Apply a little Richard Branson-type thinking to the real estate industry and you'd probably end up with a bricks and mortar version of his upstart airline Virgin Atlantic.
What would it look like and how would it work? It's not too much of a stretch to say it would resemble the business model of Instant Access Group, a British-based company founded by Bradley Rosser, who admits he stole a page from Mr Branson's book when establishing the company five years ago.
Having worked as Mr Branson's 'right hand man' - group corporate director for Virgin - in the late 1990s, Mr Rosser says he was able to unlock the maverick billionaire's secrets and turn them to the advantage of aspiring property owners - and property speculators.
He settled on an investment-club model. Potential property purchasers pay a fee to join the club, enabling them access to 'off plan' investment flats in places such as Britain, Spain and Florida. Using its buying power, Instant Access is able to secure discounts - typically 10 to 15 per cent- from property developers while the projects are still little more than blueprints.
By buying a property a year or two before completion, investors then have a choice of either selling it when it is finished or holding it in the hope prices will rise. The recommended outlook is five to 10 years, says Mr Rosser, but the typical investors hold the investment for two to four years.
Instant Access benefits by charging a 3 per cent commission against all sales. 'We saw a wonderful opportunity to bring the ability of the mass market at an affordable price to get into residential property and make great returns for themselves,' Mr Rosser says. 'There was a feeling that the people who were doing it were doing it in an amateurish way.'
It is a formula that has proved highly successful. The group is the largest of its kind operating in Britain, accounting for 5 per cent of sales of new flats in Britain last year, valued at #1.3 billion ($17.6 billion). Since it launched five years ago, Instant Properties has about 5,000 members and has sold 4,300 units. It claims investors have made #139 million in profit.