The Property Unleashed Podcast

Pick The Property Strategy That Fits Your Goals In 2026

Mark Fitzgerald Episode 369

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The property market in 2026 won’t reward the loudest strategy. 

It’ll reward the investor who can execute, manage cash flow, and stay disciplined when deals don’t go to plan. We’re sharing the three property investing strategies we believe are best positioned right now, plus the mindset and business systems that stop your portfolio from becoming an expensive “hobby.”

We talk through what’s actually working on the ground: value-led HMOs where you buy below market value and add value, service accommodation that moves toward bigger 3 to 4+ bed properties to escape saturation, and supportive living or social housing models that can deliver hands-off income through longer provider-backed leases. 

Along the way, we dig into deal flow, motivated sellers, and why your best opportunities come from real property problems you can solve ethically, not from forcing numbers to fit a dream spreadsheet.

We also get practical about running property like a business. We cover why “the company’s money isn’t your money,” how Profit First can help you separate expenses, tax, and profit, and why VAT and tax planning matter for short-term rental operators. 

Then we close with a simple goal-setting framework you can use to pick one clear focus, set deadlines, and build daily disciplines that compound.

If you found this useful, subscribe, share it with a property investor friend, and leave us a review so more people can find the show. What strategy are you focusing on for 2026?

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The 2026 Strategy Roadmap

SPEAKER_01

The three best property strategies to use in 2026. Hello and welcome to the Property Unleashed with me, your host, Matt Fitzgerald. So today's session is all about me. No, it's not, it's all about you. Who's it all about? I'll tell you right here, right now. This is my session that I did at the Property Growth Summit, and it's all about the three best property investing strategies for you to use in 2026. Also, I share with you some nuggets on a bit of goal setting on how to get your mindset right and how to make sure that you are going to maximize your time, your effort, and your results. Enjoy this session. But now let's move into our first feature, which happens to be me. So we're going to be looking at high-yielding property strategies and of course how you can use those to really help yourself in 2026. So I hope that sounds good. If you do have any questions, as I say, I will try and keep my eye on the chat. We will make time at the end for questions as well. But it is all about, as I say, getting the content in there and sharing what we are all up to at the moment. So I do appreciate the fact that not everybody knows who I am. So in this session now, I'm going to go through a little bit about how I who I am, what I'm all about. It'll be about 60 minutes long, about 40, 45 minutes probably on the old presentation side of things. And then we can answer any questions and help anybody as we're going along. Introducing myself, talking a little bit about my background and things, what I've done so far in property, and also how you can get out there, of course, and build the right foundations for you. Then we'll cover cash-flowing property strategies that are really working well in 2026. Why? Because I'm doing them. I will also be available to answer questions and I will be throughout the day as well. I have a little bonus cheat sheet that I will put into the chat probably after I've finished the presentation for anybody that wants to download that as well. So my life was probably very, very similar to a lot of people out there. You know, I'm nothing special, certainly not. I'm just another guy or girl or whatever. Obviously, I'm a guy, trying to do the best that I can do for my family and also for my own situation and circumstances. I've got two sons that I absolutely adore. I've got Jack and Lewis. I'm super, super proud of them both. And they really are my driving force for me moving forward. For me, whatever I do in property, whatever I do in businesses as well, they sort of inspire me to do that because, and to get my head down, because we all know that it's going to be hard at times. You know, it's a rocky road, it's a roller coaster. Whatever you do, if you're going to talk about it and actually, you know, be in the real world when it comes to this, you're going to be ups and you're going to have ups and downs. I worked 16 years as a production manager, working my way off the shop floor to senior management level. And I did enjoy that sort of chase of the next promotion, you know, the next pay rise. And I think we all get that at some point in our lives, a lot of us, we have that carrot that's dangling in front of us that we're always trying to chase and reach, but we don't always reach it. And it always just seems to be that step away. But I was starting to get demoralized by that. And I wanted to do something for myself and obviously have a bit more time, feeling time freedom. So feeling trapped and wishing for more because I thought I didn't have any options when I was stuck in my corporate world. And of course, property can give you options. Now, I wouldn't recommend obviously just ditching everything and jumping into property, but I would say that you, if you're going to do property, start doing it alongside the job. Now, if you hate your job, and I grew to actually hate my job, then sometimes you want things to happen a lot quicker, and you're you can get a bit demoralized because you're still doing this dead end job. But always think that if you've got hard times now, you're probably gonna have easier times later. So it's like almost saying that if you make the hard choices now, then you can have a better life later on, or you can go for the easier choices now, but you'll struggle later on. And I see that is so true in life. So I had my head down, I was working all of the hours, and I bet a lot of us felt like this guy here who's running on the old treadmill. That was certainly me, spinning my wheels, not really ever getting anywhere, thinking I was doing the best thing for my family. And realistically, I wish I'd done this about 20 years ago. So if I see anybody now or I speak to anybody now that's like in their early 20s or, you know, under under 30 years of old, but they've got their head on and they're almost trying to achieve and do the things that we've been doing. I have a massive respect for that because I know it was a different world back then, and I'm not gonna harp on about that, but I certainly didn't have my head screwed on enough to do stuff like I'm doing now. The fact of the matter is, though, it doesn't matter when you choose to do it, as long as you get started, and that's the main thing. You can start at any age, you can start at any time. And it you just got to make sure that it's gonna be fun for you. So, as I say, my family is my world, and that is my driving force. And I do think it is very, very important to have that driver when you're starting anything, you know, whether it's property investing, whether it's just getting out there, starting a new job or anything, you need to have a driving factor. Now, a lot of the driving factors can be wealth, it can be financial, it can be money. And of course, that was one of my driving factors. I needed money, I needed to uh obviously keep the the lights turned on to pay the bills and everything. But more more than that, actually, for me, it was about I didn't want to, I didn't want to stop and give up. And that was the main thing for me. When I looked at my family and everything, and I have some nice pictures and things around to drive me on, I look at those and I think, no, I'm not gonna give up. So when I started out and I was finding it difficult to find deals, I was finding it difficult to get deals over the line, I was finding it difficult to get deals to stack, I kept going. And the reason that I managed to keep going as I did was because I didn't want to quit. I didn't want to be a quitter in front of my family or anything like that. So that was for me my driving force. And the reason I'm saying that to you is you've got to have a driving force. And it can be wealth, it can be the bling, it can be I want fast cars and I want big hanchens and fancy hollow. And there's nothing wrong with that. But what I have found, because one of my driving forces was money, that even when you get the money, you feel a little flat. You've got to be happy in yourself, you've got to be happy in the life that you're building and creating because we all have choices, and your choices start whether they've already started or they could start here and now. Your choices have to be the right choices that you're making to build that future that you would like to have. So, my life before property was I grew to hate my job. I missed my family time, I missed my children's activities. I couldn't go to the sports days and things. I always thought I had to be in my day job. I never had any time for myself, and I never felt fulfilled in life. I hated the world that I had created, even though I was the one through my own choices that I'd created it. And of course, in 2018, that was where my situations changed. That is where I decided, no, no, no, now's