BIO: Julie Talbot is growing a UK property portfolio from Abu Dhabi, where she lives with her husband and twin daughters. She’s completed 25 property projects since 2017, and 2 of her rules are she doesn’t fly back to the UK, and her phone doesn’t ring.
STORY: When Julie moved to Abu Dhabi, she assumed she couldn’t handle her property business in the UK from that many miles away, so she hired someone in the UK to do it for her. This person got her mixed up in a property price war that took 10 years to resolve.
LEARNING: You’ve got all it takes to run a business from 4,000 miles away just as you would if you were 4 miles away; believe in yourself. If you want to seek advice, get it from an expert in that area, not a novice.
“Your perception is your reality.”
Julie Talbot
Guest profile
Julie Talbot is growing a UK property portfolio from Abu Dhabi, where she lives with her husband and twin daughters.
She’s completed 25 property projects since 2017, and 2 of her rules are she doesn’t fly back to the UK, and her phone doesn’t ring.
Download her Ebook Expats Bootstrap Your UK Property Business and learn 12 property secrets to help you grow and manage your property portfolio IN the UK whilst you are OUTSIDE the UK.
Worst investment ever
In 2009 Julie decided that she wanted to be a professional landlord. She did some training, worked with a coach, and bought a few houses quite quickly that year. The same year, Julie got married, and the couple decided to move overseas.
Julie assumed that she couldn’t carry on buying houses as she had been doing it. She also thought that because she was thousands of miles away and couldn’t fly to the UK every time she needed to view a house, she would have to work with somebody on the ground to do stuff for her.
Julie started working with someone who found her a property that matched her criteria. The property was a small block of flats, not her usual type of property as she typically bought family houses, but since it met her criteria, she agreed to go for it. For various reasons, Julie ended up not buying them all at the same time. The vendor held one, Julie bought one, and the person she was working with bought another. Julie wasn’t aware of what was happening, and all along, she thought she was the only one making the purchase. It also turned out that there was a misunderstanding somewhere in this chain of people about the price. The vendor thought it was one price, and Julie thought it was another, and it took them 10 years to fix that. If only Julie had done the business on her own as she had done while in the UK, she would have saved herself 10 years of emotional turmoil and frustration.
Lessons learned
- When you’re doing anything new, leverage on the value of connecting with somebody who’s done it before or who’s been through it.
- Your perception is your reality.
Andrew’s takeaways
- Take advice from an expert.
- Anything that gets complicated let that be a warning bell.
- Business is full of risk, both seen and unseen. Do your best to manage risks.
Actionable advice
If you want to grow a portfolio from overseas, don’t believe or let the miles be a barrier. You’ve got all the same options you would have if you were four miles away from where you want to buy. What stops you when you’re 4,000 miles away is a mindset of thinking you’re far away; therefore, you can’t. You can scale a portfolio the same way 4,000 miles away as you would if you were four miles away. You just need to do a few things differently.
No. 1 goal for the next 12 months
Julie’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to carry on living simply, spontaneously sustainably, by her rules and growing her portfolio.
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