Mark Homer reflects on his 20-year journey to becoming a multi-million-pound property CEO. Hear how he started with naive investments abroad, learned difficult lessons, and shifted his strategy to focus on local houses with strong cashflows. Mark explains his role as a "conductor" in assembling teams for each project, shares current real estate trends, and advises aspiring investors. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Focus on cash flow over capital growth for stable returns and safety during market downturns
• Assemble specialists for each project rather than maintaining large in-house teams
• Leverage permitted development rights to convert low-value buildings into prime real estate
• Retail properties are undervalued currently due to the rise of e-commerce
• Large-scale PRS apartment blocks are an emerging institutional investment class
• Keep debt below 50% of asset values over the long term for sustainable growth

BEST MOMENTS  

"So lots of investors are having to offload because of section 24."

“I watched them make loads of money in a very short space of time. At the time, I had a friend who maybe bought something like 97, and within two or three years he’d made about 60 grand’s worth of equity."

"I made a very, very poor investment. So I learned very, very quickly not to trust those who have a vested interest in selling me the property and to go out and do genuinely independent research to find out what something will actually rent for."

"When I started in this sector, I was very much focused on capital growth. Capital growth is sexier to a lot of people. That’s probably, in reality, truthfully, where you make most of your money over the long run."

"I also noticed on a much bigger scale that the wealthiest people in the country seemed to have made or had seemed to have invested their money into property. If you have a look down the rich list, the Sunday Times rich list that comes out every year, a lot of those were making their money from property."

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

https://www.youtube.com/user/progressiveproperty https://www.progressiveproperty.co.uk/the-progressive-co-founders/

ABOUT THE HOST

Mark has bought, sold or has managed around 1,000 property units for himself, Rob, his family and his investors since 2003. He is a system and spreadsheet geek and has developed a complex, confidential deal analyser system of buying residential, commercial and multi-let properties.

CONTACT METHOD

Email: Markhomer@progressiveproperty.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhomer1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markprogressive

Twitter: https://twitter.com/markprogressive