time to get out of that. Now, for me, I had to have an operation on my ankle, and that stopped me for a couple of months. And I thought to myself, do you know what? I need to get out there now and I need to do something for myself. And I was planning on building up a property business alongside my full-time job. I was using rent-to-rent, HMOs, just to get cash flow to come in to replace my wage. And that was something, as I say, I was going to do alongside my full-time job. And in 2019, at the beginning of, they wanted to make a manager redundant. I took voluntary redundancy and thought I've got enough money to survive for six months. If I can't make this property business work, I'll have to go and get a part-time job. But I'm not going to stop, I'm not going to quit. And that was really what got me out of that day job and got me down the property route. And it's been a whirlwind of a journey ever since. So, what have I done? Well, I've built a business to 16 HMOs at its height and 14 Airbnbs. I use different creative property strategies like rent-to-rent, purchase lease options, deal sourcing. I work with companies that deal source as well. And of course, now we do a lot of social housing and supportive living, and we work with a lot of landlords and support those guys as well. So a lot of my portfolio and a lot of what I've got now has gone down a supportive living route because, and we'll have Emily talking about it later, but it's a really good route to go down if you want your properties maintained to a great standard and you want hassle-free investing. So, as property investors, we can focus on what's important to us. I do work with JV partners, I do flips and assisted sales as well. And when I say I do flips, I don't like renovations, I don't like getting involved in anything like that. I like doing the deals. So for me, I like to partner up with people that enjoy those crazy people that enjoy dealing with trades and working with people and things like that as well. So I like to team up with the right people. But for me, a JV isn't something you just jump into straight away. You really got to get to know that person. It's got to, you've got to really almost like meet their family because it's like getting into a marriage. So don't just jump into any old JV because it seems like a good thing at the time and you're both onto the same sort of ideas and strategies. If you do something like that, you have to get the right agreements, the right contracts in place. Because realistically, if you start any JVs, you want to start it, for want of a better word, as enemies so that you can leave as friends, because things will always change. So what I say then is don't go and have arguments straight away, but get all of your terms down. What's going to happen here? What's going to happen if you want to sell up? What's going to change, and all of those different things as well. And if you have your strategy and what you're looking for, then feel free to put it in the chat. You know, if you're looking at just doing vanilla buy to let's great. If you're looking at doing rent to SA, rent to HMO, you're looking at lease options, you're looking at flipping properties, you're looking at doing commercial or anything, just let us know in the chat because I'm always interested to see what everybody is focused on. And if you're not 100% sure, just put not sure at the moment, you know, and then basically you can ask ask us questions and things, and we can always see what's right for you. So making sure that all deals are a win-win is so, so important for me because there's no point in going in there taking advantage of anybody. What I like to try and do is get stuck in there is to help people, make sure it's all done, and it's, as I say, a win-win for all parts. Everybody's happy with that because that's the way you do the best deals. I doubled my corporate income in just 12 months using the rent-to-rent strategy at the time. And it wasn't easy. It wasn't like a case of, you know, looked at a couple of properties, put the offers in, got the deals. I probably looked at, I probably put about 13, 14 offers in before I got my first deal. It took me four months to get my first deal. But as you'll see through this presentation, I am quite a consistent person. I am quite persistent in what I do as well. So that sort of helped me in moving forward. And I now work with investors and have built quite a nice big network, which is great. And of course, I'm always looking at growing that network. So, you know, having you guys and girls on here today as well, for as far as I'm concerned, it's great to have that network. It's great to still reach out to people and see people as well. And of course, continue to build the property portfolio, the property knowledge, and keep pushing myself forward. Now, over the last seven, eight years now, I've I've featured in YPM magazine a couple of times. I've spoken at different events. And I don't say any of this to brag. I actually am amazed when I look back myself. I almost pinch myself because it's a case of I'm actually, you know, people say to me, Mark, you're doing well, you're doing all right, you know, you're pushing yourself. And I always think I'm not. I always think I could do more. I'm not doing enough. Do you know what I mean? Have you ever felt like that yourselves? I mean, that's one of the things there. We do sometimes if we don't take time to just look back and say to ourselves, I tell you what, let's review what we've done over the last 12 months. Now, some people, when they say to me, Oh, I've only done one deal, I've only done one, or I've only got a couple of you've got a couple of deals. You're moving in the right direction. Everybody moves at a different speed, but I never feel like I'm doing enough. And you know, sometimes it's great to just look back through your photos and everything and see where you are. Because I I have actually won awards for my property investing, believe it or not. Again, that that really does make me laugh, but it's great to see. Um I'm I'm super excited and happy about that. What else have we done? I was a property uh entrepreneur finalist from a business strategy as well. And as I say, I've always treated property as a business. I've helped hundreds of people get and grow their own portfolios as well as building mine. Featured in YPM magazine, award-winning property trainer since 2021 as well. Sort of fell into that, but I love it and I love helping and supporting others, which is why putting on days like today with great support from other professional and industry experts is what it's all about. Host the Property Unleashed podcast. And if you've never listened to that, then do go and have a little listen. And I would ask one thing if you listen to that podcast and you like it and you could just leave us a little five-star review, that would be great. If you listen to the podcast and you don't like it, please don't leave a review. So that's that's just a little thing today. A little bit of fun there, a bit of fun. We interview a lot of my students, a lot of other investors, and of course, a lot of industry experts and a lot of people that you'll hear today are on that podcast as well, keeping you up to date with all of the latest trends and changes. We have a successful online property community called ETA Education to Action. So it's basically most of us have the education, most of us have invested in ourselves or know a lot about property investing, probably more than we actually realize, but we still don't always take the actions. So myself and James put a community together there to just help people do that. I run two live inner masterminds a year as well, one in Sheffield, one in London, which is amazing. And you know, these are just a few of the people that are having great success at the moment through what we're doing. So, as I say, it's just getting that clarity out there. And good old Adam this week, he's got his first two rent to essays over the line as well. So that's just great to see, and it's great to be a part of. As I say, that is the Property Unleashed podcast. It's been around a while now, there's lots of episodes there. So do go out there and enjoy it if you've never listened to it. So let's have a little think about your strategic vision going forward now. First of all, you need to look at property investing as a business, you need to systemize it, you need to basically set it up. A lot of people, when they get started in property, will have a property company, they'll they'll start up a limited company, and then they might start making some money. Now, the wrong mindset there is that that money's yours. So it's like you you do a deal, you you you've got a few thousand pounds coming in, you're thinking to yourself, well, there's my wage sorted, and then there's a few more thousand pounds right there. You go, I can buy this, I can do that. You've got to think about it as a business. And I see a lot of people getting caught out because they're what I call a bit of a hobbyist when it comes to it. And I say that's a dangerous game to be if you are treating it as a hobby. You need to be setting yourself up for success. You need to act like a business and structure your business and design it to be future-proof. Now, one of the things that can feel quite funny is when you set up a limited company and it starts making money, you well, I did, and