Alex and Emma Glass could have been flipping burgers instead of enjoying the fruits of their residential and now commercial property investments...
Of course, there’s far more to running a McDonald’s franchise than cooking quarter pounders, but as soon as Alex came across Platinum Property Partners’ Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) franchise in 2012, he wasn’t ‘lovin’ the fast food option as much as he had been.
That was 2012.
Six years on, Alex and Emma had eight fully-functioning PPP HMOs, but were getting itchy feet for something new.
“Then PPP announced the Commercial Fellowship, which was great timing for us,” says Alex.
JOINT VENTURE OPPORTUNITY
Alex and Emma signed up and no sooner had the Fellowship's opening two-day bootcamp finished, they were on their way back to Reading to explore opportunities – one of which had been staring Alex in the face for months.
“I’d been driving past some buildings for sale in Reading for God knows how long,” laughs Alex. “But I hadn’t really given them a second’s thought.
“After the first two-day workshop I looked at the buildings in a different way and looked into them further.
“We ended up buying all three in a joint venture with another person on the Commercial Fellowship and they are running under an apart-hotel, serviced accommodation model.”
'WE'RE NOT DONE YET'
Reading Serviced Rooms was born, with Alex, Emma and their business partner set to open the doors to customers later in 2019.
“I don’t think I would have identified the opportunity for those buildings unless I had started the Commercial Fellowship,” admits Alex.
“The fact I drove past them so many times would back that statement up!
“Would I have pursued the project without the confidence the programme gave me? I don’t think so.
“The Fellowship opened up the door to a joint venture and then provided all the practical support across planning and finance.
“There are so many areas we’ve benefited from due to being on the programme and one thing’s for sure, we’re not done yet.”
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