What if everything you thought you knew about building a property portfolio was actually slowing you down? We sat down with Saif Derzi — an investor who has completed over 400 property transactions — to find out exactly what he would do differently if he were starting from scratch today.
The Biggest Mistake New Investors Make
When most people come into property with around £50,000 in capital and a goal of earning £5,000 per month, their instinct is to go straight into buy-to-let. It feels logical — buy a property, collect rent, repeat. But according to Saif, this is precisely where many investors stall.
He knows this from personal experience. Saif bought his first property in 2015, then a further three in 2018, before finally scaling aggressively from 2019 onwards. That four-year gap between his first and second purchases? Almost entirely down to learning through trial and error, without a community or mentor around him.
"Without a plan, there's nothing else you're going to be able to achieve," he told us. His advice for anyone starting today is to first invest a portion — perhaps £5,000 to £10,000 — in education and community. Not necessarily a formal course, but time with experienced business people whose values align with yours. That investment in learning, he argues, pays dividends far faster than rushing into a buy-to-let with limited capital.
Build Trading Income Before You Build a Portfolio
Here is the mindset shift that could genuinely change your trajectory: stop thinking about buy-to-let as your starting point, and start thinking about it as your destination.
Saif's recommended path for someone starting with £50,000 today is to use the remaining capital — after education costs — to build a property trading income first. Deal sourcing and deal packaging are his preferred routes, because they require relatively modest upfront capital whilst allowing you to generate consistent cash flow through lead generation, marketing, and transactions.
His reasoning is straightforward. Buy-to-let is a long game. Capital appreciation over 20 to 30 years is where genuine wealth is built — not from monthly rental income alone. So rather than tying up limited funds in a single buy-to-let and waiting, why not amplify that capital first through trading, then deploy a much larger sum into your investment portfolio?
This mirrors a framework we often share with our readers: earn, amplify, invest, and compound. Most people skip the amplify stage entirely, which is why their portfolio-building journey feels painfully slow.
What Property Trading Actually Means
You may have heard the term "property trading" more frequently of late, but it remains widely misunderstood. Saif is one of the few investors openly discussing it — and for good reason. Most traders deliberately avoid a public profile; some of the largest operations complete upwards of 60 transactions per month with almost no online presence whatsoever.
In simple terms, property trading means buying and selling properties quickly — ideally without renovation work — focusing on volume and efficiency rather than margin per deal. Saif's business currently completes 10 to 15 transactions per month. By leaving "meat on the bone" for the next buyer — typically a flipper or a landlord who will add value — his model remains scalable in a way that flipping every property simply would not allow.
It is a model built on relationships, speed, and the ability to consistently source properties at a discount. Tools like PropertyAlert.uk can play a useful role here, helping investors identify motivated sellers and below-market opportunities across the UK before they hit the mainstream portals.
When it comes to completing transactions efficiently at volume, having a reliable conveyancer is equally critical. Saif's business depends on speed, and that is why many active traders and investors use Muve — Online Conveyancing, a streamlined service designed to keep transactions moving without the delays that can so easily erode a trader's margin.
The Long View: Why Buy-to-Let Still Makes Sense
Despite his focus on trading, Saif still holds a portfolio of 70 to 80 properties — roughly 70% buy-to-let and 30% HMOs, all of the latter on supported living or social housing contracts. He deliberately chose lower-yield arrangements to minimise management demands, freeing his attention for the trading business where the real income is generated.
His perspective on long-term property ownership is shaped in part by his father's experience during the late 1980s recession, when interest rates climbed to 18% and a portfolio of prime London properties — including assets near Marble Arch — was lost. The lesson Saif drew was not to avoid property, but to ensure you can survive the difficult periods to reach the capital appreciation event at the end.
Thirty or forty years from now, the properties you hold today will likely look like the best decisions you ever made. The goal is simply to still own them by then.
Whether you are at the very beginning of your journey or looking to amplify what you have already built, the principles Saif shares are genuinely actionable. Start with education, build trading income, and use that momentum to invest for the long term.
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