About Us

Brothers Rob & Mark Hodgkiss started their company, In Hot Property, in the spring of 2016. After attending many property courses by some of the recognised experts in their fields, what started as a desire to invest to get healthy returns from an unexpected small inheritance sum, has developed to being a full time family business for Mark and Rob growing to over 20 units in 18 months.

Rob

Rob is the older brother, head screwed on, realist in the partnership. He's a deliberate thinker, and is the ‘what-if?’ guy when it comes to assessing opportunities.

Working as a Project Manager for 14 Years delivering multimillion pound IT and business change projects in construction, education, outsourcing and manufacturing sectors, has given scars of experience that give Rob an intuition about potential issues and the ability to manage teams and projects to a successful conclusion.

Geographically focused on North Yorkshire, Rob is strategically focused on conversion projects and creating serviced accommodation.

In Hot Property’s full Terms & Conditions can be found here

Harrogate Stays

Harrogate Stays is our sister brand, operating a wide range of rooms, suites, studios and apartments in Harrogate and surrounding areas. If you have never visited Harrogate before, it is an absolutely wonderful area and well worth a visit. To check availability, rates and make a booking, please visit their website.

Why book direct?

By booking directly, you can take advantage of the following;

Room Upgrades (if available)
Priority Free On-Site Parking
Vouchers for drinks in town
Early Check-ins/Late Check-outs
Best Rates Guaranteed

Harrogate Stays will price-match any online travel agent to ensure guests that book direct have the best possible price and benefit from all of the above. If you have any questions or bespoke requirements, please don't hesitate to contact them.

Email hello@harrogatestays.co.uk
Phone 01423 787 004

Just a few iconic images of Harrogate and the beautiful surrounding area.

Harrogate is located in North Yorkshire and has been voted happiest place to live no less than three times since 2013.

Conversion Projects

In Hot Property transform tired unloved spaces into smart sophisticated places with a focus on great design, comfort and technology.

Whether it’s former solicitors offices, a derelict barn, or a neglected Bed & Breakfast, we love nothing better than bringing these properties back to life and offering guests the chance to stay in them.

To book your stay at any one of our properties, please visit our sister company, Harrogate Stays.

In North Yorkshire we are developing our portfolio, starting with our commercial conversion project that has created 4 brand new apartments within a magnificent, Georgian, Grade II listed bank building on the High Street of the market town of Knaresborough. The development includes three 2 bedroom and one 1 bedroom apartments, all of which maintain a strong connection to the original style of the building, retaining many of the salvageable original features.

In 2019, our main focus turned to the guest house sector in Harrogate. We have identified a number of opportunities where tired B&Bs can be renovated creating 50% more rooms, upgrading existing rooms, together with a more systemised business approach to give guests a much more flexible, modern and great value experience. Take a look at the projects below for more details.

Bank Chambers

Bank Chambers was purchased at auction in May 2016. Working with our architect we shortlisted and selected the main contractor and construction commenced in August of the same year. The project completed in March 2017.

Strip Out

The first stage of the project was to review the tender drawings and responses that had been issued by the previous owner prior to purchase. Working with our architect we selected the main contractor and moved into contract negotiations, and contracts were agreed towards the end of July. Construction commenced with the strip out works in August. At this stage joiners had to carefully dismantle and label original wood work cupboards for reconstruction within the finished apartments, as well as carefully removing as much original architrave, cornicing, doors and frames as possible. The staircase was covered with protective material for the duration of the project.

BUILD PHASE

With strip out complete all the timbers and structure of the building are revealed. We had visits from timber treatment companies and structural surveyors to assess the internal elements of the property. Timbers were all sound, so we saved on the sum allowed for repairs. We had a couple of interesting structural timber frames supporting the roof on the third floor, which limited the space we had available. Working with the structural engineer we managed to construct a supporting framework in the new walls, and remove the largest supporting structure, giving us an extra eight sqft in one of the bedrooms. The second structural wall, that now forms part of Apartment Four's main bedroom has remained, but we have creatively built a doorway through which adds a walk in wardrobe to that room. It's a bit like Narnia!

Internal walls were erected, and all the insulation, fire protection and first fix electric and water services were installed. Key decisions about the socket locations needed to be made at this point, a challenge to imagine the final points at which things like floor lamps, routers, toasters and other electrical equipment will be cited when the building is yet to even have all the walls.

At this point in the project access and storage of materials became challenging to the site team. There was a lot of waste material to be removed still, and the scores of sheets of plasterboard, plywood, insulation and other material arriving. Apart from all the material movement around site, this was also the point at which a lot of different trades were on site together, so moving around site became congested, especially in the dim winter daylight as there was little or no power on site.

Utilities

Finally, after the Christmas road closure embargo enforced by the Highways Agency, the utility companies were able to complete the water and electric connections. The installation of utilities was the responsibility of the builder, but as an external provider outside their control, they also provided an opportunity for the project schedule to be delayed, at no fault of the builder and hence avoid contractual penalties.

The installation of both water and electric should have completed in November, but didn't and consequently incurred a 2 month delay into January after Christmas. My years of dealing with BT and other telephony service providers came flooding back. All utility companies seem to be very alike. At this point I brought my experience to bear and got in touch with the various people involved with the installations and got the ball rolling where it appeared to be stuck in the cogs of utility companies, their contractors and the Highways Agency.

Second Fix

With power now available on site, the team could get the heating on and could start with the finishes, confident that a change in atmospheric conditions would not create problems.

The plastered walls had been drying out over the Christmas period and into January. Tiling into the bathrooms was completed first, so it was quickly possible to see them taking shape.