maybe not you, maybe it's just me. But I used to think that's my money. That's my money. It's not my money, that's the business's money. And we have to get a business head on and understand that even if our business is making money, yes, we can pay ourselves from that, yes, we can have dividends from that. But fundamentally, in the eyes and the letters of you know, HMRC and everybody, and we have to, you know, take into account tax and all those things, it's the company's money. We can't just go spending it all. We need to be careful with that. So it's all about, I would say, having pots that you use when money comes in. Now, if you haven't read a great book called Profit First, I highly recommend that you read that book because it'll totally change the way that you think about your business and the money coming through. And the last thing that I would like to see from anybody, and I nearly tripped up in my first year of trading myself with this, is I was spending money as quickly as I was probably earning it because I was living off of it. And then obviously, we have tax bills, we got VAT thresholds to think about as well. Now we can offset things, and I'm not this isn't, you know, and I can't see class and everything. And please, please, please, on a caveat to this, seek professional advice from people, but understand that it's not just going to be all of that money's coming in, I can do what I like with it, because you might get to the end of the year and find yourself in a bit of a hole, and that's not a place that you want to be. So, Profit First is an amazing book to read, and that basically documents how you should, when money comes in, put it into different accounts, different pots, so that you leave yourself in a safe environment, in a safe place when it comes to paying your bills and everything. And that is a great way to then see what profit you're making. Because there's a lot of people as well that have a property business, and I see this a lot of the times in service accommodation, Airbnb properties, where they're making good money and it's coming through and everything, but they're not really accounting for tax bills that are going to be coming. They're not really looking at the VAT threshold, which can operate very differently with regards to HMO to service accommodation. You know, you get taxed differently, you get VAT differently on that. So you do need to be mindful of those things, and you need to just keep an eye out for them. Now, if you're hitting a VAT threshold, chances are you're gonna need to build your business bigger to comp to compensate for that. So, is that something you want to do, or do you want to keep it below that sort of threshold and things? As I say, it's a structure you need to go through with a qualified accountant, but profit first really helps you because it makes you move money around. So that's tax, that's potentially VAT if we're there. If we're not, then don't worry about it, obviously. And then I've got expenses, so my expenses ones here, and then what's my actual profit? And the money that's left over after the pots, if you like, those different accounts that's filled up is your actual profit, and that can show you that it's either really good or it's not, it's not as good as you thought. And it's very, very important that you do that. And of course, in today's market, as the property landscape changes all the time, we must make sure that we pivot and adjust. So, is there anything at the moment that's stopping you? Because if there is, I want you to have a little think about that, and I want you to sort of ask yourself, what is actually holding me back? And of course, that'd be a great session to listen to, will be James's session, which is coming up later today. But what I see a lot of people getting hold back is the lack of knowledge. Well, I think there's changing now with YouTube podcasts. There's a lot of knowledge out there. In fact, there could even be information overload when it comes to these things. Sometimes we actually we actually learn so much, we almost get analysis paralysis when we're looking at things because we expect or we think all the deals that we're doing have got to be those sort of golden egg unicorn deals where I can pull all my money back out, or it's you know, 100% ROI and plus and all of those. And just realistically bring ourselves back down to you know to safe ground. There are deals like that out there, but they're not the majority. A majority of the time you will be able to do good deals, but you're not always going to do those unicorn deals that you think. How to find the right property deals? That could be something that's stopping people. I keep looking in my area, I can't get anything to stack. Well, it depends on what you're looking at doing with the property. It depends on how you so, for argument's sake, if for your good self it was all about service accommodation, but service accommodation is either saturated or just not working in your area. Are you looking at the right types of properties? Are you, you know, do you have to change that area? Because it will work, but maybe it just won't work where you're specifically looking. So, what sort of strategies are working there and maybe aren't as saturated as all of the other ones? Knowing the numbers and stacking deals is a big one. A lot of us, and I did this when I started, I used to run the numbers, run the numbers, fudge the numbers a little bit. If I could push this up here and get more there, it's this deal or stack. Don't do that. The numbers are the numbers. The numbers never lie, so don't try and change them. You know, if a deal doesn't stack for whatever reason, for what you want, move on. There are plenty of deals out there. Of course, having a power team, having um being able to talk to people, being able to ask questions, you need to start building that up sooner rather than later. And it needs to be people that will give you the time of day. So obviously, we're not going to waste people's time, but you know, if you've got I I have a good power team around me where I can just drop a message in or I can just drop a quick email to people, and within 24 hours, they've normally got back to me, which is amazing and very, very helpful when it comes to you know my property investing. And that's the sort of people I want to be around. If you can't get hold of your accountant or you can't get hold of your uh planner or your architect or your mortgage broker, get another one because you need to have those people, and obviously, they're not going to answer you maybe straight away and stuff, but they need to be able to get get in contact with you for about you know 20, about 24 hours time or something like that. You know, I give I give I do give them a fair bit of time when it comes to that, and of course, it's all about building up your network as well. And I always think at the end of the day, if you're out there networking, stop talking to the same people, make a game of it, make sure you're going out there, force yourself to go and speak to five new people every time you go out and network because at the end of the day, otherwise, you really are not making the best you I was gonna say wasting time, but you're not wasting time because you're never wasting your time when you're networking. You're not using all your time when it comes to that. Two seconds. Sorry, I was just checking something out there. Right, no problem there. So, many ways to be creative in your property investing. Why choose one? And I think that's the other thing that a lot of us can struggle with is that we actually only know one strategy, or we've got limited knowledge in other strategies as well. So we try and basically shoehorn any deal that we come across into the strategy that we know. Where so I think you should have a full toolkit of strategies so that you, when you walk in there, you can say to yourself, well, this will work particularly as a lease option, or this is just a rent to rent, or it's just a buy-to-let or a flip, or maybe this is an assisted sale. But it's all about asking the right questions. And I'm going to help you with that today. And I've got a little gift for the people here that are live because we'll put it in the chat when we get there that will help you with that. But I just say I like to try and have as many different sorts of strategies to use. Now, I'm not saying that you should go out there and try and do all the different strategies because chances are you won't actually achieve anything, but you could have the toolkit of those strategies to be able to help and support you as you're moving through your property investing. And potentially for me, if I find an opportunity that is a really good one, but it's just not a strategy that I'm doing. Well, I'll look at my network then and I'll say, right, who is doing that? And they could potentially sell them the lead, or it's just for me, it's good karma. What goes around comes around. I'll say to somebody, this isn't a deal for me. You have a little look at that. And nine times out of 10, during the course of 12 months or whatever, they'll come back to me and said, Mark, you want to have a look at this? This is right up your street. And it's just great to be able to do that and share deals and things. And I'm going to talk a bit more about the pipeline and the deal flow that we need to be having to be successful. The reason most