The client comes first. Many businesses claim to follow this mantra but all too often their actions don’t quite live up to expectations. Thirlmere Deacon is passionate about assisting investors, sharing their knowledge and ensuring they make considered purchases when building a portfolio and a financially rewarding business. Our clients hail from all backgrounds; some are experienced investors already, others are entirely new to the industry, they might be local or based overseas and will all have individual ambitions.
It’s incredibly important to have a trusting relationship with our clients and to ensure we’re on track and meeting, if not surpassing, expectations. We try to collect personal feedback as much as possible.
An ongoing and long-term client agreed to sit down with us for an interview to explore her journey with us here at Thirlmere Deacon.
Patience Chinwada is a journalist who entered the property market in her mid-twenties, buying a property in London as a place to live, and she lived there happily for many years. Several years later Patience recognised that property could be so much more than just a home and explored buy to let.
After doing some homework, reading magazines and looking online, Patience decided to invest in a modest two-bedroom house in Birmingham. Patience highlights the reason for buying in the UK’s second city at that time “I couldn’t afford to buy in London. So that’s why I was like – Okay. I’ll look for the next best place.” With immediate success, Patience bought a second property in Birmingham shortly after the first. It was a domino effect.
Now living overseas, Patience has built a diverse portfolio, with Thirlmere Deacon assisting on her most recent purchases.
Why Property?
Keen to learn why Patience was drawn to property investment, Stuart asks what it was that made her decide “Actually, now is the time I want to start looking into doing something more than just owning a property?”
As with many investors who want to earn an additional income but have reservations about different asset classes, Patience explains she is risk-averse; ‘In terms of looking at stock markets, somebody said to me, “Go with Bitcoin.” And I said, “If I can’t touch it, I can’t see it, it’s not for me.”
Property is a tangible asset, you know it’s there, it’s providing a home for a tenant, you could live there yourself if you ever needed to – for risk-averse investors the appeal is obvious.
A diverse portfolio
Patience recognised early on that to mitigate risk a diverse portfolio that catered to an array of tenant types was necessary. The one-bedroom flat in London has since been converted into a 3-bedroom property and is currently rented to a family, the two houses in Birmingham appeal to professional couples who want the space for a home office or a family and over the past few years, Patience has added two apartments to her portfolio with Thirlmere Deacon’s guidance.
With the intention of owning different properties that would appeal to those at each stage of their lives and owning properties that covered the broadest possible tenant market, Patience has created a diverse portfolio that rarely experiences any void periods.
Overseas ex-pat investor
Now living overseas, Patience is an ex-pat investor and found that due to her status there has been more paperwork to complete, more hoops to jump through and that securing financing has come with more scrutiny.
She cites Thirlmere Deacon’s dedication and step-by-step guidance, being on hand at each stage of her purchases and ensuring the process ran smoothly, to be a key component as to why she continues to work closely with Stuart and the team; “I, as an ex-pat, get asked even more questions. I think you provide a seamless service for people just like me who are going to be asked more and more questions. It doesn’t matter where you’re living, if you have a company like yours, that actually takes away some of that stress.”
Professional management
Having a professional management team looking after an investment property can remove the potential for stress and ensure everything is managed correctly. Patience remembers an instance two or three years ago where she decided to manage just one of her properties herself for a short time and tells us “It was a nightmare.”
Having had her eyes opened to how intensive property management can be Patience sees the benefits for not just the landlord but the tenant too. Engaging a professional management company allows a landlord to be entirely hands-off, when time is precious having a good agent managing your property can be invaluable.
Why Thirlmere Deacon?
Keen to learn what it was about Thirlmere Deacon that made Patience choose to engage them on multiple occasions whilst building her portfolio, Stuart asks what attracted her to working with them specifically. Patience highlights that the initial appeal and reason why she gave Thirlmere Deacon time over and above other companies was that there was no pressure and that Thirlmere Deacon shared tailored and informative advice; “you allayed the fears. I think that was one of the biggest things for me because I had so many questions.”
Stuart points to the company’s ethos as playing a large role here “relationship is the main thing with our clients because we are here for the long-term.” Thirlmere Deacon is always happy to go that extra mile to build fulfilling relationships with investors.
