You may be wondering what an Orientation Day is for something?

It’s a packed day with a sourcing agent where you get to discover the area they operate in.

A sourcing agent is someone who is looking for profitable real estate projects and some cases take care of project management of renovations, etc. They have local knowledge of an area or more. Ideally, sourcing agents should be residents of the area, even better raised there. They then sit on a lot of information about the areas and have local contacts.

After the mentorship in London, we travelled around the United Kingdom for 1 week during that time we were on 3 orientation days.

Stoke-on-Trent

We met a couple who showed us around Stoke, Crewe and Newcastle-under-Lyme.

We started the day by getting to know each other and receiving brochures.

They explained to us what the day would look like and asked if we had any special wishes.

We drove around in their car and during the drive, they showed which areas are good for buying/selling and buying/renting out. They pointed out which areas are good for converting a house to HMO, which is a house there several people rent each room. They also told us which areas not to buy.

We continued the day they showing us some of their clients’ projects, both ongoing and done projects.

We then met a letting agent, A letting agent is someone who finds and takes care of the tenants that lives in your property. We also met the builders the sourcing agent use for their clients.

We were on 2 viewings and saw how the sourcing agent acted during the viewings and what questions were relevant to ask.

We ended the day by sitting down to review our possibilities in their areas and ask any questions we had collected during the day.

When we came back to our hotel to take our bags and go to the next town, we noticed that there was a real estate auction. We, of course, went in and looked and quickly noticed that what we learned about auctions was true. People bid more than what the property was worth in most cases.

Leigh

Here we met an old mentee who had our mentor as well. He sources in Leigh, Wigan, St Helen and Warrington. These cities are located between Manchester and Liverpool.

This day we did orientation day with another investor from Australia. But this person chose to drive her own car while we parked ours and went with the sourcing agent in his car. It is so important to sit in the same car and listen to what the sourcing agent is saying while driving through the areas because that is how you learn about the city/town.

We did much the same as we did in Stoke, only difference was that met a real estate agent. She told us how quickly the houses are sold in Leigh and we had the chance to ask some questions. We ended the day by discussing our opportunity in the areas.

Leeds

We stayed in Leeds just for one night. We popped in for a coffee with the sourcing agent, he talked about the areas that we should consider and the price ranges.

Glasgow

Here we met two sourcing agents who were extremely experienced. It was immediately noticed that they were experienced in property. This day was not so long but very informative. They showed us around but we did not meet any builders, brokers or letting agents. However, we saw several different projects both completed and ongoing. What we noticed clearly in Glasgow was that there is a large market for people who receive benefits , which is something these sources focus a lot on.

Afterwards, we took a cup of coffee and discuss the day.

After all this, we drove down to London and stayed there over the weekend before we flew back to Gothenburg.

– Nana