people don't is because they can't afford to access all of the knowledge that they need when it comes to this. But of course, with YouTube, with the podcasts and things, you can do. You need to become and build yourself up to be that property professional. And of course, have what we call that property investing toolkit in your mind to be able to walk in there with a full toolkit in your head of different opportunities, of different ways of doing things, and thinking to yourself, this is how I'm going to do things by asking those right questions. So, one of my top tips for you is the best deals are obviously from motivated sellers, people with property problems. If they've just put their house on the market, chances are they're not very motivated. Unless something's really upset them, they haven't really got a problem. And a lot of people fall in the trap. We want to be looking at properties that have potentially been on the market for a while and things. So the best deals come from property problems. I can personally say I've never really ever done a deal with anybody who hasn't got a problem that I can solve. Or a little niggle that basically says, Well, if I give you my property, I could potentially rent it out there. But then if I give if I go through you guys, I can use, I can I can get totally hands-free investing. So it's those sorts of things we always want to be out there looking for. People with a problem. Not all sellers and landlords are motivated. And I would say probably about 80% of people, when their properties go straight on the market, easily aren't motivated. Easily won't want to give you the time of day for messing about with any sort of strategies and sometimes won't even go on price because the elevated price that a lot of the agents give them will all of a sudden just that that's that they're already in cuckoo land, they're already in dream world thinking I'm gonna get that price. So I'll hold on, I'll hold on, I'll hold on. So make sure that you are always following up. And Holly will help you with that later, with a system that she's got that can really make the follow-up procedure on any opportunities that you've got seamless. You need to look to work with people and you need to look and ask yourself, how can I help this person? And that's the way I go into all property deals. I think to myself, right, this person asking the right questions has this sort of pain point, or they're looking at selling this property, they're sick of it because uh, for whatever reason, you know, maybe they have bad tenants, maybe they've got a bad letting agent or anything like that. So we got to the point where realistically there's the they're sat there and they've got a problem. It's about them for me to dig without being intrusive and rude and asking the right questions to find out what that is. And once I have that, what is their pain point and can I solve it? Will the strategies that I'm looking at doing solve their pain point? Because if it won't, we need to walk away. And that's another thing that I see a lot of people doing is they try and force deals. I'm gonna force this deal, I'm gonna force this because it's a great deal. And the reason they do that is because they haven't got a big pipeline of property opportunities. You now you never take advantage of anybody. We want to make sure that our ethics in our property business are right. I or I like to sleep at night, and I would rather walk away from a property deal than do a deal that I thought I was realistically taking advantage of somebody. We cannot go out there and take advantage of people. That's where you get buyers' remorse, that's where you get people pulling out as well. So don't make so make sure that you're doing good deals and you're helping people, and if that in the meantime can make you some money as well, there's nothing wrong with that. Make all deals a win-win, and of course, look at yourself as a property problem solver. So, what should we think about? Well, making sure any questions we ask are clear and concise. We what we don't want to do is start going off on a tangent and also don't think that you have to know all the answers as well. We don't have to know all the answers, we don't have to be that property professional that can answer everything. Nobody knows everything. And if I don't know an answer to something, I'll just say, listen, that's a great question. I don't know the answer to that, but I will get back to you because I don't want to say the wrong thing here, but I do know the right person that I can speak to. So is that okay with you? Nobody's ever said that's not. Is the question going to require productive, uh excuse me, a productive new way of thinking? So let me just what do I mean by that? Let me just say, let's say a purchase lease option. You're talking to a vendor about a purchase, you know purchase lease option, they ain't got a clue. So you're saying to them, I'll tell you what, I can give you the price that you want in five years' time, I'll lease the property off you now. You've lost them. Boom, it's gone. That's a new way of thinking, and a confused mind will not buy, basically. So if you start with agents or with property owners, you start confusing people and using a lot of the terminology that we take for granted and we think everybody should know. You'll confuse people, they won't understand it, they might even agree with it, but you'll never hear from them again. So we need to make sure that we do not speak in a language or ask things in a manner that creates a new way of thinking. So, in my case, if I was gonna do the lease option with this person, I wouldn't be saying it like that. I'd be saying, I want to make you an offer for this property, but unfortunately, with the amount of work and everything that needs to be doing at the moment, I can't offer you anywhere near the market price that you want. But you've told me, because we had that conversation, that you didn't know what you were gonna do with the money if you sold this property in the future anyway, but you just really want to remove that hassle. Now, I like you, and I would like to remove that hassle from your day-to-day as well. Now, there is a way I can do it. Would you like me to explain it to you? Or are you just hell-bent on selling it now? Then I go quiet. They'll come back to me. Normally they'll say, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm interested. What is it? I say, Listen, rather than offering you a low price, I can offer you market value on that property. Okay, I can take the hassle away from you now of basically renting the property off you. It's called a lease, but it's a guaranteed lease as well. So you haven't got to worry about me as you know an AST tenant. I take on all responsibility for the property and I maintain it to the high standard. Okay, and that's part of the lease. And then what I can do is I can take that hassle away from I can pay you a lease, and then I'll pay you that market rent in maybe 12, 18, 24 months' time. The reason is because I've got a few things going on at the moment that I have to get out of the way, but that I can buy the property off you. You haven't got to worry about any more viewings. And is that a deal that might interest you? Now, this is all done legally and it's done with solicitors. I have no problems paying for those solicitors. So you have a solicitor that represents you. I'll give you the choice of property-related solicitors, but it's very much in a similar method to if I bought some land off of you and I needed to get planning on it. Now, don't get confused because we're not doing planning or anything on the property. Well, you might be, but we're not in this scenario, we're not. But it's very much like that where you buy the land, you pay for the land whilst it goes through planning, but you don't actually buy it until you know you can get planning. Now we're not doing that, but this is the same method that you can use on your property now. Is that something that we could we could seek out and go further down the line with? All of a sudden, you've explained things in a concise manner for me. That works very well for me. So feel free to use that. Uh, and I hopefully it will work for you as well. So it's about making sure that we don't confuse people. Does the question make you sound like everybody else? And I say that even if you're talking to agents and things, try to differentiate yourself from everybody else. Have your own tone, have your own method of doing things. Questions are the life of a deal, and you have to ask them, obviously, but you need to make sure that you're not asking the wrong or incorrect incorrect questions because that can kill your chances of a deal. So make sure you have a list of the right questions. So do not get caught selling to people because that gets people's guards up and everything, but we are selling, okay? Fundamentally, we're either selling a service or we're trying to sell somebody into getting a deal. Most investors get caught selling to agents and vendors. Try not to do that. And if you can hear yourself, and it sounds like I'm being a bit salesy here, rein it back, be more natural with what you're doing. They think they need to have all the knowledge and all of the answers. You don't have to, so don't worry about that. A lot of people have the fear factor of talking to agents and things. Now, when you go and buy a house