Enterprise Nation

Don’t you just love the name? Can you guess what 4wallsandaceiling.com does? It’s a business, website and TV outlet dedicated to the topic of property investment. The business is run from a home in Guildford that is one of many homes owned by Vanessa Warwick and Nick Tadd.

Meet Vanessa and Nick

Vanessa Warwick and Nick Tadd are one of the most talked about and respected couples in the world of property investment. This dynamic husband and wife duo have built a successful property business and share their knowledge, experience, and contacts with other investors through their company 4 Walls and A Ceiling Ltd.

We knock on their door to ask some questions.

From which one of your homes do you run the business?

We’re based mainly in Guildford, Surrey which is an excellent location for us due to the proximity to London, the M25, the South coast, and the airports.  However, due to the nature of our business, we are blessed that we can work from anywhere in the world as long as there is an internet connection!  We have a villa in Cyprus and try and spend as much time there as possible, particularly during the winter months.  However, we have worked off a boat in the Caribbean, dropping anchor at various different islands and using the local internet facilities!  It was certainly different sitting in Bequia in the Grenadines, having breakfast and sending emails with the beach just a few yards away!

Do you and Nick bring different talents to the business?

Yes, I think we complement each other very well.  I would say that I am a tactician and Nick is a strategist!  That works well as I think about short term stuff while Nick is thinking months and years ahead.  I love nothing more than finding and negotiating a deal while Nick is much more interested in the technology side of things – he’s a real geek.  I run our property forum at www.propertytribes.ning.com and Nick runs our “geek” forum at www.nicktadd.ning.com.

How do you split your time between your own investments and suggesting investments for your members

I would say it’s around 80% managing our own business and investments and 20% helping our clients.  We have a substantial portfolio of our own both in the U.K. and Cyprus which does require constant attention.  We only introduce our clients to deals that we are buying ourselves, and we are not constantly in buying mode.

However, we do offer a personal and bespoke service to our clients so invest a lot of time helping them understand which deals are right for them.  We have worked very hard to establish and maintain our reputation, and we are only as good as our last deal.  Therefore, we have very stringent criteria that have to be met before we would even consider making a purchase, and we apply these same criteria to deals for our clients. 

Our business model is not based on large numbers, so we can offer a very individual service to people which is vital as property is not a case of “one size fits all”.  A few clients whose portfolios we also manage, have specific criteria for the type of properties they want to acquire and we help them source those deals.  For example, one client likes to buy coastal property along the South Coast so we work with them to source those particular type of deals.  

We believe very much in building reciprocal relationships with our network.  For example, one of our clients has a company that provides flooring and blinds so we funnel all our requirements through to his company.  Maintaining and managing our network is vitally important for us as it is the future of our business success.

Do you produce your TV content in-house?

Being from a TV background, we found it a very natural step to start recording videos for our website.  We record and edit everything in-house on Nick’s Macs which are powerful enough to launch a space shuttle!  We really enjoying using our TV skills and combining them with our property business.  We believe that, in five years time, everyone will have their own TV platform, so we are starting to build ours now, and create a large archive of material for people to access for educational purposes.  We have had such positive feedback from using video and believe it has enabled us to make a deeper connection with new clients.

What are your plans for the business in 2009?

We are dedicating this year to really getting to grips with social media as we believe it to be the future of business exposure.   Now is the time to become a “leader” and an “expert” in our specialized fields.  We want to increase our exposure on-line, on TV, and radio etc. to raise our profile in the property arena.  We are passionate, outspoken, and opinionated about property and we share that via blogs, forums, Twitter, etc.

As far as the portfolio goes, we have adjusted out strategy to diversify into holiday lets as we believe they will have a bumper few years thanks to a number of factors, including the credit crunch and the strength of the Euro.  We also believe coastal property will always be a premium product.  Nick wants to focus more on the technology side of things and is involved in some new training courses teaching social media.

Have you yet achieved the perfect work/life blend?

We are a long way towards achieving a life we originally envisaged.  For one thing, we get to work together, which is important to us.  We take time off when we like, and work hard when we like.  We have a 10 second commute to the office, which was particularly great when England was brought to a halt by the recent snow.  It did not impact on us in any way and we were so glad we did not have to go out into the snow and try and get from A to B.  Whilst we have yet to buy our boat, we have chartered a yacht on a number of occasions, both in the Med and the Caribbean, and we take three weeks off to do that once a year.  We have also fallen in love with Cyprus, so, instead of buying a boat, we bought a three bed villa!  Larnaca has a fantastic marina, so the perfect place to moor our yacht when we get it.   We are still just as passionate about property and sharing our property knowledge as we were 5 years ago.  It has served us very well.

Vanessa Warwick talks to Emma Jones

• 4wallsandaceiling.com