The Scottish Property Podcast

He owns 12 properties. He lives in his mate's spare room. And he accidentally bought a Chinese restaurant from an airport while flying back from Japan.

🏠 In this episode of the Scottish Property Podcast, Nick and Steven sit down with Isaac Cross — a former offshore worker and CERN technician who saved £140k, came off the Scottish Property Podcast course in January, and went all in on property faster than almost anyone they've had on the show.

This one is raw, honest and genuinely funny. Isaac doesn't just talk about the wins. He talks about the bridging nightmare on five properties at once, the deals he overpaid for, the sourcing fees that didn't add up, the solicitor with 98 problems to solve — and what he'd do differently if he was starting again.

🕐 TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Welcome to Isaac Cross & the 52 properties in 52 weeks goal
02:04 – Growing up between Aberdeen and Lanarkshire with a single mum
04:35 – ADHD diagnosis as a kid — and how it shapes the way Isaac works
05:21 – Wanting to go offshore like his dad
06:28 – Electrical apprenticeship & how he was the only one who applied
10:55 – Life offshore: earning £90k in his early 20s
16:20 – Moving to Switzerland for the CERN job
16:29 – The best job title, the most boring job
18:59 – First property: Holytown two-bed at 20
21:14 – Bad mortgage advice, blowing the profit, starting over
26:16 – The power of a good power team
33:24 – The Dennistoun flat — bought at home report in peak Covid
35:04 – Social media, personal brand & why Isaac went all in on content
36:38 – The January networking event that flipped the switch
44:04 – First deal in Aberdeen on a plane to Australia
52:07 – Five properties on one bridge — and 98 problems to solve
60:19 – The Chinese restaurant accident
62:53 – Bidding at auction from Heathrow flying back from Japan
66:45 – The community hub plan for the Carluke commercial unit
71:55 – First private investor on board & what comes next

🔑 KEY TOPICS
✅ How Isaac went from zero to 12 properties in 3 months
✅ Bridging five properties at once — the fees, the problems, the lessons
✅ Why cheap Aberdeen stock served a purpose but he'd do it differently now
✅ Sourcing fees that don't add up — and how to spot them
✅ Accidentally buying commercial property at auction
✅ Building a private investor relationship from scratch
✅ Why social media is already bringing the right people to Isaac
✅ His honest advice to anyone thinking about starting

📲 CONNECT WITH ISAAC
Follow Isaac's property journey on Instagram — @isaaccrossproperty

📅 NETWORKING EVENTS
First Wednesday of every month
📍 Aberdeen | Dundee | Edinburgh | GlasgowFollow our socials for speakers and details

🎙️ ABOUT SCOTTISH PROPERTY PODCAST
Real conversations with real Scottish property investors. No fluff — just honest stories, market updates, and investor journeys.

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode
👍 Like if you found this valuable
💬 Would you have bought the Chinese restaurant? Drop it in the comments 👇

