UPS News: 22nd May 2022
RELIEF
(A) Conveyancing Solicitors Speeded Up
One of four articles
Tomorrow, Monday 23rd May 2022, is the exact 5th anniversary of the day we bought Noss Head Lighthouse Station. The UPS24 syndicate produced a 30% net profit (here). It took a little longer that our 1999 Strathy Point lighthouse syndicate. For an exercise in technical lateral thinking, we completed the majority of UPS3 in ONE DAY.
^^ Strathy Point ^^
Completed & Sold But Can Still Be Rented: Here
23 years later we are looking to emulate Strathy Point and learn from that and also Noss Head Lighthouse Station. Then apply that skillset of shortening time that syndicates run to well within 11 months. How? Please read on.
The first proof-of-concept in getting a syndicate completed within say 6 to 9 months (with 2 months slippage still keeping us within 11 months), is at UPS31, the imminent Lighthouse Engine House syndicate where we aim to secure the full resale within 6 months of purchase (here)…
^^ UPS31 ^^
The Lighthouse Engine House.
Yesterday, 21-5-2022 a
“RESERVED” segment of £5,000 Segment
UPS31 came up for sale
Click Here
This is timely as we were supposed to have completed the purchase of the Engine House this coming Thursday 26th May 2022. Then enable the RESALE phase that is scheduled for 23rd June with PAYDAY and PROFITS 28 days later…
^^ Continual Improvement ^^
Making UPS More Efficient & Profitable
The UPS31 purchase date has slipped. Identifying the precise causes for that has been resolved and and remedying it to eliminate systemic problems is being arranged. It is the essence of this UPS News update.
Last Wednesday (18-5-22), Russ had a long and detailed discussion with solicitor, Paul Brown, the senior partner at Hay Cassels to sort out a way of getting back to our previous SHORT syndicate timespans.
Within that discussion it was mentioned that we cannot have our ELEVEN syndicate and also our non-syndicate projects stutter in the untiely fashion evidenced this year.
Paul Brown advised that in very general terms, because high sales volume (and resultant conveyancing demand overload) in the legal profession throughout the UK, there has been recruitment issues in that profession and also there is a malaise of conveyancing “slippage” by a week or four across the country.
^^ UPS31 ^^
The Lighthouse Engine House
Yesterday, 21-5-2022 A £5,000 Segment of
UPS31 Came Up For Sale
Click Here
Paul indicated he will personally be spending DEDICATED time in the conveyancing department to help catch up on our UPS work.
But we need to think laterally
as that is how we managed our
ONE DAY SYNDICATE in 1999!
This leads us to the first of FOUR news segments for this (new) fortnight frequency UPS News. We have gone to alternate weeks to cover the daily UPB-Facebook work which eats up 3 to 4 hours each and every day…
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(A) Conveyancing Solicitors Speeded Up
We Managed A 1 Day Syndicate. But that Was Ultra-Stressful
6 to 9 months Would Be Ideal
If you look at the Strathy Syndicate we bought that lighthouse station on 25th August 1999 for £60,000 and sold £80,000 of it the NEXT DAY on 26th August 1999. It is proven in the Title Deeds at the foot of the syndicate page (UPS3: here).
Therefore it is a fact…
We Can Complete A Syndicate in ONE Day
But it needs very good solicitors
Plus a lot of advanced planning.
The solution is a…
NEW FIRM OF SOLICITORS
One that can “expedite” conveyances.
In 8 Weeks Maximum.
Locations where they are needed.
For example this £110,000 former bank near Noss Lighthouse Station in Wick has been quoted to our non-syndicate oldies such as Russ as being available for £68,000. You can see the fine old bank facing us right at the top of the High Street….
^^ Old TSB Bank ^^
74 High Street, Wick, KW1 4NE
At £68,000 Indicator:
A closer view…
^^ Old TSB Bank ^^
74 High Street, Wick, KW1 4NE.
At £110,000 Indicator:
Via lateral-thinking, we can and will be arranging a new firm of solicitors that can guarantee EXPEDITED conveyancing. That will be their unique selling point…
=> “8 week conveyance guaranteed, or 50% refund on your legal fees”
=> Terms and conditions apply.
There used to be a system in place with Hay Cassels, where a nearby firm (in Hamilton) would represent the buyers which often came from overseas or other areas in the UK (Scotland having an awkwardly different conveyancing system to anywhere else on the planet). Very often our buyers would need a new solicitor.
