and why it's a benefit to them that it's done. So always think about, you know, trying to turn it around as to why it's a good thing for them to do it. If you are having problems.

Yeah, yeah, no, that's awesome. I can, I'm looking at the people on the call and I can already think of like three or four people that I know are doing like assisted sales in London. So you see like if your, the money is in your exit and your flipability, this is a no brainer, you know, like getting Susan involved to start on, especially in higher value area. So yeah, super cool. Sandeep was asking, would you recommend staging HMOs before valuations? Before valuation is done?

Yeah. It's proven as soon as you stage your property because some people really can't visualize the space and space looks smaller before it's filled with furniture. People think that by adding furniture it's going to feel, you know, more cramped. It actually doesn't. As you saw in one of those photos, it looked really small when it was empty and then when you put the beds in it and it wasn't the way the photographs were taken, it actually looked more spacious. So valuers seem to also benefit from seeing it staged in my experience, as well, as do agents viewing things as well. They will always add more to the price once it's staged and virtual staging is good. However, I've heard the comments a few times now from the agents where people have seen it and stopped because they've stopped scrolling on say rightmove or whatever platform they're looking on because it's been staged and they think it's real. And then they turn up at the property and they go, well, where's all the furniture? And they still can't visualize it because there's no actual furniture in reality. So virtual, virtual staging is good for grabbing attention but it doesn't help the end user visualise the space or see how they're going to use it later on. So furnishing any property, you can get really good rental packages. So even if you're selling it or renting it, you can still put a physical show flat together on a rental package instead of buying it all.

And Suddenly on your HMOs it's, you know, you're gonna let it out furnished anyway. So it's part of exactly the build, you know, and if you're doing a good job and, and it's what we, we did on our HMOs is you, you kind of push up the rain ceiling. So you're, you know, you are going to beat all the comparables in your area. So I will go as. So all the, all the, you know, like ceiling breaking valuation we've had on all our projects, not only were they furnished but they were all tenanted and we could evidence the high rents to go into the valuation and the higher valuation on the other side. So I would go even further than.

You know, it makes a huge difference. And also you'll probably find they, they stay longer as well because it is appealing. So you know, sometimes people, it's a short term stop but actually if they're comfortable in the space and it's appealing to them, they will stay longer.

I've had people on in some rooms for more than five years, which is crazy since we, since we got them live, you know, really, really worth. Yeah, making them, making them nice. You know, if you have a demand for it, if you're in a big city and stuff. Definitely.

I mean, to be honest, it doesn't always more either. You know, sometimes, I mean, I did a comparison for the guy with the property that was leasehold. So that was the one where I moved the bedroom door. So when you looked down the hallway and I turned the door and the one where I took out the wall and opened the kitchen up. So that whole property, I did a comparative price for him and he actually wasn't saving very much money. So he decided to just go for the first scheme and he found the money, I think he took out some shares or something. But he, he said, you know, the, the difference between the two schemes versus the money he was saving. It was a bit of a no brainer really to actually, you know, go for the higher quality, to go with the, what he really wanted rather than sort of toning it back on price and on the pub conversion as well, actually, bearing in mind there were five flats. So I did a review. So if we didn't do the herringbone floor and we took out the quartz work tops and just a couple of other little bits that I just wanted to sort of down spec, it only saved £12,000 across five flats. And yet the value add, because it was quartz work tops, because it was a herringbone floor instead of just plain planking, it made a huge difference to the impact that those properties were valued at and sold for. So on that particular development it was going to be 1.35 million and we sold all of those properties for 1.62 million. So it's a big uplift just for making layout changes and doing, you know, good quality, not the most expensive but really good quality finishes.

Yeah. And definitely you can measure the uplift on the exit, you know, the, your kind of profits on there. But even if you do a brr and old, when you have to think is most of your management bills, you know, utilities and your mortgage repayments are pretty much going to be the same, you know, whatever effort you put into this. So your cost is pretty much the same. But when you add 15, 20% on the rent, actually it doubles or triple, it can double or triple your margin. So think of it as not I'm getting 15% more rent but you move from, you know, making, you know, this, this 20% margin to like 40% margin or, or more sometimes. So do the math and you see like, it's like it could double your cash flow so it's well worth the investment from the start.

