Established 2020 · Capped at 24 members

£18m bought.£15m sold.24 members.

A room of investors who buy at auction for a living, and a place you can bring any lot to, twice a week, before you bid on it.

Apply for membership → [X] places currently open

Led by Jay Howard and Piotr Rusinek
Authors of Before The Hammer Falls

1,000+
Auction lots reviewed
by the room each year
88×
Deal review calls
held every year
24
Members. No more,
by design
Recently on the call
Lot 12 Terrace, Oldham Guide £62,000 Walk away
Lot 47 Semi, Nottingham Guide £145,000 Bid to £171k
Lot 3 Retail unit, Leeds Guide £210,000 Lease too short
Lot 88 Flat, Cardiff Guide £84,000 Unmortgageable
Lot 26 HMO, Sheffield Guide £190,000 Bid to £228k
Lot 55 Land, Kent Guide £95,000 No access rights
Lot 9 Cottage, Devon Guide £160,000 Bid to £184k

The members, in their own words

You'll get a better sense of this from the people in the room than from anything we write.

Tuesday and Thursday, 8:45am

We review over 1,000 auction lots a year. Most buyers manage five.

Ten to fifteen lots a call. Two calls a week. Every week. Not a webinar and not a lecture. A room of active buyers going through real properties that real people are about to bid on.

You bring a lot

  • Something you found in this cycle's catalogue
  • A deal you can't make your mind up about
  • One you're already committed to and want checked
  • Or nothing at all, and you still get fourteen others

We tell you straight

  • Whether it's a good deal, or whether you walk away
  • What it's actually worth, not what the guide suggests
  • What it's going to need, and what that will cost
  • What to bid, and how to structure the offer

Then you listen to us do the same for everyone else's. Fourteen more properties you would never have looked at, priced and pulled apart in front of you, by people with capital in the market this month.

A buyer working alone properly assesses maybe five to ten lots a year. A member sits through a thousand, and when one of them buys, they come back and tell the room what actually happened.

You're not here to learn how auctions work. You're here to borrow other people's experience at a rate that isn't available on your own.

The reason an experienced trader spots the unmortgageable flat, the short lease or the £40,000 of works in ninety seconds isn't that they're cleverer than you. It's that they've seen it go wrong before.

We give you the reps without the losses.

What the room actually does

Twenty-four people. Thirty-three million pounds of property.

£18m
Purchased by members
in the 12 months to [month year]
£15m
Sold by members
over the same period
~£750k
Average purchases
per member, per year

The one that didn't happen

Todd was ready to commit to a development deal. The room found the numbers that said don't.

Todd brought what looked like a promising development opportunity to a Thursday call. The room worked through the resale assumptions, the site constraints and the overall margin — until it was clear the risk outweighed the reward. Instead of spending months and tens of thousands trying to rescue it, Todd walked away.

One conversation saved me from making a decision I would probably have regretted. That alone made the membership worthwhile.

Matthew Dorey

Bought pre-auction with confidence.

Matthew brought the opportunity to the room, refined his bidding strategy, and secured a block of three flats for £225,000. Little work needed — expected to refinance between £275,000 and £300,000, creating immediate equity.

Having experienced investors challenge your thinking gives you the confidence to move quickly when the right opportunity comes along.

Susan McKillop

Negotiated a better deal.

Susan secured a property in West Hampstead for £22,000 less than an inferior property in a poorer location had achieved only a few months earlier. Minimal refurbishment needed, with loft potential for the future.

The weekly reviews help you focus on buying the right property, not simply the cheapest one.

The room

Twenty-four people, and we interview every one of them.

Members come from banking, medicine, professional sport, the trades and full-time property. Some have been buying at auction for twenty years. Some bought their first lot after joining.

What they have in common is that they are all actually transacting. Nobody is watching from the sidelines, nobody is here to sell you anything, and nobody guards their deals. Members openly discuss properties they're interested in, because the room is worth more to them than any single lot.

