Platinum’s Head of Partnerships, Natalie Windsor, talks about investing in her first House in Multiple Occupation (HMO).

I’ll admit the gin and tonic bottles came out for one night – and, unfortunately, not in celebration.

I’ve worked for Platinum Property Partners for five years and I’ve always had massive belief in what we do and why we do it.

I also know successful property investment, even with the support of a proven franchise like Platinum, is bloody hard work and that there will always be bumps in the road.

But at that moment, the only thing I could think of was getting that top of the bottle of Bombay Sapphire.

I’m Natalie Windsor, Platinum’s Head of Partnerships – and now a fully-fledged Franchise Partner investing in my first House in Multiple Occupation (HMO).

I say ‘my’… I’m setting off on this journey with my auntie Sue and husband John and with our children Evie and Oliver very much in mind.

Investing in HMOs with Platinum is always something I’ve wanted to do but was something I didn’t think I’d be able to do right now because of the investment capital needed.

I’d always thought we would do it in the future once we had enough equity in our home that we could release – because I really do believe in what Platinum does.

Then, around 18 months ago, my auntie Sue relocated back to the UK from California after a pretty major life change.

That kind of scenario is something I’ve seen with so many Platinum Franchise Partners down the years and that’s the beauty of Platinum – it can be whatever you want and need it to be.

Sue had a pot of cash and was unsure of the best way to invest it.

An idea that became reality

We were out walking the dogs one day and chatting about the various options she had, like stocks and shares.

I really believe in bricks and mortar as an investment, so that was really the only piece of advice I had for her.

Property is safe and secure and at her age – she won’t mind me saying she’s in her 60s, I’m sure – she didn’t really want to be putting her money into risky investments.

We hadn’t even spoken about Platinum at this point, but naturally it came up in conversation once she was looking at property as an investment.

I ran through some numbers with her and we looked at some of the houses our Franchise Partners have produced over the past 12 years.

We pondered the potential for buying a property in Poole, near where I live, and thought about how we could develop one to work as a high quality six or seven-bedroom HMO for professional workers.

She loves the renovation, lettings and development side of the Platinum business model and we felt that would also give her some purpose, too, as she loves the idea of creating great homes for people.

She moved back to the UK after a pretty significant change in circumstances and really needed something to get her teeth into as much as she was keen to make her money work harder for her.

For me, it was a conversation where I could actually see myself doing what I’ve been telling people to do as Head of Partnerships at Platinum for the past five years – so it was a significant moment for both of us, but for very different reasons.

I then had a meeting with Sue’s accountant, as he was a little cautious about what we were proposing.

That level of caution is something we often face at Platinum, so it was interesting to be on the other side of that fence as a potential Franchise Partner.

Her accountant didn’t understand why we would invest in a franchise when we could simply go out and purchase a standard buy-to-let property.

I sat with him and told him about Platinum’s track record and ran through the numbers with him, too.

By the end of our conversation he was totally on board with the financial business model and could see the franchise was a great solution for Sue personally and from an investment perspective.

In fact, he was wondering why he hadn’t become a Franchise Partner himself, which I guess is a tick in the box for my sales technique as much as it is for what Platinum does and how well it does it!

After that, it was really was an easy decision to join because of how much we believe in the business.

All systems go

We signed on the dotted line at the beginning of October and started our mentoring programme at the end of November.

Those first two days of mentoring were solid from 8am to 8pm, proving, as if I needed proof, that getting started with HMO investment is certainly hard work.

But it was an amazing couple of days viewing properties that could potentially work for us. Once we’d viewed each property, it wasn’t a case of going off for a cup of coffee to discuss things either – we were on site, analysing the property and the returns it could potentially generate with our buying mentor.

Then it was on to the next one. And the next one. And the next one. It was full-on, but really exciting.

By the end of day two, we had an offer in on a property that we all felt was the right one for a first HMO – it was accepted, and we were off and running.