that you're going to live in, you'll talk to all the agents, you don't care less. But as soon as you put your property investor hat on and you start going to agents, a lot of the time you can feel a bit nervous because you think you have to know everything. Trust me, you don't. They overthink things and you don't have to do that. Don't be worried about saying the wrong thing. If you do say something wrong, then just keep going because chances are it's only you that's noticed it. And people do worry about making a fool of themselves. Trust me, I make a fool of myself all the time. I've probably done it three or four times already on this presentation, but I just keep rolling with it. So just keep going. Has anybody ever heard or has anybody ever felt like that at all? Just let me know in the chat with a yes or a no. If you've ever felt like that yourself, you've felt a bit nervous, or you you you didn't want to make a fool of yourself, or you you didn't really know if you're gonna say the right things and stuff like that. You know, James, being straight perfectly honest there, I'd be putting it in the chat and saying yes myself. I think most of us have in that time. Do you know what I mean? Karen as well, good stuff. You know, thank you for your honesty as well when it comes to things like this. So, what I want to do now is is is help you with this. And as I say, I've got a little PDF that we'll put into the comments section. You can download it. And basically, it's a whole list of these questions. I'm not going to go through all of these, but these are great. Now, first and foremost, please let me just say don't ask them all of these questions because they will really upset some people if you're there all day long going through all of these. But what I want you to do is to read through these questions and start to mark out the ones that for your strategy that can help you. Now you can take a screenshot of that if if you like, and of course, use it. But I've also got a PDF that you can download shortly, and we'll put it in the chat at the end of this talk anyway. So you'll be able to just have those questions with you and then maybe pick the ones that suit the opportunity that you're looking at. So there's a little gift for you all there just to help you. A lot of you might already have this and it's it's easy peasy for you. But it I say a lot of the time these are very important questions and easy to ask as well. So let's just move into now building relationships. I love this saying the more hands you shake, the more money you make. And that is so, so true when it comes to property investing. You know, the more people that you meet, the more opportunities that you seek, the more you will create the property businesses or the property portfolio that you're looking for. Because all money will come from relationships. At the end of the day, somebody somewhere has your money. If you're making money, it's coming from somebody else's pocket. Okay, and it's all about having the right relationships to do so. Now, again, that's not a bad thing. If they're giving you money for a service or a deal or a purchase, or you're giving them money as well to buy their opportunity, there's no harm, there's no problems in that whatsoever. Okay, so don't get hung up on the fact that somebody else has to suffer for us to make money. It's not, it's all about, as I said before, making sure that their win-wins. So the pros and cons of different property strategies. Now, deal sourcing is a great way to get started, but you never own any properties. So the pros are that once you've got a good pipeline of property opportunities coming through, you've got the investors there and things, you can sell the opportunities. It's great. You can make decent money on that. The cons are that overall, obviously, property prices go up, you miss out on the capital growth and things. But of course, we're all deal sources. I think it one way or another, you need to learn about finding good opportunities. I would class my I'm a deal sourcer. I'm a deal sourcer for me in most cases. So we are all deal sources of self. But if the up the odd opportunity comes along and you need to then maybe sell that to somebody else, then that is a great way to start. But deal sourcing is good because it gives you the fundamentals, gets you out there, gets you talking to people. Purchase lease options where you arrange to buy a house now for a certain price, but you're going to buy it in the future and you'll lease it off of them in that time. Brilliant, absolute brilliant strategy. I've done a lot of rent to rent, which is where I control and take on other people's properties, pay them a guaranteed rent, basically look after the property as if it's my own. But at some point I have to hand it back with rent to rent. I love lease options because I've got the opportunity to buy it at a set price, also make money from the property in the time being and make sure that the owner's making money as well. And if I don't want to buy it, I can assign it to another investor. So again, it's a great, great tool to use. Rent to rent, very similar, but you don't lock in a price to buy it. HMO investing is another great, great strategy to be looking at and to be doing. But you need to look at your marketplace now. It is more and more important, very much so like serviced accommodation, that you need to understand your market because you just cannot build and put together an amazing HMO, stick it in the marketplace where it's very saturated and expect it to perform year on year all of the time. If you're in some right, if you're in the right areas and you're maintaining it to a good standard, then chances are you will do very, very well on that. But again, make sure that you're doing your due diligence on that. Service accommodation, short-term rentals, again, is another great tool and strategy to use. Just know your market. I'm gonna talk a little bit more about that one in a minute because there's certain ways now that I would say that you need to be looking at with service accommodation to separate yourself from everybody else. Now, flipping properties and refurbishments, which Rupin's gonna go into this afternoon, more and more detail, is also another great strategy to use. It's not a cash-flowing strategy per se, but you can get your bonuses if you like, large chunks of money. At the moment, there's some amazing opportunities on the market. You've just got to make sure that there is demand in those areas. If you're looking at flipping properties, uh, just because you found the right property, but it's not in an area of high demand, it could be sat on the market for a long time. You could you could get yourself into a little bit of a pickle. But RuPaum will be telling us later on what to do and what to look for there. Assisted sales. Now, if you've never heard of that, it's basically it's flipping a property. But what we do is it's almost like a purchase option. We speak to the vendor, we arranged, we organize the price that we are going to pay the vendor for that property. Okay, then we're gonna ourselves add value to it. So we lease the property off the vendor, we add value to that property, and then we sell it or we keep it and refinance it. We sell it for the higher margin. The great thing about an assisted sale is you don't have to find stamp duty, you don't have to find deposits because you're not actually buying the property until the works have been done. It can be quite difficult to explain that to people and get it over the line. But again, if you can and you've built those relationships, it's a great way. Now we have lots of trainings in the ETA and everything, which cover all of these different strategies and scenarios. So if you are struggling for anything there, then do check that out and we can help you. So, what is the best strategy then? You need to think about this. The best strategy is the one that is in line with your goals. Please, please, please don't look at me, James, Rupert, Tracy, Holly, anybody that's on today and say I'm gonna do it because they do it. No, no, no. What is your goal? And I'm gonna do this with you now very, very quickly. People that are here, James said it right at the beginning. So if you only just if you've only just joined us, I'll share that with you, Scott, at the end as well. We'll put a little link in so you can have a little look at that, my friend. But it is www.education2action.com. Just just just because Scott asked. But basically, your goals are the thing that you need to be focusing on. So James said at the very beginning, get yourself a pan and pen. And I hope everybody's got something that they can just write down. I've not got a lot of time for this, but take the notes or screenshot this. But I've got an eight-step plan that can really, really help you with your goal setting, and it will really help you and show you exactly what you want to be focusing on over the next, I would say, 90 days, three months, 12 months, and stuff. So the first of the eight steps is having a vision and crafting it, magic wand focus. We're not gonna get hocus pocus, see what I did there on this, but it does work. The next one is your main focus declaration, deadlines and commitments, your action mapping, priority and structuring, taking action, and your daily disciplines as well. So if you can commit to doing something every day that contributes to your