VAMP Property Solutions

VAMP Property Solutions Wakefield - West Yorkshire
Property Investors/Entrepreneurs
From first auction deal to refurb and beyond

25/08/2026

The numbers are only half the story.

Before or after a viewing, we walk or drive the area. Sometimes we arrive early. Sometimes we leave a gap between viewings just for this.
We check how the street feels.
Is this somewhere people actually want to live? Would it rent quickly, or sit empty for months?

We speak to neighbours when we can. They tell us things no listing ever will.

Great numbers on the wrong street still make a bad deal. This is how we guard against that.

What do you check about an area on a viewing?

19/08/2026

Project 1 (Wrenthorpe), the numbers are now confirmed.

Total investment (purchase and refurbishment): £245,000
RICS valuation on completion: £375,000
Refinanced at 75% loan to value: £281,250 returned.

Rental income: £1,700 per month.

The result: full capital recycled, plus an additional £36,250 returned above the original investment.
This is the outcome we underwrote for from day one, and a strong validation of the Buy, Refurbish, Refinance model when it's executed with discipline and realistic underwriting throughout.

We're now looking to apply the same approach to our nextproject. If you're a fellow property investor, or exploring property investment for the first time, and numbers like this interest you, we'd love to connect, follow along, or have a chat.

15/08/2026

We're always focused on the numbers first, refurb costs, GDV, rental yield, but every now and then a property reminds you why people fall in love with a place before they've even walked through the door.

This one's got fields as far as the eye can see. Doesn't change the numbers, but it doesn't hurt either. 🌾

10/08/2026

Not every viewing leads to an offer, and yesterday was a useful reminder why.

We viewed a property that has sat empty for over 20 years and is in a significant state of disrepair, structurally and cosmetically. That alone wasn't the concern. Speaking with neighbours and the agent on site, a potential access issue was flagged, prompting us to now review the full legal pack and plans thoroughly before proceeding any further.

It's a reminder that the physical condition of a property is often the easier problem to solve.

Legal and title issues, particularly around access, can be far more difficult to unpick, and are exactly why thorough due diligence has to come before any real emotional investment in a deal.

Has anyone else run into an access dispute before?

06/08/2026

New figures out today are genuinely stark.

Build to Rent construction starts across the UK have fallen 79% in the last year. Outside London, it's even worse, down 84%.
Completions have now outpaced new starts for ten quarters running. That's not a blip, that's a sustained retreat.
Here's the bit that really stood out though. A survey of institutional investors found every single one of them said they'd have pulled back their investment entirely if rent controls had gone ahead, before the government confirmed they'd been ruled out.
Confidence in this market is clearly more fragile than people think, big or small investor.
Anyone else watching institutional money pull back and wondering what it means for the rest of us?

We flag stuff like this most weeks, follow if you want to stay on top of it.

02/08/2026

Spent longer in the loft than the rest of the house this weekend.

Not because anything was wrong, because we were trying to work out if there's enough room up there for a proper loft conversion. Extra bedroom or two, maybe a dormer if the numbers stack up.

That's honestly half the job on viewings like this. The house downstairs tells you what it is. The loft tells you what it could become.

Won't know until the figures are run properly, but it's got us thinking.

What's made you walk away from a loft conversion before?

We flag stuff like this most weeks, follow if you want to see how this one plays out.

31/07/2026

Grateful for another evening at Property & Poppadoms in Wakefield, where Mike Pretorius stepped in at short notice to present, sharing our progress so far, including the figures behind our first project, and virtual staging app Stageveo

Events like this continue to be genuinely valuable, not just for the networking, but for the honest exchange of experience with other people building their own portfolios.

30/07/2026

Ok, this one's properly wild.
A landlord in Bradford tried to convince council inspectors he'd fitted a smoke detector, by sending them an AI generated photo of one.
Officers weren't convinced, so they went back the next morning, and found no detector had ever existed. The whole thing was fake!
He was running unlicensed HMOs with serious fire safety issues, missing fire doors, no escape windows, the lot. He got convicted in his absence, and was ordered to pay over £11,000.
Genuinely can't decide if this is more shocking or more stupid 🤣🤔. Either way, fire safety isn't something you can photoshop your way out of.
Anyone else think we're going to see a lot more of this kind of thing as AI gets easier to use?

We flag stuff like this most weeks, follow if you want more of it.

24/07/2026

An unplanned but valuable visit.

We spent time with a property developer with over 40 years of experience in the industry, walking through both a home he designed and built himself and a property currently under construction.

One thing that stood out from the conversation: after four decades, he still talks about the ups and downs as part of the process rather than something you eventually avoid, you just get better at navigating them. No shortcuts, no complacency, regardless of experience or scale.

It's a good reminder of the value in this community. There's real benefit in learning from people who have stayed consistent for that long, and we're grateful for the time and insight shared.

21/07/2026

This one's a genuinely tough read.
A landlord managing around 300 properties has just been fined over £42,000 after one of his properties was found in an absolutely horrific state, no inspection in two years, gas safety certificate nearly four years overdue, and tenants living surrounded by waste after paramedics were called out.
13 breaches of his licence found in total across 8 properties.
It's a stark reminder that scale doesn't excuse basics. Inspections, gas safety, actually checking in on your properties, that's not optional no matter how big your portfolio gets.
We've always said it, if you can't manage it properly, you shouldn't be managing it at all.
When did you last actually inspect your properties yourself? Be honest 👇
We flag stuff like this most weeks, follow if you want to stay on top of it.

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Wakefield

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