Twenty years in the job, and what I am building now

Why I have written this down

Because the half explained version is useless to you, and because I would rather you read something you can go away and check than take my word for anything.

Reading people was most of what we did. You know the difference between someone who tells you the awkward part up front and someone who waits to see whether you notice it. So the awkward parts are in here, near the top, where they belong.

What I actually do

Three things, and they are more ordinary than the word "property" makes them sound.

1. I find houses that are not working for the person who owns them

   Somebody has inherited a house they cannot maintain. A landlord has had enough. A place needs more work than a normal buyer will take on. It has sat on the market for eight months and nobody has said why. I go and find out why, and then I work out what the house is genuinely worth to somebody rather than what the sign outside says.

2. I work out a way through that suits the seller as well as me

   Sometimes that is a straight purchase at a lower price. Sometimes the seller needs a particular figure and the only honest way there is a different structure, over a longer timescale, with the work funded on the way. That part is a craft and it is most of what I have spent two years learning.

3. Some I keep, and some I pass on to other investors

   Keeping one means holding it and letting it. Passing one on means an investor buys it and I am paid a fee for the work of putting it together. That second one is a regulated activity, which is why the registrations further down this page exist.

The longer aim is supported living: ordinary houses, leased to specialist providers who support people with mental health needs and neurodiversity, held for the long term. It is slower and duller than flipping houses and it is the reason I picked this over easier things.

The bit you are already thinking about

If you are getting near the end of it, or you are already out, you will have noticed something. The moment that lump sum appears on the horizon, so do a lot of people with an opportunity for you.

Some of them are perfectly legitimate. A fair few are not, and you have spent your working life learning to tell one from the other. I am not going to insult you by pretending I am obviously in the first group because I say so.

Do not take my word for any of it. Go and check, and I will hand you the numbers to check with.

I have written a separate piece on how to check that anyone in this line of work is legitimate. It sets out the five checks that matter, and it is deliberately written so that it would catch me out too if I were not what I claim. Run them on me. Run them on anybody else who approaches you.

How to check me

PathForge is a trading name of PSE3 Ltd, company number 15845792, registered in England and Wales, registered office in Oswestry. Every one of these is verifiable by you, without asking me, in about ten minutes:

• Companies House

  The company, when it was incorporated, who runs it, and whether the filings are up to date.

• HMRC anti money laundering supervision

  Held for the property side of the business. HMRC publish a register of supervised businesses and it is public.

• Property Redress Scheme

  Membership, with a number you can put into the scheme's own register. It is the route a complaint against me would take, and it exists so that you have one.

• Information Commissioner's Office

  Registered since 2024 for handling personal data.

• Professional indemnity insurance

  In place and current, with the policy details available on request.

Ask me for any of the numbers and you will have them the same day. If somebody in this line of work hesitates over that request, that on its own is your answer.

Where I am going to be straight with you

I have not completed a purchase yet.

Two years of study, training and hunting, a company set up properly, the registrations above, offers made and a great deal learned about why deals fall over. But no house bought. If that is a problem for you then it is a fair one, and I would far rather you knew it from me on a page than found it out later and wondered what else had been left out.

The other things worth saying plainly. I am also a self employed estate agent locally, working towards a CeLA Level 3 qualification, which I have not finished. And I use AI tools in parts of how I work, as most people in business now do. I read everything that comes in and I reply to it myself.

Why I am telling people from the job in particular

Two reasons, and neither of them is complicated.

The first is that most of what I do runs on people telling me things. A house that is quietly a problem, a neighbour who wants out, somebody's mother's place standing empty. That kind of thing reaches me because somebody thought of me, and the people most likely to think of me are the people who know me.

The second is that a lot of us reach that point, look at what comes next, and find there is no obvious answer beyond going back to work somewhere else. I have gone and worked out an answer. If it is of interest to you, I am happy to talk about it properly. If it is not, that is completely fine and this page has cost you five minutes.

What happens next

Nothing, unless you want it to. There is no list you have joined by reading this and nothing follows automatically.

If you want a conversation, send me a line below or ring me, and we will have one. If you would rather just keep an eye on what I am doing, say so and I will let you know how it goes from time to time.

This page is general information about what I do and who I am. It is not an offer, an invitation or an inducement to invest in anything, and it is not financial, legal or tax advice. Nothing here is a commitment to buy, lease, fund or place any particular property.