Property Strategy: Multi-Unit Blocks w/ Stephanie Taylor

Transcript

Unknown Speaker  0:01   The purpose of wealth talk is to educate, inform, and hopefully entertain you on the subject of building your wealth. Wealth builders recommends you should always take independent financial tax or legal advice before making any decisions around your finances.

Christian Rodwell  0:19  
Welcome to Episode 82 of wealth talk. My name is Christian Rodwell, the membership director of wealth builders. And I'm joined today by our founder, Mr. Kevin Whalen. Hi, Kevin.

Unknown Speaker  0:28  
Hi, Chris. Good to be with you. Again, Episode 82.

Christian Rodwell  0:31  
Yeah, we're motoring through these and won't be too long when we hit the big 100. So I reckon that'll probably be around about February, March next year, but not too much. And we've had some great feedback, actually, from last week's episode, where we had Lisa Brown, who talked to us about the supported living gateway. And yeah, lots of people in the wealth builders, Facebook community, commenting, and yeah, that's been really enjoyable.

Unknown Speaker  0:57  
Yeah, I can see the value of that, you know, from all sorts of angles. As we mentioned before, in fact, we had a call with one of our members today, then we Chris, who's a very much a business owner. And he saw that as a business transaction, you can see the value of a long term let to local authority or care, or you know, someone responsible for care. And definitely sort is different, sort of a combination of property and business. And I think it's always good when you can get leverage, as we will hear, of course, also from today's guest,

Christian Rodwell  1:30  
and we talked about the Seven Pillars, but within each of those pillars, there's multiple different strategies. So we're continuing with the property pillar this week, and looking at a different strategy. And again, our guest, who will be speaking in just a few moments, talks about coming from a professional corporate life. Lisa, last week was in nursing, and, and then transitioning, and obviously taking those first steps into something completely new property investing, and just getting the right education, just starting with small steps, and then building up to quite magnificent things as well here today.

Unknown Speaker  2:06  
It's always good. I always admire people when they take a leap of faith, you know, that nervous feeling people get when they're on the cusp of making a big decision. You're that heady mix of excitement, and a bit of fear. But when excitement wins, and people take actions, you know, with a little bit of safety net, always important not to burn your bridges, as we'll hear today from Stephanie. So you could position her and what she does, and then we'll debrief at the end.

Christian Rodwell  2:36  
Yes, definitely. Taylor is the co founder along with our sister Nikki of H mo heaven, and they're a leading HMO, management and development company, based in Wales. And Stephanie has achieved some great things. I've lost yours. So let's head on and listen to the conversation with Stephanie Taylor right now. Stephanie, welcome to wealth talk.

Unknown Speaker  2:56  
Christian, it's lovely to be here. Thank

Christian Rodwell  2:58  
you, Stephanie, very much looking forward to hearing your story, your journey today. And why don't we kick off by just letting our listeners know a little bit about what you do? And and really the strategies that you're focusing on within the property investment industry?

Unknown Speaker  3:14  
Well, we run HMO have been a property management company, and we've become we have C invest in properties ourselves as well. And we accidentally stumbled upon a strategy which has proved to be very fruitful. And that is a multi unit blocks. And I think that's one of the things that we're going to be talking about today.

Christian Rodwell  3:37  
Okay. Yeah, we are indeed. So for someone who perhaps hasn't got an idea what a multi unit block is, what exactly are we talking about here?

Unknown Speaker  3:46  
Well, I'll be honest with you, Christie, and the first time I heard her, they called a multi unit block, because by the, by the lenders, their commercial finance lenders, they they refer to them as multi unit blocks. And that's just sort of come into my politics, though. But it's what people would know is converted that typically, it will be a house converted into self contained units, and all on one title. There's, that's how we like them, usually in bad condition, and all on one title.

