80% of Property Investors Get This Step Wrong: STep 2 - Strategy First or Area First?
If I had to rebuild my property business from scratch tomorrow, the very first big decision I’d face is deceptively simple. Yet it’s the one that trips up 8 out of 10 investors before they’ve even put in their first offer.
The choice is this: are you strategy-led or are you area-led?
Most investors don’t even realise they’ve made this choice. They buy into the hype of “the next hot city,” or they latch onto a shiny strategy they saw in a Facebook group, and they march off convinced they’re doing property “right.” In reality, they’ve already planted their flag in the wrong soil.
The consequences are brutal. Get this decision wrong and you’ll waste months—sometimes years—burning through money, credibility, and energy chasing deals that never deliver. Get it right and your path becomes dramatically clearer. You’ll know what you’re chasing, where you’re chasing it, and why you’re chasing it.
This is step two in my “9 AI Moves I’d Make If I Lost It All.” And it matters more than ever, because the game has changed.
Why This Decision Matters More Today
The UK property market is no longer the forgiving playground it was in the early 2000s. Back then, you could buy pretty much anything, sit on it, and watch values rise. That’s not today’s reality.
We’ve got:
Rising interest rates squeezing cash flow.
Increasing regulation (especially in HMOs and rentals).
Councils tightening planning policies.
Tenant expectations changing fast.
Institutional money moving into markets that used to be dominated by small investors.
In this environment, blind guesswork isn’t just sloppy—it’s dangerous. Clarity and precision matter. And clarity begins with asking: am I going to let strategy dictate where I invest, or am I going to let area dictate which strategies I can use?
The Strategy-First Investor
Let’s start with the clean-slate investor.
You’ve got no emotional ties to a specific city. You’re not married to your hometown. You’re not thinking about school runs or whether you’ll bump into your builder at the pub. You’re free to go wherever the returns stack.
In that case, strategy comes first.
This is where you begin by asking: What am I actually trying to achieve through property?
Do you want to replace your income within 3 years?
Do you want long-term, tax-efficient growth for retirement?
Do you want lump sums to recycle into bigger projects?
Do you want steady, low-maintenance cash flow?
Once you’ve defined the outcome, you match it with the strategy that best delivers it.
Common Strategy-First Models
Lease Options: Great for controlling property with minimal upfront cash. Works best in markets with motivated sellers and stagnant sales, where vendors need creative solutions.
Supported Living: Creates long-term tenancies by working with care providers and housing associations. Excellent yields, but requires strong partnerships and an understanding of compliance.
Commercial-to-Residential Conversions: Highly lucrative, but relies on identifying councils that are permissive with permitted development and have demand for smaller units.
Title Splits: A way of increasing value by separating one freehold into multiple leaseholds. Only works in markets with high end-user demand.
Serviced Accommodation: Cash flow heavy, but vulnerable to oversupply, seasonality, and regulation.
Buy-to-Let (BTL): Still a staple, but in today’s environment you need to be very selective to avoid being wiped out by rising mortgage costs.
Each of these strategies has its place—but only if the local market conditions support it.
Using AI as a Market Filter
Here’s where modern investing diverges from the old days of driving around random towns and phoning estate agents.
If I were starting from scratch today, I’d use AI to filter the market.
Example prompt:
“Show me 5 UK towns where commercial-to-residential conversions with title splits and strong rental demand are viable, based on planning policy, permitted development rights, and investor activity.”
In seconds, AI can trawl data sets that would take you weeks to compile:
Planning application approvals vs rejections.
Rental demand and void rates.
Commercial vacancy trends.
Demographic shifts.
Investor chatter across forums and networks.
The result? You don’t just guess—you shortlist towns like Warrington, Northampton, or Swindon because the data actually supports your strategy.
From there, you validate with human input—speaking to agents, planning officers, and local investors. AI doesn’t replace your judgement, it accelerates it.
The Area-First Investor
Now let’s flip the script.
What if you’re tied to a geography?
Maybe your kids are in school. Maybe you already own a few rentals nearby. Maybe you run your business locally and don’t want to add a three-hour drive to every viewing.
That’s not a weakness. In fact, local knowledge can be one of the most powerful assets an investor has. You’ll know things outsiders don’t: which streets to avoid, which builders can be trusted, and which areas are about to get a new transport hub.
For the area-first investor, the process is reversed. You don’t ask, “Where does my strategy work?” You ask, “What strategies work here?”
How to Do It
Feed your area into AI and get it to map the strategies that align with the local dynamics.
Example:
“Analyse property market opportunities in Chester.”
The output might look like this:
Lease options on tired terraces.
Assisted sales on unmortgageable resi.
Commercial-to-residential with title splits.
That’s a menu. You can then decide which strategy suits your skills and resources, safe in the knowledge that it’s actually viable locally.
Case Studies: Where Investors Get It Right (and Wrong)
The Strategy-First Win
“Amir”, a 34-year-old project manager, wanted capital growth. He chose commercial-to-residential conversions as his model. AI flagged three towns with permissive councils and high rental demand. Six months later, he secured a vacant office block in Northampton, converted it into six flats, refinanced, and pulled out nearly all his cash.
The Area-First Win
“Laura”, a teacher in Chester, wanted to invest locally. AI analysis showed assisted sales were underused in her patch. She found unmortgageable terraced houses, structured deals with owners, and flipped them with added value. Within a year, she had done two deals and banked strong lump-sum profits—all without leaving town.
The Drifter
“James”, 29, never committed. He bounced between SA courses, HMO seminars, and Rightmove searches in Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham. A year later, he had invested thousands in training, owned no properties, and had no clear path. His fatal mistake? Never choosing strategy-first or area-first.
The Silent Killer: Indecision
The biggest danger isn’t picking the wrong lane. It’s failing to pick any lane at all.
Most investors half-commit. They say they’re “doing HMOs” but they’ve only looked at one council. They say they’re “focusing locally” but they’re also distracted by webinars about Scotland. The result? Paralysis.
You can’t straddle two boats. Eventually you’ll just fall in the water.
Why Most Investors Still Get This Wrong
The property industry is full of lazy advice. You’ll hear:
“Liverpool is booming, just buy there.”
“Everyone’s doing serviced accommodation, it’s the future.”
“HMOs are the fastest way to financial freedom.”
These soundbites are attractive but empty.
The truth is:
The right strategy in the wrong area won’t work.
The right area with the wrong strategy won’t work.
Without clarity, you’ll drift, burn money, and eventually give up.
The Critical Role of AI
AI isn’t a magic wand. It won’t tell you “buy this street, today.” What it does is strip away the noise so you can see the real opportunities faster.
Old method: spend months Googling, calling agents, scrolling portals, and hoping you piece together a picture.
New method: use AI to crunch the data, spot trends, and surface opportunities instantly. Then apply human validation to test those results.
This blend of tech plus judgement is how modern investors build an edge.
The Bottom Line
If you’re serious about property, you need to answer this before anything else:
Are you strategy-first, or are you area-first?
Pick one. Commit. Stop drifting.
Because once you’ve answered that, every other decision gets easier. You’ll know what you’re chasing, where you’re chasing it, and how to measure success.
That’s the difference between being one of the 80% who waste their time, and one of the 20% who build something real.
Ready to Go Deeper?
This is step two of my “9 AI Moves I’d Make If I Lost It All.”
If you want the full series, follow along. And if you’re serious about mastering this, grab early bird access to the AI Property Unicorn Summit on Saturday 27th September.
80% of investors get this wrong. Don’t be one of them.