From investing in property as a student to building a property business, with Mo Haykir
Director of Moorview Property, Mo Haykir bought his first property with his friend, James, while they were third-year students at the University of Plymouth. They eventually sold that property and bought another, but it wasn’t until they dove deep into property education that they realised that property development and investment could be a viable, full-time business for them.
Mo joins me in this episode and he shares:
- The mistakes he made in the beginning because he lacked property education
- How he and James started Moorview Property
- Why he prefers developing listed buildings
In this episode we discuss:
00:52 Introduction to Mo Haykir
02:51 Mo on purchasing property with his friend, James, while he was studying at the University of Plymouth
05:44 The importance of property education and how knowing the fundamentals will protect you and protect those investing with you as well.
13:44 Mo talks about starting Moorview Property
- At what point did Mo start hiring people and building the company? [14:15]
18:54 Why Mo likes to focus on listed buildings
23:12 The bad image around property development or investment
25:53 Current vision for Moorview Property and KHP Group
27:31 Mo’s view on the saturation of HMOs
32:15 When you spend £60k – £80k on a refurb, what’s your expected time to recoup that, break even, generate income?
Quick Juice Questions
33:47 Where should someone start if they are new to property?
“The key things are education and choosing an area that is going to be sustainable for you to invest in. And I would recommend that people invest either where they live or where they know.”
34:52 What most inspires you? When and where are you most inspired?
“Opportunities and potential inspire me most. That is in terms of looking at role models and looking at people that are doing amazing things and being like, “Well, actually, they’re not that different to me, and I know I could do that.”
36:49 Which book has inspired you and changed your thinking the most?
“I recently [listened to] The Art of Exceptional Living by Jim Rohn. In summary, if you want to change anything, you ought to change yourself first.
Changed me the most? One of the key concepts we use at work is something called Black Box Thinking. That book which is all about learning from failure and becoming better and not blaming a person or a process but actually looking at the reasons that something failed […]”
38:11 If there’s one last bit of Executive Juice you can share for people who want to get to the top of their property game, what would it be?
“One of them is, work out what you’re good at and what you enjoy doing, and get other people to do the rest.
Secondly is the importance of deal flow. Property in general, everything takes a lot longer than you think. So, finding the property, securing them, negotiating on them, you’ve got to make sure you’ve got enough deal flow to keep the business going.”
Quotes
On property education
- “We thought we had to sell a property to buy another one. […] It wasn’t until we started doing property education and learning about different strategies that we were like, “All right, so you can refinance things. And there’s actually cashflow strategies you can work with, and things like that.”
- “Educating yourself in property and getting around other people that are doing it is massively important to protect yourself and to protect people that are investing with you as well.”
- “People sometimes look at the cost (of education) in property and think, “That’s a lot of money.” […] That IS a lot of money, but you’re buying the learnings from other people; you’re buying the motivation and inspiration from other people that are doing it; and you’re buying shortcuts. So, as well as protecting yourself from downside risk, you’re also accelerating the programme.”
Connect with Mo Haykir:
Books mentioned: