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Jeroen is the author of the hugely popular Clapham Property Blog as well as a full time property investor based in South London.
With a career in property spanning 15 years, initially working as an estate agent before setting up his own agency in 2011, Jeroen is a real expert in the London property market. He left the estate agency world behind earlier this year and now focuses his time on growing his own investment portfolio as well as helping others with their own property journey.
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Investing Strategies
“People get too caught up with strategies” – Jeroen Hoppe
Jeroen already had a good performing buy to let portfolio when he decided to focus full time on investing, so he made the decision keep growing this for a cash flow perspective (and the ability to refinance every 2 years due to the capital growth he sees in London).
He also decided to enter into the world of property flips, after a conversation with a client who challenged him to prove that he could walk the talk. Being confident in his own knowledge and abilities, he embraced the challenge, went to an auction and purchased his next deal…
Biggest Success
The above mentioned auction purchase turned out to be one of Jeroen’s favourite deals. It was a 2 bedroom flat with a guide price of £150,000 which, despite the poor condition of the building and communal areas, was a very good price for a London borough.
He ended up purchasing it for £160,000 and was able to complete in only 8 days, enabling him to beat the stamp duty hike!
The refurbishment and works to the communal areas cost £30,000 and took 2 months. On the open day of the property going back on the market, he accepted an offer of £260,000 giving him a 30% return on his investment.
Biggest Difficulty
Jeroen has seen a lot of difficulties and struggles through his years in estate agency. The common themes he sees that result in a property being difficult to sell are pricing, presentation, or access problems (either not being able to gain access, or access being difficult due to traffic, location etc which can put buyers off before even seeing it).
Ultimately it’s about people over promising and under delivering – setting expectations to high when advertising a property, only for the end-product to be a disappointment.
Jeroen’s answer to this is a simple one, taking a leaf from the corporate house builders book – show homes! There’s a reason every successful new build development will have a show home and that’s to sell people on the lifestyle the home creates rather than the bricks and mortar.
Whilst you can’t always have a show home, he replicates this success by staging his properties and spending a little more on the finishing touches like flooring, doors etc. The results are clear – higher sale prices, quicker sale times, and happier customers.
What’s Your Favourite Book?
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Successful Property Letting – David Lawrenson
Jeroen Hoppe’s Links & Resources
Clapham Property Blog – Jeroen’s hugely popular property blog covering this South London market as well as general property investing advice.
Jeroen Hoppe on LinkedIn – Connect with Jeroen on Linkedin and get in touch to see how he can help you.