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How Catherine Yuen Uses Property Filter to Build a Buy-to-Let Portfolio in Essex

2 BTL deals completed. £20,000 negotiated off post-survey. Weekly research cut from 20 hours to 15 minutes a day.

Catherine Yuen · Essex · Buy-to-Let, value-add · Interviewed March 2026

AT A GLANCE

Member

Catherine Yuen

Location

Essex

Strategy

Buy-to-Let (BTL), value-add - buying, improving, and holding long-term

Result

2 BTL deals completed; £20,000 negotiated off post-survey; properties now tenanted

PF Feature Used

Ownership and portfolio data, motivation indicators, deal pipeline, direct-to-vendor letters

"Do more viewings, put more offers in, put an offer in for every viewing you do - it's a numbers game."

- Catherine Yuen, to her June 2025 self

Results like these are happening every week. See how Property Filter works.

Catherine Yuen builds organised systems for a living. Payment systems, appointment systems, invoice systems - she helps people bring order to complexity. So when she started building a family buy-to-let portfolio in Essex, she did what any methodical person would do: she built a system. Excel spreadsheets. Notion. A structured process that consumed an entire weekend and still came up empty.

She had the discipline. She had the method. What she was missing was the data. Property Filter changed that - and within six weeks of joining, she had her first deal under offer.

Catherine Yuen's challenge before Property Filter

Before Property Filter, Catherine was relying on a combination of Excel spreadsheets and Notion to manage her deal search. On paper, the setup made sense - she is a systems person, and building a structured process felt like the right approach. In practice, it had the opposite effect.

"It was very fragmented," she says. "I ended up finding myself spending more time on building the system than doing viewings." The process was pulling her in the wrong direction. The platform she needed didn't yet exist in her toolkit - she was spending hours on infrastructure instead of finding motivated sellers and getting offers in.

"I spent the whole weekend looking for a few properties, and I didn't even find the opportunity, and they didn't stack anyway. I missed all the family gatherings and activities by just working, and found it doesn't really work."

The turning point came when Catherine joined Property Filter in June 2025. Her hesitation at first was about complexity - she worried it would take months to learn, and that she would end up using only a fraction of it. The training videos and live support from the Property Filter team resolved that quickly. Within two to three weeks, she had worked through the core functionality. By the end of July, she had found a property that stacked.

How Catherine Yuen uses Property Filter to find buy-to-let deals in Essex

Catherine's workflow now runs on a fraction of the time her previous process required. She uses Property Filter as a property sourcing tool built around one core habit: filter hard, move fast. Anything that does not match her buy-to-let strategy in Essex gets hidden immediately. What remains goes into the deal pipeline with notes, follow-up reminders, and context added as she goes.

"I put a lot of information in there as well. Every time I think of something, I put it in the deal pipeline so I won't forget which property it is referring to." That level of discipline means her 15-30 minutes of daily work is genuinely focused - not scattered across browser tabs and spreadsheet rows.

She also uses Property Filter's direct-to-vendor letter feature, enabling her to reach landlords before properties reach the open market. Combined with the weekly community calls that help her stay focused and accountable, the platform replaced not just a set of tools but an entire workflow.

"It's not just the software, it's the people as well. It's really important, I think."

Catherine Yuen's challenge before Property Filter

"I spent the whole weekend looking for a few properties, and I didn't even find the opportunity, and they didn't stack anyway. I missed all the family gatherings and activities by just working, and found it doesn't really work."

How Catherine Yuen uses Property Filter to find buy-to-let deals in Essex

"It's not just the software, it's the people as well. It's really important, I think."

Feature Spotlight

Catherine Yuen's favourite Property Filter feature: ownership and portfolio data

Catherine's current standout feature is Property Filter's ownership data - the ability to see who owns any property, which company it is registered to, and what other properties that landlord holds across their portfolio.

"I find it really interesting - knowing what other properties the landlord owns, and thinking, that might be something else they might want to sell in the future. It's like knowing something that other people think, oh, how did you know that?"

The practical value is significant. When Catherine is viewing a property, she can see the landlord's full portfolio in Property Filter - identifying other holdings that may come to market. It is an intelligence advantage that agents and competing buyers simply do not have.

Catherine Yuen's favourite Property Filter feature: ownership and portfolio data

"I find it really interesting - knowing what other properties the landlord owns, and thinking, that might be something else they might want to sell in the future. It's like knowing something that other people think, oh, how did you know that?"

Property Filter ownership data showing landlord portfolio in Essex

BTL deals completed via Property Filter

£20k

negotiated off post-survey on key deal

£12k

total refurb cost, property now tenanted

15-30min/day

current active research time on PF

6 wks

from joining to first deal under offer

The results: 2 BTL deals completed and £20,000 negotiated off

Catherine has completed 2 buy-to-let deals in Essex through Property Filter. The deal she is most pleased with tells the full story of what the platform makes possible - and it starts with motivation data, not luck.

The property had been on the market for around five months. Property Filter's data showed it had already been sold once and fallen through, been relisted, and had its asking price reduced from £230,000 to £220,000. The listing photos told the same story as the data: it had been tenanted, then gone empty. A highly motivated seller, visible to anyone who knew where to look. Catherine put in an offer of £197,000. It was accepted straight away.

"After the survey was done, the surveyor flagged that it would have lots of work needing doing - and I negotiated another £20,000 off. At the end, I spent about £12,000 completing everything, and it's now tenanted." The deal also pushed her outside her previous comfort zone. Before Property Filter, she had only looked at newer properties. This was her first value-add deal - and the data gave her the confidence to do it. If you want to see how this kind of buy-to-let strategy works in practice, Catherine's deal is a strong example of what a motivated seller data approach looks like in the field.

Catherine is building her portfolio steadily, focusing only on Essex so she can stay close to every asset. Her research habit now takes 15-30 minutes a day - not a weekend. If you want to build a focused, data-driven buy-to-let portfolio, watch the Property Filter demo to see the tools Catherine uses every day.

Watch Catherine Yuen's full Property Filter story

Hear directly from Catherine how Property Filter replaced her fragmented spreadsheet process - and how she negotiated £20,000 off her first value-add deal in Essex.

The results: 2 BTL deals completed and £20,000 negotiated off

Watch Catherine Yuen's full Property Filter story

Hear directly from Catherine how Property Filter replaced her fragmented spreadsheet process - and how she negotiated £20,000 off her first value-add deal in Essex.

Frequently asked questions

How does Catherine Yuen use Property Filter to find buy-to-let deals in Essex?

What is the ownership and portfolio data feature in Property Filter?

How did Catherine Yuen negotiate £20,000 off a property using Property Filter?

How much time does Property Filter save compared to using spreadsheets?

Is Property Filter suitable for risk-averse, long-term buy-to-let investors?

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