Christian Rodwell  4:17  
Okay, and you're in Wales. Stephanie. Yeah. And is this something that you've spotted? Is this a particular kind of niche that is in your area? Are you seeing people around the rest of the UK also, finding this favorable

Unknown Speaker  4:32  
all around the UK? What, what how we fell into it cristhian many people fall into good things from bad things. So we were trying to buy HMOs and there was a lot of competition and we kept missing out sometimes it was lender gambling. Sometimes it was that, you know, there was so much competition for each property that the the prices went beyond what we were prepared to pay. And so we started looking at, you know, properties that were a bit larger. And that is how we came across the one that we bought last year, which is a 12 unit property 10 Studios. Well, they're not quite studios, but I'll just for brevity, say 10 Studios, to a two bedroom flat and a little shop on the front. And some of the benefits that we found through buying this multi unit bulls is that the cost of buying 12 properties, even in Wales, which is much cheaper than a lot of areas of the country is is is much less when you buy them all in one. So for example, the property that we bought, there was 375,000 pounds, which equates to less than 32,000 pounds per unit. Now in under the rental income from majority of them, for 10 of them is 450 pounds a month, for the two bedrooms, 3600 pounds a month, and for the little shop is 300 pounds a month. So I sell that so 450 pounds a month. Now, even in the valleys of Wales, which is much cheaper than where we are in Newport, you cannot buy a single rental unit, a house or a flat for 32,000 pounds. And you the rental income you get in from that 60,000 pounds that will be very similar to that 450 pounds that we're getting. So there's this immense leverage within this multi unit block. And this was sort of a bit of a revelation to me when I was going over the numbers looking at Oh my god, it's 30,000 pounds per unit. That is that that's incredible. And since Well, actually, before then we also have some other multi unit bulks. One is one is a commercial property that we bought with intention to convert to an HMO, but for the architect actually came up with full self contained units, which works beautifully. And another one that we bought is it's already been converted into four flats, but it wasn't quite finished. And it was I wouldn't say done badly. But there was still a lot to do, which means a lot of potential there to add value. And so we have that one as well. And our what we want to do going forward is to continue with this strategy.

Christian Rodwell  7:28  
And how much of a step up is this strategy, Stephanie from, you know, typical buy to let like how much more is involved when it when it gets to the size of kind of 12 plus units?

Unknown Speaker  7:39  
Well, yes, the the 12 plus units, especially if it involves commercial, you've got you have got more challenges there are managing. Now if you have a great team in place to manage your properties for you, or you're quite confident about self managing, then that's fine. But that that would be a barrier. The next thing that would be a barrier, more fundamentally is the finance for that type of property is more restricted. So first of all, if you're if your property includes a commercial element, then you will need commercial property finance. And that tends to be more demanding in terms of what you need to be able to prove about yourself. So usually they will want to see experience of ownership or management of a similar sized commercial element property, say that, again, is restricted. But the thing that where I feel that this strategy is really fantastic for beginners is where you buy we will have all of seen, you know, go to write me right now and find find them in your area is a one has has been converted into two flats or three flats, that is ideal. If you're a very, very beginner beginner, then you might want to do that with friends or family members and each live in a flood or live in a flat to start up live in the flat to start off with and then and then rent your first ad as you move up the property ladder, and so on. So there's lots of ways that you might be able to get in as a beginner starting off with smaller number of units and all residential which is easiest to finance and manage and then moving up to bigger units. For more experienced investors, it's not it's no jumper at all.

Christian Rodwell  9:32  
And and then from from kind of where the multi unit blocks set is that covering almost the b&b type property as well Stephanie

Unknown Speaker  9:43  
didn't know what you mean.

Christian Rodwell  9:44  
Okay, so bed breakfast now that often are coming onto the market and a lot of our members and community are looking at that kind of strategy of taking over and be a bay. So would you call that a part of The multiplug strategy?

Unknown Speaker  10:01  
Yes, in fact, you're getting a bit ahead because I was the strategies that I'm very excited about for this year. And moving forward as we go into probable recession, falling property prices, etc. is yes, commercial to residential is going to be phenomenal. And especially all over the country, but especially in areas like ours, where there's no permitted development, because it means fewer other people are going for the same properties. But the particular categories of commercial property that I think are going to be offer a special opportunity, our care homes, and sorry, care homes and BM B's. The reasons why these are especially opportune is because they tend to be low profit businesses. That means that the purchase price is lower, it means that the financing options are usually lower the percentage loan to value is usually lower, because the banks like to be cautious, especially at the moment. So what what all that means is that the owners are often open to a creative strategy, such as a lease option, exchange with late completion, etc, which mean that you're able to buy the property without tying so much money and up into it. The other great thing about this Christian was that the 10 Studios, which take up the bulk of the property, are massively under undersold, if you will in rental terms rental income tax, because when we bought the property, they were rented out for 260 pounds each. Now in our area, 400 pounds is is a very average for a room. And these are almost studios. So we're renting them out post refurb 450 pounds a month. Now, as you know, with commercial property, the value of the property is is in part determined by the rental income. And so our rental income per unit on those studios has gone from 260 to 450. So although we haven't had the property actually valued revalued since the refurbishment, and we feel that we forecasts that the value will have improved increased dramatically from what it was purchased. So we we think we'll be able to, to cash out,

Christian Rodwell  12:43  
I guess, as well, because you're kind of stepping up slightly from standard by to let in terms competition and the the as a little bit thinner out there.