The retained woodwork was reinstalled and reused as architrave and the cupboards reassembled across the apartments and the engineered wood flooring was installed. Meanwhile decorators were hard at work painting throughout. The building was starting to feel like apartments rather than a tired, unloved office space.

Decoration and Finishing

With all the wooden floor in place the project moved quickly into the final stages with walls painted, kitchens fitted and bathrooms tiled. Once again all the trades were on site like ants finishing their elements of the project. 

Snagging, Furnishing and Dressing

Do not underestimate the time and effort involved in snagging. Our snag list was 15 pages long. With a guest already booked for our first apartment, this became the priority.

Once our guest had moved in, focus moved to apartments 2-4 and working through the snag list, arranging for bins to be provided by the council, ordering furniture and preparing our listing on the booking portals.

See our 360 tours here
Bank Chambers 1

Bank Chambers 2

Bank Chambers 3

Bank Chambers 4

 The Belmont, Harrogate

Having operated and managed short term rentals since July 2016, In Hot Property have identified opportunities within the guest house market. Our latest project will see an existing 8-room B&B transform into a modern, smart, boutique 12-bed aparthotel.

The formula will involve converting communal rooms (dining room, sitting room) and owners accommodation into extra guest rooms. Together with upgraded bathrooms and kitchenettes, the rooms will command a higher price and using revenue management software, we can further increase occupancy.

We will increase the number of rooms by 50%, the average nightly room rate by 20% and the occupancy levels by 10%, leading to a 98% increase in revenue and a corresponding increase in profits. By working with vendors and investors, together with our expert power team, we can produce a streamlined, state of the art solution for forthcoming guests in the beautiful and thriving town of Harrogate.

Our ultimate goal is to produce a collection of smart boutique guest houses in the area under the umbrella brand of ‘Harrogate Stays’.

As of February 2020, The Belmont is closed for the Phase 2 refurb. See below images of the Phase 1 refurb.

The Phase One refurb consisted of a relatively low cost but high impact light refurb. All walls and ceilings were painted white, new furniture, light fittings and window dressings were replaced to give a much fresher feel. This enabled us to reopen in time to trade for late summer and autumn, including the World Cycling Championships.

Phase Two will be much more in-depth, taking the property back to brick to replace outdated infrastructure such as plumbing and electrics. 50% of the rooms will be reconfigured to provide more space and functionality with some structural work taking place in room 9.

Phase 2 refurb is underway…

We’ve gone back to brick at The Belmont. Following some delays during the COVID-19 restrictions, work resumed over the summer of 2020. We will be offering 12 newly refurbished single en-suite rooms, suites and studios in early 2021.

Fountains Guest House and Apartment

With a score of 9.8 out of 10.0 and almost 500 reviews, there’s not too much we can do to improve this superb guest house, except add more rooms! That’s exactly what we plan to do, creating an additional 3 superior ground floor studios with kitchenettes. To the rear of the property, the garage will be converted to create a luxury second en-suite bedroom for the basement apartment, formerly owners accommodation.

By adding 3 guest suite rooms and a 2 en-suite bedroom basement apartment, not only do we maximise the superb accommodation for guests, we also maximise the return from this spectacular property in one of the finest locations.

Investment Opportunities

In today's economy of low interest rates, harsh taxation on private landlords, and bureaucratic rules for small businesses, it is difficult to find good investment strategies. The growth of the internet in providing investment vehicles such as crowd funding and business angels is challenging traditional savings models, but often the risks are considerably higher. Banks and pension funds are offering rates of interest that are outstripped by the level of inflation meaning that without doing anything, the money in the bank is losing money year on year. Stock based pension funds increase modestly in value only to be pillaged by the fund managers and operators leaving the investor with little more than break even at best.

Combining the high yielding strategy of Serviced Accommodation with the capital intensive, asset backed, conversion and build projects puts In Hot Property in the privileged position of being able to offer a variety of investment opportunities for cash investors, landlords and pension funds.

Make Your Money Work Harder

If strong returns, from asset backed investments over a period of 12-36 months are of interest to you, then investing in one of our projects may be the solution. Financing our projects is done through a mix of private investor finance and bank lending. We are able to offer investment solutions for you to part of a group of investors for a particular scheme, or equity share options for qualified sophisticated or high net worth investors.

In Hot Property are always looking for investors to be part of our projects and would love to speak to you about how we can provide bespoke solutions to your investment needs.

Make Your Property Work Harder

Owning investment property is no longer the easy ride it once was. Government changes to legislation and taxation rules force landlords to work harder, incur higher expenses and obtain lower tax relief on those expenses. Furthermore the balance of rights is swung heavily in the favour of tenants, with landlords having little control over how their asset is looked after, and at the end of the tenancy and in the worst cases, may even be forced into lengthy and expensive eviction processes to be able to take back their property. Let's face it, if you get a good tenant who cleans and cares for your property as you would, you're very lucky. In Hot Property can offer long term management agreements to operate your property as Serviced Accommodation, removing all tenant hassles, minor maintenance and general upkeep of the property, leaving you to do what all landlords dream of - sitting back to a hassle free life and watching the payments roll into your bank like clockwork each month.

Equity Opportunities

Experience, training and a network of industry experts can be leveraged through working with us on sourcing and developing properties to be used as Serviced Accommodation. Unlike many property investing strategies, Serviced Accommodation uses predominantly small units which are far less capital intensive than many other property strategies, giving new property investors a great starting point or more seasoned investors a strategy that can be scaled quickly. We work with investors to identify suitable properties, find ways to add value to the properties to maximise the returns available to our investors.