The last time Scotland launched this fund it had £60 million and it was gone in eight days. This time they've got £100 million. Nick and Steven give it two weeks. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿In this month's market update, they break down exactly how the £10k First Home Fund works, what the catches are, and why investors should be paying attention too — because when first-time buyers pile into the 80–100k market, it gets competitive fast.That's just one of the stories this month. Gilt rates just hit their highest level since 2008. Scottish rents have dropped annually for the first time in eight years. And a new law coming in April 2027 means one tenant in a joint tenancy can end the lease for everybody — a potential nightmare for HMO landlords.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🕐 TIMESTAMPS━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━00:00 – Intro & what's coming up this episode01:48 – Rants episode feedback — scarcity selling & FOMO in the market05:30 – The dodgy deal story — unfactored building, hole in the wall, empty property12:21 – Listener email — "Fatty" tells Nick to stop interrupting Steven15:04 – Fuel prices & the macro economy17:26 – CPI inflation came in at 2.8% — lower than expected19:47 – Interest rates & why cuts are off the table21:54 – The 80–100k sweet spot for Scottish BTL right now24:24 – Post-election results — Reform, SNP minority, what it means28:31 – The £10k First Home Fund — how it works & the catches32:16 – Last time this fund launched it was gone in 8 days34:00 – House prices & the Zoopla index38:07 – Average time to sell in Scotland: 15 days, fastest in the UK39:04 – Down valuations — are surveyors getting more cautious?43:01 – Rental market update — Citylets data43:21 – First annual rent drop in 8 years44:49 – City breakdown: Dundee, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh46:46 – Rent controls — nothing until late 2027 at the earliest50:36 – Rent adjudication changes — tribunal loophole closing April 202752:12 – Joint tenancy bombshell — one person can end it for everyone━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔑 KEY TOPICS━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━✅ The £10k First Home Fund — how it works, the equity catch, and how long it'll last✅ Rants episode feedback — scarcity selling, FOMO and deals passed around 15 WhatsApp groups✅ Fuel prices, inflation & why CPI came in lower than expected at 2.8%✅ Interest rates: why three or four cuts this year is now off the table✅ Scottish house prices: Glasgow up 2.9%, Scotland up 2.6%, Aberdeen finally climbing✅ Average time to sell in Scotland — 15 days, fastest in the UK✅ Rental market: first annual rent drop in 8 years — and why Nick thinks it's already bouncing back✅ City rents breakdown: Aberdeen up 1.7%, Glasgow up 0.4%, Edinburgh flat✅ Rent controls update — nothing happening until late 2027 at the earliest✅ The joint tenancy bombshell — one tenant can end the tenancy for everyone from April 2027✅ Why this is a major problem for HMO landlords✅ Rent adjudication changes — the tribunal loophole is closing✅ Down valuations — are surveyors getting more cautious?✅ The 80–100k sweet spot for Scottish BTL investors right now━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📅 NETWORKING EVENTS━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━First Wednesday of every month📍 Aberdeen | Dundee | Edinburgh | GlasgowFollow our socials for speakers and details━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ ABOUT SCOTTISH PROPERTY PODCAST━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Real conversations about Scottish property. No fluff — market updates, legislation changes, and honest investor chat every month.🔔 Subscribe so you never miss a market update👍 Like if you found this valuable💬 Do you think the fund will be gone in days again? Drop it in the comments 👇

No guests. No filter. Just Nick and Steven saying what everyone in property is thinking.

From deal sourcers pressuring investors to buy in minutes, to buyers pulling out of flips at the last second, dodgy sourcers, LinkedIn inbox chaos, ego-driven cliques in the Scottish property community, and yes — American tipping culture at Starbucks drive-throughs.

This is the Scottish Property Podcast rants episode. It always does well. You'll know why by the end.

🕐 TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Welcome to the rants episode
03:00 – Cold pitching in our Facebook community group
08:00 – LinkedIn inbox: why Steven doesn't go on it anymore
12:00 – Deal sourcers rushing investors into decisions
18:00 – The 6-minute deal — how much due diligence is that?
24:00 – Younger investors trying to keep up with social media portfolios
29:00 – A sourcer called Natalie — the community calling it out
34:00 – Steven's Florida rant: Starbucks drive-through tipping culture
40:00 – Scotland's property system: buyers pulling out with no consequences
47:00 – Three flips, two fall-throughs — the real cost of the Scottish system
52:00 – Non-refundable deposits: should they be the norm?
57:00 – Letting agents: the three-quotes rabbit hole
1:03:00 – Egos and cliques in the Scottish property community
1:10:00 – Going to other people's events — why Steven loves it
1:15:00 – Copying in business: where's the line?
1:20:00 – Every fucker's got a podcast now
1:24:00 – Wrap up, sponsors & G4 Studios shoutout

🔑 KEY TOPICS
✅ Why rushed deal sourcing is putting new investors at risk
✅ How to do due diligence on a sourcer before you spend a penny
✅ The case for non-refundable deposits in Scottish property sales
✅ Why cliques are killing the Scottish property community
✅ Cold pitching in Facebook groups — add value first
✅ Tipping culture in the US — a rant we all needed to hear

📅 NETWORKING EVENTS
First Wednesday of every month
📍 Aberdeen | Dundee | Edinburgh | Glasgow
Follow our socials for speakers and details

🎙️ ABOUT SCOTTISH PROPERTY PODCAST
Real conversations about Scottish property. No fluff, no filter — just honest talk from people in the trenches.

