Portfolio Building | DM Properties - Hands Free Buy To Let in Stoke-on-Trent
Service 01 / Portfolio Building

Hands free buy to let, built around your time.

We find the property, negotiate the deal, manage the refurb, and hand you the keys to a tenanted, cash flowing buy to let in your name. Within 90 days we’ll bring you an opportunity that fits your criteria. The work that follows runs at the pace of solicitors and tradespeople, not us, but we project manage every step of it.

What It Is

The most hands off way to own a buy to let.

You tell us your budget and what you’re looking to achieve. We do everything else.

From the first call to the keys in your hand, you don’t deal with estate agents. You don’t drive to viewings on a Saturday. You don’t haggle on offer prices, manage tradespeople, or chase solicitors. You don’t have late night phone calls with the council, the surveyor, or the lettings agent.

All of that is our job. Yours is to provide the funds, sign the paperwork at three or four key moments, and watch the rent arrive each month once the property is tenanted.

The property is in your name. The rental income is yours. Any future capital growth is yours. We just take the operational work off your hands.

In Practice

"Most of our clients spend less than five hours of their own time across the entire process."

Who It’s For

If you’re cash rich and time poor, this is the one.

Built for people who already earn well, want their money working harder, and have no interest in becoming a part time property manager.

Medical professionals

GPs, surgeons, dentists, consultants. Long shifts, demanding decisions. The last thing you want at the weekend is a tenant calling about a broken boiler.

IT and tech professionals

Developers, engineers, architects on six figure salaries. You automate everything else in your life. Your investments should follow the same rule.

Existing landlords scaling up

You already understand property. You just don’t have the time, network, or local knowledge to source good deals in Stoke yourself.

Investors outside the Midlands

You can see London yields don’t pay. You want a property that actually generates income, in a market with eyes on the ground.

Typical client profile: household income £80,000+, busy career, wants their first or next buy to let, has no time or appetite to learn the property game from scratch. If that’s you, you’re in the right place.
How It Works

Three phases. One commitment in writing.

Within 90 days of signing, we commit to bringing you a property that matches your criteria, with up to three opportunities to choose from. Everything that happens after you reserve the property is project managed by us, but the timing depends on solicitors, surveyors, and tradespeople. Here’s the full picture.

01
Phase 1 · Within 90 Days · Binding

Finding your property

A 30 minute discovery call to understand your situation, your budget, your goals. If we’re a fit, you sign the reservation agreement and pay the reservation fee. From that point we have 90 days to bring you a property matching your agreed criteria, with up to three opportunities to choose from. Most clients land on the right one within the first one or two.

02
Phase 2 · Typically 8 to 12 Weeks

Securing the property

Once you’ve chosen the property, we negotiate the offer and case manage the legal process end to end. Solicitors, mortgage broker, surveyor, searches, exchange, completion. You sign documents at the moments that need you. We handle everything else. Timing is dictated by the legal process, not us, but we keep it moving and update you weekly.

03
Phase 3 · Typically 4 to 8 Weeks

Refurb and tenanting

If the property needs refurbishment work, we project manage it. Trades, materials, schedule, sign off. You get weekly photo updates. Once the work is complete, we hand over to a reputable letting agent who markets the property, references the tenant, and starts collecting the rent. From here, the agent handles the day to day. The income lands in your account each month.

What You Need

Three things. That’s it.

£50,000
Minimum cash to deploy
Covers deposit, refurb, fees, and stamp duty on a typical Stoke buy to let around the £120,000 mark.
~5 hrs
Of your time, total
Spread across the full process. Mostly calls and signing paperwork. The bulk of decisions take less than 30 minutes each.
90 days
To find your property
Our binding commitment. Legal completion and refurb add roughly three to five months on top, but you don’t lift a finger for any of it.
How we get paid. The service runs on a three stage fee structure. A reservation fee on signing the agreement, which secures the 90 day commitment. A milestone payment at exchange of contracts. A final payment once the property is refurbished and ready to tenant. You’ll see the exact figures during the discovery call so you can model the full numbers before committing to anything. There are no ongoing fees once the property completes. We step out, the property is entirely yours.
Worked Example

A real deal. Real numbers.

