For those of you who are familiar with Mike’s personality, and our journey so far, you will know that he is always keen to keep trying new things (AKA gets bored easily), whereas I like to find something we are good at it and stick with it. Where we both agree though, is the concept of having a diverse and mixed portfolio.
We’ve been flipping, converting and ‘HMO’ing’ for the past 5 years and the next logical step for us is development, but in all honesty its something we have shyed away from, under the illusion that to do it well, and more importantly, to do it lucratively, you need to be one of the big boys.
From the moment he interviewed them, Mike said to me that once we were ready to start development, he wanted to talk to Richard & Brynley Little, and so in July with our offer on a derelict car park firmly accepted, we travelled to Birmingham to attend the three day Development Appraisal Masterclass run by the Property Developers Academy, Richard & Brynley’s Education Business.
With the majority of attendees and the PDA team all staying on site, the three day training course is extremely inclusive. From early morning mastermind sessions to chatting over dinner and late into the night, it all adds to the three days of solid content the team provide. The newly revamped course focuses on their SMART appraisal system and teaches the attendees to correctly and accurately appraise any deal before moving forward. Richard is keen to point out that quality of deals over quantity is what’s important to them.
Real life case studies were used extensively throughout the weekend, and the addition of countless informative handouts covering topics like Use Class guides, Space Standards for development, and example agreements that the PDA team use on their own deals mean you come away from the weekend with a stack of information (literally) to start you on your development journey.
With the combined experience that Mike and I already have, did we still find it useful? 100% yes!
Before attending this course, I was extremely nervous about our upcoming new build project, but I came away with a deeper understanding of the appraisal process, and more importantly far more confident that Mike might actually know what he’s doing!