It’s a new year, and a new year for your HMO business! With 2022 here, it’s time to set New Year’s resolutions for your property investment portfolio.
Here are nine steps to help HMO investors set realistic and achievable New Year’s Resolutions for growing their HMO portfolio or business. Let’s get started!
1. Review 2021
First of all, you need to know how your HMO business performed last year. Assessing what you’ve achieved is key to improving the success of any business. Look back on 2021 to see what you achieved, and consider what improvements can be made.
2. Improve Strategy for Finding Deals
Finding HMO deals isn’t something you can only do on the side as a HMO investor. You need to search for deals every single day, especially if it continues to be a hot market throughout 2022. If you don’t make this a priority, there’s a good chance you will miss out on opportunities.
Formulate a battle plan for finding the right HMO properties and deals this year. Write this down on paper, and set goals to keep yourself accountable. Make sure you’re setting aside enough time to tackle this process and execute the plan.
3. Master the Four Pillars of Funding
To help you get in a position where you can always access the money you need to buy the HMO properties that you want, work towards mastering the four pillars of funding. These include knowing your numbers, raising private finance, recycling capital, and accessing HMO mortgages.
Focus on the areas you need to improve on the most. If you can tap into all four pillars at any point, financing your deals will no longer be an issue, and you can grow a sustainable HMO portfolio faster.
4. Create Better Refurbs and Interior Design in Your HMOs
With competition rising in the HMO investment market, standing out is more important than ever. You can do this by creating better products than your competition through great refurbishments and interior design. Make sure you know your product, market and numbers before getting started on any refurb.
There are numerous affordable solutions to help you achieve high-spec and well-designed properties. It’s just about getting creative, doing your research and planning effectively! So, make your New Year’s Resolution to push the boundaries with your refurbs and designs.
5. Build on Your Strategy for Filling Rooms
The quicker you can fill your HMO rooms with the right tenants, the more profitable your properties will be. As SpareRoom is like the Rightmove for letting rooms, it’s one of the most important platforms that we will ever use when it comes to filling HMO rooms.
Look at how you can master SpareRoom. Get your adverts right, understand the upgrade features, utilise featured ads, renew your adverts regularly and reply to enquiries quickly. Throughout 2022, make sure you’re utilising SpareRoom like a pro.
6. Boost Property Management Services
As we know, HMO property management can be difficult and takes up much more time and effort, but getting this right is key to building a sustainable HMO portfolio. Put processes in place for effective property and tenant management.
Look at ways you can provide a more superior management service moving forward. Keeping your tenants happy is key as happy tenants usually pay their rent and stay for longer, which can in turn make your business more profitable.
7. Systemise and Scale Your Business
Systems should be implemented within every facet of your business. This involves writing down all of the pieces on how to deliver specific tasks. Make a plan for what other areas of your business you can be systemised. This will help your business be more efficient, productive and profitable.
There are even ways you can get more out of your HMO business, while working less, including batching your processes and finding areas of your business you can eliminate, simplify, automate and delegate. This will all help you scale your business quicker!
8. Step up Your Networking
Work on networking more in online and in-person groups. So much of what we can achieve as HMO investors will happen through relationships and contacts we build. You never know when someone might have, or might know someone with, a property for sale that fits your requirements.
Start by finding ways to increase your network. Make a plan of where and how regularly you will network this year, and stick to it.
9. Assess What You Want to Achieve in 2022
Use the above steps to help you figure out what you want to achieve and improve on. Right now, really focus on your goals for the year ahead and what you’ll need to do to get there. Write your goals down on paper, and above all, make sure you then prioritise the tasks that will help you accomplish those goals.
If you’d like more insights and support from experienced HMO investors on setting goals and growing your HMO portfolio, come and join us over on The HMO Community Facebook Group. And for additional resources and step-by-step lessons on how to scale and systemise your HMO business, start 2022 off by becoming a member of The HMO Roadmap!
About the Author:
Andy Graham is the founder and the lead trainer at The HMO Roadmap! He is also the co-founder of The HMO Mastermind and Smart Property, a specialist HMO property investment and management company. He writes as a regular columnist in different magazines about a variety of HMO topics and is the host of The HMO Podcast! Follow Andy on Instagram!