House in Multiple Occupation

So, this has been my Number One question from when I started in property around 3 years ago, who can you really trust out there?? Sure, we’ve all heard the horror stories about people being left high and dry so how do you make sure that never happens to you? One of the first questions I ask my investors is ‘what’s the most important thing to you in a property joint venture?’ and it always gets me one of 2 answers; Return on Investment or TRUST…..and I’d probably say that trust comes up slightly more than return which you may find surprising. Most people think it’s all about the money! But I get their point as if you don’t have the trust then how confident are you that you’re going to get the return? Surely one comes before the other! I can therefore see why it’s right up there as being something most of us are looking for when joint venturing with people. Below are 3 ways in which I believe you can help work out whether you should joint venture with someone or run a mile in the opposite direction…! Trust your gut….but only to a certain degree! If your gut is telling you something isn’t right then listen to it. I’ve said it before but your gut instinct is based on previous learnings and experiences which you’re maybe not even conscious of so there’s a reason why that feeling’s there. Do your due diligence. If your gut gives you the green light then check them out. Can you find plenty about them online, can they show you examples of what they’ve done and can you maybe speak to people they’ve worked with before? The more evidence you can find the bigger the picture you’ll build which will tell you whether you can trust them or not. Do everything by the book! Keep it professional and draw up contracts for everything you do together. Think of every eventuality of where something could go wrong and make a plan for what you’d do if that happened. The more trust you will build the less risk there is in what you plan on doing together. Hope that helps! As you’ve probably gathered, I love doing joint ventures and it has been, and will continue to be, the best way for me to scale my business. If you’re interested in knowing more or have any comments on this or any of my other blog posts then I’d love to hear from you! I respond to each and every one of you!