goal, fostering a habit of consistent progress, you're not gonna fail. You're gonna achieve the opportunities that you're setting out there to try and achieve. So I'm gonna go through these quite quickly because I'm conscious of time. But crafting your vision. What I would like people to do in this case is write down, even if it's just one, two, or three goals a minute, just humor me. What are your goals that you want to accomplish over the next 12 months to create a clear vision for your year? So if at the end of this year you said I could have free property deals, cash flowing this, what would that look like for you? Is that a goal that you want? Is a goal to have a couple of purchase lease options or rent to rent or service accommodations or BRRs or something like that? Everybody's got their own goals, okay? Yeah. Gail, Gail says, but yeah, eight eight steps. Eight the eighth step is and it's the hardest. The eighth step is the most important, and it is the hardest as we go. But keep this nice and simple. Now, the next step that you would then take is once you've listed down those goals, you've got them in front of you. As I say, we haven't really got time to do this as a workshop exercise, but this is something I do with my inner circle clients, and we do it on ETA as well. Is we have the magic wand focus. So you would then look at your list, okay? And you would look down that list and identify the most important goal for you. And this is the one that I said to you now if I had a magic wand and I could wave that magic wand, and out of the goals that you put there, it is the one that you would like to have tomorrow. So you could wake up tomorrow and that goal would be complete. Which one is it? You could then basically say, I'll tell you what, it's definitely that one because that'll give me time freedom, it'll give me the money I want. You've got a goal, okay? We all got lots of goals, we've all wanna achieve lots of different things, but then you could identify that goal, and that should then be your main focus, okay, for the next 12 months, and it's certainly for the next 90 days as well, because it's reflecting your true desire. So if you're not 100% sure what it is you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it, write down a load of different goals, different scenarios, different strategies. And then if you could wave that magic wand or Marky Mark can come in there and say, Habricadabra, here we go, baby. You could wake up the next day and have that in place. What would it be? Step three, then is your main focus. What I want you to do is take that one goal and just write it separately because that is our main focus that we need to have clarity and direction on. So we need to ask ourselves what is going to push us to achieve this goal? Are you a self-driven person? Do you want to build something of your own? Doing this for other people is always a great thing as well. I've doing it for my family at the end of the day. I want to be wealthy, but I also want them to see that if you get out there and you try and achieve anything, you can do it or however you want to do it. You want more time freedom. Obviously, time freedom is a great one. So ask yourself those have your main declaration. And of course, now you need to commit to this goal. You need to basically say, This is what's gonna happen. It's not, I'll give it a go, oh, I'll try it and see what happens. Dip your toe in the water. This is gonna. Happen, and that is what I've always said. If I'm gonna do something, I'm all in, I'm gonna make sure that it happens. Stick it in the chat if you've got a goal now and you want to declare it, put it in the chat if you're feeling brave enough. Because we all have self-doubts at times, we need to follow a system and we need to take action on that. And of course, simple lack of taking action can be what's holding you back. Okay, we need to make sure that we're out of the read weeds. And a fact is, rhythmic activity of being consistent and persistent will get you rhythmic results. Step four is deadline to commit. So set a realistic deadline. Deadlines get things done for achieving your main goal, determining how long it will take you and what is required to take you. So you can go away, sit down, have a think about this. What is the deadline? I want this done by the next, you know, we're already three months into this year. So you could say, oh, 2026, I want to make sure that I've got this done December. What's the date? What's the time? Let's then work our way back. What has to happen each month for us to be able to do this? What do I need as well? What am I be missing? And things like that. List all the necessary tasks that you need to complete to reach your goal using tools like post-it notes. Again, quickly, just grab yourself a pack of post-it notes and start writing each task onto a post-it note, grab another piece of paper, and you can put those post-it notes on. And the reason I do that with post-it notes is because a lot of the time I'll write different tasks at different times, not always in a line. And I can just move those post-it notes around to say that's what I need to do, that's what I need to do next, that's what I need to do next. It's a very good way to be able to plan out what you're doing. And then priority. Make sure that you organize your tasks by importance, deciding which actions are most critical. Now, sometimes we will write things down just for the sake of writing things down, but I want us to go through that list, list the number ones. These are the things that have got to get done. I've got to make sure they happen. Number twos probably will get done. Number threes are on my to-do list, but they're probably never going to get done anyway. Step four is taking action. Take decisive action by scheduling in tasks on a day-to-day basis, setting deadlines and holding yourself accountable to them. And then the daily disciplines, which was said before, yep, this is the most important. Commit to doing something every day that contributes to your goal. That could be learning something new, that could be making that phone call, that could be checking the portals, whatever it is, not just drifting through it. I've set a target here. I need to speak to a certain amount of agents, so I need to find those agents. And of course, share what you have achieved. Remember, the best way to set goals is to identify it, write it down, date it, put a time and date on it, give it a deadline because deadlines get things done. List any obstacles that you might have to overcome. List the groups of people or contacts that you need to have and who you need to know to help you achieve that goal and what other skills and knowledge you need to achieve this. Write it all down, have an action plan, and of course, then start just taking those steps. List the benefits of achievements, and of course, make sure that those goals are what you want. But give yourself some rewards as you're going as well. Lynn says, get an offer accepted on my next property. Brilliant stuff. So what are the actions that we have to take for that? So that was a quick sort of rundown on a goal setting things there. But what are you going to do now? So before I share the three strategies, you need to ask yourself this. How much time do I have to spend on my property business? Now, some of us are very part-time poor, but we can surely carve out some time. How much money do I want to make? What's your lifestyle look like? Have some fun with that as well. Is capital growth, cash flow the main focus? Can I build relationships to be successful and build that network? And how much hassle am I prepared to take as well? Because we all are going to have a level of hassle. So you need to stop worrying about making mistakes and we need to start moving forward. You need to work on your mindset as much as anything else. You have that property investing toolkit. And this means learning lots of different ways to do things. So never stop working on your mindset. I work on that daily, basically through reading a lot of the times as well. Expand my skill sets. Where am I a little bit weak? Where could I touch base on things? What could I learn a bit more of? And the daily habits. A lot of people say to me, You're very rigid in your habits, which is a curse and a blessing, I'll be quite honest with you, because once I have a habit, it sticks. I keep doing it. I do it, do it, do it. But then I also get annoyed sometimes where I can't do that habit because I've had to go and do something else. So, as I say, some people struggle to get into habits. I don't particularly. I struggle breaking the habits. So I've got to make sure that they're good habits. And of course, in 2026, cash flow is key. It always is key when it comes to property investing. So what strategies are working well in 2026? Well, contrary to popular belief, rent-to-rent is not dead. You're just going to have to pivot and change how you're doing it. HMOs and service accommodations still work very, very well. Purchase lease options, as I've said before, are great. Assisted sales. I love assisted sales. And property flips are working as long as you get the right properties at the right price. And that is the main things there. But it's not a cash flow strategy just to be mindful of. And of course, commercial property is the buzzword at the moment, but that can take a lot of time to get it over the