About Richard
I started selling houses at 20 and valuing them at 21. Twenty-odd years later I've visited, valued and assessed thousands of HMOs across the UK, sold hundreds, and I still see more than 150 a month.
Where I fit in the market
Most people look at an HMO and see a house. I see a business, and I price it like one.
Very few people in the UK spend their whole working week inside HMOs, valuing them, selling them and talking to the landlords, lenders and buyers around them. That gives me a live read on what's actually happening, not what the brochures say, and a framework to explain it.
I'm blunt about where the market is kidding itself. I've also been to prison, and I don't hide that either. It's why I'll always tell you what I'd actually do.
Today at HMO X
I'm Lead Valuer and Business Development Manager at HMO X, the specialist HMO valuation, sales and auction house, and I advise clients on market changes and strategy. I helped launch the UK's first specialist HMO auction in 2025, and I run a weekly live session for the HMO X Hub community.
I created the Tier Methodology, which reads any HMO on a single number: today's rent as a percentage of what its fundamentals can sustainably hold. It gives sellers, buyers, surveyors and lenders the same language, and it's how HMO X values everything it sees.
What I do: business development, HMO valuations and appraisals, GDV and refinance opinions, exit planning, sales and auctions, market commentary.
Who I work with: HMO landlords and portfolio owners, investors in the UK and overseas, developers, supported-living providers, managing agents, lenders and brokers.
How I got here
I did work experience in an estate agent's in Chester when I was 15. I went full time at 20, was valuing houses at 21 and running a branch at 22. I did my NAEA qualifications, got the letters after my name, and thought I was the best valuer in Chester.
Through the late 2000s and early 2010s I worked every job in agency across the North West, from trainee to senior valuer, trainer, branch manager and regional manager. Before 2015 I was also mentoring and training others in valuations and sourcing, and alongside all of that I was sourcing investment property and generating direct-to-vendor leads across the country. I was good at it, because I'd spent my whole career in homeowners' houses talking about selling, and I had a knack for making the phone ring.
By the mid-2010s I knew hundreds of landlords. Sourcing had got crowded and a bit grubby, and what the market actually needed was a specialist who sold up-and-running HMOs properly: cash-flowing houses, blocks and portfolios, priced honestly and sold to buyers who could complete.
That's the gap I filled with The Property Advantage from 2018. It grew to a team of 22, valued more than £50m of HMOs a month at its peak, and won Best HMO Sales Agent in 2022. I personally visited more than 2,000 HMOs and blocks in those years, meeting owners and tenants in every kind of town.
After prison I started again from nothing. HMO Sales Expert came first, in 2024, then joining Platinum Property Partners, and then the merger of the two into HMO X.
I've always made the effort to get out and meet people. I've travelled the country, sat down with hundreds of people in property, worked with hundreds, if not thousands, of landlords and investors, and visited as many HMOs as I could. When I came home, that network accepted me back and gave me the chance to rebuild my career and my life. I'm forever thankful to the people in the HMO and property world who made that possible.
What thousands of HMOs have taught me
Occupancy is everything
Forget the boutique finishes. Month-on-month, year-on-year occupancy is what makes a good HMO, and that comes from understanding your local tenants, not from being the newest on SpareRoom.
Know who your buyer is
A developer looking to add value and an investor buying a finished HMO want completely different things. Sell to the wrong one and the deal falls over.
Respect the exit
An HMO is an investment on the way in, during, and on the way out. Too many people celebrate the keys-in-the-door photo and forget the sale.
Price it honestly
Good HMOs used to sell for great money. Now great HMOs sell for good money. Valuing on the rent a house can sustainably hold, not its first shiny year, is what the Tier Methodology is built on.
What's your HMO really worth?
Whether you're selling, refinancing or planning your exit, I'll tell you what I'd actually do.
