The #1 mistake I see from people buying their first investment property: they calculate yield on purchase price, not total deployed capital.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

A £200,000 buy-to-let at £1,000/month rent looks like a 6% gross yield. Decent, right?

But add up:

• Stamp duty: ~£7,500

• Solicitor fees: ~£2,000

• Survey: ~£500

• Refurb/void period: ~£3,000+

• Mortgage arrangement fee: ~£1,500

You're now at ~£215,000 deployed. Your real gross yield? 5.6%. And net, after management, insurance, maintenance? You're looking at 3.5-4%.

That's not a bad deal necessarily — but it's a completely different deal than you thought you were buying.

Before you sign anything, run the numbers on total capital in, not just purchase price. Stack your costs, model a 2-month void, and only then decide if the cash-on-cash return makes sense for you.

This is the kind of analysis we do every week inside Storeys.

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