Unknown Speaker  12:51  
Yeah, yeah, you will be surprised because it's actually not that big a leap. Because you can see by the numbers I've, I've talked about their 375. That's not a stratospheric. But there are much, much fewer people who a, are even looking at this, and be who have the skills to be able to either manage it or have a team to manage it, you would think that that most people would have that badge. They know, the very fact that it has the little shop on the front puts people off as well. And also, as I said, the financing there, it's more challenging on the finance front. But newer people can partner with experienced people to be able to move forward with projects like this.

Christian Rodwell  13:38  
Yeah, that was actually going to be a question I had. Stephanie, as you know, what do you find holds people back from actually taking that step?

Unknown Speaker  13:48  
I think I think people overestimate the complexity of something like this, as compared with managing 12 single legs. Most people if they're on this journey, well, let's make it let's make it make it a bit more achievable. Let's say six, say you had the opportunity to buy a block of six, or you would be managing the six singles, most people would wouldn't think twice about gradually building up to six single let's but they would perhaps balk at the idea of buying six all in a block. And actually, in actual fact, six all in a block is easier. The first time you do it, you will have to overcome some challenges that we've talked about is about financing and about the right kind of experience. But once you've done that, once it's done and all of your costs, your management, your refinance, it's all in one place. And that just lightens because imagine us moving forward if we want to move towards 100 owned rental units. How much easier is it for us to do that? in lots of 12 for 24 More than it would be to buy 100 single yet let units with 100 rooms and 100 boilers and, and all of that extra complexity. So in my, in my experience, this is actually a much more a much simpler strategy.

Christian Rodwell  15:21  
So it's really interesting Stephanie Anna, and I really want to now for our listeners just rewind a little bit because it was only just a few years ago that you were kind of finding your route into property and to hear where you're at now is is just incredible. And congratulations for that. But tell us a little bit about the steps that have come before reaching the multiplier unit strategy.

Unknown Speaker  15:45  
Yeah, it's it. It's I sometimes a Christian have difficulty believing of where where we are. I went to look at that, that that that property, we just talked about it. And we we had an interior designer for the first time and I was just looking around and thinking, I can't believe that I'm here. And I, one of the neighbors came up and she was asking the builder, our builder what what we're doing with the shop. And I just joined the conversation. And I was explaining we hadn't we hadn't decided what we were going to do with the shop and talking about the ideas we had. And she was just visibly really taken aback. But but but I own the building and the shop and and I was able to show her some of the other units and so on. But I'm also taken aback because how it all started out was that I started off as a teenage mom, really struggling financially. But not only that, really struggling low self esteem and low goals really about what what sort of things that I felt that I could achieve in life. And it's been a long and winding road to where we are now. But to fast forward a little bit for the sake of brevity. About five years ago, I was working in a bank, as a contractor, reasonably well paid. And I had my mum got ill. And I think and when I listened to your podcast, Christina, you hear the stories of when people make the decision. And it's often every day things happen. And it just triggers something inside them, which makes them think, right, this is it, I've got to change or I've got to do something different. And and for me it was my mom called me one time, one morning, I was getting ready for work, I was living in Bristol, I was living in a lovely harborside flat my job at the bank was just a hop, skip and a jump a lovely walk. And I enjoyed life to a certain degree. But when mum calls me I was sort of rushing off the phone sort of thinking about all the things that I had on for that day, you know, presentations and was I going to be late. And you know, I don't really have time and, and the thing is, she was calling me in the morning because she was ill at that time. She wasn't feeling too good. I'm just speculating, but she just needed a bit of reassurance. And it was when I was sitting at my desk that afternoon, I just thought, Ah, this doesn't matter. I'm making the bank, the most important thing in my life and actually, it doesn't matter and I'm, you know, my relationships matter. It matters that I'm there for mom, it matters that you know, those are the things that matter so I thought how can I make my life able for me to live in the way that I value so that my values match up with my actions? And and and I just thought it's business and but I didn't feel that I had the skills to be able to go into business I did it felt like there's all these secrets that people go about I don't know what I'm not from that business world. And and so I then mold on it for a while and I came up with property because I see that normal people ordinary people as I thought going into property and giving up their their their their nine to five jobs and I thought I could potentially do that. Why don't I look into that more and it just sort of all went on from there Christian that we just you know, I just put one step in front of the other and eventually started off stuff myself.

