#95 - Evictions, useless agents, and court dates. What I wish a mentor had told me before I started in property.
Thoughts - key takeaways from my recent property issues
I’ve not been having great luck at the moment on the property front. Had a bailiff visit an ex-tenant, which exactly as I expected, did not yield anything. Separately have another non-paying tenant who is refusing to leave the property, so I am having to go the whole nine yards of a possession hearing. To top it all off, the lettings agent in charge is so incompetent I am having to take them to court over gross negligence.
Some lessons learned and a reminder:
- Having a good team and working with good people is vital in property.
- If you have an issue with a tenant or someone you work with, be firm and decisive. Don’t just expect things will automatically get better.
- When working with someone new, like a lettings agent, sanity check all of the main things. In many cases, they do not care about your long-term interests, they want to get paid for the least amount of work.
- Think about the time investment instead of just looking at ROI.
One theme I’m thinking about a lot is what Sam Altman’s interview talks about on the trend of choosing projects and finding purpose. It’s something I’ve been spending time journaling on. He talks about how it’s silly to have a master plan, but instead says it's more important to work on what's ahead and in front of you. This resonates a lot with me because years ago I remember watching a Steve Jobs’ famous commencement video where he mentions it’s impossible to connect the dots going forward, it only makes sense looking back. How we shouldn’t just jump on the bandwagon in terms of projects and business ideas based purely on what’s ‘hot’. For example, crypto, virtual reality, metaverse, AI etc. Instead, we should focus on what’s interesting to us.
I’ve also personally learnt this, I did my fair share of bandwagoning, from my Amazon FBA business, which was the thing to do, to day trading. Especially now, things are just changing too fast to second-guess what the market wants. So many degrees are becoming obsolete, the best compass to use is your instincts and interests.
It’s something that I’m applying to give me direction going forward. For me that takes the form of a Journalling class that I’ve been working on, which has been a great passion of mine growing up and to this day.
So if you’re looking for direction for projects, finding out what fulfills you, or just dealing with chaos, I have a free journalling cheatsheet which a lot of you asked for my on the last newsletter, if you missed it just reply ‘Journal’ and I’ll ping it across.
What I’m Watching
I’m on a bit of a binge at the moment, watching a lot of content related to AI. I think I echo the sentiment that we’re living through this moment where technology is more exciting than it has been since the popularisation of the internet, with the insane pace AI LLMs are moving at. In particular, I’m really liking watching some of Sam Altman’s past interviews.
He speaks with a lot of clarity and highly efficient where you feel like you’re getting a lot of wisdom per word. One interview I like is where he talks about Choosing Projects, Creating Value, and Finding Purpose.
Resource of the week
Bit of a niche one for creators, but staying on theme with AI stuff, for the last 2 weeks I’ve been trying out editing my TikTok videos with Capcut over Final Cut Pro. Just the feature where it uses AI to cut out repeated sentences has saved me so much time (I repeat myself a lot!).
Quote
"The universe rewards us for understanding it and punishes us for not understanding it. When we understand the universe, our plans work and we feel good. Conversely, if we try to fly by jumping off a cliff and flapping our arms the universe will kill us." JACK COHEN AND LAN STEWART
So as always, hit reply if you have any questions or suggestions or any feedback at all!
Hans