Brothers Chris and Jeremy Tetley from Warrington had worked together in the family business for several years, finally taking over complete management of a portfolio of luxury care homes when their parents retired in 2000.
Feeling that the industry was undergoing some fundamental changes, they decided to sell the care homes in 2005 and take up property developing together instead while also establishing a kitchen and bathroom installation company.
During the years after the financial crisis, the brothers found that property development was becoming increasingly more difficult and financially precarious, so they decided to look around for alternative business opportunities. Chris said: "Given the state of the economy at the time, we wanted to find another business opportunity that didn't involve property. We were at a franchise exhibition getting ideas when we came across a presentation by Platinum Property Partners (PPP) - we merely went in to kill some time but what Steve Bolton (Founder and Chairman) said had really got us intrigued."
Despite being 'in property' for some time, the innovative concept of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) was completely new to Chris and Jeremy and one that interested them. When they went along to aDiscovery Day to find out more, they were reassured and impressed by the fact that there were already 90+ other PPP Partners building successful property portfolios all over the UK.
Jeremy added: "We really liked being involved in property and this was an opportunity to apply our existing skills into building a business, but one that was relatively low risk and that could form part of our retirement planning as we would own the assets.
"Before, we had been operating in our own bubble and the idea of joining a larger organisation of like-minded individuals appealed to us. We liked and trusted the people we had met at PPP."
Since joining PPP in May 2011, Chris and Jeremy have built a portfolio of four HMOs in Lancashire and Cheshire. However, they found themselves stuck in a rut with no clear path forward to develop their buy-to-let business further. They needed some guidance, so earlier this year they embarked on an advanced mentoring course with Steve Bolton.
"By January 2015, we only had four HMOs instead of the eight we'd planned for - two per year. Life had got in the way and we'd been blown off course and had gradually slipped behind," said Chris. "The mentoring completely changed our attitudes to challenges. The process and our mentor's belief in us gave us a new found confidence in our business goals and strategy."
Having re-examined their wealth, assets and goals, the brothers discovered that their primary objective was still to push on with the property business and in fact, double their portfolio within twelve months. As a result, they already have one HMO undergoing refurbishment; another property sale agreed and are already on the look-out for another two. They are also actively looking for passive investment to be able to purchase and convert another four properties next year.
Jeremy concluded: "We would never have attempted to work at this pace in our wildest dreams before the mentoring and our horizons for our PPP business are much broader than previously as a result. It has been both an exhilarating and inspiring process. We've already learnt many advanced tools to develop professionally as well as personally and are happier individuals in general - we manage our time more effectively, network more and pay more attention to action planning. It gave us that push we needed to expand our portfolio and opened our minds to new productive techniques that we could use within the business."
Watch their case study here-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUjFMmS4zA8