Christian Rodwell  19:40  
Yeah. And and what was your first kind of first foray into property? How did that how do you generate your first hundred pounds are your first 500 pounds?

Unknown Speaker  19:50  
Yeah. Oh my gosh, it's it's just takes me but I was so lucky Kristin because my sister Nikki, I told her about its property ID And she came in with me, thank goodness for that. Because we may have time to come on to that later. But she came in with me and I had heard I was going to different property events and listening and thinking, Oh my gosh, that's so incredible what all these people are doing developments, new builds. But the the stories, obviously, that I could relate to most were people who just seemed ordinary people like me starting off with not huge amount of money and making it work in property. And I heard about rents rent, and I, I didn't have a huge amount of confidence about my business savvy. So we say, and so I thought, ah, I can do that. Because I saw that lots of people were doing hash share management, badly Hmm, management badly. And I thought I can do that better simply by adding care. And so that's how we started off in in rent to rent and we set up HMO Heaven, which is an HMO management company.

Christian Rodwell  21:03  
Hmm. And, and then, how long did it take to transition, you know, to a point where you have enough income being generated from poverty to start covering your lifestyle?

Unknown Speaker  21:14  
Right? Well, we, you know, I at the time, when I had this lightbulb moment was 45. And so I moved pretty quickly after years of sort of decades of not very much. The source of all was, it was it was always like that. So at the beginning of January, I started going to these events, and I was still contracting in Bristol. And I started to I decided Newport was the place in Wales, it's near Cardiff, not too far from Bristol about an hour. And so I was coming over to Newport to do the viewings on weekends. And I had, from what I'd gleaned from books, etc. It was gonna take a little while before I was to get a new property, so worthwhile to start asking one advance of needing, but we were fortunate in that one of the very first properties that we reviewed, we got an impact, it wasn't one property, it was two from the same landlord. And, and, and that was in the June of 2016. So the January I started investigating in the June of 2016, we hear that we've got this property. So I'm so working at the bank, in Bristol. And I was I was so excited, I could hardly I could hardly think straight, I was all property. And so they offered me to would like to extend my contract for another six months, which would have been the sensible thing to do. But I did have some savings. And I couldn't think about anything else. So I just said No, I won't. I won't extend I moved to Newport and moved into one of the two properties which were both empty, because we were refurbishing them. And and it all went from there. And I just thought right we'll use our savings until we can afford to start paying ourselves a little bit. And then and if it doesn't work out, we can always go back to work.

Christian Rodwell  23:10  
Yeah, and so and then within six months,

Unknown Speaker  23:15  
how long did it take, so the properties started cash flowing. And we spent a fortune on those properties. Yeah, we spent a fortune on those properties to to haplessness, and greenery. And, and so we what we'd said was that when we were making a certain amount, now I can't remember what the cash flow amount was, we were going to start paying ourselves 500 pounds a month each, which wouldn't have been enough to cover but it sort of helps our savings to stretch on for longer. So I would say within the first year, we started that. And then we put it up to 1000. And then gradually we put it up more. But But as I say we couldn't have done it if we didn't have the savings and also the fact that we didn't have you know, My son was growing up. We didn't have responsibilities in that sense, like a family. And all of that, so we could live off savings. Yeah,

Christian Rodwell  24:12  
yeah. So we're talking really from where we are today. Stephanie, five years that you've built up the the rental rent business, which has led into obscene No, the HMO management and now the multi blog. So when you look back and think five years, how does that make you feel?

Unknown Speaker  24:30  
And I just feel so delighted that I started because I had so much damage and fear to overcome and, you know, mindset is talked about so much in properties because it's so but it's so true. That at the time I didn't have the mindset to feel that I could get straight in and start buying properties or, you know, receiving finance from people or any of that but I had the I had enough competence to think I can manage properties with care. And and that's what we did. And that's where we started. So yeah, I'm just delighted that I started because so many of us don't start. And for many, many, many, many, many years, you know, I didn't start anything new or that could take me towards dreams that even the dreams were too big. My mind.