So for the SLIPPAGE that has been identified as a ruddy nuisance at UPS, Russ will be deploying NON-SYNDICATE funds (to keep an arms-length protocol in line with Law Society rules). Hence needing to buy the Wick bargain buank building non-syndicate.
Meanwhile in Arbroath, the counterpart solicitor which will also have the “EXPEDITE 8 week guaranteed” conveyancing service will likely be situated in the new bank building…
^^ Old RBS Bank ^^
76 High Street,
Arbroath, Angus,
DD11 1AW.
^^ Old RBS Bank With Good Luck Mascot & Teller ^^
76 High Street,
Arbroath, Angus,
DD11 1AW.
By combining these two buildings (and our tenant, Esson Aberdein Solicitors at a spare office in the Abbey Studios building until the new Wick (former) bank property is bought-in + renovated and re-opened, we will be getting the horrendous problem of SLOW SOLICITIOR SYNDROME sorted out.
=> In fairness to syndicate solicitors, Hay Cassels, it has been the buyer solicitors that are particularly feckless and obstructive this year.
All that is set to be remedied in this current overhaul of UPS website + operation + staffing + management + AMLR etc.
=> This is so we can ensure that future syndicates are as efficient as the 1999 UPS3.
They will rarely be JUST ONE DAY in timespan. But 6 to 9 months is respectable and ensures we can more easily work out annual percentage returns for all participating members.
Indeed we wil be making an issue publicly about the stress caused by a current legal system that has the strange situation whereby the LONGER a solicitor takes and the more INEFFICIENT they are, then the HIGHER their invoice.
^^ New Publicity & Efficiency Solution ^^
Not To Keen on Richard Branson type of publicity,
but we have already had significant feedback that
the UK conveyancing market needs
a major audit and overhaul.
This is something we will be taking up.
If you have any doubts about Russ McLean and the UPS-HQ crews resolve, we have precedent for remedying legal quagmire…
^^ Old High Street Empty Shop ^^
Bought By Russ In 2003
We already achieved a “legal problem” solution 20 years ago when we installed an estate agent tenant and a “remote-office” with direct telephone line to Hay Cassels Solicitors into one of the empty shops we were buying. This was an old RS McColl newsagent that had been closed for several years.
An indication of how well this went was realised when Russ was getting irritated whilst trying to take a photograph of the renovated building.
Too many people were blocking the view of the building.
=> Then the penny dropped. This was a very good thing.
It elegantly showed that the new estate agency was very popular. The window displays and, amongst which were a sprinkling of unique properties attracted many customers.
=> Also the £350 conveyancing fee when the other two solicitors in town ripped off first-time buyers at £750 a go, might have had something to do with the popularity of this place.
For us, it was a win-win. An empty shop re-opened. Three new jobs created. Plus a cure for a problem caused by miscreant and/or lazy solicitors.
^^ Proof That Old Shops Can Work ^^
This one provided 3 new jobs
+ A much needed local service at 1/2 price.
+ Profit, profit and more profit.
This estate agency is still trading many years later. The gentleman we sold it too is very happy with 17 years rental income…
^^ The Name Has Changed ^^
During 17 Years!
Shop Website: Click Here
& Location: Click Here
This shop usage came about as a result of the legal profession’s shortfall.
=> We sorted things out then and we are going to sort another legal problem of SLOW CONVEYANCING out now.
Back in in 2003, local folk in Argyll were being ripped off by the duopoly charging first-time-buyers £750 per conveyance.
=> We installed “remote-working” in a useable format 16 years before Covid and the remote-working thing becoming fashionable (occasionally mandatory.
Our new estate agency and solicitors charged a much more competitive £350. It solved a local problem (and removed 90% of the morally bankrupt local solicitors’ business).
What was not evident, but ended up with an interesting result is Russ stayed in a flat above that estate agency for a couple of years. It was convenient for his day-job commute. The view from that flat gives an idea of how a boring looking shop can suddenly take on a whle new level oof attractiveness…
^^ The View When Living Above The Shop ^^
This property was sold to a very nice
gentleman and his wife, neither of whom
had ever been to the UK and were
purchasing from their home in Australia!
With some irony and in a fascinating experience, this flat and the shop were sold to our growing database of folk wanting to buy asset-backed bricks and mortar investments that had an above-average return on investment.
