Jamie Stone

I've been investing in property for twenty years. Alpha Squared is newer — I started it to do for other people what I'd been doing for myself.

That distinction matters, so I'll make it plainly rather than let twenty years imply something it shouldn't. The experience is in the investing. The agency is how I'm now putting it to work for other people.

I bought my first property with no idea what I was doing, and made most of the mistakes available — buying close to home because it felt safe, trusting an agent paid by the other side, mistaking a nice house for a good asset. What changed things was giving up on judgement and moving to a system: the same six metrics, the same thresholds, every market in the country, every quarter, whether or not I like the answer.

I fly internationally for a living. Long-haul flying is a discipline of checklists, cross-checks and removing judgement calls made while tired — and I buy property the same way. The analysis is finished before the emotion turns up. It's also why the method is written down and published: a procedure only works if somebody else can audit it.

Nothing proceeds to the next line until the one above is signed off. The same principle as a pre-departure checklist, applied to a seven-figure decision.