Exactly. Cool.

Cool. I think that's it for the questions. Oh, sorry. We had, Ron was asking about, can you share some software you're using for layouts or other people?

Yeah, I mean there's lots of different softwares, there's, there's some sort of basic ones that you can get to use yourself. Now CAD and SketchUp typically is what's, what we use. So which, which is probably too costly for an everyday, you know, if we're using it all the time it's fine. But if you're, if you're just using it as, and when alternatively you can get people to draw it up for you. There's various people on social media, say Fiverr for example or a graphic designer will be able to draw that for you as well. And then you haven't got to worry about it. But there are some really good, quite cheap or free versions if you search online for it. If you, if you just want 2D and you can get 2D planners and there's lots of different ones that you can do trial for example and then cancel it if you just got a property, you know, every now and again.

Yeah, I've heard people use something called floor planner. So you know.

Yeah, that's one of the most known about but there's a few.

Awesome. Well, thanks so much. That was so cool. Susan, really appreciate you joining us today. Do you have any sort of closing sentiment for us to.

I think the main thing is be really open minded. So if you're not sure how to sort of start, I think if you, if you don't get the layout right, you can make your property look lovely. But it can still put people off because as you walk through the property it's about that journey, the flow as you're using the space. So whether that's where things are placed in the kitchen, how you move around that to prepare food and a cup of tea and things like that, down to how the bathroom is all placed, making sure that as you walk through whatever room it is that it functions, it's practical. And then the last thing is it looks lovely so you have to put the first two in place. If you've got a property and you're doing a refurb anyway, you can make it look nice, but is it still going to function well? So the key thing is to be open minded with the space. Think about what the end user might really want or need that isn't already there. And can you jiggle things around a little bit? For example, it could be that what is currently the lounge actually becomes a bedroom because actually by moving the lounge to a different place, closer to the kitchen, for example, it might actually have a better flow and a better use of space. So as I say, it can be really, really simple changes just like which room is going to be which, for example, that's not any major structural change. So if you're refurbing a property anyway, you're spending that money, you might as well spend it wiser. So yeah, I think the key thing is you will do all five of those roles in your property journey and it's up to you, whether you want to do them or you get somebody else to do them, and if it's somebody else doing one or two of them or is it all of them, that, that's obviously entirely up to, up to you and how much time you've got.

Really appreciate this, Suzanne. So in the same way you wouldn't do your own conveyancing, you would find a good solicitor. In the same way you wouldn't, you know, be your own builder. You will find a good builder if you want, if you are flipping properties, if you're doing assisted sales, if you are doing the BRR model and want to derisk and maximize the revaluation, you can't afford to have a good professional in your team from the get go like Suzanne to get all the projects on the good foot. So I know for a fact you will 10x20x50x the return on any consultancy and service you do with Susan. So really recommend if you are getting to a project. So very pleased again and thank you for the generosity of your time today and the generosity of offering half an hour of your time for people to bounce, you know, things with their projects as well. So, yeah, much appreciated and I think the, the, the property filter community will benefit and you know, the more deals you do, the more profit, the more profitable your deals. The longer you want, you know, you're going to want more and the longer you're going to stay with us. So win, win, win for everyone. So thanks so much.

Thank you. One little thing actually, when people are booking the calls, the dates are only released every, every week. So there's 20 days showing at any one time. So if you get an oops, there's no appointments, it's just because they've not been released at that point and so just keep checking back just in case then.

Thanks so much. You know, really, really pleased to have you as a, you know, partnering with you and you know, I can recommend your service with my eyes closed so it's, you know, super easy for me to, to. Yeah, you have seen the, all the stuff you've been doing so it's really, really good and you're, you're a genuine nice person as well. So, you know, it's very easy for me to, to recommend the work you do. So thank you everyone else for joining. Today's the final corner and I look forward to seeing you next week. In the meantime, visit propsfuture.co.uk log on to your proxy account, have an endless supply of deals, join the top 1% and become I achieve a Deal Finder. I hope you enjoyed today's Deal Finder corner like I did, and I look forward to seeing you next week. Thank you so much, everyone. Bye. Bye. Bye, everyone.

Thank you.