💬 What's YOUR biggest property rant? Drop it in the comments 👇

17 years in the Royal Air Force. Iraq. Afghanistan. The Falklands. Then he walked away — 3 years short of a guaranteed pension — to go all in on property. 🏠In this episode of the Scottish Property Podcast, Nick and Steven sit down with Ross Orrock — deal sourcer, property investor, and one of the most honest voices in the industry. Ross doesn't just talk about wins. He talks about the Samuel Leeds course that cost him £12k, the social housing Hmos that turned the community against him, the £44-unit rent-to-rent scheme that turned out to be a nationwide scam, and the Grade 2 listed cottage that cost him £90k in losses.250 deals later, Ross is still standing — and his story is one every property investor needs to hear.🕐 TIMESTAMPS00:00 – Intro: 17 years RAF, walking away from the pension04:00 – Deployments: Iraq, Afghanistan & 4 months on a Falklands mountaintop09:00 – The breaking point — missing 800 days of his daughter's life14:00 – Discovering Samuel Leeds on YouTube while deployed19:00 – Spending £12k inheritance on a property course24:00 – Starting from zero: divorced, sleeping on his grandad's couch29:00 – Why he chose deal sourcing over rent to rent34:00 – Building his personal brand on Instagram from scratch39:00 – Investor first vs deal first — Ross's strong take44:00 – The budget HMO years: cheap terraces, chaos, and high turnover50:00 – Social housing & asylum seeker contracts — bricks through windows57:00 – The City Gate scam: £44 units, a pyramid scheme, and a £96k investor loss1:06:00 – How it destroyed his reputation (and how he rebuilt it)1:12:00 – Why he ditched HMOs and went all in on buy to let1:18:00 – The Grade 2 listed cottage disaster — a £90k lesson1:26:00 – Building his own portfolio: 10 buy to lets and counting1:32:00 – How to onboard investors and weed out time wasters1:38:00 – Northeast property market: where to invest and what to spend1:44:00 – Oric Property: sourcing, lettings & estate agency🔑 KEY TOPICS✅ Leaving the military 3 years short of a full pension✅ The honest truth about property courses — are they worth it?✅ Why budget HMOs are a trap (and what works instead)✅ The City Gate rent-to-rent scam exposed✅ Social housing & asylum seeker contracts — the real story✅ Why Ross never puts his name against third-party builders✅ Investors first vs deals first — the debate settled✅ Long term capital growth vs cash flow — where the real wealth is✅ Northeast England property: areas, prices & what to expect🎙️ ABOUT SCOTTISH PROPERTY PODCASTReal conversations with real property investors. No fluff — the wins, the losses, and everything in between.👍 Like if you found this valuable💬 Have you ever been caught out by a property scam? Drop it in the comments 👇

At 23 years old, Taylor McNeillie has built a £700k property portfolio — mortgage free — while running a retail business doing over £1 million a year. And he still lives at home. 🏠

In this episode of the Scottish Property Podcast, Nick and Steven sit down with Taylor to hear the full story: from reselling Yeezys at 12 years old and skipping class to cop Supreme drops, to opening Empire Glasgow at 18, scaling to £1.8 million in revenue, and quietly buying 10 properties in cash before most people his age have a savings account.

This one is packed with lessons on business, money, social media, and why building a cash-generating business first might be the smartest property strategy of all.

🕐 TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Intro: Taylor's story in numbers
02:30 – Growing up in East Dorsetshire & early entrepreneurial spark
06:00 – Reselling Yeezys at 12 using his dad's credit card
11:00 – Supreme drops from the school toilet at 11am
16:00 – Building the Empire Glasgow Instagram page
22:00 – Covid hits — and changes everything
27:00 – Opening the pop-up in Princes Square at 18
33:00 – Going full time: signing the long-term lease
38:00 – Silverburn Christmas pop-up & £790k quarter
43:00 – Running 9 staff at 19 — winging it and winning
49:00 – Revenue peaks at £1.8M — then the Yeezy disaster
55:00 – Business rates, retail challenges & Glasgow high street
1:02:00 – The property lightbulb moment & 500k sitting in the bank
1:08:00 – First deal: 2-bed in Cambuslang for £65k (never seen it)
1:14:00 – Buying mortgage free — the no-debt philosophy
1:20:00 – TikTok, the £28k flat and the "parasite landlord" comments
1:28:00 – 10 properties, £700k portfolio, still at home with mum
1:34:00 – Future plans: portfolio deals, refinancing & commercial property

🔑 KEY TOPICS
✅ How Taylor built £500k in business profit before touching property
✅ Buying 10 properties mortgage free in under 2 years
✅ Why he treats tenants like customers
✅ Using social media to find off-market deals
✅ The Yeezy stock crisis — and how he handled it
✅ Business rates in Glasgow & the retail landscape
✅ Why Taylor avoids serviced accommodation and shiny penny strategies
✅ His plan to refinance a portfolio deal and scale further

📲 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
🏪 Empire Glasgow — Princes Square & Buchanan Street, Glasgow
🔑 Kyle Black — property sourcing
🔑 Callum McWilliam — Rapid Removals & sourcing
📊 Slater Hogg — letting agents

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode
👍 Like if you found this valuable
💬 What do you think of the no-mortgage approach? Drop it in the comments 👇