The 3 main skills you need to be successful

Being a property investor calls for creativity, courage and collaboration.

We have owned a property in Johannesburg since 2013. A stunning, sun-drenched one bedroom corner unit in a secure, mixed use town house complex. Centrally located, just perfect. It has been a sure bet, easy to rent, always in demand.

Then covid hit. The tenants couldn’t afford the rent and had to leave.

We tried to find new tenants. Dropped the rent once. Then twice. Then three times and finally, we found a tenant. The property was now breaking even which was fine…not great.

In January 2022, our tenant gave us notice.

We decided to sell.

Our bouncy estate agent, Marla, assured us the unit would sell in a heartbeat! Show day one went by. Badly. Show day 2. By show day 3 we finally got an offer and Marla finally lost her bounce. Like totally.

“I know you wanted R1,200,000 but take the offer of R990,000” she begged, “there is NO ONE else putting down an offer.”

What to do?

Think differently. Be creative, courageous and collaborate.

What could we do to turn it around?

• Convert it into a two-bedroom unit!

  • Creative.

• Was it a mission? Yes.

  • Courageous.

• Because the unit is in a complex, you have to get approval from Body Corporate to do the renovations.

  • Collaborate.

• Because you have neighbours, you need their approval.

  • Collaborate.

• Because there is life, the renovation took longer than planned.

  • Courage.

• Was it worth it? Yes.

  • Cha-ching!

Now that the unit is renovated, refreshed and ready – we have options again.

• Rent? Even the tenant next door is asking for first option if we decide to rent!

• Sell? This time for way more than our original asking price and there are potential buyer lining up to view.

Ah yes, that feels better!

Next time you feel like you are backed into a corner with no wiggle room, consider how you can leverage the key skills of creativity, courage and collaboration to turn it from ‘meh’ into ‘YEAH!!!’