Steve McCarthy spent years as a school headteacher before going full-time in property. By the time he joined Property Filter, he already had a mixed portfolio of singles, HMOs, serviced accommodation, multi-lets, and supported living. What he was missing was the data layer that would let him walk into negotiations with more information than anyone else in the room - and it changed two deals significantly.

Steve's challenge before Property Filter

Before Property Filter, Steve McCarthy's deal-finding process was what most property investors recognise. He was spending hours scrolling through Rightmove, Zoopla, and OnTheMarket, chasing alerts across multiple portals, and arranging viewings without knowing the full circumstances behind each sale.

The core problem was information. Steve was arriving at viewings the same as every other buyer - without any additional context about the property's history, the seller's situation, or the data behind the asking price. He was going in blind, and he knew it.

"The biggest challenge at that time was spending hours trolling through different portals trying to spot the right deals but not knowing the information about the deals to take it to that next level."

Steve was also aware he was probably missing the best opportunities. With no system in place to surface motivated seller data or track deal status across the market, the deals happening quietly behind the scenes were completely invisible to him.

He had been going to property meetings and networking events, and had started to recognise the difference between investors who were being deliberate and data-led versus those who were still treating it as a hobby. He wanted to be in the first group.

"I wanted to be in that sort of top 5%. I knew that if I wanted to stand out from the crowd, I had to get more serious."

How Steve McCarthy uses Property Filter to find and negotiate deals

When Steve first joined Property Filter, the scale of what the platform offered was initially daunting. He had set up over 20 filters and was spread across too many strategies and areas. Over time, with guidance from the Property Filter inner circle, he narrowed that down to around six focused filters - each tied to a specific strategy he was actively pursuing.

The shift in how he approached viewings was significant. Rather than arriving without context, Steve now enters conversations with agents and vendors carrying data from Property Filter that they do not expect him to have. Price history, time on market, comparable transactions - the kind of detail that positions him as a professional buyer rather than a casual one.

"Once I was actually going to the viewings with the information at hand that I was getting from Property Filter, I was able to drop that information into the conversation with estate agents or with the vendors."

Steve also uses Property Filter's direct vendor letter campaign tool to contact property owners before their homes come to market. When the calls started coming back from those letters, Steve says that was the moment it all came together - the data layer working in combination with a direct outreach channel to motivated sellers.

He also uses the notification feature built into Property Filter to track properties in his pipeline. When a property that has gone under offer later reappears on the market - which Steve notes happens in around one in three sales - he gets an alert immediately and can act before the listing gets picked up widely again.