line to get it complete. And of course, it also can be a lot more difficult than people realize when they're just telling you on YouTube that you can jump straight into commercial and get Costa downstairs to lease your property for the next 25 years. So make sure you do your due diligence on that. So let me share with you what we're currently doing and what we're working on at the moment. So HMOs, below market value. If you're going to be buying HMOs, you've got to be getting them below market value. You really want to be adding some value to those as well. I always think it's very, very important to look at potential HMO opportunities. Is there a chance to extend on it? Is there a chance to add rooms on it and things? If you are acquiring something that's turnkey, ready to rock and roll, and you're happy to just keep your money in it, that's great. And remember as well, with the opportunities that you're looking at, you probably won't always get your money all always back out all of the time. So make sure that it cash flows, but focus on locations with high buyer demand. Ensure your target exit price is achievable if you have one. And of course, make sure that you are going to be able to add value to any of those properties. And of course, rent-to-rent can still work with these as well. Most of my tenants on in my HMOs are on rolling contracts anyway, which is very much going to be the same as the new ATs that are coming. It is ATs, yeah, yeah, that are coming through. But Anthony and Alison will tell us more about that too. Strategy two is service to accommodation, but it's more on a larger scale. I'm finding now that the larger properties that you have for service to accommodation is working because the smaller scale ones are very, very saturated at the moment. So if you can transition to a sort of larger property, and I'm talking like three or four bed properties upwards, that can work very, very well. And we're finding that our occupancies in the bigger properties are good. We're still getting bookings and things with our smaller properties, but you've got more margins with bigger properties. You can have more people potentially stay. You can still let it to a couple of people as well. You've got more options. You can demand a higher rate, and the market doesn't seem to be as saturated in the bigger property market as it is with the smaller ones, with your little flats and your one or two beds. Two bed is probably the lowest that I would go on a serviced accommodation right now. And of course, you need to make sure that you're offering something a bit unique to the market. I mean, I work with a lot of contractors as well. So our properties aren't particularly the most stunning when we do serviced accommodation, but they work for our market. But if you are somewhere where there's a lot of demand and it's very, very high, then you do need to stand out from the crowd. So don't just look like everybody else. Try and get a bit unique in what you're doing. And the last one is supportive living and social housing. This for me now, if you want to say I want to be a passive property investor, this is probably as passive as you can get now because you can have a provider come in, take your property on on an FRI, fully insured lease over three, five, 10 years, depending on who it is and everything, and basically concentrate on being an investor yourself. So this is something that we were working very, very closely with a lot of investors and landlords, and a lot of my own portfolio I am putting into this. So, you know, it's a secure model where a provider takes on your property for three to 10 years on FRI leases, ensuring stable hands-off income. It's not gonna work in all areas, it's not gonna work on all properties. But the providers guarantee rent for you whilst meeting the critical community needs an essential housing solution. So it's quite rewarding as well. But do check your property, do check your mortgages when you're doing this. Don't just think I've got a property, I'm just gonna chuck somebody in it. They have to be on the right mortgages. Okay, we need to make sure that we're setting ourselves up for success. So you are you are gonna have some things that you need to check out, and obviously you need to get the providers in place as well. We I work very, very closely now. With I have a company called Social Spaces, which works very, very closely with providers. And if there is, or you do have a property and you'd like to find out whether or not you could let it either social housing or supported living, then you will be able to reach out to us and we can help you. Now, popular in 2026, due to the high demand of the government-backed social housing and of course the desire for long-term low-risk investments with the new renters right bill as well. A lot of landlords are looking at strategies like this. As I say, that is our company at the moment. We have a QR code there, but we'll put links in the chat as well. When I'm off of this and the next speakers are on, I might put a link in the chat there. If you wanted to reach out to us and have a chat, then more than welcome to. We just need to know a little bit about your property that you're interested in, having a provider, your area and things, and then we can look at how we can help you with that. So remember, the road forward won't always be as clear as that road there. There will be a hump, there will be twists, there will be turns, but we can move ourselves in the right direction. As long as we're not feeling foggy, because it can do, you know, at times you have to take that leap of faith. At times you just have to get out there, you just have to do it. We can't see the top of that building. That building could end just where those clouds are, or it could go and be twice the size. We're never gonna know until we actually go into that building and take the action to walk further or see further than we can always see in front of us. So don't just hold yourself back because things seem foggy. Make sure that you surround yourself with the right people. And if you need help with that, then of course, look at joining a community. You might already be in a community if you are, but also what I would say is make sure that you are participating. I'm just trying to think of the word that you are part because what you put into any community, you will get out of it tenfold. If you just sit there in the background and expect everything to happen for you and you don't turn up to things, it's never gonna happen. So make sure that you're out there, you're networking, you're in the right community. And of course, what we've done at ETA is build a community. We call it a village because in a village, everybody is there to help and support each other. You've got your local shops and things, you've got your neighbors and stuff. We're all there to help each other moving forward. A lot of the speakers that you're gonna hear of today, you'll recognize if you were here from the very beginning, they are the speakers from ETA themselves. So these are people that are in our community that have coaching calls each and every week as well. So they're gonna share with you today all the industry experts and everything, they're all of their knowledge. But again, our ETA members can ask them on a week-on-week basis, how do I do this? How can I do that? What support do I need? And it's a great place to be. As I say, we're not here trying to sell anything today, there's nothing else. This is just brand awareness because ETA sponsors this event. But there's a whole vault as well, full of different trainings that you can work your way through, and it's just a monthly fee for it. So ETA is there to help accelerate your property investing journey, maximize your time and efficiency with expert guidance and result-driven support. If you would like to check that out, there's a QR code there. As I say, there's nothing to buy from us today, and we can give you access to it for a pound, basically. I say nothing to buy, there's a pound there if you want to have a little look, but you don't have to. The links will go in the chat and we will move on. So, all that leaves me to say is again, the Property Unleashed podcast is my podcast, comes out every Thursday, 100% free, never charge, no ads on there either. So come and have a little listen. A lot of our experts are on there, and that is it. So, thinking about your action plan, your next steps moving forward to a prosperous 2026 is to implement strategies, identify which strategies suit you. Connect with us either on social media, always looking to connect with people on Facebook and Instagram as well. Mark Fitzgerald, entrepreneur on Instagram, Mark Fitzgerald, Facebook, smiley face, blue tick. Can't go wrong. And if I can help you in any way, shape, or form, then I will do. Subscribe to the Property Analytics Podcast, and we have a YouTube channel as well. So that is it. Now it's up to you guys to have, you know, make 2026 your breakthrough year. It really is down to you guys. And I have to say, if you've stuck with me over those 60 minutes, I've covered a lot of information. Thank you very much. If you have any questions, do feel free to put them in the chat and I will answer those questions and things. But we do have a lot of speakers to get through today as well. So, right here, right now, I'm gonna bring my mucker back here. I'm gonna stop sharing.