Trust is the currency here. It only works because we're careful about who comes in, and because the moment the room gets bigger than twenty-four, your lot stops getting looked at properly. That is the entire product, so the cap doesn't move.

Membership

What you get, beyond the calls.

Deal review calls

Tuesday and Thursday, 8:45am. Bring your lots, get a straight answer, hear everyone else's.

Over 1,000 lots a year

Direct access to Jay & Piotr

The full members' WhatsApp group, plus a private group with just the two of us for anything you'd rather not put in the room.

Deals · numbers · second thoughts

Quarterly Boardroom Day

A full day in person in Central London with invited guests. Troubleshooting, industry insight, and the conversations that don't happen on Zoom.

£100 + VAT supplement per meeting, at cost

Roma Finance Hunter's Facility

Available to club members only, subject to underwriting. Plus a broker who buys and sells at auction himself.

Exclusive to ABC

The tools

On-demand recording of our two-day auction workshop, maximum bid calculator, stamp duty formula, and the rest of what we use ourselves.

Plus 25% longer EIG subscription

Our professional network

Solicitors, architects, planning consultants, surveyors, accountants. People we use, not a directory we compiled.

Plus member rates on live events and the annual retreat

Who it's for

We say no to people. That's what keeps it worth joining.

£100,000+ liquid

Cash available for your own deals, or an unencumbered or low-geared portfolio. Not because we're precious, but because the learning only lands when you can act on it. Watching teaches you nothing.

Ready to transact

Now. Not next year, and not once you've read a bit more.

Willing to do the work

Go through the catalogues before the call. Turn up for the calls in your auction cycle. Research your own lots. We'll give you an honest read on any property. We won't do your homework.

Willing to share

Everyone in the room is getting the benefit of other people's experience. You're expected to put yours in.

If that isn't you yet, apply anyway and say so. We'll tell you honestly and point you at what to do first. Timing matters more than ambition in this game, and there's no shame in being early.

The process

How you join.

Apply

Ten minutes. Tells us who you are, what you're buying, and where you're up to.

A call with Jay or Piotr

Twenty to thirty minutes, and it goes both ways. We're working out whether the club is right for you, and you're doing exactly the same. We'll talk you through the membership fee here, once you know what you'd be getting for it.

Terms and first invoice

Six-month minimum, billed six-monthly in advance, one month's notice on renewals.

You're in

Added to the WhatsApp group the same day. First call the following Tuesday or Thursday. Bring a lot.

Before you apply

Questions people actually ask.

What actually happens on a call?

Ten to fifteen lots, worked through one at a time. Whoever brought it gets a straight answer — bid or walk, and why. You don't have to say anything if you don't want to; most members learn as much from the lots they didn't bring as the ones they did.

Do I need to have already bought at auction?

No. You need £100k+ available and to be ready to act on it now. Some members have bought a dozen properties at auction; some are about to bid on their first. What matters is that you're not still deciding whether to start.

What if I don't have a lot to bring to my first call?

Come anyway. Watching the room work through other people's lots for a call or two is normal. By your second or third call you'll have something in the current cycle's catalogue worth bringing.

What happens if the interview isn't a fit?

We'll tell you directly, and point you at what to do first — more capital, more deals done, whatever it is. No hard sell either way. Some of our best members applied a second time, a year later.

Is this financial advice?

No. The room gives you its honest read on a lot — what it's worth, what it needs, whether we'd bid — but the decision, the finance and the risk are yours. Nothing said on a call is regulated advice.

What if it's not working after I join?

One month's notice on renewals, no lock-in beyond the six-month minimum. If it isn't right, you tell us and you leave — no exit interview, no hard feelings.

[X] places currently open

Apply for a place.

Membership is capped at twenty-four and every application goes through an interview. If it isn't right for you, we'll say so.

We don't publish the fee.
Not to be coy, but because a number on its own tells you nothing about whether this is worth it. We'd rather show you what happens in the room first, then talk about money on the call.

We'll come back to you within two working days. Everything you tell us stays between you, Jay and Piotr. Form not loading? Open it in a new tab.