Christian Rodwell  25:27  
Say, yeah, so no, no regrets, and you don't wish you were still sat behind that desk? Right?

Unknown Speaker  25:32  
Definitely not. And the incredible thing is that each step, at least the next step, so we had we had we had the rent to rent business. And then we, we started buying the properties. And we also, as a result of that, everyone, not everyone, but a lot of people were asking, oh, how do you do that? How do you send your letters? How do you get the deals and so on. And we started also a training company, for interessanten, that that that helped us move forward a lot in terms of our mindset as well, because we're helping people get past their mindset blocks. And that helps us also get past our new mindset blocks. And as the final part, not words won't be the final part too. But as another piece to it. We originally heard of you, because we're setting up a SAS pension as well, so that we can more efficiently use the profits from our business to continue investing in property and and other assets.

Christian Rodwell  26:40  
Yeah, yeah. Well, we've, we've talked about, you know, connections, relationships, ideas, everything just leads to something else, doesn't it? And I know that's, you know, wonderful that we've managed to connect and and hear your story today. Just Finally, Stephanie, what's your vision? Where do you see things? Where would you like things to be in the next five years or so?

Unknown Speaker  27:01  
Well, we really want to build on all of the three businesses, we want to move our assets up from where they are now where we own 28 units up to 100 units. And the one thing that's really been important to us is, is doing business for good. And one of the things that really helped with that was a was a podcast I listened to and it was all about the 1% pledge. And it was all about giving consistently from wherever you are right now. And although we were already given to charity, it was sort of hit and miss here and there. And when I heard this 1% pledge, it just really changed the way that I was thinking about business. And what it says is that you can give 1% of where you are now. So it might be 1% of your salary, it might be 1% of your income in might be 1% of your revenue, 1% of your profit 1% of your time. So it means everyone can give them for most of us who are watching or listening to this, we actually think oh, 1% that's not enough. I can actually do a lot more than that. And so we signed up with a B one g one, which stands for buy one, get one. And so we're giving every day through our business, and that just feels phenomenally good. And we obviously want to grow that element of things. So if anyone's listening today, and they wouldn't take one thing away from this, I would I would love it to be that and for them to start giving in one cent. one cent pledge.

Christian Rodwell  28:37  
That's wonderful. Yeah, big shout out to pull down and Masami there for the you know, be one g one initiative. Thanks so much, Stephanie. I hope and I'm sure that everyone listening today will be inspired by your story and you have so much information that you actually give out yourself. You've been very humble today, but I know you have a book you have podcast and where's the money, where's the best place to someone to go if they just want to connect with you online. Stephanie see Boyles, you're up to

Unknown Speaker  29:02  
brilliant. Well, we have a website at HMO heaven.co.uk. And on there you can see this 12 unit Glock and some before and after pictures there. And that's all about the HMO management side. If anybody's interested in finding out more about rent to rent, we also have a website at rent to rent success.com. And you can get some information of free guides there to

Christian Rodwell  29:26  
go a lot of interesting points there for us to debrief, Kevin but before we dive into that, can I read out a couple of our latest reviews for you from trustpilot to people pay attention and actually make some contribution and tell us that we're doing okay, Chris is they should have they should have so thank you. We can't read all of them out. But thanks so much to those of you that have posted a review on trustpilot and Google and and those are the two main places actually. Which we are really really appreciating people's comments. At the moment, and let me pick up on Chris Henry. And we know Chris Henry. Well, he's actually featured on wealth talk in the past. And Chris has said no other wealth program to match it in his view. And when he started his wealth journey seven years ago, wealth builders didn't exist. But he was fortunate enough, however, to be mentored by you, Kevin. And that put himself and his family on the fast track to financial independence. And he says, you can now join the fast track with the wealth builders step by step modular process, which is based on an extraction of the insights, expertise and vast experience of Kevin. And not only is it a process, but it is a community of people who are supporting, sharing and helping each other on their wealth journey, without any sales just support. So thank you, Chris, for that.