SPEAKER_00

And uh hi James, how are we doing? Hi, Mark. Yeah, take a break. My goodness me, how much energy has this guy got? It's incredible. And like I said, I have written some notes down myself. There is a couple of questions that I'll be going through as well. But really, the things for me is what Mark said, you know, we are the captains of our ship, our lives are exactly the result of the of the decisions that we've made. So we need to be responsible for that, and that feeling of inadequacy, Mark, that you talk about. Perhaps that's your inner self, knowing what potential you truly have. Just makes you think that, doesn't it? And I love that last one. If we can't solve their problem ethically in property, walk away. But just quickly into the chat, I wanted to just ask you, Mark. You've got Ray Hand was asking, he's worried about saying the wrong thing. What would you say to that?

SPEAKER_01

Well, chances are we will. So get over it. And I mean that in the politest possible way because I've been there, mate. I've I've I've been there, I felt like it myself. I didn't want to make a mistake, but it's practice, it's repetition, and it's just having conversations, and just be mindful that we cannot control how other people think. So whether they like us or not, chances are some people like you, some people don't like you. That's not on us, that's on them. So go out there, have conversations, be yourself, okay? And also make a note after those conversations. What went well, what didn't go so well, what can I do better next time? Always look to improve, but we will make mistakes. I still make mistakes now, I still fluff my lines and stuff. Just go with it, mate. It gets easier the more you do it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and there's two of these and one of these. So I, you know, in sales, when I was doing sales, I would always listen first because once you've got three things that they want and you can give them those things, then that's the beginning of getting a great deal. So thank you for that. Lynn was asking about you know what would what would make your essay slightly better than others. For me, that would be design, position. Any any sort of tips there, Mark, just very, very quickly.

SPEAKER_01

Uh well, I just think it's knowing your market. You want to talk to your market when it comes to service accommodation. So, you know, like I say, if it's contractors and stuff, it just wants to be nice and easy for them. If you're trying to show something off and you want to go design lead and build a brand, then then that's great as well. I I think it's I don't without knowing her market per se, whether it's holiday makers, whether it's contractors and stuff, I would say, you know, standing out from the crowd isn't just having you know the bed sheets there and a few pillows and things, you know, what else could you add to it to give them that sort of VIP service? And and I know James is very good at that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, very good at that. And and for me, it's always about supply and demand. Give them what they want, not what you want. You know, that's it's very easy to do that. And just very, very quickly, I just wanted to come on to Marie Nielsen. Hello there. Do you think larger essays work for contractors, or would you recommend holiday lets? What's your thoughts on that, Mark?

SPEAKER_01

Well, actually, I can say for a fact, four-bedroom properties are going very, very well with contractors, as long as you've got a couple of showers in there, a couple of bathrooms, they don't have to be on suites and things, but that is that is working well. But also, uh particularly for the contractor market, a one-bed or a two-bed flat is is still quite good as long as you've got parking.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely, absolutely. And I will just say quickly that if you've got a big development going on, like Barrow Infaness near, you know, in Cumbria, in that area, you know, 10-bedroom essays work very well because the contracts can all work live together. And if it's in the lake district, then we all we know that that's going to be really good for friends and families to get together. So bigger the better, Mark. Absolutely right. So thank you very much for that. And a big round of applause for Mark. That that is world-class presentation, my friend. I wish I had slides like you. That's all I can say. So thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01

I hope you enjoyed that presentation, and I hope you're enjoying the podcast. I look forward to you joining me next week. Take care. Look after yourselves. Get out there and smash it, and bye for now.