How Charlotte & Cesar Manchola Found a £450K GDV HMO Using Property Filter

Charlotte & Cesar Manchola's challenge before Property Filter

Charlotte Manchola spent over 15 years in the legal sector. Cesar spent in excess of 25 years in investment banking and finance, working with multinational companies across London and abroad. Between demanding corporate careers and raising a young family, finding time for property research was not straightforward.

Their sourcing process was manual and time-consuming. They were scrolling Rightmove, calling estate agents, and trying to piece together the research they needed from multiple sites - planning constraint areas, comparables, average house prices - all from different sources. "We had no single place to check everything that we needed to know about the property," Charlotte explains. "And on top of busy corporate careers, it was really tricky - we were in fact missing deals."

The decision to join Property Filter was straightforward. Time was the primary constraint, and the advantage the property sourcing software offered clearly outweighed the cost. "It was a no-brainer for us to leverage Property Filter," Cesar says. "Especially with our full-time careers and bringing up our family. Time saving was crucial."

"We had no single place to check everything that we needed to know about the property. We were trying to piece together all the research from different websites and multiple sources - and that was extremely time-consuming."

How Charlotte & Cesar Manchola use Property Filter to find HMO deals

Charlotte and Cesar use Property Filter's HMO lead generator, set with an alert specifically for HMO permitted development conversions in their investment area. The template pulls together the data points that matter for their strategy: price comparables, whether a property has been on the market before, whether sales have fallen through, area maps, planning constraints, and the full range of deal-making tools available.

"We use pretty much every data entry point that Property Filter offers," Charlotte says. That includes size and square meterage, distance from city centre, and transport links - all factors that determine whether a property works as a high-end HMO. Having all of that information in one place, rather than spread across multiple sites, is the practical value of the platform for motivated seller deal analysis.

For Cesar, the time element is central. Property Filter allows them to quickly determine whether a deal is a go or a no-go, using the calculators and data available in the system. "Previously you'd spend minutes, hours, trying to work out and establish whether a deal is doable or not," he says. "Property Filter provides that element - you can easily and quickly determine whether to go ahead."

"Property Filter was an absolute game changer for us. I was able to leave my corporate career and concentrate 100% of my time on property - in growing the portfolio and the business."