Unknown Speaker  30:47  
That's pretty cool, isn't it, and it's so good to hear from people who have kind of come through the program. ob there wasn't a program, then it was just me, mentoring people with my own IP, as Chris identified there. Actually, I must thank Chris because he was one of the ones that said to me, Hey, Kevin, you've just got to get this down on paper, you know, for other people to enjoy and benefit. And, and you helped me do that, Chris. So you've, you know, been kind of responsible for making this accessible as well. So, you know, the cost of the program now is a fraction of what it would be if I was delivering it on my own. So that was great. acquista say so anymore. One more, we

Christian Rodwell  31:26  
can approve a one more. Yeah. So, Justin vermaak. And Justin says I made the right choice exclamation mark. So it's not often I managed to make the right decision on the first go. I had a few options available to me in setting up my sass, but a conversation with Gary Whelan helped me to go with wealth builders, and the wealth builders team have made the process of setting up my sass, very simple to understand and execute. The team are great advocates of gaining control of one's financial future. And their experience in the world of SAS pensions is invaluable. I'm only at the start my journey, but looking forward to working with the team in the future. And many thanks to Paul Brooks, as a final shout out there for all of his advice and support,

Unknown Speaker  32:08  
you know, right to to to have we got a few trumpets blown. But interesting, a lot of people might not know, just as Stephanie revealed that she collaborates, you know, with leveraged in a family with her sister, Nikki. My brother Gary is part of the SAS team and as an ex IFA, and a broker used to work in internationally as well. He's done a great job in bringing his expertise to help share that SAS knowledge. And Stephanie and her sister are getting access to that as well. So you know, a couple of things to draw the threads of that together, Chris,

Christian Rodwell  32:47  
we talked about leverage a lot, Kevin, a key ingredient in the wealth building process. And certainly the strategy of the multi unit block is definitely using leverage

Unknown Speaker  32:56  
crumbs. I mean, if you think about what you said, the simplicity of it, didn't she, you know, I just did a quick division, the number of properties divided by the total price is less than I could buy any single unit for. And that's quite an obvious thing when you say it out loud. But so few people think about it that way. And also the leverage of if you've got a plan, you know, everybody's got a wealth building objective, at least I hope they have by now, if they've listened to as Chris to establish that. What's the number you need to be financially secure? What's the number you need to be financially independent? How would you measure that in dollars pounds, or whatever currency you're in? And then what are you gonna take for you to get there? Well, if you can buy multi units, manage multi units, and get the leverage of multi units, yes, there's some knowledge to learn. Of course there is. But then you can get there so much more quickly. And that's an important part of leverage, Chris, it's an acceleration. But it takes some thinking, and planning to work out well, how slow will it be? If you don't do anything? And for most people, it's a 30, odd 40 year journey, isn't it? If you just bank on the stock market, save some money from your job, or from your business and hope the stock market serves you? Well, you can tell that Stephanie's very eloquently, sharing what she does, and very elegantly to, you know, I think it's a very clever thing that she's doing. And humble too. And I like that humilities on, you can see that loud and clear. Connie, Chris,

Christian Rodwell  34:31  
obviously, Stephanie's built up the knowledge and the education around the strategy. But we can't underestimate the mindset aspect as well here. And, you know, many people would look at a large multi unit block and just think, oh, that's, that's, you know, too difficult too, too far beyond where I'm at. And

Unknown Speaker  34:51  
I know one of your favorite books that you've just been reading or listening to at the moment, Kevin, who not how so if you don't know how to do something, then this is where the collaboration and connection because there's always someone else who's already done those things which you can go to and learn and get that confidence from. Oh, absolutely. And you know, what I like about the who not how concept is, first of all, if you're investing with who you're looking for who it demonstrates your own commitment to your objectives, if you try and DIY, it, pretty much doesn't work, you know, you'll end up just backsliding or you won't, you're not really committed. The second thing I like is when you find the right people, it's an investment, you know, they should add more value than they cost. And then somebody who's giving service, you know, whatever way it is, whether it's an accountant, whether it's a lawyer, whether it's a coach, a mentor, or a guide, if they are serious about what they do, they should be willing to commit, that they will give you more value than you get so that if that's true, then it's an investment you're making. It's not a cost. So I like that, you know, she's made an investment. I also like the fact that like anybody, Chris, she had a catalyst to kick her off, you know, that experience with a family just like I had a catalyst with a family. So always good to know that the first and compelling action starts from a position of valuing your family more than you value, what you're doing.

Christian Rodwell  36:17  
It's interesting as well, Stephanie, started around about 2016. So kind of five years into it now. And people often ask us, Kevin, don't know how long How long is it going to take? How long will it take me to reach financial independence? And of course, that's not the same for everyone. But as a kind of benchmark, we often say, you know, five to seven years is realistic if you're committed if you take action every month. And, you know, Stephanie has taken action. And she started with a strategy, which was the rent to rent strategy. And, you know, she's worked her way up, but she's been consistent. And, and that's the key, isn't it? If you are consistent, you will reach your goals.

