The Deal That Came to Us… and Why That Matters

Every now and again a deal appears that reminds me how this business really works.

Not from Rightmove.

Not from an estate agent’s mailing list.

From a conversation.

Martin is one of our Elite Acquisition Partners, and he’s worked with me for a number of years now. I’ve taught him exactly what to look for when he’s speaking with agents and viewing properties.

So when Martin phones and says,

“You might want to take a look at this one…”

I tend to listen...

Because the interesting thing about deals like this isn’t the property.

It’s how the opportunity appears in the first place.

And that only happens when you know what signs to look for.

The Tip-Off

The house had already been on the market for some time.

Originally around £350,000.

But the important detail wasn’t the price.

It was the history.

Three buyers had tried to purchase it.

Three buyers had fallen out of bed.

That’s the sort of information you don’t see on Rightmove.

But if you know how to ask the right questions — and how to position yourself with agents — those details start to surface.

And when they do, it tells you something about the situation behind the property.

In this case it was a seller had been admitted to a care home.

The power of attorney was in charge of this house and, from what we were told, they were completely fed up with the whole situation.

That combination — circumstances, timing, and a problem property — is usually worth investigating.

The house needed a lot of work and had already failed surveys due to an interanl flood.

That puts many buyers off.

But for someone who understands the situation properly, it creates opportunity.

Once those three things are in place, the rest of the process becomes fairly straightforward.

The Property

When I looked over the details, the property was

A bit ugly on the outside.

And worse on the inside.

Damp, and when I say damp it was saturated throughout.

Plenty of work required.

Most buyers would walk in and think:

“This place is a disaster.”

For us, it was exactly the sort of property that tends to perform very well in auction.

So we made an offer.

Now some investors would think this was not possible, but becasue of the flood we offered £225,000

It was accepted, they wanted it gone.

After we purchased.

And a few weeks later we entered the property into auction.

The Result

The hammer eventually fell at £291,000.

We had bought it for £225,000.

So the deal produced roughly £66,000 gross uplift without us touching the property.

And then the interesting part happened.

What Happened Next

The buyer who purchased the property at auction decided to do what most investors think you’re supposed to do.

They refurbished it.

Fully.

Now they not only had to do a full job, they extended the house and rebuilt the garage.

So all in all they must of spent with all cost in excess of £150,000

The house came back onto the market in mid 2025 for £475,000.

The property went under offer but failed to go through and resold after they reduced the price to £450,000

And as I write this, it still hasn’t gone through to completion.

Now I dont know for sure, but I bet the water damage is casuing problems still, becasue even after a refurbment plan, thoses walls were so bad the damp is possibly resurfaing and casuing problems for the next buyers..

The Bit Most People Miss

People often assume the real money in property comes from doing the refurbishment.

Sometimes it does.

But often the real opportunity is earlier than that.

It’s in recognising the situation behind the property before everyone else sees it.

Because the right opportunity usually appears long before the deal itself.

And when you understand how to spot those signs — and how to position yourself with agents so that information comes your way — deals like this start appearing more often.

That’s exactly how Martin brought this one to us.

In fact, we bought another property recently in very similar circumstances — but that’s a story for another day.

If You Want to Learn How This Works

Deals like this don’t come from luck.

They come from understanding:

• What signs reveal opportunity

• How to position yourself with agents

• How to extract the information most buyers never hear

The Bit I Haven’t Explained Yet

There’s one part of this deal I haven’t gone into here.

It’s the part where Martin discovered:

• the previous buyers had fallen out of bed

• the sellers were fed up with the whole process

• and roughly where the price needed to be for it to move

None of that appears on property portals.

And it only comes out when you know how to position yourself with agents, what questions to ask, and how to read the signals behind the sale.

That’s what revealed the opportunity in the first place.

If you’d like to understand how deals like this actually appear — and how you can start spotting them yourself — I go through this properly at my one-day training.

It’s called Find It, Fund It, Flip It, and it’s where I show people exactly how we uncover opportunities like this.

If that sounds useful, you can find the details here:

👉Click here