Dion, a former steel worker from South Wales, describes his two-year journey into property investing using service accommodation and creative acquisition strategies (BRR, lease options, assisted sales). He explains early mindset challenges and rejection, how he used Property Filter to target motivated sellers and send niche letters (10 letters led to 6 calls), and details one assisted-sale negotiation involving a borrower, Lloyds bank, and a sale/compare at £167k that he structured to be win–win. He emphasizes focusing on demand, local outreach, networking (hosting Property and Pompadours), and that scaling took consistent work over two years.
Chapters
Everyone thought I went nuts. One minute he's a steel worker, next minute he thinks he's a property investor. And yeah, so I went through bit of mindset challenges then I was trying to prove to everyone and trying to explain to everyone and people just thought I'd gone mad. They joined the pyramid scheme and so I'm Dion, I'm from South Wales, I do service accommodation mainly as my cash flow strategy. Anything creative to acquire properties. So BRRs, lease options, rents. Been using property filter for about 2 years and I've grown a good little business. So, yeah, so we've done a couple of courses and they were saying just use right move. And spent hours just scrolling at the moment. At that time as well, I was working so I didn't have much time and yeah, and it's just felt like I was wasting lots of time. I got to find deals, doing lots of viewings, trying to ask questions to estate agents and I looked quite young and they thought. They just dismissed me. So I found it really difficult to get started. So. So after that then. So I started blasting out letters, but not. Not like stupid color envelopes and the landlord letters, which everyone does. So I used property filter to really niche down on motivated sellers. So I'd look at properties which have been on the market for a long time, they've fallen through, so Japanese want to eat them. All the problems that they were having. I filter right down and my first bachelor as I sent 10 letters and six phone calls. Wow. So that was that. So I done a deal pretty quickly, within two months. So I bought one with a bridging loan and that was a refurb and we done that. One minute he's a steel worker, next minute he thinks he's a property investor. And yeah, so I went through bit of mindset challenges then I was trying to prove to everyone and trying to explain to everyone and people just thought they'd gone mad. They joined the pyramid scheme and obviously the. The process and like the journey that we go through and obviously coming through that now, looking back, it was quite complicated two years ago as well. So it wasn't as you use a friendly as it is now, so. So, yeah, when I first seen it, I think Simon Zucchi introduced this French man on a webinar. Yeah, went through it. So, like there's a lot of it, obviously go through all the training and stuff, but obviously it's much easier to use now and this I can use Property Filter and source a property to order. So I just engineered the process. So where like People, when you start off, you just want to deal, you just want the property. Well, that property is a liability. You need the cash flow to make it an asset. So what I've flipped in my business now the way we use it is we're focusing on outreach, demand, finding a demand. And once we know there's demand for service accommodation in that area, then you'll find it. We can use Property Filter to find properties to match the demand. The problem he had, right, he was 68, he's on a pension and his mortgage term had run out so he couldn't remortgage. Lloyd's bank went to repossess and sales kept falling through. So I know it's on Property Filter falling through, falling through. He dropped the price, but he didn't, couldn't drop it anymore because he owed this money. Yeah. So you stepped, he couldn't drop it anymore to sell it cheap to an investor. But first time buyers were going there and it was a little bit too much work so they had mine for deposit. Yeah. But in my mind they worked. It was a perfect assisted sale, right. So I spoke to Hanif and Guillem about it, right. And they're like, yeah, do an assisted sale, use this solicitor you can structure in the correct way. You can structure it so you don't pay stamped out there. So you could do a flip skill with a deal, a lease option or you can even exchange, delay the completion and then sell it on to someone else. So that's what in my mind I put this deal to him that worked for him. So I agreed I'd pay him a little bit more than what he owed the bank. So he had good few grand and to move on to his next house, which would, would be a rental property. Yeah, was a win win. So I, I wouldn't have had to buy the property, just put money in for the refurb, secured it, he had a few extra grand and then I could have soaked it onto a first time buyer. I had a good comparable. So on Property Filter there's a property went on within a couple of days. It sold for 167k. I know it was 167 because I know the estate agent to give it a run and she said, oh, they were cool enough to buy you. So I was, yeah, two or three doors down. Yep, good end figure and a good solid comparable because I think doing a sister sale, you need to know it's going to sell. Yeah. But the only thing Lloyd's bank wanted the house back, Right. So I Spoke to Lies bank on the phone. We worked out that much. Yode he owed 110k. It was up for 125. Okay. But he was willing to come down to around 114 and then he ran a few grand to move on. Yeah, it's covered. Etc. Agreed. This is the sale. We've got the solicitors to send it to start the work. Lloyd's bank said okay, as long as there's an agreement in place, they'll pause the repossession. But the court courtier had already been paid for. So she said go to court, take all the solicitors paperwork. And then I imagine she said the court, they'll reject the, the court, the repossession order. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So last year, so like the first 12 months using property felt that I was just, I was dream keen behind it. Behind the ears. Yeah. Desperate, just trying to do any deal. So I went, literally I went to London to do a deal, right. In 2:10. Right. Which I just soaked it on because I realized it was a bad idea. But it was like I thought I gotta take any opportunity. Yeah. And when I took a step back and he realizes there's deals on your doorstep, in your street, you don't need to go traveling around and like I'm more focused on my strategy. So I live in South Wales. There's lots of regeneration projects, although I worked in the steelworks and had redundancy and just obviously just focus on. I send letters on property filter and just build relationships with people. Since I've started hosting the networking event Property and Pompadoms in Swansea, I think that's, that's worked and has helped give me credibility. So I had a good network of people around the country, a small network in my area. So now I think everything's starting to pull together. It has like taken two years for me to get to where I am now. So it's. I'm only just getting started to be honest. But it doesn't happen overnight either. So it is hard work. The Mrs. Hasn't left me 100 times, but. No, but it's starting to come together a bit now. Yeah. So it's, it's. But having this like an open mindset.
