{"id":9578,"date":"2021-05-25T12:38:25","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T11:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/?p=9578"},"modified":"2021-05-25T08:42:01","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T07:42:01","slug":"platinum-property-partners-dominic-hegan-case-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/platinum-property-partners-dominic-hegan-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Platinum Property Partners \u2013 Dominic Hegan \u2013 Case Study"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

After joining Platinum at the start of the pandemic, Dominic is already eyeing his third HMO property<\/p>\n

JOINED PLATINUM PROPERTY PARTNERS :\u00a0<\/strong>2020
\nPREVIOUS CAREER : <\/strong>Divisional Regional Manager
\nPORTFOLIO LOCATION :\u00a0<\/strong>South West
\nNUMBER OF HMOs :\u00a0<\/strong>2
\nBIGGEST BENEFIT: <\/strong>Capital working harder<\/p>\n

When it comes to new best friends, Dominic Hegan is unable to choose just one.<\/p>\n

In fact, he\u2019s got three \u2013 and all of them have one thing in common: Platinum Property Partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cI joined Platinum in January 2020,\u201d says Dominic, \u201cwhich was an interesting year to do it!\u201d<\/p>\n

But before we get into the logistics of property investment during a pandemic\u2026<\/p>\n

A MAN WITH A PLAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dominic\u2019s journey with Platinum actually began back in the earlier part of 2019, however, when he decided to take early retirement from his corporate job and started looking at ways to invest his pension pot and savings.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy plan was quite straight-forward,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI was going to take the tax-free cash out of my pension, use some of my savings and buy some single buy-to-let properties.<\/p>\n

\u201cI already had two buy-to-lets which I thought were giving me a pretty decent return, but your perspective can really change when you learn about the kind of returns you can make from HMOs.\u201d<\/p>\n

A GREAT RECOMMENDATION<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dominic sought advice from a former colleague, Cathy Colston, who he knew had explored a more specialist area of property investment since leaving the corporate rat race behind herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew Cathy had done a load of property stuff and I thought, \u2018before I go and buy some more myself, I\u2019ll give her a call and pick her brains to find out if there\u2019s a better way I could do it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lunch date followed, where Cathy gave Dominic the lowdown on everything she\u2019d achieved since joining Platinum back in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cI then had a chat with Mike Hedgecox, Platinum\u2019s Executive Partner, and talked through what the franchise offered so that I wasn\u2019t wasting anyone\u2019s time by attending a Discovery Day,\u201d says Dominic.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything Mike said backed up what Cathy had told me, so I went along to a Discovery Day with my wife Lisa in September 2019 to really delve deeper into the franchise model.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI already had two buy-to-lets which I thought were giving me a pretty decent return, but your perspective can really change when you learn about the kind of returns you can make from HMOs.\u201d – DOMINIC HEGAN<\/p>\n

PUSHING ON AS PLANNED<\/strong><\/p>\n

Four months later, the Hegans were fully-fledged Platinum Franchise Partners \u2013 but talk of a new virus sweeping across Europe was already intensifying.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we attended the Discovery Day, nobody had heard of the word Covid,\u201d recalls Dominic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe joined in January and had mapped out a really clear plan for the next 10 years, but by March everything was up in the air to say the least.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d had our purchase mentoring with Mike Dixon and looked at eight houses on the first day and then another four on day two.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the end of day two, we\u2019d decided to buy two houses, went sale agreed and were steaming ahead with our plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when the lockdown arrived in March, we hadn\u2019t completed on either of them and it was quite a difficult place to be for a while.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking, \u2018I\u2019ve invested in the franchise, have some really clear plans and know what I\u2019m doing \u2013 but can I actually do it now\u2019?<\/p>\n

\u201cMoreover, was it the right thing to do, investing more than half a million pounds in property when so many people were saying the bottom was going to fall out of the market?\u201d<\/p>\n

Dominic pondered putting his plans on ice for 12 months to watch the pandemic play out, but a further chat with Mike Dixon quickly made him see the bigger picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a long chat with Mike,\u201d he recalls, \u201cand I then realised that the whole point of developing HMOs in this way is to provide a long-term income stream, rather than purely capital growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Platinum business model is based on that lifelong income, with capital growth as an added bonus if you get it, so we decided as soon as the lockdown was lifted, we\u2019d crack on.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE MAGIC OF MENTORS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those new best friends quickly became hugely important to Dominic \u2013 firstly, Mike Dixon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked at so many houses during our purchase mentoring with Mike,\u201d says Dominic, \u201cand there were three or four that would have worked really well for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cMike\u2019s advice was key and as one of the properties was a really light refurb, he suggested that we go with an HMO mortgage on that one right away, meaning we could actually buy another for cash at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up was refurb mentor Kim Thorogood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Kim probably got to the point where she dreaded seeing my number flash up on her phone,\u201d laughs Dominic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had all sorts of questions about the refurbs that I should probably have known the answer to, but I didn\u2019t. You learn very quickly from people like Kim, though, and I almost feel I could do the next house solo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both of Dominic\u2019s houses were completed and styled using Platinum Power Team member Hedgehog Studios, and ready to launch in September 2020 \u2013 quite an achievement in the year of Covid.<\/p>\n

\u201cHedgehog did the design and fit-out and then did a photoshoot for us at the first house \u2013 within two weeks of the rooms going on Spareroom, we\u2019d let every one of them,\u201d smiles Dominic.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur final tenant at the second house moved in during November, so we had 100% occupancy from November \u2013 12 rooms, across two houses, bringing in a return that\u2019s well in the upper end of double figures.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where best friend number three came in\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how well you choose a house and how well you refurb it if you can\u2019t tenant it,\u201d says Dominic. \u201cAnd that\u2019s where having a lettings advisor like Rachel Lewis is worth its weight in gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had two buy-to-lets already, so I had some experience of renting out property, but Rachel made sure we did everything absolutely perfectly and professionally, mitigating risk and finding the right tenants, to getting all the paperwork right legally \u2013 which is far more complicated with HMOs and one of the major reasons why we joined Platinum, because you get that extra attention to detail to ensure you stay legally compliant.<\/p>\n

\u201cRachel became my new best friend after Kim and Mike!<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in all seriousness, I spent 35 years in the service industry, leading teams to deliver the best service I thought was possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, I\u2019ve got really huge expectations, but I can honestly say everything we\u2019ve received since joining Platinum has exceeded those expectations \u2013 even in the middle of the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After joining Platinum at the start of the pandemic, Dominic is already eyeing his third HMO property JOINED PLATINUM PROPERTY PARTNERS :\u00a02020 PREVIOUS CAREER : Divisional Regional Manager PORTFOLIO LOCATION :\u00a0South West NUMBER OF HMOs :\u00a02 BIGGEST BENEFIT: Capital working harder When it comes to new best friends, Dominic Hegan is unable to choose just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[242,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-platinum-property-partners","category-property-estate-agent-franchises"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Dominic-Hegan.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}