Six steps, and no surprises at step five
From the first conversation to exchange. The terms are on this page rather than in an engagement letter you read after deciding — if any of it is wrong for you, it is better that you know now.
What happens, in order
- 01Consultation
We talk through what you are buying for: the strategy, the areas that work for you, the budget, and how much refurbishment you actually want to take on.
- 02Documentation
Proof of identity and proof of funds, before any search begins. It is a legal requirement on us and it is also the point at which a mandate becomes real.
- 03Tailored search
One person runs your search. Properties are checked against the mandate you signed off, and anything that fails it does not reach you at all.
- 04Financial analysis
Each surviving option is appraised in full — comparables, end value, refurbishment, achievable rent, and return on capital employed against your own finance.
- 05Three options
You receive three properties rather than a feed, each with its pack, and each one we would be willing to defend line by line.
- 06Acquisition
Fifty per cent of the fee on instruction, the balance at exchange. We stay with the purchase through offer, survey and solicitors.
What we need, and when we are paid
Proof of identity and proof of funds are required before a search begins. That is not a formality we could waive if asked nicely — it is anti-money-laundering law, and a sourcer who does not ask is telling you something about how they work.
The fee is split in half. Fifty per cent on instruction, once the mandate is agreed and the search begins; the balance at exchange on whichever property you take. If none of the three options is right, we go again — the first half covers the search, not a particular outcome.
- Before the search
- ID + proof of funds
- On instruction
- 50% of the fee
- At exchange
- The balance
- Options per mandate
- Three
- Turnaround
- 10 – 14 days
- If none of them fit
- We go again
Three properties, and everything behind them
Each option arrives as a pack. The order below is the order it is bound in, and the last line is the one most sourcing reports leave out.
- 01
The property, the tenure and what is actually being sold
- 02
Recent comparable sales, with the addresses
- 03
A schedule of works and a refurbishment figure priced against it
- 04
Gross development value on completion
- 05
Achievable rent, and the evidence for it
- 06
Return on capital employed against your own finance assumptions
- 07
What we think the risks are, in writing
ROCE is computed in the pack against your own finance — your loan-to-value, your rate, your fees — which is why you will not find one printed on a card anywhere on this site. A public ROCE figure is somebody else's borrowing assumptions wearing your name, and it is the number sourcing marketing most often inflates. The figures that are on the cards are the ones that hold without knowing anything about you.
- Stated on the card
- Asking · Refurb · GDV
- Derived from those
- Gross yield · Uplift
- Computed in the pack
- ROCE
The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Bring the strategy and the budget; we will bring an honest answer about whether we can find it.