Unknown Speaker  36:59  
Yeah. And I think what she, I think what she gave, there was, I don't know if you heard it, Chris, but it was a subtle statement she made that she invested in some education, that's clear. Now, that's good. That means she was looking for who and that's fine. So she made an investment. But what she discovered through the lens of her own mindset, she said, You know, I can do this better, if I just bring an element of care, you know, so what she was about, was bringing her own internal values, to try and make sure that the result that everybody got from that transaction, you know, the the landlord whose property belong to the tenant, everybody in that the stakeholders in that process, we're getting great value. And if you come from that place of integrity, and then you just give yourself an accelerant, you get yourself some leverage somewhere else. But you keep those same values, it can be shocking how fast you can move. So it doesn't need to take 10 1520 years, as most people might do on their own. It can be done in five to seven years. And in some cases, even more, if you've got more time, which is the key to all of this, of course, and and more money, the combination of the two. But the interesting thing, again, as I listened to, you know, her conversation with you, Chris, is how important it was to feel like she was taking little steps. That little steps meant momentum that you compound by starting, you don't compound by imagining the end, you just take the first step, the first step needs the second step. And the fact that you're moving, the landscape changes. And when the landscape changes, you see different things. You meet different people. It's a journey of discovery. Well, we've talked about this many times. And was she was on that journey. You know, she discovered more things that she didn't know before. But she would never have discovered them had she not had momentum in the first place.

Christian Rodwell  39:00  
Where she mentioned, Kevin, about there being a commercial element to this strategy as well, that allows her then to obviously access her SAS or SAS funds. And, and that's obviously leverage of some of the other pillars that we talked about. Quite right, too.

Unknown Speaker  39:17  
So you know, I think in a very short conversation, I think you and Stephanie together are brought up all the wealth building lessons really. There's catalyst, the leverage, the who not how taking steps every month, also taking time to reflect back and I think you asked her a good question. And she looked back and she was astounded at how far she come and then had even bigger ambitions, you know, so was it 100 units, you know, and she would never have probably begun a journey. When she was at the beginning that imposter syndrome. If you remember thinking she wasn't good enough. She wouldn't have had a plan there per hundred units. that only comes by taking those first baby steps. So I would encourage everybody to take small steps if you haven't yet started on your wealth, take the first step, you know, go back, listen to some of the podcasts that we've done, take the first step in choosing, you know, or the first step in reading something that are the first step in connecting with someone that just takes you beyond inertia to taking that first step. And I hope some people are inspired by Stephanie to go on and do them.

Christian Rodwell  40:31  
Absolutely. And if anyone is looking to build their wealth and play the long game and understand that this is not something that will happen overnight, then we'd love to invite you to take a look at wealth builders.co.uk, forward slash seven steps to wealth. And you can find the details of our program, working with Kevin myself, our wealth coaches, on your own unique wealth plan. And we'd love to support you and help you with that when the time is right.

Unknown Speaker  40:58  
Sure. The Meanwhile, just keep consuming what we have to offer, if it inspires you or you hear a case study that inspires you to action, then that's great, too. So it doesn't matter how long it takes. As long as at some point, you find that reason to take that first action, if you haven't yet done. So if you're already on the journey, then just keep going every 30 days, do something that contributes to wealth. And if you can measure that progress, we call it the wealth thermometer Christofi, measuring how much your recurring income is going from nothing to 100, from 100 to 200, from 200, to 500, and so on, until you get to security and then you celebrate that milestone and then you move on to independence, then you move on to abundance and then you move on to dealing with the whole family legacy and creating a plan for the next generation as well. So it's a very ethical, elegant process. I commend some of you to follow it. And I hope those of you who don't at least get something you know that inspires you to do something yourself one day if not today.

Christian Rodwell  42:03  
We hope you enjoy listening to today's episode. Thank you Kevin as always, and we'll catch up again on the next episode of wolf talk.

Unknown Speaker  42:09  
Well until then, Chris sia

Unknown Speaker  42:14  
We hope you enjoy today's episode. Don't forget that we are constantly updating our resources inside the wealth builders membership site to help you create, build and protect your wealth. Head over to wealth builders.co.uk slash membership right now for free access. That's wealth builders.co.uk slash membership