Because this part of Argyll had missed out on TWO property booms and 20 years of property price levelling-up, when Russ McLean started putting investment properties in those estate agency windows, the 11% to 14% annual net rental return and 3% to 8% capital gain each year made what we sell so attractive that folk from all over the world started buying the shops and houses.
=> Russ got flack for causing house price inflation on the local radio station.
Strangely whilst sitting in the worst pub in Campbeltown. Well, it was a derelict building for 6 years…
^^ The Worst Pub In Town ^^
A ninety second walk from the new…
The Estate Agency & Solicitors.
The worst pub was transformed…
ninety second walk from the new…
^^ Before Renovation ^^
This really was the worst, dilapidated pub in town.
Something really needed to be done.
Full array of photos:
Click Here
^^ After Renovation ^^
It was from this very table, Russ McLean and everyone else
heard the ArgyllFM radio sharp comments.
The cafe was full to capacity.
The adjective “mortified” does not cover that!
The visual evidence above when multiplied by 21 empty, closed High Street premises renovated and re-opened, does help prove a point.
Radio “ArgyllFM” was quietly playing through the coffee shop sound system and Russ was enjoying the Sunday papers and his breakfast when the radio broadcast a segment on local house price inflation.
It is very disconcerting to have a whole eating establishment’s patrons turn round and start looking at you!
=> Eventually Russ had to leave his table go into the office and phone ArgyllFM.
He said on the radio that without some gentle house price inflation, local business owners were shunned by banks and could not raise working capital as their homes and shops were almost worthless. With some value similar to nearby towns, it was possible for local businesses to secure bank support and make it through the peaks and troughs of summer/winter months. Thereby keeping businesses and jobs alive.
On walking back into finish his breakfast, the diners all gave an ovation to the point where the harbourmaster who couldn’t stop buying old shops went bright red in face colour and had to retreat to his pier office with a bacon roll and a carry-out coffee.
Local communities are amazing places to live. But there is no real privacy.
=> How do you think we all ended up doing this Unique Property Syndicate and have a strange fascination with iremote islands and even remoter lighthouse stations. The beetroot red-face syndirme!
Apologies, we have gone off-message a bit.
=> The point is still germane. Re-opening empty shops is very healthy for all concerned in so many ways.
Strangely, some shops/offices can be re-opened in a way that cures a problem.
Recently there has been a measure of frustration because the solicitors are not moving fast enough. But the slippage is manageable. It is a few weeks. It also brings into focus that old saying:-
=> “Necessity is the mother of invention”.
In this instance, we have a cure for slow-solicitor-syndrome. Commence our own firms of solicitors and install them in our buildings with the specific brief of “EXPEDITING” property conveyances within an 8 week period.
At the top of this page, we start this article with one word. WMost of us have had a torrid two and a half years of pandemic. Not all of us are left. Of those who have survived, a worrying amount have “Long-Covid”. That is something we shall be addressing on the main websites soon.
For this edition of UPS News and in as a culmination of this past week when all of the strands needed for us to complete what we started and ensure all members have exit routes and 100% return of funds PLUS profits, we have a palpable sense of…
RELIEF
^^ All Bad Times Come To An End^^
It is in the difficult times that true character is revealed.
There are three more segments to illustrate how our four main challenging issues are resolved.
=> It would be fascinating to hear from members if you have experienced the same strange Covid-Busy phenomenon that we have here at UPS-HQ? That is being very busy rather than overly quiet.
We were worried the economy might fall off of a cliff. The opposite happened. We have never been so busy. To conclude this UPS News article, we would like to make sure that our (currently) imperfect system run by volunteers and overloaded by the incredibly busy social media website does NOT cause us to miss anyone out. The UPS31 Lighthouse Engine House syndicate purchase date of syndicate slipped by 4 weeks. It is stil on for 23rd June or at worst the July resale auction at Allsops in London. That hiccup may well be good news to a person within our 585 general readership and especially the 115 active UPS members that…
A last £5,000 of UPS31
Lighthouse Engine House
has become available…
Please
Click Here
For UPS31 Information
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Completed Articles
(A) Conveyancing Solicitors Speeded Up
Next Editions
(B) Social Media Heating Up For UPS Resales
(C) Social Media Heating Up For UPS Resales
(D) 100% + Profit Exit-Routes Now A Reality
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