The Property Vault Podcast - 034 - Evolve Your Business and Change Your Environment with Business Scale-up Specialist Nick Bradley

In this podcast episode, hosts Dan Hulbert and Amy Rowlinson interview Tej Singh, host of popular podcast Tej Talks asking him how he got started in property. Tej’s property business model can be likened to Italian food: great quality ingredients, minimal effort and a beautiful outcome. He uses his ‘tool kit’ to fix the vendor’s problem and is flexible on the business model for each purchase as he is simply looking for a deal that stacks.

Tej shares his ‘Nando’s Guide to Property Investing’ techniques; how he got experienced people to share their knowledge in exchange for a plate of chicken and chips! Tej shares the advice he has learnt from people including how to raise money to buy property, the importance of taking action and how he has saved thousands of pounds from simply talking to people.

Always been an entrepreneur at heart, Tej’s reason to invest in property was that he was never going to be able to work for anyone else and he wanted to run his own company to give him assets to provide him with a passive income. He has plans to open a restaurant, an animal sanctuary and a garage which will be different to any other car garages that already exist. An income from property will allow him to have a life he wants to live and launch all these businesses in the near future.

Tej’s Top 3 Tips for building a brand and funding all of his investment deals using other people’s money through posts on social media are:

1) Be authentic and talk about what you do. Investors will connect with you as an individual.

2) Document the process. Take pictures and videos of everything you do. Others will find value in what you’re doing as they may be just a few steps behind your journey.

3) Be visible. You may be authentic and documenting the process but unless you publish your work across social media, no-one will see what you’re doing.

Tej shares how to be savvy with interior design, how to always be on the lookout for bargains and get involved in the interior design so it stands out to achieve above market rental income. Tej recommends that you register with LNPG for great discounts on paint, kitchens, bathrooms etc. Tej’s recommends that you always negotiate on prices. Don’t just take the price as given, especially when you are buying multiple items for multiple properties.

Tej walks through his first eight purchases explaining that it took him over 100 offers to get just three accepted. To help with his time, Tej has a couple of people who view properties on his behalf and then he books in whole days to view properties viewing between 12-25 properties per week offering on most and following up on everything regularly. Tej uses a simple spreadsheet to track everything with colour coding to know where he is with each property.

He also speaks about his auction purchases and what he recommends as being best practice in terms of viewing auction properties. Remember, auction properties are sold as seen. You must read the legal pack, get local knowledge of the properties from builders and practice beforehand by checking out the auctions and watching what goes on in the auction room before you start bidding on a property.

Tej’s biggest learning is that people matter more than money! Put people first! He says that you must look after your build team, look after your tenants and look after all those who help you achieve your investments. Tej’s best advice is just do it but be calculated, know your exits and understand your risks!

RECOMMENDED BOOKS & MAGAZINES

Property Investing Secrets by Mark Homer & Rob Moore

The Complete Guide to Property Investment: How to survive & thrive in the new world of buy-to-let by Rob Dix

Property Magic by Simon Zutshi

YPN Magazine

Property Investor News Magazine

ABOUT TEJ SINGH

Tej is a property investor, podcaster and brand consultant. He helps property professionals build their personal brands, from strategy to content down to the actual execution to find investors and build a network. You may recognise Tej from the Tej Talks Podcast. He’s been investing in Property full time since April 2019. Before this, he spent months learning and networking to ensure that his start in this industry would be built on a solid foundation. He founded and managed a recruitment company for the last three years that saw profits almost double every year until he stopped to focus on property.

Tej funded his first deal himself with an investor family member. He’s since acquired six more properties, in fact they all came within ten days of each other! All of these are funded by private investors who are receiving healthy interest payments. Tej has learnt a lot in the past few months. His network is extensive and his hands-on experience strengthens every single day. There is always a...