Expert Advice Sarah Beeny on Development Teams

Date Published:

20/06/2008

Occasionally, Property Ladder sees people teaming up with friends to run a development, and to me this is all about odds and evens. By that I mean you should look closely at whether it's better to team up and develop with an odd number of people rather than an even number.

For me it's a no-brainer. I've been developing for years in a trio consisting of me, my husband, and my brother. You could be forgiven for thinking that forming a partnership with people so close to you is kind of dangerous. What happens if you all fall out? How would that affect your personal life, etc, etc? Well, the reality is, having an odd number of people in our partnership outweighs any other disadvantages.

The reason? Well it's crucial for someone to have a deciding vote. In any given situation, having an odd number of voters means a decision will always be met, a conclusion always be drawn and a way forward clearly marked out.

On the other hand, if there are only two of you, things can get very messy indeed.

Take for example Sean and Danny in Mansfield, from a previous series of Property Ladder. They had a dispute about tiling the bathroom. Sean wanted to bring in a professional to do the job; Danny wanted to do it himself.

What on earth do you do to resolve a situation like that? Invariably one person ends up taking action without the other's consent and the damage is done. In their case it was considerable damage to the bathroom, but at least the boys remained mates. Less strong partnerships could easily have fallen apart completely.

Of course, the other crucial decision to make is who to team up with. I can't tell you how many partnerships have been formed over a few pints of beer only to fall apart in the clear light of day. My advice for property developers is: don't team up with people just because you like them (although that helps!) but team up with people because you respect their work.

A work ethic is hugely important too. One of the most frustrating things in the world is to find yourself getting into the office an hour before your partner every day. As soon as the word 'lazy' starts creeping into your thoughts and conversations about any one of your partners then trouble is on the way. I suppose the bottom line is that if you want to run your own business it's important to be more business-like than ever. Either way, teaming up with mates is all too hard to get right. So for those of you who are thinking of doing that, good luck to you!

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