A property we recently sourced for a client. The numbers below are exactly what they invested and what they earn each month.

Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent · 2 bed mid terrace

Fully renovated, seven minutes from Royal Stoke Hospital, ready to let on day one.

Secured at £130,000 against a £137,500 asking price. Brand new kitchen, modern bathroom, full electrical rewire. The neighbouring property at 424 Hartshill Road let last year at £850pcm, so £875pcm is a fair expectation here. Strong demand from medical staff and commuters.

Purchase Price
£130,000
Refurb Cost
£1,000
Monthly Rent
£875
Cash Required
£48,700
Gross Yield
8.08%
Common Questions

Everything you might want to ask.

So what exactly do you commit to in 90 days?

We commit to bringing you a property opportunity that matches your agreed criteria. The reservation agreement allows for up to three opportunities to be presented if the first one or two don’t work for you. Most clients land on a property they’re happy with on the first or second.

What sits outside the 90 day window is the legal completion process, any refurb work, and tenanting. Those depend on solicitors, surveyors, and tradespeople, so we don’t make timing promises we can’t control. We project manage all of it.

How long does the whole process take, start to finish?

Realistically, six to seven months from signing the reservation agreement to rent landing in your account. Roughly: up to 90 days to find the right property, eight to twelve weeks for legal completion, four to eight weeks for any refurb and tenant placement.

Some go faster. If we already have a matching property in our pipeline when you sign, the find phase can take days rather than weeks. If a property doesn’t need refurb, that phase disappears entirely.

How is this different from buying through an estate agent?

Estate agents represent the seller. We represent you. We negotiate down, not up. We also handle everything that happens after the offer is accepted, including refurb, lettings, and tenant management, which estate agents don’t touch.

Most of the properties we source aren’t on Rightmove or Zoopla. They come from our direct relationships with vendors, sourcers, and other agents, often before they hit the open market.

What if I don’t like the properties you find?

The reservation agreement allows for up to three properties to be presented within the 90 days. If none of the three work for you and there’s no reasonable cause for turning them all down, the reservation fee is retained, which is industry standard.

In practice, this almost never comes up. We have a 30 minute discovery call before you sign anything, specifically to make sure your criteria are realistic for the market and that we can deliver. If we don’t think we can find what you want, we’ll tell you on the call.

Do I need a mortgage in place before we talk?

No. Many clients start the conversation before they’ve spoken to a mortgage broker. We can introduce you to specialist buy to let brokers we’ve worked with for years.

What matters at the discovery call is understanding your situation, your goals, and your timeline. The mortgage piece slots in once we’ve identified a specific property.

Can I see properties before I commit to one?

Yes. Once we’ve presented a property and you’ve reviewed the deal pack, you can absolutely come and see it. Most clients do, even if just for an afternoon. We’ll show you the property, the area, and ideally one or two of our other completed projects nearby so you can see the standard of refurb work first hand.

What happens if a tenant doesn’t pay or causes damage?

Standard buy to let landlord risk applies. We work with established letting agents who reference tenants thoroughly, and we strongly recommend rent guarantee insurance which is inexpensive and covers most scenarios.

Properties in our target rental bracket attract working tenants in stable jobs. Voids and arrears do happen but rarely. The managing agent deals with the day to day, you don’t get woken up by midnight phone calls.

Why Stoke specifically?

Two reasons. First, the maths. Yields of 8% or more in Stoke versus 4% in London mean your property actually pays you each month, not theoretically.

Second, we live and work here. We know which streets work and which don’t, which trades are reliable, which agents return calls. Local knowledge in property is everything, and we have eight years of it.

What if I want to scale to multiple properties?

Many clients buy a second property within 12 to 18 months of the first. The process gets faster each time because we know what works for you, and you understand how we operate.

If you want to build a portfolio, the discovery call is the right place to discuss it. We’ll talk through pacing, finance structure, and the route from one property to five.

Ready to talk

Let’s see if it’s the right fit.

Book a 30 minute discovery call. We’ll learn about your situation, walk you through the numbers, and tell you honestly whether this makes sense for you. If it doesn’t, we’ll point you to something that does.