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№ 04
Spring 2026
Feature · The HMO Play

Imagine a 6 bed HMO that pays you £1,000 a month.

High-yield six-bed conversions across Wolverhampton, Walsall and Coventry. Sourced off-market, converted to Article 4 standard, fully managed. You provide the capital. We provide eight years of running the play.

Read the full strategy See a recent deal
UK terraced houses, West Midlands, the kind we source for conversion
The stock we source · West Midlands Three-bed end terraces in Article 4 designated areas. Bought motivated, converted to six-room HMO standard.
Active portfolio
0
HMO units across Wolverhampton, Walsall and Coventry, all Article 4 compliant and fully licensed.
Portfolio value
£0M
Combined value of properties under management as of Q1 2026, independently valued.
Average gross yield
0%
Trailing twelve months across the active portfolio. Best-performing unit at 14.8%.
Occupancy 2024
0%
Average annual occupancy across all rooms. Average void: 4.3 days per room per year.
01
The ThesisWhy HMO, why the Midlands, why now

HMO done badly is a money pit. HMO done properly is the most reliable cashflow asset in UK residential property.

The gap between those two outcomes isn't strategy. It's process, trade quality and tenant selection. Nothing else. We've spent eight years closing that gap.

The Midlands HMO market sits on three pillars that aren't going anywhere. A growing population of working professionals who can't afford one-bed flats. A constrained supply of new stock, restricted further by Article 4. And a yield ceiling that beats London BTL by a factor of three.

What kills most HMO investors isn't the strategy. It's executing without a team. Buying a terrace without confirming Article 4 status. Quoting a refurb in cash they don't have. Letting to anyone with a deposit. Running it themselves and discovering tenant management is a full-time job nobody wants.

We took the strategy that's been proven for fifteen years and built the operating system around it. The result is a portfolio that produces £14,200 net cashflow per month and rarely loses a room for more than five days.

"We don't buy HMOs. We engineer them. The deal is the easy part." — Marcus Reid, Founder
02
The PlayFrom terrace to cashflow in six months

A three-act conversion play.

The same operating system we've run on 38 properties. Sourced. Engineered. Operated. With the same five-strong trade team for nine years and counting.

I
Birmingham city centre at dusk, the heart of our West Midlands operating area
Stage one

Source off-market

Three-bed terraces in proven HMO hotspots across Wolverhampton, Walsall, Coventry and Birmingham. Below-market entry, motivated vendors only. Article 4 status confirmed in writing before we ever quote you a number.

4 to 7 weeks Average sourcing lead time
II
The HMO deal analyser we run every property through before purchase
Stage two

Stress-test the numbers

Every deal modelled through our HMO analyser before we commit. Stress-tested against four lender appetites and our trade team's actual refurb costs from the last twenty conversions. If it stacks on paper, it stacks in the bank.

73 / 100 Minimum analyser score before we proceed
III
Finished tenant bedroom in a recent HMO conversion
Stage three

Convert and operate

Six-month refurb to six-room Article 4 standard, fire-rated and HMO licensed. Tenanted within ten days of practical completion. Same trade team since 2018, same letting process for 38 conversions and counting.

94% occupancy 4.3 days average void per room per year
03
AnatomyFeatured deal · February 2026

A six-room HMO in Wolverhampton, completed in 24 weeks.

Three-bed end terrace, motivated vendor, full conversion to Article 4 compliant HMO. Sourced for an existing client in week five. Tenanted within ten days of practical completion. Cashflowing £2,134 net per month, leveraged.

Acquisition
£164,000
Refurbishment
£58,500
Post-conversion value
£312,000
Gross yield
13.2%
Wolverhampton WV3
The Wolverhampton property mid-conversion, week 14 of the refurbishment cycle
Marcus Reid, Founder

"I bought my first HMO with £42k I shouldn't have had."

Marcus Reid · Founder
04
The FounderMarcus Reid, in his own words

The conversion that nearly broke me taught me everything that matters.

2017. One terrace in Wolverhampton. £42,000 of borrowed deposit I had no business borrowing. Five months over schedule on a refurb I'd quoted myself. A trade team I'd never used before. Three rooms tenanted to NHS workers who turned out to be saints, which was the only thing that saved the whole exercise from being a disaster.

Profit on completion: £6,000. I told everyone I'd cracked the strategy. The truth was the strategy had nearly cracked me.

"What kills HMO investors isn't the strategy. It's executing without a team that's run the play a hundred times. So I built one."

The next five years I built the operating system. Sourcing relationships across three Midlands towns. A five-strong trade team I've now worked with since 2018, paid weekly, never quoted me a surprise. A licensing process that gets us through HMO sign-off in 11 weeks rather than 26. A tenant pipeline that fills rooms in days, not weeks.

Today, 38 units across Wolverhampton, Walsall and Coventry. A small client list of investors I've worked with for years. New mandates only by introduction. We do this one way, and that's the only way we know works.

BasedWolverhampton
Active since2017
StrategyHMO conversion
CoverageWest Midlands
05
Client storiesWhat investors say after two years

A small list of investors, in their own words.

"
Marcus and the team converted three properties for us across eighteen months. Every one came in on budget, every one tenanted inside two weeks. We've had one void over six rooms in fourteen months. That's it.
Andrew Doyle
Andrew Doyle Portfolio landlord, Solihull · Client since 2023
3 HMOs · £6,400 net/month combined
"
We'd done two BTLs ourselves and got nowhere near what Marcus produces. The first conversion he ran for us pulled out £38,000 on refinance in seven months and currently runs at 13.8% gross. I don't know how he holds the trade team together but he does.
Linda Patel
Linda Patel Retired solicitor, Birmingham · Client since 2022
£38k refinanced in 7 months

This works for you if

  • You already own one or more BTLs and want a higher-yielding next step
  • You have £150,000 to £250,000 of deployable capital, gross of finance
  • You want hands-off exposure to HMO without learning Article 4 yourself
  • You're prepared to wait six months for a fully-tenanted asset
  • You'd rather work with one team for ten years than chase quotes for ever

This is not for you if

  • You want to flip the HMO out within twelve months
  • You're below £100k deployable and need to leverage to the hilt
  • You'd rather convert it yourself with a YouTube tutorial and a chancer builder
  • You haven't yet decided whether you actually want to be a landlord
  • You think tenant management is something that runs itself
06
Next stepsOne conversation. No pressure.

Ready to look at the numbers on your next conversion?

Book a thirty-minute call. We'll talk through your capital, your target yield and where you sit on the risk curve. If we're a fit, you'll be on a shortlist of three new clients for the back half of 2026.

Apply for a slot
3 mandates open for Q3 2026 · 11 currently under management

What you'll get from the call

  • Honest read on whether HMO suits your capital
  • Indicative target yield and gross cashflow ranges
  • The 12-point HMO buy-box document, yours to keep
  • Introductions to my finance broker and HMO solicitor
  • A straight answer either way within 48 hours
Book a call