Category — Strategy

The November 2008 drop in the Bank of England Base rate to 3% comes as very welcome news to anyone with who has existing base rate tracker mortgages. On a mortgage of £100,000 you will be saving £125 per month in interest payments. This is great news for investors and homeowners alike who [Read more →]

Yesterday I attended a free property investing seminar here in New York which was an introduction to Donald Trump’s Real Estate investing programme. Although this was a fairly basic seminar it was well worth attending to find out how one of the most successful investors in the world does it and to be reminded of some concepts which although I may already know I may not necessarily always be using. Here is my interpretation of the strategies for you: [Read more →]

Any property investor who knows what they are doing realises that now is a great time to invest in property because it is a buyers market and all property is on sale! However the current lack of same day re-mortgages, means that many investors are not taking advantage of the current buyers market [Read more →]

Did you see ITV’s Tonight programme at 8pm on Monday 14th April. I could not believe the high level of scaremongering on a prime time TV programme. Totally bias towards the doom and gloom of the UK property market. [Read more →]

As you are very well aware the credit crunch is taking effect, the mortgage market is changing almost daily and it is becoming increasingly difficulty for people to get finance. What this means for you depends very much on your outlook!. [Read more →]

As I am sure you know now is a great time to be looking for some new build deals from developers for the following reasons:

1) It is coming towards the year end for many national builders who need to hit their targets for the city reports to their shareholders.
2) Sales have been very poor for many builders in the last few months
3) There are site all over the UK with standing stock (cost and profit tied up for the builder)
4) Developers are motivated sellers who will give you good discounts as long as you can move quickly.

So here is my strategy [Read more →]

I was amazed this week as there was yet another program on TV
about buying distressed property, renovating it and selling it on
for a profit. Where as this may have been a good strategy a few
years ago when the market was going up, I feel it can be very
risky now and can cause all sorts of problems in the current
market conditions.

If you are using a buy–renovate-sell strategy, there are not
surprisingly three factors which can influence your success or
otherwise of your strategy. These are:

1) The price you purchase at
2) The cost of the renovation
3) The selling price.

Now whilst I strongly maintain that now is a great time to buy,
as there are so many motivated sellers out there, now is NOT
the time to be selling and with prices set to come down even
further there is a big risk if you are trying to sell property that
you will have to reduce your selling price so much potentially
wipe out most of your profit.

I have never quite understood people who buy-renovate-sell.
Yes you can make good money from a deal, but once you sell
the property that is it. You have crystallised your profit.

To make more income you need to go and find another property
and do it all over again. You are in fact still trading your time
for money.

Don’t get me wrong , buying a property and adding value through
renovation is still a good strategy but why sell? Would it not be
better o re-mortgage the property to recover your deposit and
refurb costs then rent out to hold for the long term growth. This
way you get paid forever. All of the statistics and trends support
the fact that property prices will continue to rise over the long
term. The important thing is to make sure you can afford short
term holding costs, and always keep a cash reserve in a high
interest instant access bank account to ensure that you can
cover any void periods or interest rate rises.

Speak to you soon,

Simon Zutshi